Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2021 i Classic Racer

Engine: Water-cooled DOHC 10-valve parallel twin-cylinder four-stroke with chain camshaft drive and 270-degree crankshaft throw Dimensions: 90.5 x 67.5mm Capacity: 868 cc Output: 121bhp at 8750rpm (at gearbox) Compression ratio: 12.5:1 Carburation: 2 x 41mm Keihin FCR flat-slide Ignition: Yamaha CDI with l2v battery Gearbox: 6-speed Over close-ratio Clutch: Multiplate oil-bath Chassis: Tubular steel spaceframe with cast-aluminium swingarm pivot plates and engine utilized as fully-stressed chassis component Suspension: Front: Fully adjustable 41mm Showa inverted telescopic fork modified by Over. Rear: Braced extruded aluminium swingarm with fully adjustable Öhlins monoshock and rising rate linkage Head angle/trail: 23.5 degrees/94 mm Wheelbase: 1420 mm Weight/distribution: 171 kg dry, split 52/48% static Brakes: Front: 2 x 320mm Brembo cast iron floating discs with four--piston Brembo calipers. Rear: 1 x 185mm Yamaha fixed steel disc…

It’s fair to say that 1987 was an enormous year for Kevin Magee: All JapanTT-F1 champion (won every race), Suzuka 200 and 8 Hours winner, crashed while leading Arai 500 at Bathurst, won the Castrol 6 Hour and the Swann Series and even competed in his first world 500cc Grand Prix races. In early February that year, it was TT-F1 testing at Suzuka. At the time Niall Mackenzie held the lap record on a 500 GP machine at 2m15.52s while Wayne Gardner had the TT-F1 lap record at 2:17.80. On his first flying lap of the second afternoon session on the F1 four-stroke YZF750, Kevin nailed a 2m 16s flat – he was immediately ordered back to the pits. Yamaha didn’t want to let the competition know about this insanely…

After more than eight months of enforced inaction the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club returned to Mallory Park over the weekend of May 8/9 with a large entry and high confidence of a full weekend of racing. Saturday was wet and cold but nevertheless produced some cracking racing, so Sunday’s near ideal conditions meant that the paddock was buzzing with expectation as the 09.30 start time arrived. However, it quickly became apparent that Mallory’s noise monitoring equipment was recording high levels, exacerbated by an unfavourable wind direction, leading to numerous delays and interruptions to the programme. Heroic efforts by officials, particularly the noise testers, eventually meant that a revised race management process was established with each machine being tested immediately prior to every race. This allowed the majority of Sunday’s race…

Has a humble Honda road bike ever had a better salesman than one Ronald Haslam? Let’s head back 35 years, to the March 16, 1986TransAtlantic meeting at Donington Park – historic for a number of reasons. Firstly, we saw the talents of one Fred Merkel and Kevin Schwantz (on a borrowed and butcheredTony Rutter GSX-R750) and we saw Ron Haslam rain-dance on a standard road bike… Yes, at this point a new road machine – the Honda VFR750 F-G – had been launched. It wasn’t as flashy as the later RC30, RVF or RC45, but it would get a fair bit of recognition thanks to the circumstances in which it was raced. Back then, this was the first time the race was held at the then recently extended circuit, complete…

“NEVER ONE TO DO ANYTHING BUT GIVE 100%: YVON DUHAMEL WOULD EITHER WIN, CRASH AND SOMETIMES EVEN BURN!” Two wheels, four wheels and even skis: as long as the vehicle concerned had an engine, whether motorcycle, car or snowmobile, then Yvon Duhamel would race it – and race it hard. So hard, in fact, that Randy Hall, Yvon’s long-time friend and crew chief for eight years at Kawasaki, once memorably described the tough little French Canadian’s approach to racing as being either: “go, blow, or punch a hole in the fence!” Certainly, the career of Yvon Duhamel did include a number of crashes but it was more the spectacular nature of them rather than the total number that made this aspect of his riding approach so memorable. As far as…

