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I don't think lots of us have ever seen a Highland IRL, whether the mono or the twin...
I wonder how long that pipe would last in the Romaniacs "adventure bike" category...
🤔
I had totally forgotten about the Synergy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_EP8_K3Bz0&t=46s
Wow trellis frame, what was the story with that? Anyone else tried this in mx? Aprilia was offroad.
If I remember it correctly it was Jan Gert Vandoorn that rode it when I was in Holland in late October 04. I think he did some testing for De Groot.
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I believe Takeshi Katsuya raced it in 2003 in Japan. He raves about the frame / chassis, suspension & engine (Best handling bike he's ridden to date). I believe by then HRC had figured out the 02+ case reed engine. From my understanding the key was the electronic PV, engine specs & ECU map settings. It's too bad this bike never made it into production as Honda had started putting its efforts in the 4T.. I think he's now working as a test rider for Kawasaki.
From my experience it doesn't take much to wake up a sleeping giant on the 02-07 CR250r's. PC & Chad Watt's have excellent porting specs..
https://youtu.be/OztUc57HG-U?t=73
https://youtu.be/-TKktokW7hs
This 02 CR125 came in 2nd @ the Red Bull straight Rythm in 2019. Going off memory, the top 3 podium bikes left were this modded CR134 going against 2 modern 2019 KTM150 2T's..
Wow, Wilcomoto, I remember reading about it in Motor Cycle News, around 1984 ish, something along the lines of they where negotiating with Brad Lackey to race it.
As MCN had a reputation of sometimes making stuff up and as a Brad Lackey fan I have wondered about it over the years if it was true.
Always seemed a shame how his career ended with no ride…..
Go find the Brad Lackey Motocross Files episode - the extended one.
I'm pretty sure in that he discussed the situation after he'd finally won the world Championships - something he'd spent many years in achieving. Also there was a (2 part?) audio interview with him you can find on the 'We Went Fast' site that I think he goes into it all.
If I recall correctly, he Was in negotiations with Cagiva - asking a Lot of money ( for the times - something like a 1 Million Dollar contract) for his services. Basically that, after achieving his ultimate goal, he was pretty much 'over it' - unless he got paid what He required to continue with racing. He didn't get what he wanted, and walked away.
He turned up at the next years USGP, tried an ATK in practice, but rode a YZ490. His last GP, was a French 250GP, in 1985, on a Yamaha, as far as I know.
Man that is uglier than ugly.😆
They were out of the game well before 1984. They only ever built around 30 bikes.
His CR250 in Australia always had trick parts. I believe Taka has left Kawi and is back with HRC.
In his teens in Australia he was so fast. I was importing DEP exhausts for the shop I worked for and sponsored him. Great kid.
Keep an eye on Bella Burke. Helping her. She has had bad luck with injury. Hope she makes the MXGP in Darwin this year. Great kid 😊
Taka was super impressive in juniors.
DEP were an underrated exhaust, I used them regularly on bikes I built and often found them to outperform the bigger name brands. What shop was that?
I’ll keep an eye out for Bella, can’t say I’ve heard of her.
It Is incredibly Trick!
However, that "Engineering Abomination" that is the Telescopic Fork, still hangs in there - even with Road Race usage always being touted as needing an "alternative to the Tele."
And, just give thought to the rear end 'slop' you find, even on many bikes on the showroom floor, in the linkage of bikes.
That single shock Ribi Fork pictured, has at least 19 extra bearing / pivot points, than a Tele has. Cripes, the cost of 'zero' clearance ( well, there really is no such thing ) bearings / bushings at each pivot point, would be mind boggling. Maintenance would be fun.......😬
I've always thought that I might try an adjustable link arm floating brake like that pictured on the RC, on one of my DH frames, and my PDS'd CRE, just for the s**ts and giggles. I use a Floating rear brake , sometimes on my DH bike, but, nowadays, rarely. It's only really of benefit when going at a lower pace on my DH bikes. My riders, years ago, found it - and it was a full, parallelogram set up, not some BS add on - of no benefit to them. But, some customers just Had to have it, so, for a few hundred $ more, I'd sell them it.
I Do run a floating rear brake on my (tar)Track Day MCs.
To fastchookracing CPR - Taka sounds more "OZ" than a lot of us - watching that Gypsy vid on Jo reminded me of that. He spent a lot of time here. Nice bloke, and a bit of a funny bugger, too!
He was a bit of a larrikin from what I remember.
Not as exotic or moto, but I gotta will this into existence…
Heard more than one rumor Suzuki was testing a street legal RMX450, but scrapped it for whatever reason.
Around this time the CRF450L came out. A RMX450L would have been a much better “modern drz” than whatever sorry excuse they released instead.
Edit: I’m talking rmx as a factory street legal dual sport. Not just “off-road”
Here is MC testing an EFI CRF in the 05-08 chassis. Would have been best of both worlds if they pulled it off in 08.
Romaniac's? I wonder how long it lasted after he landed from this jump? Seems like it would smash the ground as soon as the forks and shock compressed. Looks like it weighs 400+ pounds, too.
Pit Row
The claim in the article I read said it weighed in the 220s, it looks like it weighs more than an XR650
MC lookin fit right there
Suppose they meant 220kg?(!)
I noticed it but did not know wtf i was looking at. How would it have worked?
https://dirtbiketest.com/bike-tests/2017-suzuki-rmx450z/
My friend had one that he would not give up on and kept putting money into it thinking it’d be in line with a KTM XC-F. I rode it once, gave it back and told him to quit while he could. Horrible bike for anything offroad.
The Japanese OEM's spent about a decade promoting offroad "X" models that sadly missed the mark. Seems like it really benefitted KTM during that time.
The guy on the bike is #8 Tanel Leok, he rode for the factory team and had a chance to try this shock. If i remember it correctly we talked about it a few times with Tanel and he only said that the bije always wanted to go forward, in the braking bumps the wheel didn't shoot up but more to the front. But yeah he only rode it in time practise and tested during the week. But do not take this as a 100% truth cause we where laughing hard when we raised the shock question
I rode a buddies 81 RM125 back in 82. I had just bought a brand new 82 CR250. e swapped bikes and that Full Floater was the best suspension I have ever ridden. Much better than that Pro Link on my Honda. I would say that Full Floater was the best I ever felt even up to now.
Rob,
That is and will always be for me the utilmate MX bike.I drooled over it at Namur in 85/86.
Here one from KTM back in 1986. I was at the Luxembourg 500 GP and this guy (don't know the rider) was ripping around on it. It looked good, was laud as heck with the open megaphone. I loved it. Don't know why they didn't put it into production. It had a linkage way back then.
George Reiter from Austria. Scored points at Sittendorf that year.
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