Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• elrs a aren By Alan Cathcart ast week we p resented the first part of our look at the machines that are contesting the World Championship Superbike Series, concentrating on the defe nding champi on Ducati marque. In this final ins tallmen t, we'll take a look at the cha lle ngers - Kawasaki, Yama ha, Honda an d Suzu ki. L Kawasaki: This cou ld be the year Kawasaki co mp lete ly overha uled thei r Wo rld Cham pi on sh ip Superb ike Series effort for 1993, combining th e Australian-run team that -has repr esen ted the Green Meanies at the world level for the pas t three seasons with Rob Muzzy's U.S.-based tea m that ran part of the Worl d Champ io ns hip in 1992. Tho ugh Muzzy ende d up in overall contr ol o f th e ope ra tion, he has Te a m Kawasaki Aus tralia chief Peter Doyle as team man ager an d one rider from each of the old teams in the new one, so it's a true joint effort that enables Kawasaki to focus more dearly on their main objective - w inning the se r ies title before Ho nda co mes al on g wi th thei r fuelinjected bike and raises the techn ological (and budgetary) stakes in a big wa y. . The results so far have co nfi rme d th e wisdom of this move, w ith Scott Russell heading the points tabl e after the firs t six rou nds/12 races, on a bike that has clearly now got the mea sure o f the Ducatis, 28 With Kawasaki 's admirable policy of pas sing on the benefits of their facto ry rac e program to th eir cu stomers one year down the line, the '93 works racers aren' t a lot different to the best of the kitted bikes - witness the excellent performances of Adrien Morillas on the French Kawasaki, though to be fair this is halfway to being a works en try, using parts so u r ced from th e Wo rld Endurance title-winning team, and Piergiorgio Bontempi on the Italian one, which definitel y isn ' t. "All the '93 bikes benefit from the three main differences ove r the 1992 models," affirms Rob Muzzy. "These are a stiffer chassis, with an increa sed wall th ickness on the ma in frame spa rs; a s tiffer -s wi ng ar m, with a cast section around the pivot area; and a ram air system through the cha ssis. Otherwise, the bikes are the same as last year's, onl y of course with 12 months' d evelopment under their wheels." Kawasaki Australia ran an adjustable swingarm pivot on the Rob Phillis bike last season, which has now been adopted on both Muzzy team machines th is yea r, though Doyle says th ey usually end up coming back to th e " no rma l" po sition. Afte r their problem in de veloping a sui table rear s us pe nsi on link two yea rs ago, Kawasaki now has a range of different links offering d ifferent ratio s for different circuits and different riding styles - presumably making the reduction in untimed practice sessions a little probl ematical. Though the head angl e is fixe d at 24.5 degrees, the team uses different offset s for each track, too, and are one of the two teams (with BYRD) to be equi p ped with the new, go ld, largerdiameter Ohlins forks, with 46mm The Muzzy Kawasakis are the same as last year's with the exception of a s tiffer chassis and swingarm, and a ram-air system. s ta nchions , 53.5mm upper tubes and 55mm lower clamps giving a much stiffer structure than the smaller 42mm forks still used by the rest of the superbike paddock - well all e xc ept the Rymer/de Vries Yamahas o n Wh it e Powers, Morillas on Kayab as, and the Rum i Honda on Sohwa s. These new Ohlins are based on the 1992 500cc GP fork, onl y a fraction longer, says Ohlins technician Anders And ersson, and owe th e gold color of their sta nchio ns to a Swed ish coating called TINO L, based on titanium oxide, which ac ts as a very hard pr otection agains t rock mark s and , o the r accidental dama ge, as well as wear. "The main aim in developing the bigger fork s was to reduce friction und er side loads, as well as under br aking," says Andersson. "These are heavy bikes and with the latest sticky tires, the best riders are braking a long way into a turn on the angle, and that puts a big twisting load on the forks. Also, most of