Superbiker Supreme

SUPERBIKER SUPREME

American FLYERS

Rhinestone's Kaw, boy!

SUPERMOTO MAY BE THE freshest craze in two-wheel motorsport, thanks in part to mainstream network television exposure during the 2005 Summer X-Games; yet the concept is far from new. This extremetheme merger of roadrace and motocross has roots in the bygone Superbikers competition—an annual made-for-TV race that aired on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” two decades ago.

Modem supermoto has refocused the spotlight on the bikes and riders of the original series. It’s even drawn motocross great Jeff Ward out of retirement to claim an AMA Supermoto title. Back in the day, Wardy competed in Superbikers teamed up with Texan Kent Howerton aboard factory Kawasaki KX500 two-strokes. But it was the “Rhinestone Cowboy,” as Howerton was known, who became the brighter star, with a pair of Superbikers wins to his credit.

Several championshipwinning racebikes are on display in the lobby of Kawasaki U.S.A. headquarters in Irvine, California, but adjacent to the office of Motocross Supervisor Norm Bigelow sits this bike, the KX500 that Howerton rode to victory at the 1984 event. Well-preserved, the modded motocrosser remains just as it was last raced. Bigelow, a race team mechanic at the time, was involved with preparing the KX for Superbikers battle.

“For how easy it was supposed to be on paper, this was one of the hardest projects we had all year,” recalls Bigelow of the amount of testing that went into developing the winning setup.

Aside from mies mandating use of Carlisle dirt-track tires mounted on 19-inch wheels, the rest was left to creative tuning. While some competitors fielded modified dirt-track machines, bikes like this production-based KX500 motocrosser proved the superior mix of speed and agility for attacking the pavement/dirt course laid out at Southern California’s famed Carlsbad Raceway-sadly now being leveled to make way for yet another SoCal industrial park as shown in the above photo, taken in Carlsbad overlooking the old track site.

The KX’s engine’s mods focused on improved top speed. A larger KX250 reed block and carburetor were grafted on, cylinder port timing was altered and a shortened, hand-built exhaust pipe all boosted power in the upper-rev range. Bigelow recalls the KX was fastest (by a couple mph) through the radar trap at the event.

Brake calipers and rotors pilfed from an Eddie Lawson KZ1000 factory Superbike also proved to be the class of the field. “On the brakes, Kent was unbelievable,” recounts Bigelow. “He was even running it in on Eddie at the end of the back straight!” Pretty impressive considering Lawson was a 500cc Grand Prix World Champion at the time.

Displaying the Number 1 plate from the 1984 victory, Howerton had his hands ftill in ’85, not able to match Lawson’s pace through the fast, sweeping dirt-track section of the course. A roadrace steering damper added to improve the KX’s stability at speed, though, also reduced the bike’s steering lock and caused Howerton concern in the dirt. Lawson took the checkers and became the only non-motocrosser ever to win a Superbikers final.

If there’s ever to be a Superbikers Legends race, Kent knows where to find his old KX.

Don Canet