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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127827
motorcycle," says Dr. Doohan, with a
wry grin. "Still, we do keep experimenting, trying to improve certain things,
and the main thing we worked on in '96
was t,he throttle opening, making it easier and smoother to get on the gas off
the tum in a power-off I power-on.situation.
"The airbox configuration is completely different (with the ducts lower
down in the fairing, below the radiator,
to deliver a straighter ram-charge of
cool air - AC), plus we've got new cylinders and heads - all aimed at making
that transition smoother, so you can gas
the throttle aggressively without being
.too abrupt with the rear wheel. We had
a little more power, too, but it's not the
numbers that matter anymore, it's how
you can use it that counts."
Still, though HRC staff won't officially own up to it, it's almost certain that
1996 was the year that Honda finally
broke the 200-bhp barrier with its single-crank V-four motor now clocking up
its 10th birthday in 112-degree form, a
33-percent jump compared to its debut
year back in 1987. A mechanical GP
milestone: 400 bhp per liter in the SOOcc
class, at last.
"The front forks are totally different
from last year, with all new internals
which give a much better contact feeling
with the tire," Doohan continues. "This
suspension showed"up at the French GP
midseason, and since then we've gone
from chewing 'out just about every front
tire we stuck on there to having a good
selection to choose from."
Those 43mm Showa upside-downies
now have cast-magnesium sliders,
instead of the carbon-fiber ones used for
the past couple of seasons, and Showa
still provides the titanium-sprung rear
shock which Doohan dismisses as "still
pretty primitive." (Yes, but imagine how
much it cost to make.) And, er, that's it.
No other major changes to the Honda
last season - but it's still the class of the
field.
Okay, time to look at how to ride it.
Best to start off wi th the motor; I suppose. How many revs do I use, guv?
"You know from before the engine's
very flexible," Mick says. "So it's better
to use its low-down power to optimize
acceleration. I normally start to get hard
on the gas about 9700 rpm, but in a firstgear chicane or hairpin, you can let it
faWas low as seven grand, and it'll still
pull cleanly out of the turn. But of
course then you're not really gassing it
up hard - while you're still at the maximum lean point in the turn you just concentrate on keeping everything going
smoothly, till you can start to pull it up
and get working on the fat part of the
tire, waiting for the 9000- to 9700-rpm
threshold where you can really start to
use the powerhard.
"[ don't use the thumb brake to pull
the bike upright - that's for another purpose I'll come to in a minute, because I
only use the rear brake going into a turn
- so standing the bike up is a physical
act for me. I try to let the speed run on a
bit through the turn, then almost subconsciously pick a spot on the outside of
tl,e track where I can basically straightline it from. Before I'm there, I'll pick the
bike upright and aim for the exit, so by
the time I've hit my spot I'm already
wide open, hard on the gas, trying to
feel the rear tire pu thng the power
down. If you get it sliding, keep the
power on, else you'll probably go for a
painful hangliding session without the
glider! But Michelins grip pretty good,
so that's not usually a worry, provided
you made the right tire choice."
Honda is the last works team in the
(Above) The NSR corners
like a dream. Would you
expect anything less?
(Right) Though Alex
Criville's bike (foreground)
was essentially the same as
Doohan's in '96, the
Australian won't be using a
Big Bang engine in '97.
500cc class not to use a wide-open
speed-shifter, opting instead for a different system from everyone else's, which
requires the rider to back off the throttle
just slightly in order to retard the ignition while he changes up. Honda can't
use its excellent system from the RC45
uperbike which works by cutting the
flow of fuel from the EFI rather than on
the ignition, not only for the obviol:ls
reason there's no fuel injection on the
NSR, but mainly I:recause it's a twostroke and an interruption in the flow of
fuel might lead to a seizure.
"We've had the power-shifter for a
couple of years," Mick says. "But this is
the first season I've started using it all
the time, and it works okay - though for
some reason fifth gear is pretty hard to
select sometimes. Changing up out of
first and second can be hard, as well, but
that's because of tile wheelie factor, and
tile fact I like to hart-shift to ride that
low-down power curve. So I've got the
engine loaded up and we're trying to
get another gear with the front wheel in
the air, whim sometimes makes it hard
to get in.
"'Other times, I've gone for a gear
and the engine hasn't fired back up
again, and I'm still waiting for the
power. It looks like I missed a gear, but
in fact tile engine's still lagging - that's
something we need to work on to fix
before next season. Jus.t an electronic
problem, I guess. Bu t normally I can't
even tell if it's got a quickshift on it,
because ours essentially isn't anytiling
of the kind - it's just an automatic killswitch, working through the electronics."
True - but does Honda have something mum more sophisticated, that
they've been rumored to be using for
the past couple of seasons to tame tile
Honda
tremendous power of the V-four engine:
any traction control?
" one at all," Doohan says firmly.
"And in fact I think this was dreamed
up by someone a few years ago as something from car racing that perhaps could
be useful to bikes in theory, but in reali-
N~R500
Specifications
Engine .'.
.
Uquid-cooled 112·degree V-four crankcase reed-valve two-stroke
with computerized electron.ic power valve
Bo
etroke
" ..
.,
"
54 x 54.5mm
Di.a_nt
. . .. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. -.. .499cc
Output .
. . . . .. .
Over 190 bhp at 12.500 rpm (at gearbo>