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/128079
The cockpit on Chili 's bike features an Australian-made 132-ch annel MoTech infocenter. The infocenter incorporates the bike 's on-board telemetry system. ou t of a tum. But though I didn't experience it at Zolder, Chili says there's one handlin g quirk he ho p e s Su zuki is wo rki ng on - th e GSX-R' s beh a vior in crossw inds. "The front of the bike shifts a lot of wi nd," he says, "so w he n it co mes in fro m the side, it mak es th e fro nt-e nd light, maybe becaus e of the big radiator. Pro ba b ly we n eed th is fo r th e wa te r temp, but I think th e fact it is stepped ' :5niiiil Chili use d a 16.5-in ch Dunlop, mak ing it better-matched to the rear than the 17-inch front tire used before. The Corona bike also us es Brembo brakes and an Invert ed 47mm Showa fork. and is so large allows the wind to lift the b ik e u p . Wh en I c ras hed a t Phill ip Island in preseason , the wind was blowing from the sea, and I felt it catch the bike an d pu sh me maybe 15 meters (50 feet) befor e I fall. Then at Brands Ha tch, on the fast tu rn at the end of the back straight, I cha nge in to fifth gea r and .feel the fro nt go ligh t just w her e yo u hit a bump. I thin k it's an aerody namic p roblem we nee d to wo rk on." Yes, bu t that hu ge radiator is ther e for a purpose. The Alstar e dyno in their ex te ns ively eq uipped R&D center in Liege reveals a 12-hp drop if the wa ter tem p rises from 80 to 90 degrees, as it would in Californ ia in July with out that ma ssive rad iator. Maybe a sma ller one, with athermostat , might be the answ er? My probl em was a d iffe ren t one: how to stop the Suzuki w hile trying to tu rn left cresting the stee p hill after the first chicane at Zolder, especially wit h the wall looming up s o m e w he r e aro u nd my right elbow . Du e to the fact tha t the Suzuki's midrange accelera tion ou t of the fast exit to the chicane is so explosive, you 're making a decent stab at joining th e N ASA program as you shoo t up the hill. You can on ly rul e it ou t by shor t-s hifti n g th e bi k e a n d standin g on the pegs to thro w you r we igh t for ward . But ultimately, this is a very impres-' sive package that 's a huge improveme nt e ngi n e-wise ov er w hat Su zuki h a d before, and has had the benefi t of attention from a master of chassis setup, as well a s con tin u ous tire deve lopmen t aimed at rounding off all the ed ges in handling performance. It's no wonder the GSX-R750 fina lly becam e a serious con tender in 1999. It's a cla ssic examp le of a fu ndamentally so u nd d esign tha t jus t needed all th e ingred ient s in its race progr am to come together to make it a win ner . And now , thanks to Ch ili and Mladin - it is. eN Stephane Chambon's GSX·R600 t's nice to get it right once in a while. A year ago, when I rode the Alstare Co ro na Suzu ki GSX.R600 on which Fabrizio Pirovano had clinch ed the 1998 World Cu p Supersport crown, I wro te tha t, "the new CBR600 Ho nd a and R6 Yamaha are being tou ted as contenders for World Super sp ort honors next season, but the fact is that the Alstar e Corona GSX-R600 is th e on e th ey ha ve to beat. And wit h Pirov ano and (Stepha ne) Cha mbon tea mi ng up for a no the r sea son together in defense of Suzuki' s world title, the new bikes w ill have their wo rk cut out to do the bu sin ess." And S0 they did . All d th at was because 1999' s inaugural Wor ld Su persport Cha m pions hip saw C h a m bon fo llo w in his te am mate's foot st eps, clinching th e title on the Corona -liveried bike w ith a se ries of consiste n t p erforman ces that saw him visit the ros tru m five times in 11 races. No other rid er d id so more ofte n, and he wo n two ro unds convi ncingly, sco ring points in every sin gle race , except for the Austrian del ug e , w hen Re u be n Xau s fell in front of h im a nd C h a m b on grabbed a ha ndful of fron t bra ke in sym pa thy. Apa rt fro m that , it was a fau ltless season by the pocketsized Frenchma n, w hose trickcyclist repertoire of cro wd- pleasin g slowdown-lap stu n ts en route to vi ctory lan e was mat ched by a skill and de termi na tio n o ut in the close-quarters co mbat th a t is world-clas s The Coro nita of th e Alstare family Superspor t racin g . Hi s Step hane Chambo n's GSX-R600. I '" '" '" M ~ Q) .a E Q) > o Z 24 was a ve ry popula r win, and all the mo re so fo r being u p against wid espread expecta tion . The Suzuki is co!'sidered to be off t he pace in AMA Supersport racing, and was su pposed to st ruggle at wo rld level aga inst the new breed of bikes. Instead , thanks to Chambon, it won an u nderdog cha mpions hip victory. A'ld a deser ved one for the Alst are team, whose title w in last season had cemen ted th eir new relati onship wi th the Suz uk i factor y. That relationship led to the Belgian-based tea m being eq ua l pa rt ners in Supersport R&D, supplyirig a constant supply of new parts that were m at ch ed a ll season long. by a n equ al flow of new com ponents from Alstare's own sup pliers - in ma ny cases the produ ct of th e tea m ' s ow n R&D se tu p in their Liege base . Alstare boss Francis Batta knew that retaining th e Supersport crown wou ld be a to ugh job in the face of the cha llenge from the CBR600, and especially the R6 - but hi s engin eers ' co ns ta n t effor ts to keep the three-year-old Suzu ki , on the pace more than paid off. The chance to ride Ch ambon's fu ture title-w inner at the team's local circuit at Zold er - just before the trio of races tha t concluded the World seri es - made clear th e success a n d ex ten t of Als ta re 's effor ts th is se ason . Com p ared to th e similar bike I rode a year ago, th e '99 Wo rld Cha m pion Suz uki has been carefu lly re fin ed and subtly im p ro ved in severa l crucial areas, combining to create a package capable of fendi ng off the challenge of the R6 armada over the full season. Mind you , it wasn't always s9. Thou gh Charnbon kicked off the season with a pa ir of second- p lace finishes on handlin g circu its at Kyalami and Don: ing ton, theSuzu kis w ere sh ipwrecked on th e hi gh-speed Mon za m otorwaf Cha m bo n had his wors t fini sh o f th ~ season, in 12th place. Su zuki's futu i .:, AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin wasn't the only one to remark that the wide, short-w hee lbase GSX-R600 looked like a ba rn doo r com pa red to the sve lte