Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ri ght from the H ockenheim weeke nd instead of taking a risk with a nother rider. Technically speaking, Honda is definit ely not taking an y risks . According to Tuxworth, Aaron Slight could theoretically go on using th e same brakes he used last year . According to the FIM regulations, carbon-fiber brakes are banned fro m Su pe rb ike racing from 1995 on ward, but carbon fiber is only one of th e several types of carbon brakes that are being used in competition nowa days. "I have drawn the FIM's attention to this fact," Tuxworth exp lained. "Un til last year, we used carbo n-carbon br akes, so we could continue using th em. But of course we won't, in orde r to avoid any discussions with other teams. But maybe FIM should look at the technical regul ations used in British national racing, which ban the use of non-ferrou s mat erials for the brakes." According to Aaron Sligh t, the move to ban carbon-fiber (or non-ferrous, for that matter) brakes is gi vi ng an other advantage to Ducati. "I am quite happy about the work we ha ve done in the last couple of months," th e Ne w Zealander said, "bu t I am unhappy about the carbon -fiber ban. During ou r testing programs we ha ve had some problems with brake fade." Apart from the brakes, main dev elopment work had been don e on the engine, the exhausts and the chassis. "Last year we kept strengthening the chassis," said Tuxworth. "Du ring the winter we ha ve finally found a good comp ro mi se. We are now u sin g differen't fro n t forks (46mm, which are stro nger than the ones used before and give a more stable feel) and a new type of rear sus pension. This all makes th e handlin g of the bike smoother and more precise." The bike will also be equipped with the twin exhausts that were tested last year, which give more ac ce le r a tio n power in the midrange. Meanwhile, HRC is performing a continuing development program on the engine. One of the mos t remarkable modifications do ne is the use of adjustable velocity stacks (a mechanical sy stem which adjust s the length of the funnels depending on the . position of the throttle). This makes the engine breathe more freely. All in all, the modifications have had a good effect on the acceleration of the bike; which was one of the flaws of the official Honda last year; Aaron Slight registered the secondbest time behind Corser on the speed trap install ed at a point where the bikes were still accelerating fully. Apart from the new exhaust, some more "acceleration adva ntage" was gained with different mapping of th e fuel injection . No ma jor ch anges were brought ab ou t in engine specifications (no new pistons, no new valves, etc...). Aaro n Slight missed the second testing day at Misano, after he ha d crashed during th e last m in u tes of Monday's testing pro gram . " It h ad just s tarted raining very sligh tly," the New Zealander said. "But all of a sud den, se veral riders starte d dropping off their bikes. The ma rsha lls sta rted waving th e red flags to put an end to th e testing se ssion, an d I was already slowing down when I came to the chicane. But when I flicked the bike over, it went down. Per ha ps th ere was some oil on the track from another rider w ho had just crashed in front of me." Aaron broke a small bone in his hand, but will be okay for testing at Monz a at the end of the wee k. "Too bad, becau se this is the first time we ha ve had practic e w ith the other team s, and we ha ve never been so close to Carl Foga rt y' s times. This is all the more posi tive, as last year (Abo ve) Terry Rymer took his first ride aboa rd the new Bimota superb ike. The machi ne is st ill in the early stages of development. (Right) Team Yamaha 's Colin Edwards II loo ked impressive in his fi rst outing at Mlsa no . The Texan recorded a 1:35.3 single lap during the test. Misano turned out to be a very difficult track for the Ho nda. Especially on the new part, we had a lot of sus pe ns ion problems . No w everything seems to be okay." KAWASA KI Team Muzzy Kawasaki te st ed' th e Suzu ka 8-Hour bike at Misan o, since the factory bikes th at w ill be used in th e world superbike championship were finishe d only a couple of da ys before the tests and were shipped to Europe. "We started assembling the bikes for Scott and Anthony right after the Daytona race," team man ager Steve Johnson said. "Basically, the bikes are identical to the ones we used last year; mos t d evelopment work has been done on the tires, sus pension and brakes." According to Scott Russell, who only arrive d at Misano on Tu esd ay ar ound noon, the bike (which he tested befor e in Japan) feels faster, but is set up mainly for Tsukamoto, who d id most of the testing at Misano. The former world champion was his old self when asked about his world championship chances. "This is the last year for th is version of th e ZXR, bu t we have seen in Dayton a and during testing that the bike will be very hard to beat. I feel I was the mor al champion la st year. Foga rty won th e title because I had a lot of bad luck in 1994." Tsukamoto also tested the "official" ZZR600 Massimiliano de Giovanni will be using in th e European Super sports championship. De Giovanni injured his s hou lder a nd h ead w hen he crash ed during the fina l m in u tes of Monday' s pra cti ce. Anthon y Gob ert was not a t Misano; ac co rd ing to m anager Ste ve Johnson the one-and -a-ha lf-day tes tin g was no t worth the travel. YAMAHA The Yamahas showed good prom ise at Misano. For the Japanese factory, this is th e start of a th ree- year program in world superbike racing. The project is ma naged by Lyn Jarvis an d fina ncially controlled by Yamaha Japan, Yamaha Europe and Belgard a, the Italian Yamaha importer. On the track, two Japanese (Su z u ki: the man resp onsib le for th e technical part of the four-stroke p rojects with Yamaha; and Hosoya) manage the technica l side of it all, assisted by Bep pe Russo, longtime chief mechanic with Belg