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HEY, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT
08.31.2006
There are rough assignments around here at Cycle World; okay, not that I can think of any off the top of my head. But I'm sure there are tasks around here that border on undesirable. Of course having to go to the Playboy Mansion for a BMW model introduction isn't one of them.
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| BMW's new optional seat heaters are a vast improvement over previous units. Brooks, Meiers and Miss January 2006, Athena Lundberg. |
Speaking of models, let me introduce you to my two new friends, Miss September 2002, Shallan Meiers (left), and Miss May 1998, Deanna Brooks. Let me see… oh yeah, BMWs. There's a new R1200S, I rode it and it's nice.
Anyway, back to Casa de Hefner. The nice thing about taking a tour of the mansion is that they are given by former Playmates; mine was guided by Brooks and Meiers. You didn't think I was going to ramble on about architecture did you? Sure, the house is impressive, but when your eyes are keenly focused on a pair of, um, bunny ears, yeah that's it, bunny ears, the house is largely secondary.
We toured the grotto (oh, the stories it could tell…), looked at the pool, visited Hef's onsite zoo—monkeys and birds primarily. All cool stuff, but watching a bunch of grown men (okay, moto-journalists, actually) fall to pieces over our scantily-clad guides was hilarious. After eating lunch with Meiers—in my mind we were alone, although the seven other guys at the table probably thought they were as well—we headed out on a ride to Malibu on the new R1200S.
So let's recap: limo ride to mansion, tour with Playmates, lunch with Miss April, ride cool bike to Malibu. Sure beats digging ditches.
LIGHTER THAN AIR
08.28.2006
While wandering the highways aboard our Moto Guzzi Griso testbike and contemplating the purchase of a 1941 Flxible bus, I finally arrived at our prescribed photo location on a sunny afternoon. In the middle of acres of open space was the Goodyear blimp, stationed in the L.A. 'burb of Carson and prop for a lead photo in an upcoming CW story on neo-naked bikes.
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| Post photo shoot, Hoyer and Dudek do some fake flying in the Goodyear blimp. |
I think I would best describe myself as a Transportation Enthusiast, because if it is a machine that moves under its own power I am pretty much interested in owning it. I'd never really considered the ownership of a blimp or other lighter-than-airship, but being on the ground next to this dirigible, then climbing aboard while it was moored to its pole (like God's own tether ball!), has given me helium fever. Unfortunately, a new blimp such as this one costs about $4 million, and takes a minimum crew of 13 to get it off the tether and back on again, and I just can't afford to salary blimp-landing specialists. The down payment might be troublesome, too.
There is also the question of practicality. With the pair of Continental six-cylinder engines pushing their max 200 horses each, the good ship here cruises at a stately 35 mph. I have gone faster on my mountain bike. With a tailwind, she will run 55, though, which is about the cruising speed of a '41 Flxible bus. I guess for now I am ground-bound, and we didn't even get a ride because it was the Goodyear flight crew's day off. Doesn't mean I can't paint the bus to look like a blimp.
TIMES WELL SPENT
08.25.2006
My nephew Wesley. Blessed with natural grace and fountains of energy, he rides anything with wheels (or without) and can shoot the tail off a rattlesnake at 50 yards. Quiet but fearless, he takes it all in stride. He is, without a doubt, in my completely objective opinion, absolutely the coolest kid in the universe.
On a much-too-rare visit home to Georgia a couple of years ago, I spent some time with this youngest of our brood. He was 10 and I was 30-something. After humbling me on PlayStation he showed me his old Honda 50. Mechanically sound but cosmetically challenged, a modest hand-me-down from an older cousin. Papa had a big quad down the street so we pulled that out and I was soon chasing Wes around pine and kudzu trying to keep up. Did I mention he's fearless? And sneaky, too, leading me into a briar-patch and smiling back at me from the tiny exit hole. Luckily big quads include a reverse gear. Time to swap four wheels for two. Tag you're it, Wes.
