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/127665
Behind the.scenes in GP racing By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose and Hen ny Ray Abrams (left) Kev in Schwantz and Alex Barros are ridi ng Suzu lds that feature a new paint scheme, a revised chassis and engine modlfcatJons for the use of the new , io_r-leaded fuel. (Balow) The Cag lva CV594 features a new doub......ostril fairing for the presaurtzed alrbox system, a mechanical antl-dlve front end and a carbon-fiber freme. rom the outside, engineering seems a simple business. You take the latest materials and modern improvements, design them on a CAD-CAM computer, and - hey, presto - you have a better machine. Thus it was with Cagiva, whose association with the Ferrari consultancy group gave them good access to carbonfiber technology. This made it only a little more than a matter of routine for them to knock up a half-carbon chassis, which w oul d , ob viousl y, weight fo r weigh t, be much stronger and s tiffer than the equivalent in metal. It's all perfectly straigh tforw ard - except for one th ing. The chassis, when it came out, was actually weaker than the old one. This story is not intended to discredit Cagiva, but to illustrate the ad age with which it is necessary to preface eve ry story about the technicalities of racing motorcycles: what works best is wh at worked last year, plus a few percent. .Evolution is a better tool on the tracks than revol ution . Seldom can this have been more tru e. For 1994, conservatism has been deeply entrenched in the 500cc-class pits. In many cases, especially Yamaha and Honda, this is more by the will of the riders than the engineers. Cagiva and Ferrari went back to the drawing board and tried again, and F their half-carbon chassis is the biggest change to be seen this year. Meanwhile, Honda's fuel-injecti on has been held in reserve for another year, w ith the second-generation "fuzzy log ic" system still on the test benches, and Sh in ichi Itoh now free to ride with carb uretors, like Mick Doohan and th e other HRC men. Meanwhile, Yamaha, and eventually (after two races) Suzuki, went "back to th e museum" to d isinter supposedl y d iscontinued chassis, having discovered the hard way that stayin g in the sa me place is more profitable than going forward in the wrong direction . The bi ggest new ch all e nge to the engineers, and the bi ggest change for this year, is completely invisib le. It is the ne w low-lead a n d lower octa ne fu e L .and how the fuel-company chemists have managed to preserve power ou tp u t is a differen t and highly complex story in itself. At the pr esen t, secrecy ru les su p reme as to the exact nature of the new ad d iti ves, w hile mechanic s dealing with mixing fuel or draining tanks have been advised to wear gloves and breathing masks! The other new developmen t is in tires, with both major companies having all-new products, and in Michelin' s case even a new size. This is the 16.5-inch rear wheel, to match the same-size front they introduced last year. The rolling diameter of the tire is much the same; the main benefit is in giving a bigger sidewall, which gives the engineers more to play with. CAG IVA Cagiva's CV594 is once again by far the prettiest machine out there: a veritable poem in red and black. It is also the most outwardly changed, wi th a new d ouble-nostril fairing for the pressurized airbox system, enormous new shrou d ed fr on t b r a kes opera ting a sophisticated if anachronistic mechanical anti-dive - and, of course, that carbon chassis. Cagiva is the least secretive team in racing, though they do stop short of giv-