BRIDGESTONE 100 TRAIL

Borrowing much from the factory’s production

dirt racers, this dual purpose rotary-valver

has been tamed and polished for the street.

Oui in the big world of plain folks

the State of New Jersey has a repu-

tation for being the industrial sink-hole

of the world. If you’re going anywhere

on the Eastern seaboard, you invariably

travel the length of the New Jersey's

Turnpike, a grim and ugly byway that

ominously foretells the ftiture of the

automobile. To the left and right (which-

ever way you’re going) lie giant refineries

befouling the air with ton after ton of

black-and-yellow soot—and there are

steel yards and shipyards and freight

terminals and manufacturing plants and

oil-drum-reconditioning plants and

auto junkyards—all contributing their

little bit to beautify America. For the

motorcyclist, the turnpike is something

to traverse rapidly and. if he’s not been

asphixiated, to quickly forget. It probably

never occurs to the rider in transit that

somewhere in the same state, out beyond

those refineries, lies one of the richest

and most active motorcycling scenes

in the country.

Because it turns out that New Jersey

is a kind of industrial and population

doughnut: people and factories all

around the rim and up by New York

City and nothing but farms and small

towns and swamps and forests and un-

developed land in the middle and the

south. Some of the people there in the

middle commute to the factories or

work the farms, and a huge proportion

of them go motorcycling. Mostly the

country is flat and the spaces between

the backroads are covered with pine

trees and crisscrossed with the sandy

lanes of Sandy Lane Enduro fame.

All of which brings us to this month’s

test bike, the Bridgestone 100 trail.

You see, all of those riders in central

Jersey buy street-trail machines because

now and again they must cross a paved

highway or maybe drive through a town,

but the bikes are all fitted up with real

knobby knobbies, even the 370-pound

so-called street-scramblers. At the drop

of a kickstart pedal these Jersey riders

crash off into the pines on some little

sandy trail that may wind around for

miles until it finally emerges across the

highway from the beginning of another

little sandy trail. We talked to one guy

who rides ten miles to work every morn-

ing with only a half mile of paved public

highway at either end. And naturally

all the trail riding means meeting other

riders on the trail and eventually racing.

Bridgestone already has a 100 racer.

What they have made now and what

we tested in south Jersey is a single

cylinder, rotary-valve trail machine.

Bridgestone’s trail bike looks like

a lashup of existing hardware that has

had a thorough going-over by some-

body’s industrial stylist. Good job. Clean,

bright, well integrated—even kind of

pretty. Unfortunately there is also a

dime-store aura about the whole pack-

age. It looks maybe a little fragile, a

little tinny, a little bit too tiny to be a

real motorcycle. A closer look at de-

tails show many production shortcuts

taken to keep down overall cost. The

The Bridgestone sells for just over $400,

which makes it less expensive than its

major competitor, the Hodaka Ace 100.

Whether the economies realized by us-

ing stampings instead of forgings or ma-

chined parts will prove out in the very

tough environment trail 100s are exposed

to these days remains to be seen.

Our test bike was the first and only

Bridgestone Trail 100 in this country.

It was a pre-production exhibit bike,

brought over by the national distribu-

tors, Rockford Motor Company of

Rockford. Illinois, to show to dealers

and regional distributors around the

country. Dealer reception was good,

so good that there got to be a bit of a

tussle as to whom should go the demon-

strator. Our hosts in south Jersey were

Minnie S. Lore and Charles Strockbine,

owners of a motorcycle shop called

Sportsmen’s Rest in the town of Bridge-

ton, and they won the tussle. Charlie

Strockbine lives right in the center of

booming trail-bike country He liked

the little Bridgestone and he knew his

customers would like it. So he maneuver-

ed shrewdly and came away with the

prize. After buzzing around the sand

trails for a few days, he felt good enough

about his new acquisition to yield it

up at the request of Rockford Motors

for us to test.

We began by zapping around the

shop’s parking lot. Charlie had already

put on the larger trail sprocket. He told

us, “Wouldn’t run it over 60 yet? Only

got 60 miles on the clock.” A little men-

tal arithmetic told us that 60m ph on the

trail sprocket would put that engine

considerably over its power peak at

7500 rpm. We also found immediately

that the Bridgestone’s street-type tires

weren’t the answer for a gravel parking

lot and weren’t likely to be the answer

for the rough. But the little Bridgestone

fired right up and we were off for a few

trial loops. On the street it was obviously

undergeared. It would buzz right along

at 50 in fourth cog and the brakes seem-

ed happy to haul it down from that

speed. We returned to the parking lot

and then found a little path leading

out into the fields behind. That’s where

the fun began and that’s when we really

began to bemoan the lack of knobbies.

A short wheelbase and small tires give

the Bridgestone a real advantage where

the maneuvering’s tight. We wound

up and down on the trail until Charlie

Strockbine offered to take us to a more

challenging course.

To our great surprise we soon found

that there actually are some hills in south

Jersey. Charlie delivered us to the local

cycle playground, a series of densely

wooded hills overlooking somebody’s

private lake. Charlie himself took the

first bash through this maze of hills,

trails, ravines and poison ivy. We could

hear the little Bridgestone churning

away somewhere among the trees and

then suddenly it would leap into sight.

If it weren’t for those street tires we

could have put the little bike to a much

more realistic test, for many of the

grades were loose sand or dirt and

the rear wheel would lose traction and

spin out. The same was true to a lesser

degree for the front wheel in tight turns.

We were again impressed by the great

maneuverability of this bike. It is ideally

suited to open woods where threading

in and out through the trees ala-observed-

trials is a delight. The light weight of the

machine was also useful when we hap-

pened to lose it on a hill or throw it

into a bush.

When we took the little Bridgestone

out in the open for photography we

got a better look at its technical features.

The engine is very compact and clean

with alloy castings of very high quality.

Both carburetor and generator covers

are highly polished and the rest has a

fine satin finish. Air induction is by

way of a high, centrally mounted air-

cleaner, through a down pipe to the car-

buretor on the side of the crankcase.

Intake timing is controlled by the crank-

mounted rotary valve. An advantage

over most of its competition, the Bridge-

stone has automatic oil injection at the

port. This insures good rotary valve

sealing and of course provides lubrication

for the lower-end bearings and ultimately

the cylinder wall. The crank turns on

ball mainbearings, with cage rollers in

the connecting rod big end. A plain

bushing at the small end takes the wrist...