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| Perhaps Wes can hand down his old XR50 to "Papa." His grandfather, my dad, the second-coolest kid in the universe. |
The next morning he and I were tossing pennies against the curb of the local multi-line motorcycle dealer anxiously waiting for the doors to open. Outgrowing the 50, he's shopping around and praying for a miracle. Inside awaited a generous collection of sparkling, never-been-ridden CRs, KXs, SXs, RMs and TTs. And pimped-out pocketbikes, too. Toys for all ages. A lot to consider, but reaching the ground is priority one, at least with tiptoes. He's instinctively drawn to the flashiest mini-motocrossers, but is remarkably pragmatic and looks for something he can get the most use from. A pitch he's charmingly rehearsing on me before he tries it out on dad.
Twenty-five years ago I was using the soft-sell on my dad. He did his own research, though, and Christmas morning a Kawasaki KD100 waited under the tree. Simple. Durable. Kick-start only. One down, three up. I rode the wheels off that little green monster and was free to go anywhere a full tank could carry me. As long as I was home for dinner. My small world was suddenly a large one and getting bigger all the time. Thanks, Papa.
Meanwhile, Wesley continues to look for an upgrade to the venerable XR50R, but now that he's discovered girls, too, he has a whole new world of options.
Wesley Daniell. Coolest kid in the universe. The legend continues.
PICK YOUR EXOTICA
08.24.2006
Working at Cycle World no doubt has its perks. Getting to ride some of the most incredible motorcycles ever made is one of them. If you haven't noticed we've had a lot of Italian machines gracing the pages of CW lately. Over the course of the last three months I swear I've ridden nothing but MV Agustas (three of them!), Ducatis, Bimotas and Aprilias. They are some of the coolest bikes in existence.
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| The Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder pumps out 520 horsepower and gets a lot of attention. |
Another awesome thing about working at CW is that our sister publication Road & Track is just upstairs and some of the cars that routinely sit in our parking lot without question define “exotic.” Aston Martins, Ferraris, Bugattis. So when I walked out our front door a few months ago and saw the margarita-green Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder sitting there, something came over me. After begging to get a quick ride with photographer Jeff Allen, I was over the moon. It was the coolest car I'd ever ridden in.
Little did I know that it would get better. Seeing a Cycle World or Road & Track editor in the building before 8 a.m. on a Friday is a rare sight and being the new guy I still wasn't accustomed to this 'lax attitude. But it finally paid off when photographers Allen and Brian Blades popped into my office early one Friday and asked if I could photo model for an hour. Then Allen flipped me the keys to the Gallardo; I about had a heart attack as I assumed I was riding a bike for them.
An hour behind the wheel was like a dream come true. The aural overload from the 520-horsepower V-10 making music behind me was an experience like no other. Ripping through the gears with the paddle shifters seemed more video game than reality. It's sure as hell the fastest car I've ever driven. A far cry from my old Alfa Romeo Milano!
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| The $30,000 MV Agusta F4 1000 Senna is to the bike world what the Lambo is to cars. |
But how does it compare to a bike like the MV Agusta Senna? The Senna we tested in the September issue is the Italian steed when it comes to outright speed, posting damn-near Kawasaki ZX-10R numbers in testing: 2.9 sec. to 60 mph, 10.04 @ 144.95 mph through the quarter-mile with a 181-mph top speed. For comparison the Gallardo took 3.8 sec. to reach 60, 12.1 @ 116.9 through the quarter and tops out at 195 mph. You tell me, but it sounds like the Lambo just got an ass-kicking.
At $30,000 the Senna actually looks like a steal compared to the Lamborghini's $225,000 price tag. Even the MV is in the league of fantasy for me, but that's why I work here in the first place, isn't it?
