Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Test "Tha t w a s a pretty r em arkabl e accomplis hment," Allen said . The 16.5-inch front ha s bee n the standar d for Dunlop ' s World Superbike progra m, but this was the first ti me th ey put it into a Dayt o na dual- compound tire. "Scott Russell said his bike was transform ed ," Allen said, with Russell knocking nea rly two seco nds off his bes t time at the end of the first d ay of testin g to tu m his fastest-ever lap on the Harl ey at Daytona - a 1:52.2. The tire allows the rid ers to rid e over th e bumps , instead o f s ki t ti n g ove r them, accordi ng to Allen , and the feed back in vo kes con fid en ce in the front end . Dunlop's Daytona tire test "It ' s d efini tel y bette r," Yos himu ra Suzu ki's Mat Mladin said after pu tting the 16.5 on the front of his number onea do rned G SX-R 75 0. "For us, w e ' v e a lways had a bit of a problem in the midd le of the comer, it's not a good feeling in th e fro nt, it sort of always seems to be a little pushy. It just helped me ge t a little more comer speed than anyth ing, and just a be tter feeling in ge ne ral. It just seems mo re stuc k. You can really ge t in now and han~ it off w hen you pick up the 'gas a bit earlier." Th ere w asn 't much new in th e rear tire, the rid er s mostl y tes ting th e sa me tire they raced on in March, thou g h with an improved com pound . On the seco nd da y of testin g there was an inordinate awasaki made news this year by announcin g m id w a y th rou gh th e seaso n th at it would be taking it s prog ram in -h ou se . G on e w a s lo n gt im e con trac to r Rob Mu z zy , replaced by Mike Preston of the wa tercraft-racing d ivisio n. Preston immediately m ad e his ma rk, retaining Doug Chandler, who won more Superbike races th is season - three - th an he had since 1990, and bringing back old hand Gary Medley. For a second rider, Preston hi red Eric Bostrom, w ho chose the green team afte r failing to come to terms wi th the Vance & Hin es Duca ti sq ua d . Where Muzz y was often accused of too closely wat chin g the bo ttom line, money doesn't see m to be an iss ue a t Kawa sa ki, w hic h is a goo d thi ng when you' re sta rti ng fro m scra tch and ha ve an ove rly ambitious testing program . " We' re buying everyt h ing, jus t eve ry thing," Medley sa id . " Eve ryth ing from a nut to a wa sher is all ne w . The fa cili ty is all new, the truck ' s a ll new, all the p eopl e a re new . Even tho ug h two of th e g uys worked with Doug last yea r, basically everything's new. We bou ght d yn os, we bou gh t buil din gs." After a year working with Be n Bo strom at V& H D uca ti , Med ley retu rn ed to the team for w hich he'd worked for mos t of the decade. "I felt more at hom e," Medley said of hi s return . "A lot o f th e p eople wh o are involved with th is are peo ple I worked with in '92, '93, '94, '95 with World Superbike, and it's like a big family for me. Mike Preston, the team m an ager , is a really good g uy. He w ants eve ry th ing ri ght a nd he wan ts top-level stuff, so he's not bee n shy to push for th e issues to have it. So a nyt hing w'e've wan te d a n d thou ght we needed to bring this team back to a top-l evel team , he d id it." Medley d id say th at they si m ply hadn't had eno ugh tim e to ge t read y. He started work at Kawasaki on October and has been going full stick the whole tim e. "As far as I'm conce rn ed, we' re going to tak e Christmas Day off probably and New Year's, and that's it," he said. He a lso sa id tha t the y hoped to test a t every track that hosts an AMA Superbike race, and some that do n' t. They' ve already bee n to Willow Spri ngs and plan to tes t at Pikes Peak, Lagu na Seca , Las Vegas and Sears Point , befo re the sta rt of the yea r. Immediately afte r Daytona , th ey're pl anning on go ing to Road Atlanta and Elkhart Lake, th ou gh the weather in Wisconsin in mid- Ma rch could be a problem . Kawasaki was go ing to stay on at Daytona for two furt her days of testing, after the th ree Dunlo p days . Depending on w ho m you as ked, they either had a truckfu l of pa rts to test, or nothing tha t couldn't be done in the initial three-d ay Dunlop test. . ... ~ u; ~ ~ .. E u o 14 some downtime at Daytona Intern ational Speedway. - huuse In 1\ m Jamie Hacking confe rs with members of his Yamaha crew during Cha nd ler