Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

had s p e ci a l s ig nifi ca n ce in light of Yamaha's plans for 1995. Sadly, Casoli had kn ocked himself out in '! qualify ing crash, so he had to sit it ou t on race d ay with a co nc ussion. This, h owever, left me w ith th e bike in race-r eady cond ition, even d own to th e fresh pa ir of Michelin s licks fitted. Hey, amici - why di dn' t yo u ask me? I'd have been happy to ride it for you in the race ... Well , we ca n a ll d ream - but o n e thing bring s you ba ck to reality in a h u rry , and that's twisting the wrist of the 20-valve engine developed and prepared by Belgard a ' s technical wizard Beppe Russo . Russo has bee n wo rki ng on Yama ha Superbikes since 1986, an d he was no t s u rp ris ing ly th e Ja pa nese factory' s first choice to look af ter their works team next sea so n. By blue pri nting the engi ne, mixing a small selection of s pecia l factory p art s w ith the o nes fro m the YZ F race kit, a nd d oin g hi s o w n cy li n der- he a d wo rk a nd ot he r development, Beppe ha s inc reased the output of the Yama ha eng ine beyond all , expectation - mak ing it very possibly the most power fu l m otor in th e Worl d Su pe r bi ke fiel d. The d yn o chart he sho wed me has the engine d eliverin g 158.7 bhp at 13,800 rpm at the gea rbox, up 5 bh p fro m the en d o f last season ye t this is the exact sa me m otorcy cle that Pirovan o raced to fou rth place in the champion ship (wi th one race win, in . Portugal) in 1993. Nifty work, Beppe but how come? "The only thing on the. bike that really cha nged from last season to this is the rid er!" says Russ o on ly ha lf-se rio us ly. "We go t 2 bhp from the new Ell fue l we and eve ryo ne else used this yea r (well, excep t at Don in gton in May ... !), a n d ano ther th ree from a new factory ig nition , plus so me mod ifications to the pistons and cyli nder head , especially the com bus tio n cha mbe r and portin g . The only othe r special part we go t from the factory was a new, heavier crankshaft at the start of the season, wh ich has ext ra we igh t on the webs. Th is smooths out the p ow er de livery without sac rificing horsepower, thou gh we kep t the lighter cra n k fo r so me t ra cks w h ere e ngi ne acceleration was impor tant. But that and the new , low er 160 kg. (352 pound s ) fou r-cy lin der weigh t lim it meant w e o n ly h ad t o ca rry eit he r th e s tar ter mo to r o r th e gene ra to r to meet the weigh t limit, choo sin g one or the other depending on which crank we had fitted - not bo th . And that's i t!" Well, very modest of you Bepp e, but don't let us d iscount the long hours of patien t work bluep rin tin g an d fine- tuning the mot or, and especially the magnificent preparation of what is arguably the best turned- ou t bike in the Superbike p addo ck. A b ike that when y ou hop aboa rd it is instantly mo re rationalfeeling, and more comfortab le, than the success ion of radical Superbike racers th a t Pirovano concocted each seas o n, with the rid er wedged in a far-forward seatin g position by a th ick, h eavy (5.5 po unds) seat pad, the rear end jacked way high, the front dropped wa y low , and some high-digit offsets fitted to the forks - all to pr od uce an extre me steering geo me try and ul tra-fast stee ring, at the ex pense of high -speed stability and a lot of bod y weight on yo ur forea rms , a ll h el ping lo ad u p th e fro n t whee l. Af ter r id in g Piro v a n o ' s wo rks 955 Ducati, I kn ow wher e this setup philosophy has bee n transferred to. Ca soli m ay h a ve b een a 250cc G P rid er and jus t a coup le of inches taller than Fabriz io, but the bike is much less nervou s and twitch y to rid e w it h hi s setu p th an w h en I las t rode it a year ago. He u ses not ab ly less ride he igh t at (Above) Yamaha's trademark aluminum Deltabox frame provides a rigid platform. (Left) 1995 will be the first year since the inception of World Superbike that Yamaha will field a full factory effort, relying up to now on their Italian distributor Belgarda to carry the banner. the rea r, p erh aps a leg a cy of Ma u ro Lucch iari's brief tim e in th e hot seat, and th ou gh he s till uses a fai rly su bs tan tial sea t p a d (a lighter version), there isn't so much body weight on the ba r s - wei ght dis t ribution has gone from a 55 /45% fron t bias last seaso n, to 53 /4 7' )i, thi s year, with the sam e 1410m m wheelbase . Th e team u sed a I5mm longer one at the start of the sea son for Lucchiari, wh o complain ed the b ike wa s to o s qui rre lly a fter h is 92 6 Ducati, but sin ce he lef t th ey 've gone back to the old setting, u sing just a little more trail th a n in Pirovano's to sl ow things down a little. The res u lt a t Phill ip Isla n d was not ab ly more stability in a straight line; whe n Pirovano rod e the bike, yo u h ad to ha ve the steeri ng d amper waxed up to sto p it wav ing down the straight, jus t like on his Du cati th is year. But in Casoli m od e it ac tually d oe sn 't u se a lot of da mp er. Th is m ake s the bi ke mu ch more contro llable on turn-in - it steers nicel y int o the apex, ins tead of jus t sort o f tippin g o n its side like before. The tires took awhile to heat up / scru b in on right-handers , of which th ere are only two hairp ins and one swee per at Phillip Island, but once I'd calmed my pulse rate down and learned to be more careful. there was good grip and especially good traction ou t of the slow er tu rns, wh ere th e w orks s w in g a rm (3 0m m sho rter tha n the street YZF) and specia l link for the rear Ohlins allowed the rear Michelin to hook up rea lly well. The front wheel d oesn't give you the feelin g that it's goi ng to tu ck under in turns like it always did when Piro rod e the bike, and it's also much more stable und e r braking - d on 't think I'd h ave liked braking hard dow nhill into MG Hai rpi n with last yea r's setu p, because I'd h a ve been afraid it wo u ld h a ve looped wi th the back whee l coming ove r the top wit h the old geo metry. This year' th e b ike fel t good on th e brakes - but part of th at m igh t ha ve been because, rather stra nge ly, the carbo n front Brembos didn't have a lot of bite. Since these are the exact sa me brakes fitted to the Fast by Ferracci Du cati I raced at Daytona this yea r, wh ich wer e mind-warpingly effective eve n after a lon g blast on the ba nking, I might have tho ug ht I was imagi ning it till I had a go on Scott Russell 's issin-equipped Kawasaki right afterwards, and found the Brembos definit ely did lack za p. Maybe the wrong grad e of carbon, o r th e wrong pads? On e curious feature is that Casoli uses a very small master cylinder - just 16mm w h ich deli vers a r ath e r soggy lever action and a sho rt pu ll, jus t as he had on his 250 Giler a. Thi s sho u ld theo retically have increased the leverage rat io, but it d idn't feel as if it d id . Anyw ay, all this is irre leva n t now, becau se next season they all ha ve to use met al brakes after the ban on carbon on es . Casoli must weigh a good bit less than I do, but he ha d the rear sus pensio n se t pretty har d, stiffer tha n I'd have preferred especially on a fairly bum py track like the Auss ie one. Presu mably th is is becau se like mo st ex-GP rid ers who come to Superbike (Mek lau, Crafar, etc.) he likes to powerslid e the bike out of tu rns, which is all ve ry we ll but it mea ns the bike becom es a real ha ndful when yo u h it a bu mp u nder acceleration, like exiting the last tu rn befo re the 19

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