Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

I is Which is why I was cra wlin g under th e paint th ro ug h the esses, concen-. trating on being smooth, trying to get that Suzuki around the co u rse as fast . as I could. I had no cho ice. The stopwat ch es were running. • By John Ulrich I-1AMAMATSU, JAPAN, FEB. 2-3 It was ca lm behind the bubble, warm a nd still except for the how l of the far -away engine and the thump-thump-thump of my helme t hitting the gas tank in time with every pavem ent ripple. Stay behind th e bubble, tu ck ed in that 's what mak es th e differe nce. a rm s pull ed in ti gh t 14 aga ins t th e tank. elbo ws wedged in o n top of th ighs. neck bent a n d cra ned to peer out th rough th e plastic windscr een - with out a ny th ing stickin g up or o ut a nd d isturbing th e a ir flow . The corner could be tak en flat -out. wid e-open - just sta y tu cked in and peel off, with a light tou ch on th e ba rs. Sti ck o u t a knee or pok e up a helmet or try to wre stl e with th e handl ebars and the twitch started. a di sco nce rti n g sta rt -o f-a- wo bble th at mad e the rider co nce n tra te on pushin g aga ins t th e bars and co nt ro ll ing th e oscilla tio n inst ead o f getting on with th e business of riding fast. R idin g fast. They had warn ed us aga ins t it from the sta rt. This is a test sessio n. the eng ineers a nd ma rketing men and tra ns lators from Suz u ki Moto r Co. said. T his is no t a race. If you wa nt to ran', please do so wh en you receive a GS XR750 to test in vour o wn co u ntrv . Don 't race here; ' thi s track a lready has too mu ch h isto ry (a referen ce to th e 1981 deaths of sever- a l-rime En dura nce Wo rld C ha m pio n C hr istian Leon and Pops Yosh irnu ra 's son-i n- la w Sho hei Kat o, and a str ing of serious inj uries incurred by severa l racers a nd testers o n the unforgiving circ ui t). We don ' t need a ny mor e h isto ry. they to ld us. Lap times don 't matter. Yet a g la nce a t th e crowd o f engineers and assista nts an d liason men reveal ed th at every o the r wr ist carr ied a built-in-stopwat ch Seik o or Citizen or Casio timepiece; severa l hands carried consec u tive-lap stop wa tches and clipboards. And aft er m y first test ride. o ne of th e enginee rs came o ver and pointed o u t proud ly th at th e GSXR750 wa s a lready three seconds a lap faster than a ny previous Suzuk i stree tbik e rid den by a journalist a t R yuyo . The hospital is closed o n S u nday, th ey said th e next morn in g , o n the seco nd a nd fin al day o f test rides, T he re is no a m bu la nce . so p lease don 't ride fast. YO ll rode fast vesrerduv. Bu t th e wa tches and cl ip boards were sti ll there. and th e engineers sti ll p ressed u p against the barriers a n d lean ed forward to loo k down th e stra ightaway a t eac h approaching bike. . • • Ryuyo is set out in the ri ce fields along th e sea. There's a stiff wind coming in orr the ocean and wisps of sa nd o ften drift across th e last turn, a third-gear hairpin. In February, da ytime temperatures hover in th e 40° F range, and th e pavem ent is slip pery. It 's a long track , a bo u t 3.7 miles, a nd it 's pa cked right up to th e edg es of th e property. . Which means there isn 't mu ch runo rr - usuall y six o r eig h t or maybe 10 feet a nd th en in to a wall. Huge foamrubber blocks th e size o f up-ended desks are tied to the barri ers to cus h io n impacts; in other p laces the blocks ar e secure d to th e trunks of trees. The track is the site of all Suzuki's pavement testing, for motorcycles, cars, ligh t tru cks and vans. It's ripply in places , and has a very rough, fourthand-fifth-gear left-hand sweeper leading onto a back straight, past the pi ts, and into that sixth-gear left and the esses beyond. Leon cras hed in tha t rough lefthander , went into a stand o f trees at the edge of th e tra ck. a nd di ed before hi s first ra ce as a new member of Suzuki's end urance team, Kato fell in th e esses while testing a Formula One bik e; h is cras h injuries didn't kill h im , but he landed in a pond beyond th e fen ce a n d drowned. I had met Leon , a nd I kn ew Kato fro m meet in gs both in J apan an d in th e U.S . And as I pass th eir cras h sites o n my firs t la p o f th e track, I can see th eir faces, their ghosts. I had been on this track once before, five years ago, and was having trouble remembering all the blind corners. Leon and Kato kep t coming into my mind; the admonitions of the engineers p layed through my head; I win ced at remembering the flack and criticism th at comes with crashing a test bik e. But I could see the stopwatch crystals flash from th e pits as I sailed past on the straightaway, tach nudging 10,000, 10,500, 10,600 rpm , a crosswind moving th e GSXR750 over a foot , two feet, a crack in the tarmac making the bars flinch. Bad deal. A dangerous, unfamil iar track. A fast, unfamiliar motorcvcle. And an a udience o f eng ineers ~'ho tend to quantify everyth ing, including judging th e expe rt ise of a motorcycle journalist by his lap times. An y a tte m p t to rid e fast was crazy. And necessary . • • • Th e intent of Suzuki 's engineers in building th e GSXR750 is clear. Their goal is the fastest 750cc motorcycle in th e world , and th eir idea of the best way to measure speed is by lap time, o n a road course, There a re ot her ways of defining speed, such as top speed, acceleration, handli ng abili ty. But a la p of the track combines all three, they tell a gathering of journalist s from all over the world , so that' s th e measure th ey use. Look at th e speci fica tio ns: 388 pounds dry com plete with full fairin g, a 56,5-inc h wh eelbase, an alum inum fram e with rak e a nd tra il of 26° and 4.2 in ch es, 41mm forks, dual 11 .8-in ch front discs with four-piston calipers, 2.50 x IS-in ch lightweight cas t a lu m in u m a lloy front wheel and a3.50 x 18rear wheel carrying 110/80-18 and 140170-18 tir es respe ctively.

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