SPECIAL FEATURES
20 Yamaha FZR1000: 000001 On The Line
A racetrack introduction to the all-new 1989 FZR1000.
By Daniel Coe
26 An Engineer’s Dream
Yamaha gives its engineers the chance to
make over the FZR1000.
46 Suzuki GSX-R1100: The Art Of Blending
Guile and science, art and engineering beget
the new GSX-R1100.
FEATURES
38
65
Red Ride On The Beach
The most awesome beach
battle since Normandy,
fer sure, dude.
By Tyrone van Hooydonk
and John Patrick Burns
Freud’s Greatest
Adventure:
Full Moon Over
Bonneville
The man who's flashed it
everywhere proves he can
haul ass. By Ken Vreeke
Parilla
70
The 250 Grand Sport and other players
rise up from obscurity. By John Patrick Burns
80 The Spectrometric Sleuth:
Looking For Problems In Engine Oil
A little cooper—no sweat; lots of iron—shame on you.
By Tyrone van Hooydonk
TECHNICAL
54 Inside Mission To Michelin
A visit to Michelin's R&D facility at Clermont-Ferrand.
By Kevin Cameron
60 Radial Technology: The First 40 Years
A quick primer on Automotive Radialogy.
By Kevin Cameron
DEPARTMENTS
8 Editorial/ Expiration Notice/Phil Schilling
12 Pipeline/ Laughing Stock, And Beyond/Jim Greening
14 Letters/ CBR Trashing.
19 TDC/ Business Cycles/Kevin Cameron
84 Bits/ Bad Boys Of The Fifties
□ Yamaha’s launch for the 1989 FZR1000
was my kind of motorcycle introduction. The
company let the world press sample its 600
and 1000 sport bikes at Laguna Seca Race-
way in Monterey, California, and design-team
members, as well as other executives, flew in
from Japan to record the journalists* reaction.
Why so much interest in the racetrack? The
engineering department had substantially re-
shaped the FZR1000 for 1989, and the track
seemed the suitable venue for fast initial im-
pressions. After all, Yamaha s one-liter FZR,
like Suzuki’s new GSX-R1100, has been en-
gineered to provide outstanding racetrack
performance. Yes, the 1000 is road worthy and
fully street legal, but racetrackprudentials'
count heavily when serious streetrkiers^buy,'
such machines.'
if you ride freshly minted motorcycles regu-
larly, you get in the habit of looking at frame
and engine serial numbers. At press introduc-
tions, manufacturers commonly serve up bikes
that carry low numbers, but I was1 shocked by
the engine and frame codes on the
EZR10QP slotted to Cyc/e—000001. A long
time ago. when makers produced more motor- ,
cycles than they do today and offered a...