Etc.

ETC.

V-DAYS ’96

The American Motorcyclist Association’s Vintage Motorcycle Days returns to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 19-21.

This year, American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association-sanctioned motocross and trials events join the usual roadraces. Round two of the BMW Battle of the Legends Series will also be held, with Grand Marshal John Surtees (a former world champion on two wheels and four) acting as honorary starter.

In addition to the races, there will be vintage motorcycle shows (BSA is the featured marque), an auction, a swap meet, a vintage road ride and demo rides from BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Triumph.

For more information on VDays ’96, contact the AMA at 614/891-2425. To order tickets, call Mid-Ohio at 800/MID-OHIO.

TOTAL RECALL

Do you own a 1996 BMW R1100RT, ’96 Ducati 916, ’94-96 Honda CBR1000F, ’95-96 Yamaha YZF600R or any late-model HarleyDavidson? Then you’ll be interested to learn that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued safety recalls that may affect your bike.

RTs need their rear-brake hoses re-routed; 916s need their throttle cables modified; CBRs need their owner’s manuals updated; YZFs need their shock damper shafts replaced; and Harleys with replacement air filters manufactured between July and September, 1995, need to have them replaced. In all cases, dealers will make the necessary repairs free of charge.

VESPA HITS 50

Italian company Vespa will celebrate its golden anniversary by unveiling a new-age scooter at a gala birthday party in Rome. Rumor has it that a four-stroke motor will replace the traditional two-stroke, and pry open the lucrative U.S. market.

’NAM HONDAS

Honda has signed an agreement with a Vietnamese farm machinery manufacturer to produce motorcycles in the once war-torn country.

A joint-venture company called Honda Vietnam Co. Ltd. plans to produce commuter bikes at a $100 million plant to be built near Hanoi beginning in late 1997. The production target is 200,000 units for the first year of operation, increasing to 450,000 units by the year 2005.

Motorcycle sales in Vietnam are expected to increase to a half-million units by the end of the century.

SWISS SUPERBIKE COMING?

Swissauto, the Nordic company known for its 500cc, two-stroke sidecar racing engines, is looking into building a 10OOcc, four-stroke parallel-Twin for World Superbike racing beginning in 1998. The tiny,

11 -person firm is making its twowheeled debut this season by providing engines to the Elf 500 GP team, and previously earned notoriety by developing a 220-horsepower,

250cc, turbocharged four-cylinder, four-stroke for sidecar GPs.

MORE SENNA SADNESS

Flavio Lalli, brother-in-law of late Formula One auto racing World Champion Ayrton Senna, was killed recently while riding his streetbike in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The bike Lalli died on was, ironically, a Ducati 916 Senna.

NO FAULT? NO WAY!

Future traffic tickets notwithstanding, California motorcyclists can expect their insurance premiums to remain unchanged following the defeat of a no-fault insurance initiative in the Golden State’s March elections. Designed to lower the cost of automobile insurance, Proposition 200 [see Roundup, May, 1996) would have required motorcyclists to foot the bill for injuries incurred in accidents where they were not at fault.