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/127821
(Above) Smokin' Joe's Steve Crevier tested both his superbike and his 600cc Supersport Hondas at Daytona. (Right) Ben Bostrom waits while his RC45 undergoes repairs in pit lane. and DuHamel came here for a test in September to help develop tires for the fall F-USA races. The third-generation spec tires which were tried in December will be improved upon again, but already Chandler has noticed an improvement from September. "It's the next step. It's more like what we had in October," Chandler said after his endurance run. "Today it seemed almost as warm, it's windy, it's about how it should be when we get out there in March. I was just running by myself. I was pretty comfortable. I never really got too hot. Just tried to keep a good, steady pace. With a little improvement, I think we'll do 50s easy." There has been an improved casing which allows for a smoother ride at a lower temperature. And Dunlop has gone to a 16.5-inch rear which, Allen says, "just has more grip by virtue of its construction. 1I (Above) DuHamel confers with Dunlop's Jim Allen (left) and mechanic AI Lundington (right). (Right) New teammates Pascal Picotte and Larry Pegram discuss things between outings. There were four different 16.5s to try. Interestingly, Yoshimura Suzuki's Larry Pegram and Aaron Yates both said there was no big difference between the old and new tires.ยท But Chandler, DuHamel and Pascal Picotte all said there was a big difference. "Pascal was absolutely _ adamant," Allen said. . Dunlop brought 26 different varieties of tires here, front~ and rears, DOTs and slicks. Last year it was closer to 40 and more than one rider remarked that having fewer to test made their jobs easier. "Dunlop's really got their act together this year and there's less tire choice," Crevier said. There were two rears that Chandler tried endurance runs on. The first was successful, the second less so, and the run. was aborted. "It looked like it had some promise, but it fell on its face," Allen said. '1t just lost grip." Still, the one-lap times were significantly better than last year's test and were run, with one glaring exception, on race tires. Last December, Muzzy Kawasaki's Anthony Gobert turned a best of 1:50.73, with DuHamel at 1:50.89, and Yamaha's Colin Edwards II clocking at 1:50.99. This year it was Chandler's Muzzy Kawasaki fastest at 1:49.94 with a number of laps in the low 50s. His time was nearly eclipsed by Picotte (1:49.98) who, because of a breakdown in communications within Dunlop, had one of the few qualifying tires at the test. The teams were originally told that there were no qualifiers, but a handful 7