The Hodge of the Rising Sun
By John Dickinson on 21st Jun 07
With Alex Hodgkinson taking advantage of a trip to Japan, we take our advantage to comment, because we can...
OUR respected, long-standing International motocross correspondent,Alex Hodgkinson, was lucky-enough to be one of the few European journosto visit the Japanese MXGP last month and Hodge, not wanting to waste asecond in the land of the Rising Sun, organised himself a visit to theYamaha headquarters, and in last-week's paper Alex told us all aboutthe nuts and bolts of the factory, as he was given a tour of the workswith GP riders Marc de Reuver, Toni Cairoli and Josh Coppins.
It was all interesting stuff –- and fascinating to learn that it allstarted for Yamaha back in 1955 with a road bike almost identical toBritain's own BSA Bantam, the blue-prints of which were ‘liberated'from the German DKW factory under the guise of the spoils of warfollowing World War Two. It would be interesting to know how Yamaha gothold of the design. Did we sell it to them? Give it to them? Did theyjust copy it? Whatever, as Hodge rightfully pointed out, look at thesubsequent vastly contrasting fortunes of the British motorcycleindustry post WW2 and that of Japan. Our industry died a long, slow,agonising death due to plain bad management and lack of investmentwhile Japan's forged ahead due to dynamic management and unlimitedinvestment.
I have actually read several books on the fate of the Britishmotorcycle industry, written by those allegedly in ‘power' at the time,and it will come as no surprise to learn that the demise was none oftheir fault... funny how a massive industry gurgled down the plugholebut no-one was to blame.
I don't know whether I should admit it but my very first road bikewas a BSA Bantam D14/4, back in 1968. The bike was an infuriating mixof good and bad. The engine was good but the electrics and front forkswere atrocious. With each successive electrical failure, the variousduff parts were replaced with stuff that lasted more than five minutesand I enjoyed my first 12-months of freedom.
However, the following year the Bantam was replaced by a Suzuki T20Super Six - a machine that was at least 25-years ahead of the BSA indesign, performance, reliability and quality. As indeed it ought tohave been as the Bantam was essentially a 25-year-old design...
Enough on ancient history and if you didn't read Alex's Yamaha piece you should have done...
Moving on, if you turn to page 22 in this week's issue you will finda follow-on story by Alex in which he talks to Yamaha CompetitionManager (Worldwide except for MotoGP) Laurens Klein Koerkamp.
Not a very Japanese-sounding name I'm sure you'll agree, more likean upmarket lager, but Laurens does give a very frank interview whichis such a refreshing change from the usual sterile company-line.Virtually every factory rider trots out the same, sleep-inducing preand post race interviews these days beginning, ''I'd like to thank myteam and the sponsors and zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!''
Laurens talks very openly and the article is well worth a read.
I would take issue with just one point made. Laurens states thatregarding noise levels, it takes a long time to develop a bike with alower (exhaust) noise level. He states: ''It is not just a matter ofbolting on a bigger silencer!''
Sorry, while that is undoubtedly true when you are sitting isolatedin your office, wondering how to run 94-decibel without giving yourrivals half a bhp advantage, out in the real world that is exactly whatit is a case of!
When we are losing tracks at the rate we have been losing them sincethe return of the big-bore four-stroke because of the almighty racketthey kick-up, bolting on a big silencer actually IS the solution.
So what if you lose one, two or ten bhp. Everyone else is in the same boat and it is all relative.
If bolting on a big silencer allows me to ride the bike that I havejust shelled out five and a half grand on - as opposed to it sittingsilent in the garage - then that is my only option. The noise problemexists TODAY, not in six months, not next year or the year after thatbut TODAY!
In 2008 the 94 decibel level kicks-in and for many tracks this is not a minute too soon.
And guess what owners of pre-2008 spec bikes will have to do aboutthis if they wish to ride - yes, they will be bolting on big, shiny,new, 94 dBa silencers...