Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Superbike titles, or that Aprilia has evidently been suffering with its strung-out V-twin superbike project - or, indeed, a giant like Honda, with the RC45, which has taken three hard years of dedicated endeavor and untold millions of yen to turn into a potential World Superbike champion? Can a little company from a faraway land Down Under ever hope to go head to head with these giant manufacturers, with a product entirely designed, developed and - in due course - manufactured themselves, in the most remote major market in the motorcycle world? Can the constant flow of world-titlewinning products from the legendary Australian rider factory now be matched by those of the Australian motorcycle company? Well, after a solid day's testing at Sydney'S Eastern Creek GP circuit on both the prototype XIR racers, I have to admit I'm a believer. Fot a bike that did not exist six weeks beforehand, and which had undergone just two shakedown tests in the hands of Mal Campbell since its Phillip Island debut and which is still ineVitably at an early stage of its development, the HH XIR is incredibly far advanced along its R&D curve, belying the fact it's so new an overall design and so innovative a concept. Those radical looks disguise a very capable motorcycle by current superbike terms - and, as the only person in the world to have ridden all four major works contenders in the '96 World Superbike series, I reckon I'm qualified to judge. That's not to say it's going to come out and blitz the competition in the Aussie Superbike Championship (in which the XIR has a special dispensation to take part, to facilitate R&D of the local product), especially as this is one of the most competitive four-stroke series in the world, with Troy Corser, Anthony Gobert, Kirk McCarthy and Peter Goddard its last four successive champions. But I will be very surprised if the XlR isn't.right on the pace from its very first race, and isn't challenging for victory before the year is out, especially in the hands of as canny and experienced a rider as Campbell. The decision of HH's original choice, Kirk McCarthy, to go 500cc GP racing was surely a blessing in disguise because, as good a rider as Kirk is, he doesn't have the years of experience of a man who for many years was one of HRC's chosen development riders (and the only man who ever won a race on an oval-piston motorcycle!), who is, still a leading contender in local supersport racing in his twilight years as a top-level racer. But though it's bound to suffer the usual R&D hiccups of any all-new design - the whole point of going racing in the first pla~e, says Paul Hallam, being to refme the product for the street - the XIR is right on the pace already. Pretty impressive. Here's why: The two bikes brought to Eastern Creek were the original phase-one version demonstrated at Phillip Island, now joined by a phase-three update with titanium rods, valves, springs, etc., instead of the steel ones fitted to the original bike. In due course, Paul Hallam plans to debut the phas~-five version, incorporating pneumatic closing the 38mm irIlet/33mm exhaust valves (which, per the new FIM superbike rules, will indeed be featured on the street XIR, for homologation purposes) to reduce inertia and offer positive valve control, thus permitting more-radical cam profiles and engine speeds - but first he says he (Right) The Xl R's styling does the CBR1100XX one better as far as a protruding nose goes. (Below) Part of the innovative styling package is the integrated dash. (Below) By design, the chassis is very easy to'adjust. There is no frame in the traditional .sense: The swingarm pivots In the rear cases and the steering head bolts to the front of the engine. The forward-mounted shock helps increase forward weight bias. needs to get the bike running to an optimum level with the existing conventional valve-spring design to provide a baseline to work from. This latest "titanium motor" had only ever run on the dyno before they brought it to the track, and while Mal concentrated on running it in and setting up the chassis, I started out riding the baseline "steel-engine" version.l was in for a few surprises. The 'first shock was the riding position. That way-out styling, with the droop-snout nose and twin nostrils ducting air to the sealed airbox, gives you 'the impression of a very frontheavy motorcycle with a far-forward riding position that also looks as if it's very tall. Ride height at both ends appears quite extreme. Well, that's a complete optical illusion, because it's , nothing of the kind. In fact, though Mal says he's actually had to jack up the back end to throw more weight on to the front wheel compared to the way it started out, you still sit in a pretty neutral stance, with not nearly as much weight on your forearms and wrists as on a Ducati 996. HH has actually shortened the fueltank bulge at ,the rear by about two inches from before, to move the rider further forward - Mal complained about being too stretched-out on the bike originally and the result is a very balanced riding position that, however, doesn't give the impression that the XIR is as compact as a Ducati. That, though, is again an illusion, as a lowdown look at the XIR from behind will confirm: It's incredibly skinny! Like the Britten - an updated form of which this bike. definitely resembles the engine and chassis is no wider than the rear 6-inch Dunlop tire while, from the front, the width of the carbon-fiber snout (which is what creates the illusion) in fact provides near-ideal aerodynarnic protection for the rider's body, as well as a good flow of air to the engine, airbox and forward-mounted radiator nestling in the shark nose. I'm not sure how FIM regulations will interpret the length of the bodywork section running out over the front wheel, though - but it sure looks great! CraI)k up the engine and get ready for another surprise: It's not only surprisingly quiet

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