WHAT I've BEEN RIDING an Unsolicited and Unofficial Review
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2016 KTM 1290 Super Duke GT - WHAT I’VE BEEN RIDING An unsolicited and unofficial review CONTENTS 4– Yamaha XS650-classics remembered 8– Slatin MotoGear EZ-1 SuperFabric Mesh Jacket - GEAR EVALUATION Safely china 2 wheels September 2016 keeping your cool on those blazing-hot rides C2W MEDIA ABOUT US Subscribe for free! 004 016 14– Rolling Isn’t That Simple PUBLISHING EDITOR LIN LEI [CHINESE] C2W supplies you the complete Chinese motorcycle industry by providing you with all the news, events 16– How Engine Qualities Define How and advice that you need every month in C2W mag- We Ride azine. Also, we will send details of every new motor- cycle model from China (pictures ride report, videos, 24– Ducati Might Have A Real Scrambler In DESIGN specifications) to your email box every time one is The Works MEIJUN WANG released. 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DAVID KERR [INTERNATIONAL] Contact David at [email protected] 46– 2016 Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin - ROAD TEST CONTRIBUTORS CHEN LONG 62– THE C2W TRAVEL SERVICE XIANG MIN Advertise 066 BRINGING THE WORLD TO CHINA To find out about the benefits of advertising in C2W contact 66– Riding a KTM 690 Duke with ShiftFX Electronic Shift TransmissionBrave China- Lei Lin new e-shift world [email protected] 70– Ten Things I Learned My First Year C ONTACT on a Motorcycle Life is changing TEL:+86-186 8088 5923 EMAIL:[email protected] 76– 2016 KTM 1290 Super Duke GT - WHAT I’VE BEEN RIDINGAn unsolicited and unofficial review 076 91– The C2W Motorcycle Parts Fair WWW.CHINA2WHEELS.COM 2 SEPTEMBER 2016 china 2 wheels 3 As 1970 drew near, it was but its qualities never defined unclear which way the motorcycle a market, and it has now become Yamaha market would go. At that time it a cult machine. Just as the was really defined by Britain’s 1970s were beginning, the British parallel twins, which had industry gave a mighty heave achieved strong sales in the US to bring forth the (now) much- XS650-CLASSICS after WW II by being lighter, loved but overweight and under- nimbler, and faster than fat- performing Triumph and BSA tired traditional American bikes. Triples. British decline became Yamaha and Suzuki had carved steep in 1972 and they quickly out substantial two-stroke became irrelevant to the market. REMEMBERED market niches because their What kind of bike would fill the bikes were fast. Kawasaki spies vacuum? had reported Honda’s development Surely Yamaha engineers knew of the CB750 Four, due to hit the two-stroke’s days on public showrooms in 1969. But would thoroughfares were drawing to a it catch on? Would it be too close. Time to get started along expensive to sell, like the fast the new four-stroke path, while and much-admired Vincent only 15 selling all the light, inexpensive years before? two-stroke sport twins the Kawasaki, Honda, and Yamaha market would accept. covered their bets with Yamaha had collaborated with respectively the very BSA-like Toyota (as many times since) to W-2, the short-stroke, high- produce the M-engine of the 1965 revving CB450 twin, and the 2000GT sports car (which starred SOHC XS-650 – all of them air- in the James Bond film “You cooled four-stroke parallel Only Live Twice”). Fine, let’s twins. Kawasaki’s W2 was just a apply the paid-for R&D behind development of an older Meguro that engine as a starting-point. and was eclipsed in showrooms by Trimming the 75 x 75-mm bore and their two-strokes – first the stroke to 75 x 74 gave a 653.8- disc-valved 350 A7 and then in cc Twin. The Toyota had DOHC but 1969 by the bombshell H1, a 500- let’s keep costs down by using a cc Triple. single cam. An automotive-style Which of these many ways would oil system would be required the public go? No one knew. Many for a plain-bearing engine, so products of this time are now since Yamaha already had built- hard to explain. Why did Suzuki up rolling-bearing cranks in build their “What is it?” bike production, that’s what XS- – the water-cooled 750 two- 650 got (rolling bearings are stroke Triple? A few were sold happiest on just a few drops of 4 SEPTEMBER 2016 china 2 wheels 5 oil per minute). R&D that could have gone into Ironically, the transition from refining its export twins, so the Expensive Old Way to build Yamaha’s 1970s road racing motorcycles – all pressed- dominance may have absorbed together rolling-bearing cranks resources that could have and rods – to the Efficient developed more ambitious mass- Automotive Way, with its plain market production four-strokes. bearings, high-pressure oiling, Yamaha’s