Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Part 3: Muzzy Kawasaki ZXR750 Superbike The Muzzy Kawasak i ZXR750 Superblke Is part th ree In a series in wh ich Alan Cathcart rides the to p bikes in the Wor ld Supe rbike Championship By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kel Edge and Tony Watts ell - he almost d id it. The recor d books will show that Scott Russe ll on the Mu z z y Kaw a sak i came w it hi n one rac e o f re taini ng h is World Superbike crown in 1994, after o n e 'o f the mo st roll er-c oa ster title defense s any reigni ng World Ch ampion ha s eve r had to conten d with. His cru shin g su pre macy in d ouble race wins at tra cks like Hockenheim, Sugo and Don ington was punctuated by tot al disasters in Spain (where he crashed out of both races), Aus tri a (he struggled to finish in the points on a visibly ill-handling bike) and Holland (ditto), while on Duca ti's h om e gro u n d at Mu gell o th e g r ee n Xerox -s po nsored Kaw asak i blitzed the Italian bik es in the first race, only to cru elly DNF with eng ine problems while en ro ute to ano ther certain vic to ry in the second. The switchba ck fortu nes of both Russell and his chief riv al, Carl Fogarty, set up a th rilling final-round showd own in Aus tralia - a shootout won by the Du cati rider, th ou gh th e Mu zzy team had the consolatio n o f seeing new signee (and [JJ 1 OJ ~ 0\ 0\ ,...... -.:j<' ,.....; ... OJ .o E OJ u OJ c 14 certain future superstar) Antho ny Gobert win the last of the 22 races run in the 1994 seaso n for Kawasak i. Th e ch ance to rid e Sco tt Ru sse ll' s ZXR750 at Phillip Is land th e d ay aft er the cham pio nsh ip was d ecid ed underlined the fact that development is a tw oway stre e t: you ca n go backwa rds as well as forwa rd, make th e bike wor se instead of bett er - all in pursuit of perfection. In the 15 months since I'd tested Ru ssell ' s 1993 World Cha m p ions h ip wi n n ing Su pe rbi ke mid s e a s on a t Zeltweg, the Mu zzy team had made a lot of ch anges to the bike which mad e it very different - as well as more d ifficult - to ride, and even more effective. But in between , w h ile tryi ng to deve lo p th e Xerox ZXR to the form in which Gobert could defeat the crea m of World Superb ike compet ition on h is debut ride for Kaw asaki, and Russe ll co u ld co me so close to retaining his title, they'd foun d out the har d way that machine developme n t is a two-edged sword - one th at cuts both ways. ' "We really we nt in the wrong direction chassis-wise partway th rou gh this year," admits team owner Rob Mu zzy in resigned fas h io n. "We kep t ma kin g it stiffer, then we went testing at Jer ez in Jun e, and it worked really well, went to the nex t ra ce in Spa in a nd it wa s not g ood, the n g ot to Aus tria a nd it -was unridable. So we went back to the way we had the bike set up at the end of last seaso n, a n d s ta r te d winning r ac e s agai n." . The aim had been to put the power on the gro und better, but stiffening the chassis brought the Mu zzy team face to face with the law of diminishing returns - instead of improving grip and traction , the subs ta n tial gusseting added to th e insid e of the frame rails and the steering head made the bik e over -sen sitive and nervou s, twitchy-h andling rather th an stable. " It was like superbike racing 10 years ago , in the days Eddie Lawson rod e for Kawasaki," Muzzy sa id. "The bike s w obb led a lo t, b e cau s e th e fr am e s weren't very stiff, so yo u learn ed to rid e . 'e m loose, because if yo u tried to stiffen th em up, th ey ' d throw you ove r th e ba rs.T hat is where we go t to in Austriawe screwed up, bu t we knew wha t we had to do to rem ed y it, an d it wor ked. But th at and th e D N F at Mu gell o a re what cost us the title." Hmmm - so did that m e an I w as about to take to on e o f the m ore demanding rac e tracks on the W·o rld Superbike calendar with a bike that was, er, well - a handful? Answer: yes! But not for the rea sons stated. Actually, in some ways, the Mu zzy Kawasaki is easi. er to rid e than the bike I tested last season, whi ch wa s intimidatingly potent, s p u n th e re ar w h ee l eve ryw here, reached the front wheel for the stars out of slow turns, and felt more like a fourstro ke Gr and Pri x rac er to rid e than a tra ck tool derived from a stree t bike. This ye ar's Mu zzy ZXR doe s all of th os e thin gs, but it al so ha s a mu ch sweete r, more line ar p ow er d el ivery th at a ct ua lly ma ke s i t a lot more tractable and rid er-friendly than before. . This in spite of the increased power output - n ow more than 155 bhp a t tlie gearbox, up mor e th an 5 bhp over last season - that the team an d Kawasaki factory engi neers have developed . In this sense, therefore, Kawasaki's four-strok';; su perb ike developmen t h as m irror ed H ond a ' s wo rk on th eir NS RSOO twostro ke, w hich in Michael Dooh an titlewinning 1994 gui se is incred ibly riderrI friend ly for such a poten t device.

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