A TROUBLESOME CURVE
08.22.2006
I get phone calls from big-city newspaper reporters all the time, asking for my opinions on All Things Motorcycle for their stories. Never before, though, had the Point Reyes Light called. The Light serves the dairy-farming region of Marin County north of San Francisco and is named for the famous lighthouse at Point Reyes, apparently the second-most foggiest location in the U.S. (First, Washington, D.C.?) The small weekly paper is famous in journalism circles for the Pulitzer Prize it won in 1979 after publishing a series of exposes and editorials on the Synanon cult, which among other things had tried to murder a lawyer working against them by placing a pissed-off 4.5-foot rattlesnake in his mailbox. At the time, the paper's circulation was all of 2750.
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| Telephoto lens has compressed the corner, which in reality is not this tight. Note pole, overhead lines crossing from one side of the road to the other, slight hollow and the road continuing on the other side. For whatever reason, rookie sportbikers are blowing this turn on California's famed Highway 1. Photos by The Point Reyes Light |
Anyway, Editor/Publisher Robert Plotkin phoned wanting my input on reasons why the corner at mile-marker 33 on twisty, two-lane Highway 1 between the towns of Point Reyes Station and Marshall was proving so disastrous for northbound motorcyclists. At least 12 riders in the last two years have blown the right-left kink—posted at 20 mph—crossed the double-yellow and run off a 40-foot bluff.
Thankfully, the landing area below is a gooey marsh, which cushions the riders' returns to earth and sometimes leaves their bikes sticking straight up like giant lawn darts. Broken bones seem to be the most serious injuries so far. For that reason, authorities have resisted extending the curve's existing guardrail into that area, reasoning quite rightly I think that injuries would be much more severe with wooden fence posts and metal railing to hit.
Plotkin wondered why this turn, among so many, was causing grief. He mentioned that an investigating county sheriff who rides a GS Beemer easily negotiated the corner at double the posted speed and felt that 60 mph wouldn't be a problem. Speed alone wasn't causing the crashes, a point driven home by the fact that most of the crashees were inexperienced riders.
I have ridden that stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway many times, but couldn't pinpoint the exact corner by memory so Plotkin e-mailed me these snapshots. Right away I noticed something odd: Leading into the corner, there are telephone lines on the right of the road; after the kink the lines are on the left-hand side. The lines cross over the road in mid-turn, supported by a telephone pole unfortunately place in what roadrace corner workers would call a “high-impact zone.”
Get into the corner a little hot, become even a little disoriented, run wide, target-fixate on that pole, and newbie sportbikers are doing the exact wrong thing: romping on the brakes and standing the bike up instead of leaning hard into the turn. Once across the other lane and into what little runoff room there is before the bluff, a trip into the marsh is almost inevitable.
Solutions, besides strongly suggesting track days and riding classes for new sportbike owners? I dunno, more signage? Recently I was in Washington state, which erects MOTORCYCLES USE EXTREME CAUTION warning signs before hazards such as freshly graveled roads and bridge gratings. Sounds like mile 33 could use one, too.
TEAM YOO-HOO
08.19.2006
It's not every day that a case of canned beverages arrives unsolicited at the CW offices. What gives?
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| Powered by Yoo-hoo? The Brothers Sanel (Barry, title shot, and Nathan, above) quite literally smoke the competition on RD Yamahas. |
Well, attracting outside-industry sponsorship is no easy task for any privateer motorcycle racer. Sometimes the best place to start is with the very company you work for. Such is the case with Barry Sanel, a packaging manager for Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink, who along with his brother Nathan, competes in the United States Classic Racing Association. The 24 freebees and an accompanying press kit ballyhooed the fact that Yoo-hoo was giving the Sanel duo a little promotional love—sort of like Red Bull and Nicky Hayden, on an (exponentially) smaller scale.
Anyway, the familiar yellow livery of the “Smokin' Sanel Brothers,” as they are known on the East Coast-based vintage roadracing circuit, is certain to attract the attention of those young and old who have ever had to wipe away a chocolate-milk mustache.
