Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

for," James said . "First of all they've go t to have grip. Tractionability. We need to find out how it makes the bike handle. Whether you can s lide it over the bum ps. Pred ictability is crucial. Usually I have to go over two lap s to get it up to temperature, to get it working. My job today is to give th e best information I can on lires and get out wi thout any mistakes . We' re no t playing arou nd . We're all riding fairly hard." "For the first day or two I ran different lines than I'd ever run on the banking becau se up high it's ro ug h, the bank's go t more waves in it," Russell explained. "It (one of the two bikes he raced this year) wasn' t happy up there so I had to ru n mid -t rack on th e east bank to make that b ike wo rk. Instead of messing wi th it and try ing to get it to work, I jus t d id tha t, an d that way yo u can run thr ou gh the tires without making all the se cha nges. And then I go t on the other bike, which I never had liked before. When I first went on it the thing wasn' t usin g mu ch fro n t-en d travel, it wa s pushing the front. It was jus t a bit harsh. We made some adjustments on that bike and got it working real good . And it turned out tha t it was like rock so li d on th e bankin g and that' s the who le race. Becau se that will wear yo u ou t in th e race, tryin g to hold onto a bike th at ' s not w ork in g good on the banking ." ext fastest to Russell was Gobert, at 1:51.9. Thou gh his tim es were achi eved w it h carb on b rake s, th e y w ere s till im p ressi ve . Russell 's best Supersport tim e wa s a 1:58 .99 aboard a new Ka w as a k i Z X-6 that th e team had uncrated the fir st day-of testing. The onl y modifications were an exhaust pipe and a main jet change to accommodate the pipe. Smokin' Joe ' s Honda 's Mike Hale was second fastest Superspo rt rider on a new Honda F-3. Du nl op had se n t 10 p eo p le to th e test , inclu d ing th ree fro m Eng land and one from Japan. O verseeing the gro u p was Jim All en, Du nl op' s motorcycl e roa d race coordinator and lon gtime fixture on th e road race sce ne . Th e tires tha t he brou ght from England and Jap an we re n e wl y bu il t u s in g in fo rma tion gathered on the Grand Prix an d World Su perbike t r ail s . Th e t ire s were a n ' improvement, bu t Allen said tha t "as goo d as the lires are at this test, they ' ll complain in March. We may have a GP tire that's pe rfect, b ut we know th at w hen we come to Daytona it's not good enough." " It's pr ett y traditional that whatever you come up with at the test, they reformulate that and bring it to the race and even the baseline is always better than what yo u had to test, " Mu zzy Kawasaki crew chief Steve Johnson said . "The biggest th ing here is trying to ge t everybody through the race without problems. They ride the tires so hard for so long th a t the tires are misshapen. They' re flat on the Jeft-hand side," Allen said. Though the front -runners plan on two tire changes, and usually do more unexpectedly, they have to build a lire they can sell to the bu lk of the field that will last 200 miles. "It's important tha t the rider understand s that thi s is a 200-mile race and no t to worry abo u t grip so much. You need grip, bu t onl y as mu ch as the next guy ha s," Allen said . Thi s yea r the re are a few new twi sts for Du nlop. The first was that Daytona ha d elimina ted th e Twin 50 qualifyin g races , always a goo d ga uge of tire wear, and h ad go ne to ti med qualifying to de termi ne the grid for the 200. "It takes a little sma rter gu esser this MOTO LIBERlY Get x -tr« Performance and x -tr« Value from D.I.D 's New Gold Premium X-Ring Series. Try it and Feel the difference of the Lowest Friction and Higher Strength! .....,......... 0" R. . .rvolr 0 1 friction of ."Y0·R1nQ- (0 .1.0 patenll • lowest friction achieved by an oil reservoir formed by a special ' X' shaped a ·Ring . o Tigh ter sealing _ Longer life o 17% Stronge r tensile streng th ~.2"."~ ~ polnt5 Moto Li berty : 1994 AMA Middleweight Te amChall enge Series Champions 39

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