Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Riding the World Superbikes: Part Two tender for championship honors in spite of the four-cylinder bikes benefiting this season from another 11 pounds taken off their minimum weight - it's now 319 pounds for twins and 352 pounds for fours - can't be underestimated. Though it's taken a bit longer than expected to shake out the handling bugs, the advantages of the new desmo package for superbike racing are now being reaped - not least an aerodynamic one which has seen an 888engined 916 some 4.3 mph faster in sideby-side tests than a "normal" 888, thanks to the sleeker profile that is clearly eviden t. And work has already started on the customer version that will be sold for privateer use next season, the 955 Corsa. Get in line now with your 50 million lire for a bike just like Carl's. DUCAT! VS. DUCAT!: TRACK TREAT s. 0\ ..-t 0\ ..-t I-< Q) "£ u o 28 Having got myself wa rmed up for riding the Pirovano 955 at Zeltweg with a half-hour ses sion on Simon Crafar's Rumi Honda RC45, swapping almost immediately to the new-style desmo Vtwin felt like going from a 500cc GP bike to a 250. Th e 955 feels incredibly cramped - even after the bulkier Honda and na rrow and tau t even compared to the 926. Bu t after rid ing Pirovano ' s BYRD Yama ha Superbikes each year, I wasn't surprised by the trad emark closecoupled, GP-style riding position tha t the Italian pocket rocket has trans ferred to his Ducati, with a jacked-up rear end helping th row lots of bod y as well as mechani cal weight onto the front wheel. This helps deliver amazing front end grip on the way into a tum, but though the 955 steers p retty fast, it wasn 't as nervous and twi tchy as I'd expected - or as maneuverab le, either: it requires quite a bit of effort to flip from side to side in a chicane, which was a bit of a su rp rise considering how nimb le the street 916 is - especially compared to the 888. Maybe that's a function of the longer swin garm? But you can go very har d into 'a tum on the fabulous Brembo carbon bra kes, which had more fee l tha n the similar stoppers on the Mek lau bike, perhaps beca u se that didn't have the same works-type monobloc calipers. These black brakes felt the same as the ones I used at Daytona, witli amazing bite and hardly any servo effect or time lag, thanks to the heat-retaining shrouds. But if the 955 felt good on the way into a tum, it wasn't so happy leaving it. All the suspension' settings were incredi· bly stiff, leading to front-en d chatter over the ripples exiting the downhill, offcamber Texaco turns, because the forks are too stiff to absorb the ro ad shock, and to rear wheel chatter when you get hard on the gas cranked over, because the shock has too hard a spring - even for my 33-pound-heavier weight - presumably because Piro has it in anti-squat mode. Okay, he's a loonyex-motocrosser who likes the back wheel laying black lines beneath him while it scrabbles for grip, bu t if even a wimp like me can praduce the same effect all because the tire ca n't hoo k up and gi ve decent drive, then we have a problem. Add to that the fact tha t for some weird reason he has the steering damper crank ed up tight so that the steerin g is almost solid, and you might get the idea that this is a hard bike to get the best from. The way it pitches back and forth over bumps becau se of the locked- up steering is really d isconcerting - but tha t's the way he rid es it, and he can finish on a World Superbike rostrum with it like that, so what d o I know? The engine is another thin g, though, and especially af ter ri ding the ul tra- peaky RC45, coming to the Ducati was like going on vacation. The longer stroke delivers notably more midrange torque than any "otto valvole " I've ridden before, even the still-longer-stroke (68 mm) works Bimota Tesi I used to race . The 955 comes alight at 6000 rpm, and from there on up it's alm ost irrelevant what gear you find yourself in, there's so much punch available at almost any revs. Once you hit 10,000 on the Veglia tach there's an extra kick in the power curve and it starts to rev like a twostroke, picki ng up engine speed so fast until you realize with a guilty start that the needle's hit the 12,000 rpm mark and you should have shifted up by now . So you do it. You might want to use the CIS speed-shifter to do so, but this was so harsh and heavy on Pirovano's bike I just switched it off and changed gear normally. Given that the same gadget on Meklau 's bike was as light and precise as you could want, this is obviously a question of setup. Could do better, amici.. . I couldn't make the same criticism about Andy Meklau 's bike, which, after ra in s topped play for a while and th e track had dried, allowed me to lap ZeItweg over a second faster than on Pirovano's 955. Thanks to the painstaking wo rk of And y's pit crew, this was as refined and respons ive a bike to ride fast as