And, guys, we'd have given you the online ink even without the swag. Just make sure to remember us if that Rolex deal ever goes down…
CHILDHOOD HERO
08.16.2006
Some of my most memorable times growing up were when my dad would take me to the Los Angeles Coliseum to watch AMA Supercross. I always cheered loudest for Guy Cooper because he had a wild style and was one of the first riders to really air jumps out, meaning most of the action surrounded him. He didn't get the nickname “Airtime” for nuthin'.
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| Guest-tester Guy “Airtime” Copper hasn't forgotten how to bust a berm (lead photo). Though he no longer owns the Stillwater, Oklahoma, motocross track that bears his name, he's still very much involved with dirtbikes. |
As you could imagine, meeting up with Cooper earlier this year on our big Open-class Thumper MX shootout was a cool experience. It was neat to see what an all-around good guy he is—also to find that his life still revolves around motorcycles and his heart is still in the sport.
Guy's riding life began at age 5. He is an AMA life member and has a smidge less than 25 years of Pro racing experience that started in 1982. Although he was Rookie of the Year in 1984, it wasn't until '85 that Coop really blipped onto our radar screens. He was the only rider to complete a big triple-jump at the Pontiac SX that year. No one else would do the jump, including Bailey, Johnson and O'Mara. After that race he started getting a lot of attention from the press.
From there he went on to earn top privateer honors in 1986-87, and finally in 1990 won the AMA 125cc Motocross Championship, riding a factory Suzuki RM125. His last full season was in 1993, when he left motocross but continued to race off-road for Suzuki until 1997, competing in the GNCC series and representing the U.S. in the International Six Day Enduro.
After “retirement,” Cooper stayed involved by doing fun races and even made a part-time return to national motocross in 2002 at age 40 aboard a KTM four-stroke, attending nine of the 12 rounds and finishing a remarkable 21st in the series overall, earning national number 49, which he wears today.
Nowadays Guy spends his time running a mini-bike shop that he and his wife Wanda opened in 2005 located in Stillwater, Oklahoma. His favorite pastime is still riding bikes; just playing around on two wheels, which is how it all got started for Coop 40 years ago.
RAINBOW WARRIOR
08.14.2006
Elephant-minded readers may remember this Yamaha Warrior from our 2004 “Sturgis Shootout” story. The premise of the comparison test was simple: We asked seven manufacturers to each deliver a retro-cruiser to the big Sturgis Rally in South Dakota, where we'd mix in with 300,000 of our new friends for a week of biker bro'ing down.
The twist was that we allowed the companies to outfit their bikes with any accessory they chose from their own catalogs, and because we didn't want to be the only riders in the whole blinkin' state with quiet pipes, our sound meter was left at the office and aftermarket exhausts were permitted. After all, there were lives to be saved…
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| Bye-bye bazooka: The Warrior runs a Yamaha Speedstar 2-into-1 chromed exhaust rather than the stock oversized canister. Most of the dress-up items are straight from the Yamaha accessories book. Photos by Brian Blades |
Yamaha, er, creatively interpreted the rules, starting with their power-cruiser Warrior, not the expected fat-fender Road Star, and dropping it off at their customizer of choice, Jeff Palhegyi of Palhegyi Design in El Cajon, California. If you've seen a memorable Yamaha custom in the past 10 years, whether it be in a magazine spread, calendar page, TV commercial or bike show, chances are it's been one of Jeff's. His ultra-smooth, distinctive designs have often been featured on the pages of Cycle World, and while the Sturgis Warrior was fairly subtle in comparison, it still ran a stretched gas tank, PM wheels, custom flamed paint job, generous amounts of chrome and several items not available to the public.
