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/128085
Racer Test The Suzuki is infamous for being at a deficit in the engine department (left), but mechanic Warren Willing does a good job of making up for it in othe r areas. One such area is the Ohlins fork and rear s hock (above), which are partly responsible for its perfect balance and strong cornering characteristics . (Right) A view of the cockp it. Minimal changes in seating position require completely different chassis setups. any other four-c ylinder 500 I've ye t samp led - a fac t und erlined by wa tchi ng Rob ert s cu t inside Biaggi' s Yama ha in their en d -of-race d u stup in Arge n tina , or bef or e th a t, w he n co pi ng w it h th e Barros /Honda onsla ught on Qerrnany's twi sty , confined Sachsenring. Compa red to th e Cri ville NS R500 Ho nda th at I rod e a w eek later in Japan, the Suzu ki steers more like a jumped-up 250 than a V4 500, with its most obvious advantage the ease with w hich yo u can maintain corn er speed, using a lot of lea n angle in a turn, then pick it up quickly to use the fat part of the rear Michelin to fire it out of the apex. It's notably qu icker -steering than the single-crank Ho nd a, and is also easier to flick upright once you ' ve got it cranked over, to get a better dri ve out of a turn us ing the fat pa rt of the tire. Ye t th at easy turn -in ha sn ' t bee n obtained via too rad ical a chassis se tu p, ...i th relatively conservative static geo mv etry of 24 degree s on th e head a ng le, a nd 93 m m o f trai l, w it h a 1400m m wh eelbas e. The team d oesn' t alter these figu res mu ch fro m track to track, only dependi ng on the cho ice of tire, preferring to conce n tra te on keeping the bike ba lan ced and geo me try unch ang ed at maximum lean angle. In fact, the rear rid e height isn' t extreme, either - resul ting in a CP 500 that feels uncan nily like a light-st eer ing road bike. O nly, a very fas t on e, wi th an awesom e pow er to we ig h t ra tio! An d no s treet bike ha s suc h refi ned sus pen s ion complian ce, w h ich ea ts u p th e few bu mps on the Jerez circuit as if they d id n' t exist, allowing you to keep hard on the gas as the Su zuki floats over th em , eve n on th e ang le. The Suzuki ho lds its line brilliantly und er power, while you tap th rou gh the gea rs on the so-p recise wid e-open power-shift er. And hitting a high er gea r in the midd le of a turn, like on the fast left- h ande r le adi n g onto th e back straigh t, does n' t make the bike push the fro n t or tr y to run w ide; th e Su z u ki stays righ t on line as yo u shift up. Later, as I s ta rted to feel more a t home and tru st the grippy fro nt Michelin to let me carry even more turn speed , I tried taking the same corne r on e gear higher, to av oid fallin g off the tor qu e curve a nd losin g vita l revs for th e main stra ig ht that ca me n ex t. Even in fo u r th ge a r inst ead of third, the Suzu ki hugged the ch ose n li n e, dr ivi n g h ard b ut p re dictably ou t of the apex and rew arding me with 500 more rpm dow n the ensuing straigh t, so tha t I then fou nd myself sc rro us ly d eep in to the next ha ir p in, hav ing u s ed the sa me brakin g po in t fro m hi gher speed; I nearly p ai d th e price w ith a straig ht-on into the sand pit. The team appa rently does alter int ernal gear ratios a lot - as you' d expect with a bike that was a littl e d ow n on po wer. Th is ma kes the most o f w ha t they' ve got. and assures they have the engi ne revving just right for the exit of a key turn so as to op timize accelera tion and top speed down the stra igh t. It's jus t a 30-min ute job from start to fin ish to swa p ratios in the casse ttetype gea rbox. Okay - so the XR89 is a very confid e nce-in sp irin g p a ck a ge w hich must be grea t to ride hard in the company of less ca pab le- ha nd li ng b ikes unt il you co me to th e n ext straig ht, that is, and the tab les are turned. Wh ich is not to say that th e Suzuki is a slowc oac h . Felt pr etty potent to me, the way my field of vision becam e so rapid ly narrowed every tim e the track ope ned ou t and I could twist the extre mely precise, light-action throttle wi de op en. But the bik e' s real strength is the ease with which it steers and changes direction , like in the righthander turn-two hairp in at Jerez, where you must cut right across to take the tight left-hander leadi ng onto the next straight, while sh or t-s h ift ing to g et th e dri ve . Flicking the Suzuki up and over from full lean felt so easy - yet it doesn ' t feel as if it's on rails, so that if vou, ahem, make a mistake and go too dee p into a turn, you can cu t in tighter and still ge t a go od dri ve ou t. So forgiving . Same applies to the engine, which if it doesn't have the Honda's rush of raw-