Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

rid er Peter Goddard, wh o pu t together the Ansett Air Freig ht-sponso red team , then rod e the bike himself to a convincing title victory. This year, God dard has rev erted to a purel y mana gerial ro le wi th the tea m wh ile he con tes te d th e World Endurance title (and wo n) with the French Suz uki team . But his protege, Troy Bayliss, has picked up where the bo ss left off, d ominating th e '97 Au stralian Soper bike series to d ate with a series of decisive race w ins . Perhaps more to the poi nt, Baylis s also proved th at Go d da rd a nd th e Ansett Su zuki team's race engineer, Phil Tainton , have join tly d eveloped their GSXR750 into a world-class su pe rbike with his pair of fifth-place finishes in the opening round of the World Supe rbike Cham pio nship at Phillip Island in March, in very contrastin g cond itions. In the first race, run in the wet , Troy Mark Two dropped the bike on the slippery su rface, rem oun ted and still finished jusl two slots off the podium. The seco nd race on the fast, bumpy circuit was dr y, and Bayliss hit ched a rid e on the high-sp eed freight tra in of top contend ers and rep eated his fifth-place finis h - bea li ng Sco tt Ru ssell a nd john Kocinski, among o thers . More to the point, he was ernbarassmgly far ahea d of the 13th place of Wh it ha m's works Suz uki. O kay , hom e-tra ck adva ntage might ha ve pl ayed som e part - but still, the Ha r ris-run team di dn' t exactly get its own back at Don ington, did it? And the fact tha t Suzuki's first major intern ation al victory wi th the new GSXR750 came three w ee ks la ter at th e Le Mans 24Hour, wh en Peter Goddard joined Doug Polen an d j uan-E ric Gomez aboa rd the Fren ch -run Su zu ki tha t tr iumphed so decisive ly in front of 80,000 spectators, shows tha t, jus t ma ybe; the Australia n ace migh t hav e unl ocked the secrets of how to make the Suz uki a winne r. OnIy one way to find out: Step up at Melbourne's Calde r Racew ay on a crisp Au ssi e w inter' s d a y to rid e Ba yliss' Ansett Su zuki. I w as mor e int erest ed than usual to ride th e .Ansett GSXR, given that, in eigh t years of track-testing every World Superbike wo rks contender each season, the only time I've ever been refused a rid e wa s by Suzuk i fac tory management in '96, when I asked to test Reyno lds' bike a nd got turned down . Considering that a ll thr ee of the other jap anese manufacturers have let me rid e thei r wo rks bikes while they were not exactly at the peak of their d evelopment, this left me not only frustrated bu t also cu rious: Is the GSXR750 such a highly strung , nervous-handling prima do nna of a bike that you need the skill of a Goddard, the experience of a Polen or the balls of a Bayliss to master it? Cald er would tell... Bottom line first: If this bike raced in World Supe rbike rou nd s on other continents with a top rider (well, like "God" him self, for inst an ce), it' d s u rely be a regular contender for top- five finishing places - and on every type of circuit, too, not just power-up tracks like Mon za and Hockenhe im , where the Suz u ki's truly awesome top-end performance comes into its own. While I'm certainly not up to riding the bike as ha rd as Tro y or Peter, I gave it a pretty good wo rko u t once the track su rface at Ca lder had d ried out from morn ing rain, and I stopped getting wheelsp in in sixth gear d own th e main stra igh t wh en I hit a shiny, damp tarmac patch. And as hard as the engine revs, as quick as the bike steers, and as undoubtedly fast as it is in a straight line, this is an extremely ridable, raceable package tha t bri ngs new sta nda rds of agi lity to the fou r-cy linder four-stroke class. It's a four tha t thinks it's a tw in - but also a Superbike wit h the feel of a 500. You get an immediate feeling of that split persona lity as soon as you sit on the Suzu ki. It feels shorter and narrower than o ther fo u r-cylinde r su p e rb ikes (especially the Kawasaki), with a closecoupled riding position that isn't u nduly cra mped or uncomfortable. God dard has raised the rear ride height to load up the fro n t e nd weightwise as well as steepen the head ang le, and the resu lt is a motorcycle that feels little different to sit on than the 500cc GP bike on whi ch he honed his rid ing skills. Th ough of course it's heavier-steering than a 500cc V-four weighing' 66 pounds less, the Suzuki' . ha ndling is a lso noticeably more nimbl e than other su perbike fours - especially swapping directions in a chicane. It's almost as easy-steering as an even narrower Ducati, almost certainly beca use Suzuk i got the engine posi tion spot-on in designing the bike, an d God dard and Tain ton hav e refined the chassis setup to perfection . But, thoug h nim ble-ha n d li ng, the Anse ll GSXR doesn't wobb le or weave in a straigh t li ne, as Whitham 's bike clearly still did for all to see on TV at Mon za this se as on. It eve n sta ys true wh en you hit a bump tha t un settles the bik e with th e sus pensio n com p ressed under hard acceleration. It also manages to resist the hig h-speed headshake that th e Ka yaba-equipped wo rks bikes so often suf fered last seaso n. I saw 12,500 revs in top gea r on Calder's long front straig ht, which was qui te fast enough to provoke this problem, if it were goi ng to happen at all - an d it d id n' t. . A n d neit he r is th e A nsell GSXR twitchy or nerv ous entering a tum hard on the brakes - though I'll ad mit it was to sta rt with, until I got the hang of rid ing the bike and started to pu sh ha rde r. Then it all came toge ther almost perfectly - bu t only after I'd stopped for som e sus pension adjus tments. To begin with, the Ohlins rear shock was definitel y oversprung, and the forks were also so stiffly set up tha t they cha ttered over the ripples left by cars in the horseshoe at the end of the Cald er main (Above left) The short-stroke in-line four's 42mm Mikunl flat-slide carbs are very sens itive to veloclly-stack length - gelling It right yellds a 5 bhp Increase In power output. (Above) Use of the factory exhaust this year fattened up the midrange output . The engine featur es Suzuki's factory eng ine kit - a 550 ,000 Investme nt. (Below) One of the keys to getting the Ansott Suzu ki to handle so well was the use of Ohlins suspension front and rear. 17

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