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/127933
RIDING Muzzy IMPREssION JL-- Raptor 58850 -----l • en By Alan Cathcart Photos by Fran Kuhn eggi ng Buell's pa rdon, it's always bee n a bit of a mystery why the wo rld's lar gest sportbike market doesn' t have a man u factu rer of its ow n. After all, Bim ota d oesn' t build its own fou r-stro ke engines - but it and all the other m anu fa cturers in Euro pe and Japan that make performance motor cycles sell a n awfu l lot of product each yea r in the Unit ed States. Wh en Rob Muzzy told me two yea rs ago in a World Su perbike pa d dock abo u t his plans to fill at least a part of this ga p by creating the Muzzy marque, I was bo th excited and skep tical. Excited, because the mu stachi oed boss of the Oregon -ba sed ra ce shop a n d tuning house (called Muzzys - sans apos tro phe) is one o f th e motorcycle world's true achievers, and any thing he sets his min d to gets don e - right. Witn ess the World Superbi k e crow n fo r Scott Ru ss ell brea ki n g a s oli d six yea rs o f Du cati dominance - thr ee AMA Su perbike titles (two back to back for Doug Chandler in the past two yea rs) and the trio of AMA 750cc Supersport championships Muzzy ha s won for Kawasaki, since he took over its factory race operation back in 1989. But I was skeptical because Rob's vision of linking wit h Kawasaki USA to ma rket a p roposed Muzzy hyperbike sounded lik e a rec ipe for diluting the caliber of the end resul t. Big compa nies d on ' t usually care much for small-volume niche products, especially hyper-performance ones: They have lawyers behind them fretting about product liability, corporate image, and how it'll play in Washington . And badge-engi neering wi th a couple of hopup tuning pa rts does not an American Bimota make. I needn't have wo rried. Tho ug h indeed based on Kawasaki's existi ng Z X-7R spo rtbike, th e apt ly named Mu zzy Raptor SB850 is as fleet, smart, quick -turning a nd pred atory a sportbike to cru ise the curves of Racer Road in pursuit of ri va ls it can eat for lu nch as its two-legged nam esake was in preh istoric times. In s p ite of it s Troy Le e-d e si gn ed log o , thi s is n o din os a ur. Offering a rgua bly the mos t p ote nt all-around performa nce package cu rrently availab le from a cata logued mo torcycle, the Raptor is a cold-blooded contender for sportbike supremacy - a bike that can claw back respect head to head with any of its rivals. . While in deed a mad e-over vol umeproduction Japanese mot orcycle, th e limited-editio n, t ric ke d-ou t Rap to r stands ready for co mpa riso n wit h Europe's most exotic har d ware, such as the Ducati 916SPS: Superbike performance for the stree t - priced accordingly, and so for connoisseu rs only. The Right Stuff. It is appropriate therefore tha t my chance to ride the Raptor shou ld take place on a cold but sunny win ter's day in California's Mojave Desert - home not only of the Willow Springs race track but also of nearby Edwards Ai r Force Base, nowad ays NASA's lan d ing site for the space shu ttle, a nd also th e ve nue where, long ago, p ilot Chuc k Yeager beca me the first ma n to fly beyond the spee d of so und - the original Right Stuff. Now, just a fe w s ho rt weeks afte r Brit ain 's Andy Gree n and his Thrust 2 car achieved a similar feat by br eaking the sou nd barrie r on land, just across the near by Nevada sta te line, I was her e to ride a di ffere nt kind of land-based guided missile. This was the stree t version of the bike I'd wa tch ed Dou g Cha ndler blitz the Formula USA field with at its public debut at Daytona last year. The mo torcycle that sets new standards for street-bike performance, and is ava ilable ff for A merican rid ers in 49 s tates (ironica lly, given the test venue, not including Calif ornia ) fro m th e ir lo ca l Kawasaki d ealers, or for those of us in the rest of the world, direct from Mu zzys' qu aintl y named Ben d , Oregon, HQ. "This is as close to rid ing a superbike as the ave rage guy will ever be ab le to ge t," said C hand ler after r id in g th e street version of his Formula USA race r. As reig ning AMA Superbike champion, he should know. Here's how it works: The 50 street Rapto rs Muzzys plans to build (is it a coincidence this is the n u m b er needed to homologate the bike for AMA Superbike competition?) are only availab le to U.S. customers through official Kawasaki dealers, w ho will sell you the '98-model ZX-7 on which the Ra pto r is based off th e ir showroom floo r, then ship the bike to Oregon for the Muzzys conversion package to be ins talled by them. That's righ t - no Raptor kits. Muzzys will only sell complete bikes, which it transforms in-house. Three wee ks la te r Muzzys sends it back again - either in uprated original 750cc for m as an SB-750, or as the nopri son ers 58-850 with poweru p performa nce. For foreign custo mers, Muzzys sources th e bike itself, co nverts it and shi ps it abroa d . Retail cost is $18,000 for the base SB-750, ris ing to $25,727 for the top-of- the-range 835cc t e s t b ike , complete with th e optional single-sided cast-magnesiu m swingarm built to Muzzys' specs by RAM in France. Even thoug h U. S. Kawasaki dea lers market the bike exclusively in the States, the conversion voids the original facto ry warranty, which is replaced by Muzzys' ow n 3000-mile/9od ay (whichever-comes-first) wa rranty. Origina lly, it was intended only to bu ild the 58-850 as a Form ula USA customer ra cer, a nd w hile a h and fu l of these missiles d eliverin g a cla imed 178 bhp at the crank have been delivered to ride rs such' as Dave Sadowski, who follo w ed in C ha nd le r's vic torious claw m arks by win ning th e 1997 Fo rm u la USA titl e on his priva teer 850 Raptor , Mu zzys has succ u mbed to pressure to offer a s tree t versi on , too. Hen ce my d esert da te was with the most rad ical Raptor roads ter, w it h its 75 x 47.3mm eng ine (compa red to the ZX-7/SB-750's 73 x 44.7mm) d elivering 147 bhp at the rea r w heel, at 10,000 rpm in a next-d ay dyno test. Compare tha t to the 125 bhp at 12,500 rpm p u t out by the 748cc SB-750 (and the 105 bhp at 11,000 rpm of a stock ZX·