Given its rules bending, we were forced to DQ the Yamaha, but ironically it was the bike we all enjoyed riding the most, thanks to suspension, brakes, handling and cornering clearance (all stock) a cut above the usual cruiser fare. I've always felt at home on the big 102-inch pushrod V-Twin, and the 81 rwhp our bike pumped out made for some entertaining times on the backroads of the Black Hills. So much so that when the test was over and the story printed I asked Yamaha to quote me a price on the bike. After all, it already had the Cycle World logo machine-cut into the handlebar clamp and luggage rack. Did I mention Palhegyi is very detail-oriented?
Deal done, I've been happily motoring about on the “Rainbow Warrior” ever since. A few months back, though, I noticed the chin fairing was getting pretty rock-pocked. I phoned Jeff to get the name of his painter. “Just bring it in,” he said, “we'll take care of it.”
An understatement. Besides touching up the paint, Palhegyi & crew detailed the chrome and aluminum (“I can tell you live by the beach,” he admonished) and in a surprise move fitted an '06 Warrior fork with radial-mount brake calipers, a leftover from another project. In our original article we claimed the Sturgis “cheater” was capable of taking home the hardware in almost any bike show's Metric Cruiser class. Two years later, the same holds true…well, it would except I'd rather be riding the Warrior than detailing it on a Sunday afternoon.
VELOCITY, ZERO
08.11.2006
There has been quite the pistonic excitement out at Whitworth Ranch (a.k.a. my house) in recent times. First, the Triumph Trophy's full top-end job (can it be almost a year ago now?) taxed bore gauge, caliper and torque wrench. And now the Velocette, a 1954 MSS, demanded investigation. When I bought the bike while visiting friends in New Zealand a few years ago, I had the engine rebuilt down there, then returned later to take a riding tour around the South Island. It was great fun, but midway through the 1000 miles, the magneto timing slipped, and the Velo overheated.
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| Black-painted cast-iron cylinder doesn't quite have the same look as the alloy barrel it replaces, but Velocettes are best shown on the road and the new cylinder promises improved reliability. |
I hoped it hadn't seized too badly, but it was never the same. After shipping the bike home and riding it locally, there was clearly more and more piston slap. It finally got to the point at this year's Rolling Concours that it was time to do the top end. The rattle was unbearable and oil consumption totally out of hand. After consulting my friends on CW's Classic & Antique Bikes Forum and getting various opinions, I decided to consult an expert: Dave Smith, a noted Velo restorer, parts supplier and engine builder.
He recommended I go with an iron cylinder, as the Wellworthy Alfin alloy Venom-spec piece fitted by the previous owner doesn't have the best reputation for holding its shape when hot. The iron liners are even said to come loose from the casting sometimes. So I procured from a friend a newly cast iron cylinder in the standard 86mm size, with an Aerco cast-aluminum piston. Clearance measured 5 thou, which seemed spacious enough at this bore diameter to avoid seizure, but tight enough for quiet running. I had it checked out at my local machine shop just to be sure the hole was round (“Round enough for your purposes,” said the man with a smile!) and also had them run a hone through it to ensure the surface was ready to accept fresh rings.
Anyway, I tore the engine down this past weekend and found the damage shown. The alloy cylinder is nice and light and pretty to look at, but even after just 80 miles on the new iron one I'm glad I did the work. Power is back up to 500cc Velocette standards, with each pulse carrying a nice and tight, weighty punch. It's quiet, too—for a 52-year-old bike, anyway.
So I've got another wrecked piston to put on the mantle and ponder. This one shows the obvious scars of seizure, but it was interesting to note the discoloration of the rings in the area around the damage, indicating the combustion blowing by. There were also a lot of deposits on the crown and in the combustion chamber from the slightly rich mixture I was running. This was just the chance I needed to “de-coke.” Still, I'll keep it a hair rich while I break it in, just to keep things on the cool side. I'd like to keep the engine buttoned up a little longer this time than the first go-round.
BUBBA'S BUCKET
08.07.2006
There was something very special about Nicky Hayden's head at Laguna Seca. His mind was right and he rode a perfectly calculated race, winning his second-consecutive USGP, further extending his points lead in the 2006 MotoGP World Championship.