a r da . According to te a m m an ag er Christian Sarron , vic tories sho u ld be within reach from the second ha lf of this year onward. "The engine is better in the whole rev ran ge desp ite a slightly lower compression ratio because of the use of commercial fuel," according to the forme r French Gra nd Pri x rid er. "And reliability has also increased a lot. Cha ssis-w ise, most development work has been d one on the rear, wi th a swing-arm pivot which is adjustable now. The m ain prob lems have been the tires, due to the Japanese Dunlop factory being destroyed in th e Kobe earthquake." It did not stop Colin Edw ards II from ru n ni ng 1:35 .3 on hi s fi rs t visit to Misano. "I th ink the Yamaha will work we ll on fast tracks," the American youngster said. "The slower tracks like Misano are also new to me. We're us ed to higher average speeds on the Ameri can tracks . But I don't understand why they haven't changed the weight regu lations like they did in the States. Anyway, I feel confident enough to go for victories this year. I have always made it a policy not to aim for, say, top-five pos itions - you have to go for the big one every time you go out there. Of cou rse yo u' ve go t to have a good bike, but I think that the secret really is the confiden ce you have. You have to be aggressive enough to claim top positions, but on the other hand you also need to know wh en to say wh en." Paolo Casoli was not presen t at Misano, officially becau se he had spe nt the weekend raci ng for na tional hon ors at Mugello. The Italian is however also said not to be very happy about the situation in the " B team " of Ya maha, with Edwards and Yasutomo Nagai receiving the best parts fir st. Bu t according to engine tuner Beppe Russo, the factory engines have no special parts in them, so it can be expected that Casoli will soon run a ne arly identical Yam ah a in th e worl d championship races once the season really gets underwa y. . BIMOTA Te rry Rym er got a firs t look a t his two racing bikes just a cou ple of hou rs before the team - based at Rimini - left for the Misano tra ck so me 10 miles away. "They finishe d work on Monday morn ing , and a couple of hours later I was doing my first lap s on the bike. As you can expect from a Birnota, the thing han dl ed superbly right from th e word go. Of course, there still is a lot wor k to be done. We w ill go on testing at Monza at the end of the week, n said Rymer . The Londo ner has signed a one-year contract with Bimota (with an optio n for a seco nd year) and he will be the only. rider in the G reco Te a m, th e o nes re sponsible fo r ru nn ing th e official Bimotas. Three bikes hav e been taken out of the production line to be used on the circuits: two bikes th at will stay in the Greco workshop in between races and a third bike that wi ll be used for further development wo rk. Matthew Casey, an Au stralian electronics enginee r, will supervise the effort and report to the Bimot a facto ry . "For most of the Greco mechanics, this is their first experience wi th four-stroke racing motorcycles. They have spent four days at Rimini where we have assembled the racin g bikes. Engineer Marconi a nd engin e specialist Fabi o Ron coni will assis t the team in the first three ra ces, and then it is up to them. At the factory, the whole Bimota Expe rience dev elopmentteam (nine people) is working on this project, as well as on the 600s that will be used in Italian and international races." The bike is still at a very early stage of developmen t; only a limited num ber of ma jor modifications have been realized compared to the street bikes . The wheels are magnesium (aluminum for the street bikes) , and the front fo rk is a 43mm Oh!ins unit, which is - funnil y enough not so th ick as th e 46mm fork on the stan dard bike. "Bimo ta has not been racing in a w orld championship for tw o years; we need ed to take parts that we know a re w ork in g well, " ex p la ine d Casey. "The other importan t thing is the Ohlins track assis tance. As to suspension setu p , w e h a ve a lrea dy noticed that Terry (Rymer) and Gianluca Galasso (the Bimota tes t rider ) have qu ite different preferences: Ter ry likes the suspension to be firm, but still working, Gianluca prefers a quite soft sus pension." The most remarkabl e inn ova tion on the racing bike is the integrated compu te r in the dashboard. On the previous Bimota racing bikes, ad justments on the injection system had to be made with an exte rn al computer and a connection to the bike. No w the com puter is inside the dashboard, and the data can be changed easily with a ve ry si m ple portable d e vice. With th is, th e mechanics can even compl etely change the characteristics of the injection on the starting grid. During racin g cond itions, the riders can read from the da shboa rd, the rpm in a bar g raph, th e actual rev figure, th e exha us t temper ature and the tem pe ra tu res of oil and wat er . In the pit lane, everything can be adjus ted. "The inject ion system is in essence ide n tical to the one used on the street bikes," accord ing to Casey. "The only difference is that the fuel-injection map is diffe rent to comp ensate for d ifferent camshafts, compression ratios an d other no rmal engine modifica tions . We are also running variable inlet ma nifolds , whi ch give us 52mm of adjus tment over the inlet trumpets. In the future we will also run a lambda probe for measu ring the mixture." During th e firs t two days of testing seve ral things we re changed in the injection system, in orde r to do aw ay with a certain "time lag" when the throttle was closed and then reopened. Other modifica tions during th e testin g days co ncerned the compression of the front susp e nsio n. A t the factory, Bim ota is alread y wo rking on differ ent cylinde r head s with altered port shapes and differe n t ex ha us ts, whi ch sho ul d all o w a highe r top s peed o n tracks li ke Hockenheim. ~

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