the works bikes a re using carbon br ak es, and that puts an equally increased load on the forks in a straight line. The bigger forks are much s tiffer, an d thou gh the TINOL coati ng is very expensive, friction is reduced 30% compa red to before, plus the forks last a lot longer wi tho u t noticeable wear. 1nternal cons truc tion and the various ad justmen ts are all pr etty mu ch th e sa me as on th e s ma lle r forks, and the weight is abou t the sa me too, in spite of the increased d iameter the axle clamp and lower tube is quite a bit light er on ,the 46mm fork, and some parts are alloy rather than steel, so with the shorter springs they use, it all evens out. Only the bigger forks are a lot more expensive to mak e, mainly beca use of th e TINOL - th at's why they're go ld plated ." The Mu zzy Kawasak i team u se Kosman triple chimps for the gold brick forks, and run 310mm carbon brakes on both bikes, w hic h are fitt ed wit h s h ro uds to mainta in operatin g he at everywhere, not only on fast circuits like Hockenheim . The rain on the warming up lap at Brands showed how qui ckly the team can trade wheels: the 320mm steel d iscs they use in the rain are close eno ugh in diameter to the black brakes for them not to ha ve to move the brake 'calipers, only change the wh eels and, of course, pad s. The di scs are grip ped by the latest versio n of the six-pis ton Nissin ca lipers in tro d u ce d b y Kawasaki Austra lia th ree seasons ag o, and now also used by the French Su zuki team. These have three d ifferenti ally sized pistons in each side, and have dramatically increased the braking potential of th e green bikes, in conjunction with the carbon d iscs, says Aaron Slight - as well as curi ng fore ver the probl ems with w arped d iscs the team ran in to two years ago bef ore th e y swi tche d to Brembo brakes. "I can live with th e Du cati s on the br a kes, now," says Sli ght. " Whe re as before there jus t wa sn 't enou gh bit e to ma ke up for th eir 25 kg. (55 pounds) weig ht ad van tage. Now they've had to p ut a bit of wei ght on , a nd we 'v e go t these ter rific brakes, we're rig h t ther e. It's definitely evened up - but they still ge t the jump on yo u ou t of turns w ith their red uced weight. " The engines in the Muzzy bikes are based in the 1993 kit motor (which is to say, the '92 works en gine), with forged 13.5:1 pistons, 2.5mm longer rod s than stoc k, stand ar d size racin g va lves and sp rin gs, and a stoc k cran ks haft whi ch the riders prefer to the lighter crank the team has experimented with. Muzzy has reworked th e cylinde r head , th ou gh, and uses two typ es of camshafts, one he de ve loped himself and the othe r from the fact ory, w ith o f cou rse th e 39mm Keihin flatslides that put the 71 x 47.3cc e ng ine on th e pa ce when they wer e introd uced two yearsago, Muzzy says the engines are essentially un changed fr om last seas o n: "The only thing that 's really new, I can 't tell yo u about, but it ' s ju st on e thin g, no more ." - and deliver 2 bhp more than in 1992, mak ing for 160 bhp at the crank on the factory dyno, or 147 bhp at the gearbox at 13,800 rpm in the bike . Yes - but wh ich e ngi ne? Co mbi n ing th e tw o Kawasaki teams meant a po oling o f technology, too, and thi s was perh ap s evid enced by the relati ve perform ance of Russell's bik e in the two rac es a t Hockenheim. After he qualified on pole, the team fitt ed a d iffer ent sp ec eng ine for the first race which simply wasn 't fast eno ug h to s tay in contention w ith the lead ing gro up. Having refitt ed his qu alify ing motor for the second leg, he took flag- to-flag vi cto ry w itho u t eve r being se riously cha llenged . Last season Muzzy worked very much on a separate d evel opment tra ck to th e Au stralian team and th e fa ctory, with 5-6 bhp pow er ad va n tage a t the very top end, and bette r p ickup from 9500 rpm upward s . It w o u ld be in te res ti ng to k now wha t d iff erence th er e w as between the two German race en gines Russell used . Th e new Kawasaki chassis has th e duct for th e se a le d airbox breathing

• Cover