Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RIDING Muzzy Raptor 58850 IMPRESSION ~ Assign ed with 'the task of makl';,i -it sto p like one, too, are the pair of Italiansou rced 320mm Braking "carbiron " floating discs , gri pped by six-pot Tokico calipers; rear brake is a small 205mm AP disc (left over from Mu zz ys ' World Superbike program?) gr ipped by a twopiston Brembo. This brake cocktail wo rks well. provided you squeeze hard - the lever has a soft ini tial response, with no t as much bite as I pr efer (pad choice?), though others claim it gives them better modulation. This cocktail has one other importa n t element copied from Chand ler's s u p e rb ike, which is th a t the Mu z z y triple-clamps are spaced out to set the forks and thus the brake discs wider apa rt, at 228mm rat her than 200mm on a stock ZX-7R, in order to park them fur- . ther in the breeze for increased cooling. With Wor ld Superbike performance coming on par with 500cc GP bikes (bu t the heavier four -strokes are forbidden to wear ca rbon discs) , keeping th e me tal brakes cool has become a crucial factor in keeping them working properly (and inta ct!) in race u se - though it was a key factor in the com p romised handling of Fogarty's works Du cati in '97 . Doubtless our Mu zzy Mon za pilgrim wo uld find this ha nd y in a succession of h ard ha irpin s tops comin g d own th e Alps on his way home, too. Brake fad e? Nein, danke! How ever, in consequence, he (or she) 'migh t ha ve to put up with the only handling trai t I di dn ' t care for on the Rapt or: Running downhill out of two turns, it would get quite ne rvous each lap at both p laces, twitching the bars in your hands both off the power a nd on, when weigh t trans fer migh t counter the probl em . This surely was the trade-off for such fast-s teering , rad ical geome try, but the Oh lins steering damper mo u nted across the steeri ng head sto pped it fro m eve r ge tting ou t of control. and on uphill or fla t sec tio ns it wasn' t so tw itch y . As so meone wi th the best job in the world , I kn ow how a works su perbike racer feels to rid e on a race track, and the Mu zzy 850 Raptor comes very close - excep t it has lights and a horn! There's the same lack of low-d own grunt from the racebred eng ine until it s ta rt s to motor aro u nd 5000 rpm ; then it d eliv ers per - (Left) Rob M uzzy himself styled the Raptor, keeping the Kawasaki family resemblance with the headlights but also trying to max imize ram-ai r effic iency . (Above) The same s ingle-sided swingarm that Doug Chandler used on his s uperbike for the Daytona 200 last year is fitted to the Raptor. A conventional swingarm is also available. (Below) Now you se e them, now you don't: Keihin 41mm FCR flats lides feed the beas t, fullyenclose d in the carbon-fiber airbox. haps even more meaty midrange performance th an some of Kawasaki' s race rivals - once yo u reach the 7000-rev power th resho ld and send the desert scenery in to fast-forward mode, gassing th e surprising ly lig h t-action throttle wide open. Be read y to cope wit h some w he elspi n w hen you do - so rry , bu t bikes with this mu ch real -world power a re happier wea ri ng s licks - a nd get used to seeing a lot of the sk y, as the front wh eel reaches to meet it. But now's the time to get rea lly excited, as the sheer bu zz of such awesome accelera tion gets your Jurass ic jui ces flowing , click ing one higher gea r afte r ano ther on the smoo th, crisp gea rshift as a combination of one eye on the tach o Muzz Eng ine Liquid-cooled OOHC transverse in-line four-cyhnder wi four valves per cylinder Bore'x stroke 75 x 47.3mm Dis pla cement 835cc Horsepower 147 bhp @ 12.000rpmCat rear wheel) Torque 69 ft.·lbs. @ 10.500 rpm Compression ra t io 13.5:1 Carburetion (4) 41mm Keihin FCR flat-slides Tra nsm is s ion 6·speed Clutch ' Multiplate wet Ignition Di9ital COl Chassis Suspension _ Front Rear .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . _ needle scooting around to the redline and both ears relishing the howl of the gre at-soundi ng Muzzy exhaust tells you it's time to change up. If I we re a Raptor rider, 'though, I'd as k Mu zzys to fit me one of the KLS power shifters from its racers: Hitting the next gea r wi de open would zo ne out any final pre tense that this is not a racer w ith lights! If you need a reminder of that, wa it u ntil yo u get to a tu rn - th en feel the Raptor flick from side to side far more ea sil y tha n a s toc k ZX-7 R, or indeed ma ny riva l superbike racers: This is not a bike you have to wo rk hard at changing direction aboard . The more rad ical steering geometry delivers agility without sacrificing st raight-line stabili ty. It turns very easily into an apex , and hold s a tigh ter li ne th an yo u' d ex pec t with such a big, powerf u l s t reet bike, yet th ere isn't the trade-off you get with some radical racers whose quick steering is obta ined via a jacked -u p rea r end that ends up making the bars sha ke in yo ur han ds down the s tra ight. The Raptor steers more lightly and is more nim ble than you have any right to expect from a lSD-rea l-horsepower sportbike, but afte r testing Akira Yanagawa's wo rks ZX-7RR superbike, I shouldn' t be surprised . Kawasaki has ac hieved the unlikely feat of producing an in-line four that chan ges directio n better and is more stable over bumps than a leaner, narrower V-twin or V-fou r - perhap s be cause its cranksh aft is mor e than an inch low er than , say, an RC45 Ho nda. J Th e Mu zzy treatment on the Rapt or jus t maxes this ou t and brin gs the same benefits to t he s t re e t, via i ts racederived, tit le-winning setup . Nothi ng else w ith four cy linders and a lice nse plate - no t even the new Rl Yamaha ~ can equa l it in the marketplace for allaro und perfo rmance. Okay, Rob - that' s the big one taken care of; now, about the 600... Better thi nk of a name, first: Muzzy Pterod ac tyl? No - it may fly, but that d oesn' t sound quit e righ t. A Rapt or 6OO? Hmmm... l~ Reinforced aluminum twin-spar perime ter frame .43mm Kayaba inverted telescopicforks wi Muzzy damping . , Ca st -magnesium single-sided swingarm wi adjustable pivot. risinq-rate linkage and single Ohlins shock Rakeltrail .,. . 24°/101mm Wheelbase . . . 55.1 in . Weight ,.., ,, , ,., 451 full wet Weight d ist ribut ion, fi r , , , , , ' , 52/48% Bra kes Front , .,., . . Dual 320mm Braking "carbiron- floating discs with six-piston Tokico calipers Rea r . _ , ..Single 205mm AP stainless -steel fixed disc wi two- piston Brembo caliper Whee lsltires Front 120170-17 Dunlop 0 207 on 3.50-in.·wide Mar chesini wheel Rear 190/ 50· 17 Dunlop 0 207 on 6.00·in.-wlde Marcheslni wheel Top s pee d , 181 mph Pri ce a s tested _ ,$25.727 , Muzzys Motorcycles Inc. Manufacturer 63017 Sherman Rd.. Bend. Oregon 97701 541 /385·0706. fax 541 /382-9406. Muzzys alters the steer ing geometry (not to mention the co lor) of the stock ZX-7Rframe with different-offset triple clamps to quicken the steering.

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