Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• I e1 TheSuzuki GSI150 isa big motor- . cycle - and feels it - with a 31-inch seat height, a 61-inch wheelbase and a dry weight of 522 pounds. It's making 119 bhp at the crankshaft, a figure to respect. But it's also the easiest of the four to ride, with the broadest powerband, the most progressive, controllable clutch. That long wheelbase helps the Suzuki come off the line £Iat without wheelie problems. No surprise then that the Suzuki was the first bike into the lOs. Itdid it on its second pass, 10.94 seconds at 123.45 mph; thefirst run was 11.16 at 122.44; the third 11.04 at 122.78. In those first three passes I came off the line at 5000 rpm, rolling on the throttle as the clutch came out, not reaching full throttle untiltheclutch was fully engaged. The second set started as had the first, an 11.02 at 125, an 11.03 at 124.65. The next pass just happened, the throttle snapping back to the stop in an instant, the clutch holding the front end down and feeding in as quickly as the tire would accept it, all on auto-pilot, like watching a movie shot over a rider's shoulder. Click, click, click. Clutch jabbed in with the gas on (or the powershift into second, third, fourth and over-rev. It was 10.86 at 124.65, the same terminal as the previous pass but a far better E.T. The difference was in the launch, still at 5000 rpm, but now at full throttle instantly, before the clutch was out. One more pass brought the Suzuki down to 10.83 at 125.17. Park the Yamaha FJ II 00 next to the GSI150 or the VFIOOOF and you'll swear the Yamaha must be a 600. It's·, tiny - in looks and feel- compared to the Suzuki and Honda. the tank seemi.ng to be about six inches closer to the ground. It's shorter, with a 58.7-inch wheelbase, and it's lighter, weighing 501 pounds dry. Terminal speed is a good measure of a bike's horsepower, and, judging by trap speed, the Yamaha makes more power than either the Suzuki or the Honda. Despite the extra power, the Yamaha is harder to ride than the Suzuki just because its powerband isn't as broad: it makes a little less power ata typical launch rpm. The FJllOO is not wheelie prone and is much easier to ride quickly than the Honda. It's also easier to stop after the finish of a pass. with stronger, more controllable brakes than the Suzuki or the Honda. Like the Suzuki, the Yamaha needed just two passes to break into the lOs. The first 'pass was 11.07 seconds at 125 mph, the second, 10.93 at 125.52 mph. The last pass in the Yamaha's first set was 10.98 at 125.34. Honda's VFIOOOF Interceptor has a shorter wheelbase than the GSI150 - 59.3 vs. 61 inches - and is a little lighter - 516 pounds dry vs. 522 pounds. But the Honda's higher center of gravity and grabby, non-progressive clutch make it wheel ie-prone and dif.. ficult to launch quickly. I.t's a raging bull rhino of a motorcycle, charging and rearing up off the line, without enough clutch feel to let the rider keep the wheelan the ground. It was work getting the Honda into the lOs. The first set of passes brought a string of 11.0s: 11.05 seconds at 123.28 mph, 11.02 at 123.62, 11.05 at 123.79. Every time, the Honda wheelied; not one pass was completely level and even, and because the clutch has such a narrow engagement range, every pass demanded that I back OUt of the throttle to keep the Honda from £lipping over. The second set came after things had clicked aboard the Suzuki, but the same technique that worked so well on the GSI150 and the FJIIOO only intensified the VFlOOOF's wheelie problems. The trouble seems to come from the diapraghm clutch spring and the dramatic change in spring force at the engagement point. The runs were 11.08 at 124.13, 10.98 at 123.79 and 11.03 at 124.48. The third set was no better, including several aborts - sheer will power won't keep the Interceptor on both wheels - and more runs in the lis: 11.04 at 123.45 and 11.12 at 123.96. It was obvious that the Honda wasn't going to go any faster. The Ninja feels even lighter and more compact than the Yamaha FJ 1100, especially at slow speed. It's short, with a 58.9-inch wheelbase, and light at 503 pounds dry. Its low, with a 31.2-inch seat height. It also has a much smaller engine than the