18 Kawasaki ZX-10 Ninja
Pure, triple-distilled performance.
94 BMWR100GS
lV/7en was the last time we touted a BMW for its handling?
78 Ducati 750 F1-S
Loyalty, as measured in red, white and green. . . .
87 Yamaha DT50
One teaspoon of displacement, three teacups of water.
30 Horsepower: The ’88 Retune
On- the-road performance.
36 Roll-On Acceleration
How it's measured, why it's important,
what differences superpower engines make.
41 A Decade Of Superbike Power: 1978-1988
Over the long haul, what constitutes progress?
58 “Serious Fun"
Eddie Lawson—at Riverside—with an FZR1000,
Z-51 Corvette, and an open-wheeled race car. By Pete Lyons
61 Quick Study: The Champion In School
The Russell instructors encounter Eddie Lawson . . . and
discover this guy can do it on their playground. By Pete Lyons
82 The Well-Tempered Desmo
Secrets and inner workings of the famous Ducati valve train.
By Bruno de Prato
46 Daytona ’88
A lot was happening if you knew where to look.
By Kevin Cameron
7 Editorial/Symmetry/Phil Schilling
8 TDC/Puritans And Purity/Kevin Cameron
13 Letters/?/?© Sacred And The Profane
16 Bits/Doorschach/Tim Carrithers
103 Head On/Life Of Change/Maynard Hershon
Scan across six decades of BMW
history, and glimpses of dirt-going mo-
torcycles around factory gates are
rare: Here’s one shot of a 1952 R68
with high pipes; in another, company
officials pose around a bike set up for
off-road use with knobby tires, the
fork crown bare but for a tiny speedo.
That’s a bit surprising because
BMWs have proved fully capable in
certain, specialized kinds of off-road
competition. The reliability, high
torque and low center of gravity of
boxer engines had BMWs finishing
well in ISDTs while the flat-twin con-
figuration, with opposed cylinders
hung out in the cooling wind blast,
proved the optimum design for run-
ning at sustained high speeds even in
elevated temperatures—ideal for
races like the Paris/Dakar and Baja
rallies, where BMWs have tradi-
tionally done well. Still, the company
stuck steadfastly—and exclusively—
to producing road machines.
BMW’s first “dual-purpose” bike—
the R80G/S, produced in 1980—was
a curious hybrid, really little more than
an R80/7 street bike fitted with a high
collector pipe and plastic front fender,
“universal” treaded tires and the in-
struments nestled inside a plastic pod
mounted to the fork.
Adapting the Slash Seven to the dirt
involved shaving weight wherever
possible. The G/S’s new Monolever
system excised the swing arm and
rear suspension’s entire ^ftside.But,
for the company’s first trail bike (the
initials stood for “Gelanden/Strasse,”
or “off-road/street”), little of the
BMW’s enduring power train was al-
tered: Shaft final drive turned the rear
wheel; Germany’s primeval push-rod
flat twin—essentially unchanged
since its introduction at the Paris
Show in 1923—provided the power.
In 1988, the line of 800cc boxer
bikes has disappeared from BMW’s
import list, replaced by a trio of liter-
sized twins: the “touring” RT,
“sport” RS and new “dual-purpose”
R100GS.
The new GS continues where the
R80 left off, which is in an odd sort of
functional hinterland: The R80,
though 50 pounds lighter than the all-...