four-strokes in the rugged one-piece cranks and period 1970 - 1985 lacked focus split-and-bolted con-rods, began and identity until the Next Big with Edward Turner’s Triumph Trend – sportbikes – emerged Speed Twin of 1937. Turner’s in 1983-1986. adoption of split-and-bolted This wasn’t really Yamaha’s forged aluminum rods (with the fault. This was a time soft metal running directly of transition, in which on the crankpins) showed that manufacturers tried with limited thoughtful cost control could success to combine higher-tech bring to the marketplace features engines with chassis of the previously deemed too expensive 1960s. Not surprisingly, results – in this case, two cylinders were spotty. Think of Yamaha’s rather than one. XS-1100 – a giant two-valve air- So it shouldn’t surprise us to cooled four in a traditional find these “mixed-concept” bicycle tubing chassis, with engines of around 1970 a bit drone. cc Z1 of 1973, opening the way shaft drive. Too cumbersome for confusing. The resulting bike had something to the present liter-bike era. sport (600 pounds!), not calm Yamaha in its XS-650 did upgrade of the RD350’s perky, GK Design The moment big fours appeared, enough for touring, it puts us the parallel twin concept – styling but was nothing to write the British twin concept became in mind of the Suzuki Rotary by adopting SOHC in place of home about. Some have attributed unimportant. – a motorcycle without clear pushrods and rockers, and XS handling problems to “a identity. by properly supporting the light two-stroke frame” but in Yet the XS-650 did have an Only when lighter four-stroke crankshaft with four main fact Yamaha’s two-stroke chassis accomplishment. Kenny Roberts engines were combined with the bearings – two of them between had to be quite substantial to was AMA GNC #1 in 1973 and tire, suspension, and chassis the cylinders. The more power survive the vibration. ‘74 on an XS-650-powered developments that two-stroke Britain squeezed from its dirt-tracker built by the late racing had forced into being traditional twins, the more their Defining the coming era of high- Shel Thuett, but that solid could a new fusion appear. The flexy two-bearing 360-degree power four-strokes were, first, achievement is eclipsed in legend new wave of the 1980s would cranks became jump-ropes at Honda’s CB750 of 1969, bringing by Kenny’s famous win on a two- include Yamaha FZs, Suzuki’s peak rpm. Like a British twin, four cylinders and overhead cam stroke TZ750-powered ‘tracker GSX-Rs, Honda’s Interceptors, the XS’s two pistons rose and to a wide market by application in the 1975 Indianapolis Mile. and Kawasaki’s Ninjas. fell together, giving the even- of cost-saving automotive engine It may be that just as Norton’s firing traditional flat exhaust design, and then Kawasaki’s 903- Manx road racers consumed 6 SEPTEMBER 2016 china 2 wheels 7 Slatin MotoGear EZ-1 SuperFabric Mesh Jacket - GEAR EVALUATION Safely keeping your cool on those blazing-hot rides ny time the thermometer starts out Reissa liner is claimed to be edging up to triple digits, a both wind- and waterproof. common temptation is to ride in a I wore the EZ-1 on several T-shirt with no jacket at all. Bad rides aboard an unfaired bike idea. Very bad idea. Even a minor in temperatures at or above the get-off can leave you with the century mark and found that the kinds of mementos you’ll never jacket allowed plenty of onrushing forget. The smart move is to air to enter and exit through the wear a jacket designed to provide mesh panels. Naturally, the result as much crash protection as a was not even remotely comparable conventional riding jacket while to air conditioning, but the also preventing you from being circulation of air throughout the fricasseed in scorching weather. interior made riding in blistering Slatin MotoGear’s solution is its temps much more tolerable. I also EZ-1 SuperFabric Mesh Jacket. It spent equal time in comparable combines 600-Denier outer shell weather on a couple of sport- construction with high-airflow tourers—one with a tidy, ballistic mesh paneling on the sportbike-like fairing and the front, back, and sleeves. Impact other fully faired. Obviously, the protection at the shoulders, level of ventilation on both was elbows, and forearms is via tough- reduced—less so on the former as-nails, abrasion-resistant than the latter—but the EZ-1 This jacket is a combination of high-quality materials, excellent crash- SuperFabric over CE-approved nonetheless provided a bit of protection features, and good ventilation capabilities topped off by an Level 1 removable armor, all welcome relief from the sweltering exceptionally affordable price.