Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1019648
VOL. 55 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 28, 2018 P111 tinue. The truth is, all those RC Cup bikes could be made to that spec under our rules. It wasn't necessarily the way we wanted it to go, but it's racing." Changing the rpm via the quickshifter presents its own challenges. Riders still need enough gearing so they can get down the straight, and KTM has complained the 1000 rpm they lost at round three (round two for Junior Cup) means they have lost a huge chunk of available power from the high revving single-cylinder engine. "Right now, since those bikes have very little rpm, they don't have a bunch of choices," says Morse. "When we made the rpm changes, it was based on a bunch of dyno testing. You could see the KTM's peak horsepower was very close to its red line. It doesn't fall off much. "The Kawasaki makes peak horsepower at, like, 10,000 rpm, and it holds the same power all the way to 12,000—which is kind of rare for a motorcycle. That's why with Kawasaki we had to take 2000 rpm out of it because if we took 1000 out of it, it would have made no change. Even their horsepower, according to their dyno charts, is still the same. It's just their gearing avail- ability has mostly been affected." The Yamaha is different still, and has a drastically larger rev ceiling of 13,000 rpm compared to the Kawasaki and KTM, who are both restricted to 10,000 rpm. "The Yamaha doesn't even really make power after 12,200, 12,400 rpm. But what they do get is a little revs advantage," says Morse. "They can hold that gear a little bit longer through a corner but power-wise, it's not really helping them." Yamaha can also utilize shorter air intake funnels and airbox modifications, and had a change at Laguna Seca whereby MotoAmerica removed the four-degree maximum advance limitation for better midrange performance. The class is a continual work in progress, and next year will once more see changes to try and make the racing faster, but keep the bikes close in overall performance. "Our ultimate goal is to dere- strict the bikes," says Morse. "In Europe, they're testing camshafts and throttle bod- ies, cutting the cylinder head, increasing compression, etc., but then, we're also looking at different ways to restrict them, too. Things like using restrictor plates, throttle stops. Things that mean the manufacturers can have their rpm's back so they have their gearing back, but reduce the horsepower. We are also looking at running slicks for next year with Dunlop. "I believe if we get the balanc- ing right, it's still going to turn out to be the best rider. These are still 300s and 400s. They aren't superbikes. They're built on a chassis that is supposed to be an economical bike. So, if we get the balancing closer I think the racers will speak for them- selves." CN Track Development Team Co-Owner knew KTM and Kawasaki were coming out with bikes to run the series in 2018, which meant they were coming out with 2018 technology. So, the season starts, we annihilate the Yamahas, then suddenly they're putting up a fuss. 'No shit, Sherlock. Of course we're going to annihilate you!' They're on 2015 motorcycle tech. We showed up with a 2018 motorcycle. Why are you backing us down to them?' They had time to do their homework. They should have built something like we did. It's stupid. The only reason they didn't, and this is me talking, is there're too many Yamahas here. There are two KTMs and three Kawasakis. "At round one, we were overweight to start and over-horsepower to start. Then they [MotoAmerica] took the power away and left the weight. Then they realized the KTM was killing us still, but we were still killing the Yamaha. So, they took weight off us, gave us back 150 rpm, and then we've all been pretty competitive. "Now the game is to find the gearing that fits to the racetrack, where before, you could just kind of gear it for the straightaway and live with it. You could be a little under rev, a little over rev. It didn't care. But now it hits the rev limiter."