Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

provide an extra two horsepower at the top end, while at the same time resolving the team's problems in passing the noise test, proved not to deliver on the track wh at it had promised on the dyno. lu They didn't have much better " ck in the next round at Misano, where this time it was John Reynolds on the private Reve Kawasaki who embarrassed the Team Muzzy riders, mounted on bikes that wen: visibly struggling for speed. Worse still was in store at Donington, w here works engines built in Japan by Kawasaki "might have had a tough time winning th e 600 Supers port race, " according to a caus tic Scott Russell. They were grenades - with short fuses. When word leaked out tha t Russell was jumping ship to 500cc Grand Prix racing wi th the Lucky Strike Suzuki team, you h ad to sy mpathize with hi m. In th ree short mont hs, M r. Daytona ha d gone fro m title con tender to making up the nu mbers, in the class he'd once d ominated, on the bike that had made him a Worl d Champion. How the mig hty had fallen... That was plumb bottom for th e Muzzy team's '95 fortunes; things could only get better. And they did, after the tea m took a few steps to re-establish their footing . First, they decided not to replace Russell, but to concentrate all their efforts on just one rider. Second, that man -w as Australian rookie Anthony Gobert, who had hitherto almost been overlooked by the team in their efforts to set Russell on a title-winning course. Surprisingly, Gobert ha d do ne no preseason testing with his new team. H is only mileage on a Ka wasaki since winn ing the last Wo rld Superbike race of '9 4 in Aus tralia (within a week of sitting on one for the first time) had been the Dunlop tire tests at Daytona, an d the Dayton a 200 itself (in which he cras hed). Tot much preparation for his first seaso n in Wo rld Su pe rbike! An d third , while factory development h ad stalled on the ZXR750 in its wind-down year in 71 x 47.3m m lo ng -s tro ke for m, w ork now restarted to regain competitiveness. "We had a new engi ne for Monza, and were back in the hu nt," said Rob Muzzy looki ng back on the season. And so they were. Gobert now showed his tru e mettle, an d with the patient attention of Muzzy t e am m an a ger Steve Jo h nson now focused 100 pe rcent on smoothing his young rider's steep learning curve with regard to machine setup and interpreting feedback from the team's on-board telemetry system, the Aussie kid's raw talen t started to flourish . After leading a race for the first time at Monza, he made Kawasaki 's ' 95 rostrum debut with a second and a third in Austria, then went one better in the next round at Laguna Seca by winning one race and finishing second in the ot her. Kawasaki was back on top again - and Gobert ha d joined the Wo rld Superbike elite as a reg ular contende r for a place in victory lane. To sign the season off w ith a flourish, he repeated his '9 4 success at Phill ip Island by winning the final race of the season, an d so finished fourth in the World Cham pio nsh ip in his deb ut yea r. He might have wo n the other race that d ay too, but for an inco rrect rear ti re choice - it shredded und er the de ma nds of h is d ram at ic a nd s pectacu la r motocross-d erived riding sty le. "It's interesti ng to note that the tracks I've won at are the only tracks I've teste d at," sai d Go bert a fte r w innin g at Ph illip Island . Just as well th at he di d test the re fro m m y point of view, beca use afte r being rained out at Assen the day after the race, the Muzzy tea m invi ted m e to rid e his bike at their ed two rostrum finishes in Au stri a and w inn ing at Laguna Seca. Antho ny h as so much natu ral talent that once he gets a se tting he's com fortable with, he can ride the bike round any minor problems. Mind you, it shows the bike is pretty good, too!" The soft front suspension allows the 46mm Ohlins forks to compress under the heavy braking provided by the big 320mm AP discs and their six-pot calipers - chosen in back-to-bark tests before this season, says Johnson, because of their similarity in performance to the banned -for -'95 carbon brakes. They don't have much initial bite, but they come on ve ry strong the harder yo u squeeze, just like the black brakes dol did, wit h a kind of self-servo effect th at gives outstanding stopping power. The only cos t o f this immense reserve of outright power is the loss of initial sensitivity at light lever pressures. The fron t-end dive you get as a result of soft fork settings and super-strong brakes stands the bike on its nose and steepens the steering geometry to make turn -in easier - even if you don't kick the back wheel around by stomping on the rear brake like Anthony does. It also means that you don't hang off the bike very far - not tha t it's easy to do so, any way: Gobert uses a thick pad on the (Left) Gobert pre fers the 46mm Ohllns Invert ed forks set up very soft so they compress under his heavy -braking rid ing style - a process aided by superstrong AP cast-Iron discs. Philli p Isl a n d sess ion the week be fore th e fina l round - th e sa me tr ack I' d sa m p led Scott Russell's bike on exactly a yea r before. On a wi ndy d ay, Gobert d id me p roud w hen w arm in g u p the ZXR by b reaking Fog arty' s year-o ld lap record - on race tires, no less. One new rear Du nlop qualifier later, an d the Muzzy bike was ready complete with the remains of the full tank of gas Anthony h ad set h is amazing time on. The Go-Show had go ne good. Now it was my turn at, er, a slightly reduced pace. Considerably reduced pace to begin with, in fact , because Anthonv's chosen setup takes a lot ' of getting used to, even if. says Steve Johnso n, it is a lot like Scott Russell's was . Basically, Gobert has the bike set up very loose, like a lBO-mph motocrosser, w ith widesp rea d bar s, ha rd ly any steering d am per, a soft fro nt suspension and a stiff rear. Since he rides the bike on t he back wheel all th e tim e, this m a ke s sense. But it also m e a n s you can't carry as much corner speed as you might othe rwise, because if you try to go too fa st th e fro nt w heel starts to ch atte r. In stea d, yo u h ave to b rake ve ry h a rd and deep into the apex - especially on a slower tum like Siberia or the downhillentry MG comer at Ph illip Island - then tu m the bike on the back wheel with a lo t of b ra ke and so me opposite lock, before firing it up out of the tu m with a b ig h an d ful of gas . Easier said than done! It's a mark of how radical his rid ing style is by Superb ike sta n da rds that it wasn' t until Go bert found a setting he could wo rk with tha t he started to get on the pace. That was at Monza. Having found the right combina tion, h e stuck with it. " We di d n' t m a ke a single suspension change for five races, from Monza to Brands Hatch," says Johnson. "And that includ- (Left) Considerable developmenttlme was spen t on . smoothing the power delivery from the In-line four, Incl udi ng the fllment of a gear camshaft drive. Under the huge airbox resides a bank of four 39mm Kelhln flat-sl lde carbs. b ac k of th e seat to wedge himself in posi tion and shove as much of h is body weigh t as p ossible fo rward o n to th e front wh eel wi th those wide-sprea d handlebars. Like Russell, he sits on the bike and leans it over rather than hang- 13

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