you'd expect a works racer to be only this is a privateer bike. But one with an engine tha t, though it feels less powerful and p unchy in the midrange than the 955, still p ulls like a train up high, whe re yo u can feel the motor peak at about 10,500 rpm, then hold the sa me pow er all the way through to the 12,000 redline (t ho ugh th e engine is safe to 12.soo if you insis t: bu t why bother?). This flat power curve means you do need to use the gearbox a lot more than on the 955, to keep the revs up to take ad van tage of the top-end poke, though unl ike on the Honda with its critical flatspot aroun d 11,000 rpm, it doesn 't matter on the 926 if you let the revs drop: just twist the wris t and watch them pick up again. Easy. Th is peaky desmo power is ideally suited to Meklau's riding style, a product of hi s '93 season spent riding a ROCYamaha in 500 GPs . Like Pirovano, Meklau has set the bike up with hard rear suspension - but with hardly any steering damper, either. This allows him to powerslide the rear end out of turns, with the bike loose and respons ive to the throttle. Though he has the new-style 46mm Ohlins forks set up much softer and more re sponsive than they are on th e 955" Meklau's choice of Dunlop tires is an essen tial ingred ien t of this package, becau se the production tires will slide rather than dig in like Michelins do. And though the front wheel likes to flap a little when you hit a bump with so little steering damper, it doesn't seem to upset the bike un duly, and all sorts itself out okay. The steering is pretty neutral, with only one panic when I hit a bump going into the Bosch Kurve and felt the front wheel tuck under for a moment, but it recovered all right and is very stable round fast turns. And it changes direction in the chicane with about the sam e amount of effort as the 955. The carbon discs surely help the steering, but even if the brakes haven't got the bite of the 955's, they still grip well enough to get the 926 out of shape under heavy braking for the Bosch Kurve or Rindt Kurve, where it feels pretty unsettled and lively as the back wheel lifts up in the air and starts waving about as you're preparing to change direction. The lack of steering damper doesn't help - maybe that's why Fabrizio has it cranked up so tight on the 955, which is much more stable on the brakes. Well- okay: Corser had the best of all desmodromic worlds this year - that meaty, torquey, so-potent 955 motor in the well-sorted 888 /92 6 cha ssi s . Pirovano's engine in Meklau 's chassis would have been the hot tip at the start of this season. But Ducati 's engineers an d Ohlins' Anders Andersson - have been hard at work refining the handling of the 955 beyond the level of Pirovano 's bike as I rode it. Judging by Fogarty's untroubled double victory at Assen on a circuit that puts a prem ium on good handling, they 've done their job well. I doubt the customers for the privateer 955 Corsas will ha ve much to complain about! ~ Both bikes use 290mm Brembo carbo n fi ber disc brakes up and 46mm Ohlins upside-down forks up fr ont. DUCATI 92&1955 926 955 EngIne . . . . . . . . . ... . . .. . • . . Waler-alOled dohc 9O-degnle V-twin 8-valve desmodromic lour-stroke with loothed-beIt camshafI drive Dlmlllllioll 96 x 64 mm CIpecIIy Output(at gearbox) ComprIIlIonI'lllo 926cc .•• .•. .•••• . ••.. .• .•.•. •. . . .• • • . • •• . • . . .• .• . • . .955cc 142 bhp at 11,500 rpm .. . .. . .... ..• . . . . ..... . . .... . . . . .• 151 blip 8111 ,500 rpm FueMgnIllon .-n 96 x 66 nvn 1108:1 .. : 11.6:1 WeberMarelli eIeclronic fuel-injection and ~I system, with two injeclols and one EPROM per cylinder, and two 54mm lhlllllle bocies ~ ~ CIulcII ChIuiI MuItiplate dry Chrome-moIy lubuIar sllleI spaceIrame SUspenlIion Front 46mm Ohllls iMlrtIld IIlIescopic forks FIeIr ... •... . . . ... .. . . . .extruded a1umilllll swingaIm pivoting in crankcases (955: andspaceIrame) with rocker-ann • .••••• ••••• •• ; •• ••• •• •rising-rate linkage andsilgIe Ohllns shock Heed. . (chassis) •• ~ •. . . . ; 24.5 deglll8S . • .. ••• ••. •••.•• ••• •• •• • •.•..• ..••... • . • •.24 degrees Trail 102nvn 94mm Wheelblae. •. ••. . . . .~ 1430mm 1435m m Wllght (with oiVwater, no luel). . 334.4Ibs. . ' : .325.6 1bs. Wllght d 52/48% :.. ' 53147% BrIkeI ' Front,. ....•..•.• 'J •••• • 2 x290mtn ,Br8rilbo carbon discsIlour-piston Brembo calipers Rur ' 1x 185mm Br8rilbo steel discI1wo-piston Brembo caliper 1 x11l()nm Br8rilbo carbon discIlwo-piston Brembo caliper WheeIaIlIreI Front .. ...•.. . : 12517()'17 Dunlop KR106 radial on3.5O-ln. Man:hesini wheel 12/61-17 Michelin radial on3.75-in. Marchesini wheel RIIIr .... ...•... . . ... ... 185/5().17 Dunlop KR636 radial on6.5O-in. MarchesIni wheel 18167·17 Michelin radial on6.25-in. Marchesni wheel Top epeed m.3 mph (Hockenheim) .. ..•... . .... .. ... . .... .. ... ... . 181.4 mph (Hockenheim)

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