Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
When ATV became a major competitor in recreational and utility vehicle in 1984, it also escalated the growing concerns of the public. ATV was becoming a controversial vehicle. There was an estimated 60,000 injuries in 1986, all ATV related due to improper riding behavior and overly excessive thrill riding. In 1988, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) entered into an unprecedented 10-year agreement with American ATV manufacturers called the Final Consent Decree. The agreement funded $100 million to expand existing safety programs like free training incentives to ATV owners. But the biggest move of the Final Consent Decree was the production shift from three wheeled ATVs to four wheeled ATVs. Additionally, manufacturers repurchased any unsold three wheel models and trade in three wheeled models with the four wheel ATVs.
In spite of that move, injuries and deaths still occur regularly. On 2004 alone, statistics released by the CPSC estimated 136,000 injuries associated with ATVs are recorded on American hospitals, doubling the numbers of accidents the last decade. The expiration of the decree didnt help with the ATV safety practices, though it effectively replaced the three wheels with the four wheels ATV. And the CPSC had a number of flaws; it only covers the manufacturers present at the forging of the decree. New manufacturers who entered the market after the forging of Final Consent Decree are not covered by the plans so to speak and that gave them a considerable leeway towards ATV manufacturing. Also, overseas manufacturers are completely exempt of this decree.
There have been decrees attending to the nature of the machines themselves. One such decree is the balance of the machine with regards to the riders age. Riders under the age of 16 are strictly prohibited from riding ATVs with 90cc engines. Various states have also enacted legislations governing ATV usage within their boundaries, like for instance the riders age and the engine displacements should concede with the decrees.
Some advocates, though, argue that a child starting to ride ATVs at younger age improves ATV safety. They had stated that this child would develop necessary expertise as he grows older instead of waiting until he is sixteen and handling larger ATVs. In effect, CPSC approved the usage of smaller ATVs with 50cc to be used by youngsters as early as 6.
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Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Yamaha Motorcycles, under this motto, employing all its creativity, and with a very strong spirit of challenge, became what it is now: one of the biggest players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
But Yamaha’s history doesn’t start with motorcycles…
It is back in 1877 that Torakusu Yamaha started with the Nippon Gakki Company that later would become Yamaha Corporation: an important manufacturer of fine musical instruments.
As the company grew, they explored several fields of opportunity in the textile industry and others.
During the World War II, the company set up a factory to produce airplane propellers. This plant played an important role in Yamaha’s entry to the motorcycle industry as you will see.
After the war, Yamaha Corporation had to find new ways to use the tooling and experience that had been accumulated during their times in the airplane industry, and it was then when Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded.
It’s important to mention that even though this new company was just another branch of Yamaha Corporation, it was placed under an independent management. In this case, under the guidance of Ginichi Kawakami; which turned out to be a brilliant move.
Before producing their first motorcycle, Ginichi Kawakami traveled a lot establishing what would be very useful relationships. He also sent out his engineers to Europe and had them learn how to build motorcycles, particularly from DKW; whom with they kept an underground and unofficial long lasting relationship.
One proof of this is that nowadays, the only two manufacturers in the world of mass-produced five side-valve engines are Yamaha an Audi (DKW - Auto Union).
One of the most important legacies from this international relationships were all the skills learnt by Yamaha’s engineers on two stroke engines know-how. Other manufacturers as Suzuki would not reach the same level of development in this area till seven years later.
Not to wonder why the first bike from Yamaha Motorcycles the 125 YA-1 was fairly a faithful copy of the 1949 DKW RT 12. The only two important differences were the four speed gearbox instead of the original three speed gearbox, and a gear transmission replacing the primary chain drive.
IMPORTANT MODEL FROM YAMAHA MOTORCYCLES
>>> Yamaha YA-1
Even though the Yamaha YA-1 - baptized “Acatombo” (Red dragonfly) by its fans - had “nothing in special” and was more expensive than its competitors, it almost immediately became a great success.
It was reliable: before putting it into the market, the prototypes were tested along 10,000 miles of rough rides . Even the big boss himself, Ginichi Kawakami, rode the bike without any incident from Hamamatsu to Tokyo.
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