“MAMORU MORIWAKI RACED CARS AND BIKES, THEN HE WOULD JOIN POPS YOSHIMURA AND MARRY HIS DAUGHTER: THE FAMILY LINK IS STRONG! MORIWAKI WOULD BE INTERESTED BY THE NATURAL WORLD AND LINK THIS WITH MAN-MADE ENGINEERING SKILLS THAT WOULD BUILD A SUCCESSFUL EMPIRE OF HIS OWN.” In the mid-1960s a young racer called Mamoru Moriwaki got the opportunity to join up with an established tuning business in Japan. That move was to change his life and working alongside the old naval aviator and master tuner, Pops Yoshimura, he found himself in perhaps the finest training ground available for learning the craft of engine performance. Mamoru’s youngest daughter Midori Moriwaki takes up the tale: “As you know, my mom is the daughter of Pops Yoshimura and my dad was a racing rider…

It’s what the armchair pundits love to squawk: “Rossi is past it and it’s time for him to retire!” It’s easy, in some ways, to see why.This season things haven’t started well with the PetronasYamaha team and he’s not won a race since 2017.That said, he had a podium last year at Jerez and could have had more. He’s reported to only have a year deal with the satellite Yamaha team and has stated that he will make his decision during the summer break. He’s been reported as saying: “Everything depends upon my results. If I can be competitive, if I can fight for the podium, for the victory, I can continue for another year.” Love him or loathe him, he’s one of the greats of motorcycle racing. Former team-mate…

Out of all the varied race bikes I’ve ridden in a 25-year international career, one above all others acquired a cult following of admirers around the world – my gal Trixie! So exactly 25 years since I scored the most satisfying of several race victories with her at Daytona’s Cycle Week 1996, here’s a look back at the three years I spent racing the unique Over Racing-prepared parallel-twin Yamaha TRX850R for Yamaha Motor Europe. Trixie,This IsYourTale. First a little on the road machine: late in 1994 word got out that Yamaha was developing a twin-cylinder sportbike based on its TDM850 Adventure Sports machine, to create a competitor to the Ducati 900SS then selling especially strongly in Japan. To give the bike an Italian feel, the parallel-twin motor had its crank…

Here’s my favourite Haslam family anecdote. The year is 1999, it is Brands Hatch and in the opening British Championship 125 race of the year there are two Haslams competing: Ron and his son Leon. Towards the end of that race, Leon is lying in 3rd place with Ron just in the points in 13th. Suddenly, Leon crashes at Graham Hill Bend. Ron, against racing rules or wisdom, sees his boy has crashed and gets off the track right on the corner to see if his son is hurt. Ushered away by marshals he gets back on his Honda RS125 and catches up with his 15-year-old son in the pits, just as he’s being transferred into a waiting ambulance. The prognosis is a broken wrist. Mum Ann is being comforted…

KAWASAKI’S FIRST KR350 ACTUALLY HAD A CAPACITY OF 306CC. IT WAS BASED ON A 1976 KR250 WITH A LARGER BORE AND WAS SENT TO NEVILLE DOYLE’S TEAM KAWASAKI AUSTRALIA FOR TESTING DURING 1977. GREGG HANSFORD WAS ONE OF THE RIDERS INVOLVED IN ITS DEVELOPMENT. THE KR350 HAD A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAREER AFTER A ROCKY FIRST COUPLE OF YEARS WITH THE 250. BALLINGTON WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE 350S GP DEBUT YEAR OF 1978 WITH NINE VICTORIES. TEAM-MATE GREGG HANSFORD FINISHED 3RD WITH THREE WINS. BALLINGTON FOLLOWED UP AGAIN TAKING THE TITLE IN 1979 WITH FIVE WINS WITH HANSFORD SCORING THREE WINS FOR ANOTHER 3RD IN THE FINAL POINTS. 1980 SAW ANTON MANG AND BALDÉ FINISH IN 2ND AND 3RD POSITIONS. MANG, JON EKEROLD AND BALDÉ COMPLETED THE 1981 SEASON IN…

If you’ve ever scribbled anything down in your life, you’ll have heard the dictum: ‘Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.’ While I’m not a fan of this, it could be used in some way to describe the Yoshimura Suzuki story. If I were to say Yoshimura, XR69, Suzuki, winning, the name Wes Cooley should come next, right? For it was he who blazed the Yoshimura name across every motorcycle publication back in 1978 when, along with Mike Baldwin they romped their way to a stunning victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours race in Japan on PopsYoshimura’s GS1000R. Interestingly, Graeme Crosby, or Croz, was 3rd on a Yoshimura Kawasaki, a bike he shared with Tony Hatton. Wes, of course went on to many wins with…