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/127858
RACER TEST
s tra igh t. Also, the back end w ou ld n' t
hook up pr op erly exiting a bu mpy him.
But here's the trick : Like most oth er top
superbike tu ner s, Phil Tainton is co mpletely famili ar wi th what makes Ohlin.
sus pens ion work, so w hile I went off for
a spin on the latest Silverbird version of
the llunwi ck Hallam X1R V-twin I was
also testing (I know hell of a life, isn' t
it?), he fitted a softer rear spring, ad jus ted the rebound dam ping, and reduced
the comp ress ion on the forks. Th e second time a rou nd , th e Su zuki handled
g rea t - illu stra ting per haps th e singl e
bi g gest handicap un d er w hich o th er
Suzuki teams have to labor, which is
tha t they usc Japanese sus pension that is
(a) nnt so compliant, (b) harder to adjust
co rr ectl y without fu ll ex pert backu p,
and (c) doesn't have the same degree of
han ds-on fa m iliarity for s uperbi ke
mechanics arou nd th e world . Hey - if
Ohlinsare goo d eno ug h for Kawasaki to
use on its wo rks bikes, let alone Yama>
Ansett Suzuki GSXR750S
uperbike
ha , owner of the Sw edi sh company,
then why doesn 't Suzuki do so? Especially a s Harris is Ohlins ' British
importer! Your call.
Oth er differen ces worth noting
betwe en th e A ns e lt bik e and other
Suzukis are the Brembo brakes (no t sixpot Tokicos ) and Dunlop tir es: ra th er
the Michelins used by the World squad.
After we got the sus pens ion dialed in
right, the Suzuki hooked up rea lly well
out of t:Jrns - and it also steers very neutrally on the power, w itho u t pushing
the front wh eel. Bas ically, it goe s where
you poi nt it.
But the brake. - awesome ! The fourpot Brembos are 'top-shelf items costi ng
ove r $2000 each, and wo rth every buck.
Extreme ly sensitive yet progressive, too,
they deliver fan tastic st opping power
from the cas t-stainless rotors, allowing
you to brake well within the 200 board
from we ll over 160 mp h in top for the
ho rseshoe at the end of Ca lde r' s front
straig ht, a id ed by the engi ne braking
d eliver ed by th e a ntiloc k dutch . But
th en, w hen y o u tr ai l-bra ke into th e
bend, the Suz uki turns in contro llably,
ne i the r tippi n g i n to th e ape x a s th e
s te e r ing g e o m e try s tee p e ns und er
weight tran sfer nor needing to be forced
on its side to stop it from und ersteering
into the grass .
W ha t a n ice bike to r ide . 1 n eve r
th ou ght I'd say that, after watching
Reynolds and McCarthy last seas on!
A nd ye t, th e bes t is s till to co me:
eng ine tim e. Extr em ely musical-sounding, eve n if it doesn 't rev as hi gh as a
Kawasaki , the Suzuki motor is extremely strong, but it isn 't just a top-end guided mi ssile you ha ve to keep revv ing
hard at all costs. Instead , in its new '97
form with add ed mid ra nge thanks to
the new kit exhaust, the Suzuki has very
cr is p throttle p ic kup (g uess th ose
duplex canis ter s on the exhaust mus t
wo rk) and car burets very cleanl y from
"God's bike"
" There'S nothing in this engine that <1 privateer can't bu y," says Phil Talnton,
Tune r Phil Tainton
with his super blke
race winner.
18
the to p Aus tra lia n su perbike tu ne r w ho prepart:!s and ru m: the Anset t
Suz uki team bike s ou t of his sma ll but well-equipped I'T R workshop ncar
Melbourne's evoca tively named suburb of Fem tree Gulley. "The parts we have in it
ere the same as (tho se) used by the factor y Wo rld Supcrbikc team and the top Suz ukis
raced in the All-ja pa n and AMA Championships, and tha t means tha t Suzuki has
kept faith with the Superbike concep t by offeri ng a customer race kit that duplicates
their factory ha rdware and allows privatee rs to ben ef it from all the dev elopment time
tha t went into the wo rks bikes . Provided yo u ins tall it properly a nd stay on top of
com po nent repl acem ent , you' ll have a very powerfu l pac kage tha t's a lso very reliable
~ so far, we've had no major mechanical failures of any kind in 1 1/2 seaso ns."
And with James Whitham topping the Hockenheim speed-trap table on his similar
Ha rris- ru n work s bike at 189.06 mp h, also very fast. Inevitably, the spinoff from the
Suz u ki factory team's R&D d oesn' t come cheap. To a llow Tain ton to bu ild Pete r Coddard's title-winning bike a t the start of the '96 season, Suzuki Australia p ur chased one
of the costly