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/127966
(cou r tesy of Fabriz io Pi rova no and Tea m Alsta re) has been ma tched by a d is ti n c t im provemen t in the World Superbi ke fortunes of the works GSXR750 operation, run for the third year in a row since the model's inception by Britain's Harris Performance. Besides switching from Michelin to Du nlo p tires fo r 1998, Suzuki also recruited Aussie ex-SOOcc GP rider Peter Goddard to ride alongside Ja m e s Whitham on its factory superbike team. The reigni ng World Endurance cha mpion, "God " (w ho hel ped the GSX-R750 d eliver its firs t major title in 1997 after clinching its debut Na tiona l-level crown by winning the 1996 Australia n su perbike cham pions hi p) b ro u gh t not o nly hands-on experience of the bike to th e team - hav ing raced it con tinually since its debut at the end of 1995 - bu t also an extre mely ana lytical app roac h to setu p. Togeth er with Wh ith am ' s effec tive but contrasting ridi ng style, he helped fina l,ly resolv e man y of th e handling problems that had plagued the Suzuki in its first two seasons of World competition. This ena bled Whi tham to consisten tly run at the front of the field in the second half of the 1998 season, stringing togeth er a se ries of top-five fin ishes headlined by his rost rum place in fro nt o f 83,000 h om eto wn fans a t Brands H at ch, after ch a lle ngi ng the w o rks Ducatis of Troy Corser and Carl Fogarty for victory all race lon g. With Goddard also performing well in both qu alifyin g and racing on tracks that were mostly new to him , Su zuki has really giv en th e im pression in 1998 that it' s on the ve rge of becoming a genui ne co n te nde r for top h on ors - a nd that' s in sp ite of ma kin g the conscious d ecisi on to p ers evere with the 1997s pec. ca rbu re ted GSX-R750 for World Superbike competition this yea r. Ind eed , once Ha ga ' s early -se as on stardo m on th e YZF750 Yamaha had w an ed , th e Suzuki be cam e quite a rgua bly the class of the four-cylinder in-lin e ca tego ry at the World Superbike level - a cons ide rab le improvem ent from 1997, when the Japan ese ma rque was the only one not to wi n a sing le race all season long. In ren ew in g my acquain ta nce with Suzuki's four-cy li nd e r contender a t Asse n, I discover ed a motorcycle that .while it is still recognizably the same - competitive race package derived from a street bike - displays a marked level of im p rovemen t over its fast but flawed p redecessor thatl tested on the same track exactly a year ago . This is a substa ntially be tter allaround pac kage, more balanced and stable th an th e 1997 machine, and much fas ter and more ridabl e for it. Su zu ki's es ta b lished po licy of d e li v eri n g an a ffordable base product that' s so welleng ineered t ha t it h a s tu rned 750cc Su pe rs po rt ra cin g i n to a one- make se ries a nd th en o ffering a se lec tio n of kit s tha t allo w any of its custo me rs to attain a level of race performance very close to the works su pe rbikes not only ma kes hopping ab oa rd th e Whitham race bik e seem recognizably like hoppi ng aboard a ny custo mer GSX-R750 s treet bi ke, bu t w ill su r ely stand the company in good stead come the arri val of the new kit-bike WSC regu latio ns in 2001. Bu t that wi ll be then, an d this is now, and in term s of refining the basic package in to a true co ntender, I'd sa y the Harris team ' s th ree years of development h a ve finally begu n to pay off. However, it ha s been at some cost in terms of effort and, I'm su re, budget, because one week after the end of the The power-on understeer that was so prevalent with last year's bike has been dialed out with both differen t suspension and new tires . The bike is also much more stable under hard braking. . 1997 season, the tea m began an intensive series of off-season tests with thei r new tire su pplier that saw them crisscrossing th e worl d from Albacete to Ph illi p Is land , Sha h Al am to Eas te rn Creek, all with the aim of finding the m issi ng 10 p ercent of th e h and lin g ingredient that had made the bikes bot h lo ok a h a n d fu l and - a s I fo un d for myself at Assen a yea r ago - live up to expectations in being exactly that. Ju st a handful of la p s at a stea d ily incr easing pace tells you what a differ ence a year makes. For a start, the pow er understeer tha t plagued the Suz uki last season - and which is a particular problem a t Assen, where there are so many turns where you mu st commit to speed a nd line b efo re entering th e turn because you 'ca n ' t see th e ex it of th e banked corners until aft er you' ve d on e so - has been complete ly removed. The Suzuki now not only holds a line well leaned over in a turn hard on the gas, bu t the ext ra side grip under power of the 16.5-inch rear Dunlop doesn't make the bike sta rt pu shing the fro nt wheel, as it di d on the less grippy Micheli ns the team ~ere forced to use las t year. How so? Because deficient stability mid corner forced th e team to u se 17inch rub ber last yea r, a size that allowed the ba ck end to be slid safe ly when it s te pped out of li ne e n te r ing a bend . Those days ar e gone, brin gin g considerabl y improv ed tracti on , than ks to th e b etter g ri p. Now, the s econ d m a jo r imp rov em ent to th e Su zuki that on e n otices a t once is th at it' s m u ch more stable under hard bra king. This in turn makes it consid erably more balanced on turn-in , thu s allowing you to maintain corne r speed better - again, a critical factor in Assen 's banked bend s. . . Weight transfer doesn't seem to be as much of a factor as it wa s a year ag o, presumably thanks to improved geometry a n d fr ont-susp ension se tt ings, beca use now, w hen yo u brake hard at, say , t h e en d of th e bac k s traig ht at Asse n a nd try to get line d u p for th e crucial 125-m ph sweeper at the end of it, the Suz uki rem ains stable and balanced , wit hout lifting the back whee l and moving abou t w hile yo u' re trying to plo t a co u rse for this testing turn. The sa me ap plies to the left-hander before the chica ne, where yo u parti cularl y notice the more progre ssiv e brakin g action of the four-pot Brembo calip ers th at h av e repl ac ed th e u ltra eff ecti ve (but a lso more ali-or-no thi ng) six-po t Tokicos that Whi tham used last year . The new br ake package is in keeping with the rest of the GSX-R's improvem e nts, m a k in g th e bike fe el mo re refined and controllable, an d less brutal that its 1997 ancestor. A critical eleme nt in that feeling of refinement , accord ing to team boss Lester Harris, is the muchimproved suspension quality compared to last year - Suzuki's first seaso n with A ~ ~ 00 0\ 0\ ...... 00 N l-o III .o o ..... u o 9