VOLUME 57 ISSUE 12 MARCH 24, 2020 P71
on the part of the RGV500
Suzuki's twin-crank engine
that Kenny was especially
vocal about all year long. It
just meant he had to work a
little harder to succeed his
dad as master of the 500
GP universe, exactly 20
years on after KR Sr. scored
the last of his trio of world
titles for Yamaha.
20 Years On
The chance to test the
newly crowned 500cc World
Champion's bike came at
Phillip Island in 2000. The
previous year, I test rode Junior's RGV500 at Jer-
ez, where I'd discovered the bike's crucial advan-
tage—its sweet steering and refined handling. This
was the product of the effective three-way collabo-
ration between rider Roberts, the Suzuki design
staff back home in Hamamatsu, and the late
Australian race engineer and former top rider War-
ren Willing, which endowed the XR89 chassis with
a level of balance and refinement that set it apart
from its rivals. However, the ability to cut inside the
opposition and hold a tight line in a slower bend
that I discovered at Jerez was one thing—but the
fast, flowing Phillip Island track posed a different
kind of exam: was the Suzuki's agility and poise in
changing direction in tight turns only obtained at
the cost of high-speed stability, which might com-
promise its performance on faster tracks?
Twenty-five laps of the Island later, I had my
answer—as well as a vivid lesson in the phenom-
enal levels of skill needed to ride one of the final
evolutions of a 500cc GP two-stroke.
Reprogram The Brain
I needed to reprogram my brain to convince
myself that what seems like an insanely fast entry
speed for Siberia really was the right and proper
way to ride the more-or-less guided missile that a
500 GP bike represented.
One lap, this time climbing away from Siberia,
thanks to the Suzuki's excellent traction when
cranked over, I got such a good drive that I
missed my cutoff point into the next right-hander
at The Hayshed and went in too deep, which in
turn put me wrong for all the rest of the hill up to
Lukey Heights.
There, I was effortlessly out-braked by Kenny
Roberts himself—complete with pitying shake of
the head, before he gave me a master class in
how to stop for the downhill MG hairpin immedi-
ately after.
Cathcart tries
to reprogram
his brain to ride
"the more-or-less
guided missile."
Stripped
bare. Roberts
complained
bitterly about
his Suzuki's
lack of
acceleration—a
deficit he could
only make up
for with demon-
late braking.
