Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127769
Quic k direct io nal chan ges are on ly acc ompli shed with a good deal of effort. despite a chass is setup that wo uld Indi cate otherw ise. was a big deal because, as I've had firsthand exper ience rid ing the Be lgarda bikes for each of the last five years, the Yamaha has a very fierce power de livery which makes tire cho ice and suspension sett ings critical. The second blow came whe n Edwards crashed in preseaso n testing at Monza and injure d the tendons in one leg qu ite badly - he started the season at Hockenheim as walking woun ded. Batt ling a shortage of suitable tires which likewise affecte d fellow Dunlop users Mu zzy Kawasaki, Yamaha fortu nes nevertheless looked promising - as at Monza, when Edwards' was not only fastes t through the speed traps, but earned his and the team's first rostrum finish with a th ird and a fifth in the two races, whil e Nagai was fourth just as he'd been in both ra ces at the ope ning round in Germany. Looking good? Well, no. Constant tire-related handling problems prevented Edwards from stringing together a run of good results, though after Dunlop's situation improved midseason, things got graduaUy better - as Colin's second place at Brands Hatch showed. Nagai on the other hand undoubtedly benefited from the fact that the works YZF750 had been developed around him in Japan, allowing him to belie the kamikaze tag he'd been unfairly sad dled with before coming to Europe, and earn a series of solid top-10 finishes that left him fourth in the points table after coming within an ace of giving Yamaha its first race win of the season on the company's own tra ck at Su g o . Too ba d th e red mist got the better o f him that day. ยท But a second and a third did show the Yamaha was now a challen ger for victory. Th en, tragically, ju st as things were coming right for Yamaha, fate dealt a wicked blow at the next round in Assen. Yasutomo Na gai was killed in a cruel accident tha t was not at all his fault, crashing on someone else's oil. His death - the first ever in the hist ory of World Superbike - led the shocked factory team to sit out the last two rounds of the championship, and to sta rt planning their comeback in 1996 wi th a new teammate for Edwa rd s, as well as a revised package for the YZF750. This wasn't in the script... The chance to ride Edw ards' Yamaha at Mugello, shortly before it winged its wa y back to Japan, provided a graphic insight into the team's season. Frankly; this is one of the more intimid ating motorcycles I've ridden in recent year s especiall y com pared to Carl Fogarty' s Ducati, w hich I was testing th e sam e day. Thanks to facto ry development which saw a con tinuous flow of new parts arrive at each ro u nd, th e 72 x 46mm slant-block engine makes even more power th a n th e Be ppe Russotuned Belgarda motor I sampled a year ago. That one delivered 158.7 bhp at the gea rbox at 13,800 rp m, surely m aking the works YZF750 a 16D-plus-bhp rocke t ship only rivaled for supremacy in the su perbike power stakes by Slight's 7spec RC45 works Honda. The b ig g es t imp rovement to the Yamaha is the wa y it picks up revs . The engine accelerates very fast, as if internal friction and inertia have been drastically reduced com pared to the kit bikes but th is also helps make it a real firecracke r ou t of turns . It w ill ca rbu re t from 6000 rpm, mak e power from 8000, bu t comes on really strong from ju st under 11,000 rp m up to the 14,200-rpm rev lim iter. There isn't really a step in the po wer band, more a sudden rush of revs th at m akes everything happen very fast - more like two-stroke power than what you normally get with a su perbike. And while the factory' s main aim for this season was ap parentl y to improve ridability on the bike, that's not the way it seems . Flyw heel effect is noticeably red uced, with the 39mm Keihin flat-slide s deli vering im mediate response SO vivid that rear-wheel grip is sorel y tested. I wouldn't like to have to race this bike in the rain with that all-ornothing power delivery, so ma ybe it' s jus t as well there were no wet race s in World Superbike this season. . But then all your friends will saJ/ "Dh yeah, I readabout that a couple months ago in Cycle News. II . America's Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper ",hy",ail? 1 Year50 weekly issues - $38.00 Subscribe! o YES! Start my subscription immediately to (Eill ~ Order Form Cycle News. 1 year/50 issues fo r $38.00. That's r-- - - -- - -- - -- - -- --- ---- --- - - - - - - - - -- -- - -- - --- -- - - - - - -- -- -- ---- ----- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - --,.~ .~= Name - - - -_ _ Address _ State Pho ne ! over $87.00 off the regular newsstand price! 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