Turns out his head and his heart were in the right place at Laguna. Nicky wore a Bubba Shobert-replica helmet to pay tribute to his childhood hero. “I remember when I was little—too young to get into the AMA pits—Bubba Shobert made his way outside the fence for pictures and an autograph. I never forgot that,” said Hayden. “Bubba was my role model. His riding style was ahead of his time and he did the 'Grand Slam' (winning an AMA mile, half-mile, short-track and TT races).”
Shobert went on to win three Grand National Championships (1985-87), was twice AMA Pro Athlete of the Year (1986-87) and after switching to roadracing won the Superbike title in 1988. He had just embarked on a promising Grand Prix career, finishing ninth in the 1989 season opener at Laguna Seca, when a freak collision with another rider on the cool-down lap put an end to his GP dreams—and almost his life. Shobert recovered from his head injuries but never raced again.
Hayden's interpretation of Bubba's helmet was his way of paying homage to Shobert and all the American riders who paved the way. It wasn't easy to replicate the swirling red, white and blue design, especially with sponsor concerns over the new paint scheme. “Red Bull is very particular about how their logo looks,” said Hayden. “My helmet painter, Roby at Starline, was up all night making the revisions, but got it perfect and to the track on time.”
It's never good to be late for a date with destiny.
ANCIENT HISTORY
08.03.2006
I was reading some ancient history the other day when I stumbled across an early example of what is today a very serious concern of engine developers—crankcase “windage.” At least one modern MotoGP engine has failed largely owing to horsepower loss of this kind, and the most recent Suzuki GSX-R engines all have large, smoothly-shaped ports connecting their four crank chambers. With such ports, air pumping from cylinder to cylinder encounters reduced resistance, cutting the power loss. A different approach to the problem is that used in F1, in which each V-twin cylinder pair operates above its own sealed crank chamber. As you'd expect, each such chamber has its own oil scavenge pump.
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| An old idea made new: Line drawing shows breathing “ports” in crankcase webs on 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000 engine to reduce windage and pumping losses. Another strategy is to vacuum pump crankcases, as was done on the George Bryce-built 2001 Suzuki Pro Stock bike (pictured above), which picked up 10 horsepower through use of three electrically driven crankcase pumps that pull more than 25 inches of vacuum. |
What is windage? It is the rapid, back-and-forth pumping of air along the crankshaft and through whatever restriction exists in the main bearing webs, driven by the moving pistons. If the crank chambers are separated by solid walls, air is merely compressed and expanded with little loss. In a previous era of F1, this problem was addressed by actively pumping the crankcase down to such a low pressure that the back-and-forth air motion generated little loss.
What I found reading recently dated to January, 1942, when Continental was still developing its never-to-be-produced IV-1430 inverted V-12 “Hyper” aircraft engine. They had encountered various problems, including oil control and crankcase breathing, and an outside engineer—Arthur Nutt of Wright Aeronautical Corp.—had been sent in to advise on possible solutions. He had previously been involved in development of other V-12s such as the 1921 Curtiss D-12 (whose air racing success inspired development of the famed Rolls-Royce Merlin) and from 1924 on, the Curtiss Conqueror. Nutt pointed out that main bearing webs should have large ports connecting adjacent crank chambers. The lack of them invited foaming through violent entrainment of oil in crankcase air, possibly leading to rapid oil loss through breathers.
Here is what Nutt had to say more than 60 years ago:
“On inline high-speed engines, it is apparently essential to have good ventilation between compartments in the crankcase and I suggested that the diaphragms in the crankcase be drilled with as large holes as possible to provide this ventilation. It has been our experience and the experience of many others that such ventilation reduces the amount of churning of oil in the crankcase and minimizes (crankcase) breathing difficulties.”
Ancient history—ignore it at your peril!
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