put the metallic-green bikes throu gh th eir paces a nd found the m better than what he raced last year, ev en th ou gh they wer e brand-new bikes, jus t delivered. "It seems to really accelerate ha rd, really accelerate," he said, "and it sp ins more rp m than w ha t the old bike would do . You can feel it's a lot st ro nger." At 'Daytona in 2000, Chandler will have a oneoff race on the new ZX-6, w hich he was also testing after a year away from the class. "It goes around th e co rners pretty good," he said . "It's just seeing if we ca n p ick up so me speed." As for the new tea m, th e always-no n plussed Chand ler was predictabl y nonplussed. • "Everyone that's been here is well established from o t her p laces," h e s a id, adding th at h e retained two crew members from last year . "They kn o w w hat's going o n. It's not lik e yo u have a bunch of br and-new guys. That makes it a lot ea ier, especially o n Mike (Preston), because he 's all new to all of this stuff ." Also new to the team was Eric Bostro m, along with his crew of fellow ex-Honda employees, Al Ludington and Joey Lombardo . Bostrom's season started and ende d at Dayt ona last year. He injured his foot after high-sid ing the RC45 in practice fo r th e Dayton a 200 and never trul y followed up on the promise he'd shown in a few Su pe rb ike rides in 1998. Dayt on a is an es pecia lly d evilish tra ck for Bostrom becau se of the horrific accid ent his brot her suffered when a rear tire blew au t in last year's tire test. "Fo r sure, every time I go around tum four , it kind of spooks me ," Bostrom said, adding tha t it wasn 't ge tting any better. His tim es weren't bad, thou gh, and his first impression of the inline four was favorab le. "It's a lot d ifferent [than the Honda RC451," he said. "T he m otor' s go t grea t torqu e . It pull s through a real wi de ran ge, and that 's really nice: And the steering is sharp - it's rea lly nice. We've go t a fair bit of traction issues to work on. It's definitely a li ttle tight er sensation than the Honda, because the Ho nda didn't have good feel, but yo u cou ld slide the rear around a lot. And this th ing, every time I slide th e rear around, the thing starts, like, ge tting a little bit angry wi th me. But then, like the front, you can just put the thin g in there. So I'm sti ll kind of learnin g ho w far I can pu sh the front, because last yea r my confid ence kin d of got beat d own o n the RC45 . I'm just catching up to it: ' Like almost eve ryone at the test, Bostrom was working out sus p ension issues. "Right now we've. got a little bit of maybe a suspension probl em and it' s really fu nn y because my team, AI and Joey and Jamie, none of us : a re used to it," he sa id. "We' re all kind of looking a t eac h o the r lik e, 'O kay, w hat no w?' We've had the sa me problem all day, w e've been able to ca lm it d ow n but not fix it. So we' re all kind of scra tching ou r heads. It's a real evol ution. It's neat, becaus e we're all kind of learning. It's just a po go, just a pump on the rear sus p ensio n, w hen I ba ck her down goi ng in to th e tri-oval." Unlike many of the o the r teams, where the rid er s jealously guard their kn owledge, this team acts like a team, wi th Cha nd ler sha ring any acqui red info rmation wi th Bostrom, an invaluable asset. " Do ug is awesome fo r a teammate," Bostrom sai d . "We've got a g rea t team because right now every body's co mmunicating and, like, if I want to go ride Doug's bike, it's cool, I can rid e the th ing. I come in an d for th e most pa rt Doug and I ha ve the same things to say, but I think he gets to th e point rea l quick, and it's helpful. " After Daytona , Bostrom wil l fly th e co m pa ny flag on th e 600, so he p u t some time in on it in Florida. . "I' rn co nfident th at rig h t now it's ju st a new th in g and we hav en 't go t it d ia led ," he sa id. "I know the thin g' s going to ru n good . But right now, for so me reason , we changed fue l and a bunch of little things that, for so me reaso n, we're hurting on acceleration right now, and I'm fully co nfiden t wit h th e bike and the team and I know the thing steers like a demon. It feels like a World Superbike when yo u ge t on the thing . It' s d efinitely go t a racier feel than the F-4 I rode last ye ar - for me, anyway."

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