other three bikes, 908cc. Which, when we firstarrivedat the track, was the least of our worries. Our Ninja ran on three cylinders, and nothing we did cured the problem. It seemed to get better at high rpm, so we tried a pass. It wasn't impressive: 11.91 seconds at 115.08 mph. The Ninja sat while we ran the other bikes. until somebodv had the bright idea of adding gas LO'the tank. We weren't sure that would help. since there was gasoline visible in the tank already. and the Ninja would idle fine with the petcock in the "on" position. We tried it anyway, and with an extra gallon of gas in the tank, the Ninja came to life. Its second pass was 11.12 at 120.64, its third, 11.07 at 120.32. The next run would put the bike into the lOs. h never happened. The Ninja's clutch fried on the launch. The bike SLOpped accelerating while the engine revved. In fairness. this particular Ninja had returned from another publication's testing and was released to us on shan notice. without thorough preparation. The Yamaha benefited from experience gained on the Suzuki, which ran through two sets while the Yamaha's chain was adjusted. The first pass of the Yamaha's second set was 10.93 at 125.87. The second pass, throttle wide open at the instant of launch - was 10.86 at 125, the third 10.89 at 124.48. The Yamaha reached the goal two consecutive runs in the lOs - in just two sets. A search for the E.T. Champion using Ttie same Track, on The same Day, with The same Rider By John Ulrich Photos by Patrick Behar It was one of those days at the drags trip where, suddenly, everything comes together with an almost audible "click", Carlsbad Raceway had been an enigma to me, a s.lippery, bumpy piece of pavement that confounded my best efforts to turn decent times. It had been different at Orange County, but Orange County is being dismantled, piece by piece, in prepar· ation for a Royal Homes development. The pavement's still there, but the lights are gone, packed out with the grandstands and Armco barriers and fences and everything worth a dime in salvage. Which brought us to Carlsbad, and tne problem: lousy E. T. Bikes that should have run lOs didn't break out of the 11s. Bikes that should have hooked uP and shot off the line sat and spun the tire, finally moving off at the head of a column of smoke, continuing to burn for hundreds of feet. But this day was different. It had taken time spent with P. W. Gleason, wizard of the drags, a few weeks earlier. Gleason had a spot, maybe a foot wide, where traction could be had. It wasn't an obvious place to run; I never would have selected his secret position on my own, but it worked. More than a geography lesson, Gleason passed on a few of his E.T. secrets. One, tapping the clutch lever to control wheelstands or tire spin, proved the most useful. I'd known about the trick for years, but there's something about riding a suddenly-rearing 550pound motorcycle that makes a rider want to back off the throttle. Overcoming that tendency is easy to think about, easy to plan, and hard to do. Having Gleason there helped, with an instant critique of every pass. The critical application of Gleason's information came a few weeks later, back at Carlsbad, with the four baddest bikes on the street: The Suzuki GS1150, the Yamaha FlIlOO, the Honda VFIOOF Interceptor, and the Kawasaki Ninja. The first round, three passes per bike, was nothing spectacular: good numbers, but no records. But during the second round, on the Suzuki, came that click, the point when all that Gleason said and demonstrated and encouraged finally came together in the coordination of the throttle and clutch combined with enough traction to keep·the rear wheel hooked up with the pavement. Throttle wide open at the instant of launch, little jabs at the clutch keeping the wheel from jumping back over my head, the bikes running straight and true and fast, no bogging, no burning. It was then that the lO-second runs fell like rain, the number appearing on the clocks time after time, dropping a few hundredths with every pass. When it was all over, we knew which bike was the quickest, on the same track, on the same day, with the same rider. -.:t'4 00 0') .. 00 17

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