askapro Small bikes and big fun By Lee Parks #162125
Q: Last month’s reader question was about trying to find the correct-sized dual-sport bike. Of course, as I explained, that depended on sev-
eral factors only he could answer. While I hopefully answered his ques- tion on the pros and cons of the dif- ferent sub-categories of dual-sports, it dawned on me that I didn’t really get to make the case for small bikes that I would have liked. If you’ll indulge me this month, I’d like to dive a little deeper into why I love the smaller machines so much.
A: I was reminded of this when a private lesson student came to my house recently for a combination of on- and off-road riding lessons. Yes, I’m fortunate to live near some great street roads and have dirt bike train- ing tracks in my front and backyards in the California desert. He has only been riding for three years, but in that time he has ridden over 30,000 miles, including in the Italian Alps, and has taken every riding and track course he could sign up for. He was shocked to discover that of the 10 bikes in my garage, the largest one was only 675cc. You could say that the discussion that ensued was yours truly making a case for why I love small displacement, lightweight bikes. Having a father who rode meant
that I was the lucky kid on the block who got a 1981 Suzuki RM80 (13 hp, 136 lbs.) as a 12th birthday present. Because of my age, a small, light- weight bike was the only option for starting my riding career. Because it was a motocross racer, however, it was
94 BMW OWNERS NEWS May 2016
also amazingly fast and exhilarating to ride. Two years later when I outgrew it, I gradu- ated to a 1983 RM125 (26 hp, 201 lbs.). I could barely touch the ground with one foot, but it wasn’t too intimidating like the 250s and 500s. Because of that, I was able to concentrate on my riding technique instead of being scared the formula I have followed to this day. In college, when I switched to road rac-
ing, I chose to start on a Kawasaki GPz305 (29 hp, 362 lbs.). Some of my most memo- rable racing battles were against another rider in the novice class on a 1983 GPz1100 (110 hp, 586 lbs.). We would run identical lap times with me passing in the turns and him motoring by on the straights. While the best-financed novice racers at the time were riding GSX-Rs and Hurricanes, they were often afraid to really push their bikes in the turns because of the high horsepower and expensive bodywork. As a result, I was able to learn the racing skills more quickly and moved up to the Expert class in record time. After cutting my teeth on the 305, I switched to a 1988 Yamaha FZR400R (50 hp, 410 lbs.) and began winning races in the Southwest. After college, I went back to my two-
stroke roots and started racing 250 GP bikes. My 1988 Yamaha TZ250U (66 hp, 239 lbs.) made the 400 feel like a tank. It was pure, simple and faster through the turns than I thought possible. Unfortunately it also required huge amounts of mainte- nance, as in three hours of wrenching for every one hour of riding. On the plus side, I had never had so much fun on a motorcycle before. There was something primal about such a little bike between myself and the road. At this point I figured that if the light
weight of a 250 was cool, the only thing even more fundamental would be a 125 GP bike. So out went the 250 and in came a 1993 Honda RS125 (40 hp, 160 lbs.). There is
something almost magical that happens
when riding a motorcycle that weighs less than you do. You just think about turning, and the bike is already half way there. The bike becomes an extension of you like the sword to a samurai warrior. It all came to a head in 1994. I had become
so “one” with my motorcycle that I felt I needed to see what we could do on the national stage. As a starving motorcycle journalist, I knew I didn’t have enough money to enter the AMA Superbike Cham- pionship in the 125GP class in its exhibition year. But I did have almost enough credit. Every credit card I owned was maxed out that year, and it took me five full years to pay off the debt from pursuing my dream of becoming a national champion. Finishing second overall in the national champion- ship that year as a rookie was practically a dream come true. At the same time, I decided that I needed a street bike to com- mute through the jungle that is LA traffic, so I bought a used 1988 Honda Hawk GT (42 hp, 400 lbs.). I put 120,000 miles on that bike until it was replaced by a 1999 Suzuki SV650 (65 hp, 417 lbs.). By the time I celebrated my 31st birthday
and being finally out of debt, the racing bug decided to rear its ugly head once more. Living in Baltimore at the time, WERA was just starting a lightweight class in its national endurance series, and I knew what I had to do. Joining a rookie team as the “old guy” and wanting a place to test out the techniques from my upcoming Total Con- trol book, we thought we’d do a few East Coast races for fun. After climbing into sec- ond place in the points, we realized we had a statistical chance to win the champion- ship if we finished the rest of the series. Out came the credit cards again and, low and behold, we actually did it. A small bunch riders whose mutual love of small displace- ment, lightweight bikes won a national championship on their first try. While it
skills
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