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/127602
(Left) Tester Alan Cathcart puts the ZXR750R through its paces at the Zeltweg Circuit in Austria. (Below) Cathcart claims the 310mm carbon Nissin brakes which are fitted to the Muzzy Kawasaki are "simply the best." The team uses the shrouds on both fast and slow tracks in both hot and cold weather. ways, in fact the two are very similar , under the surface: so explosively fast on acceleration, you feel your arms yanking out of their sockets if you twist the wrist before you've tucked down behind the screen; so dauntingly muscular yet so fast to steer into turns that you might think you were on a 500cc GP bike, if not . for the howl of the four-stroke four or the thunder of the desmo twin; and so incredibly hard-stopping, with the effective carbon brakes that make you think you've run into an invisible wall - two means to accomplish the same objective, two benchmarks in four-stroke motorcycle evolution. But only one winner. While Ducati, with Giancarlo Falappa in the first half of the season and with Carl Fogarty in the second, won more battles, Kawasaki looks set to win the war. "Basically, we refined our good points, took care of the bad ones and put a real good package together," Peter Doyle said. "The major change was using Dunlop tires, which of course Team Muzzy had used in the USA before, but not for a full World Championship season. For those of us from the TKA team, it meant big changes in terms of ride height and suspension setup coming from Michelins, and though the basic chassis geometry is the same, the setup is very different from last year, as well as very different for each rider. Scott likes to power slide the bike, so we use soft rear shock settings for him, whereas Aaron doesn't like the wide, sweeping cornering style; he brakes deep in to the apex, squares it off and powers out, so we need a stiffer rear end for him. The fact that the chassis can be adapted to suit either rider's style shows it's basically very good." A multi-adjustable streetbike chassis is an inevitable spin-off from superbike racing, but while the team does experiment a bit w ith \:he adjustable swingarm pivot, Doyle says they usually come back to the original settings. More likely to be altered from one circuit to another is the rising rate ratio on the rear Ohlins shock, which can be changed by fitting a different one of the several different links they've now developed. "Basically, we're looking for traction," Doyle said. "To get it to drive better out of turns and, when it does start sliding, to do it controllably." Yes, but this also means that tire choice for a meaty, powerful (150 hp at the gearbox at 13,800 rpm - up 5 hp from '92), heavy (365.5 pounds, right on the 353-pound superb ike weight limit), wheel-spin" ning megabike like this must be extremely critical, especially on a tight track with many slow turns. Guess right, you might win, but guess wrong and you lose. Having lived with the ZXR750 for what is now some years, and to understand it so well, both Russell and Slight have a head start at getting it right, with the help of Dunlop's technicians. But Scott still wasn 't happy with the tires available in the first part of the season, until Dunlop started to get on top of the problem. I had to get on top of another kind of problem at Zeltweg - how to stay in charge of a bike that at first felt disturbingly unstable in a straight line, downright twitchy laying into a turn, and insisted on reaching for the stars pattering out of Zeltweg's only slow comer, the chicane. I knew they 'd changed the setup somewhat from last year' s Phillis bike, but I wasn't expecting to find ' a 500cc GP racer masquerading as a Su perbike. For a start, the riding position is different - on the new '93 frame, the fuel tank is shorter and wider, moving the rider's weight forward to load up the front end, at the expense of a sense of increased bulk. The new-type ultra-trick (and ultra-costly) 46mm Ohlins forks, gold-plated not because of their price tag but because of the TINOL titanium oxide coating which reduces friction and wear, as well as eliminating rock damage, are set at the same 24.5-degree head angle as the stock chassis, but this angle has been effectively steepened by substantial- 21