Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike Test (Left! Tadayuki Okada spent the Kyalaml test getting up to speed on the Honda RC51 after a career spent on Honda NSR250s and NSRSOOs. (Right) The much ballyhooed thumb shifter on the factory Ducatl. check, the tough Aussie opted to tough it out and ride again. His bike was, however, almost completely trashed, and like the rider, covered in muck and grass. Bayliss' crash occurred at the same Goodyear Tum that Bostrom fell at on the opening day. After Xaus crashed on Wednesday at the same place, it was soon rechristened Ducati Comer. Tadayuki Okada's lack of race fitness forced him to miss the entire Tuesday test session, despite receiving energy supplements from medical staff. His lack of fitness is a result of a training regimen interrupted by has last season's injuries, but even if endurance was lacking, speed was not. Neither was confidence. "I have not had much chance to train and that has made me very tired after these tests, - said a departing Okada. "Now I will start a program of physical training. - A long time 250 and 500cc GP rider, Okada had some surprising opinions about the difference between a 500 and modern Superbike. "The VTR is much different from the GP bike. The power means that the throttle is easy to open earlier. Machine weight is 30 kg [66 pounds! higher but the 500 actually feels heavier to steer into faster corners. The extra weight is no problem for me. Last year I rode the VTR in the All Japan championship and the Eight-Hour, so I have some previous experience. The bike is competitive, but I think we still have to work on traction and handling, because we do not have enough." Okada also went on to confinm what some have felt all along. "I do not see any difference between the standard of riding in 500 GP and Superbike so far. I have only finished the first tests in Superbike, so I do not know if there is any great difference in status between the Superbike and GP series, because 1 have never been in a Superbike race. But Superbike is very popular with the spectators and is very important to help sell Hondas. " Troy Corser came back with a vengeance on Tuesday, running fast times from the beginning. His jet lag from Australia. and the fact that he arrived straight from the airport meant he did only 14 laps in total, before heading back for some shuteye. Visibly thinner and fitter looking than last season, Corser has been training hard to try and win his second World Superbike title. "My parents' property has got some land around it now. so I was motocrossing every day I was back in Australia. I've also been doing a lot of trials riding and mountain biking. When I jumped on the racebike I was looking for the handlebars to be up in the air like the motocrosser! I've lost about five kilos or so and I'm down to about 64 kg [140 pounds! now. I feel really fit and confident for the season ahead. We did belter, earlier than we ever expected last year, so who knows what we can do this season? I think Regis [Laconi] will be a good teammate for me. He rides the bike a lot more like me than Alessandro Antonello did. He was all front brake into the comer, whereas me and Regis seem to get on the power a bit earlier coming out of the comer. " Akira Yanagawa, going into his fifth straight Kawasaki WSB season, took time to adjust to Kyalami. Disappointed at not having a 2001 spec engine to try out early in the tests, he was however looking forward to his first chance to use it. "I think maybe Kawasaki spend a lot of effort on a 1000cc bike,' said Yanagawa who confinmed that if Kawasaki does indeed have advanced plans for a four-stroke GP machine, he would be very keen to be the man to ride it. Hitoyasu Izutsu, winner of both Sugo Superbike races in 2000, was re-confirmed to attend seven WSB races this year. Although he is down to ride a European spec ZX-?RR, not his All-Japan Championship bike, he is going to use his more familiar Ohlins forks, not the WP units in the Ecklteam. Aprilia Superbike chief Giuseppe Bernicchia tumed up at Kyalami with some new throttle bodies for the RSV V -twin, all of which made their way from Italy to South Africa the old-fashioned way as his hand baggage. "The new throttle body and EFI system are mechanically much like the previous ones, but they have shown an improvement in throttle response and driveability during bench development. We also have new l6.5-inch Oz wheels here that are designed to cut the weight of the machine. plus reduce inertial forces during braking and acceleration. The bike is now on the weight limit, but if we can get it even lighter. so that we can ballast it where we want. then that would be ideal. "We have been working on the engine over the winter non stop and it is a little stronger everywhere. Nothing dramatic, but stronger. Kyalami is not an ideal place to try and detenmine engine improvements. but we have all the comparative data from the previous races and tests, $0 we can have an accurate baseline' For his part. Cors- 16 FEBRAURY 14, 2001 • cue •• n _ ers first impressions of the changes were not too positive. "It feels slower, - summed up his thoughts, but with two days to go and a further test at Phillip Island, improved settings could possibly realize the potential Bernicchia believes can be found. "We need to find ideal settings, but even now Troy is still putting in fast lap times. This is very good considering that some other teams at this test have been here all last week, and yet we are making competitive times right away." It is understood that Troy Corser will be next in line for the new ventilated Brembo calipers fitted to Bayliss' bike dUring one of the Kyalami sessions. with gusto at Kyalami but admitted to feeling very tired after four energy-sapping days. "It is hard for me to get my head round the fact that I will be racing twice a day, so I have to train even harder A factory re-shuffle at Aprilia has seen Giuseppe Bemicchia put in overall charge of the Superbike operations, with Jan Witteveen now in charge of the GP side of the Noale concem. Bernicchia acknowledged that work has started on the four-stroke project. but maintains that the final decision of exactly what the bike's engine configuration will be has still not been decided. Witteveen will continue to represent Aprilia at MSMA meetings, as a representative of both sides of Aprilia's now stringently demarked fence. Ruben Xaus gave Ducati an unwelcome hat trick of crashes at Turn Five on Wednesday morning, just before noon, but the young Spaniard escaped injury. First Bostrom and then Bayliss had been claimed by the Goodyear corner, all for different reasons. Xaus' eventful tests have now included a birdstrike, two crashes (the first last week) and a lost day due to injury. Ducati had one new piece of equipment on display at Kyalami, a set of 290mm ventilated Brembo discs, which only Bayliss used on Wednesday afternoon. Featuring calipers with four individual pads, the Kyalami test was the first time the equipment had ever been tried out. The reasons given for the adoption of the new system is to reduce centrifugal forces on the wheel, without reducing the power or the feel of the brake. Ruben Xaus crashed twice "The system is experimental and this is the first time and hit a bird during his we have tried it." said a Kyalaml test. Brembo spokesman. ---------------------------"Maybe it will not be an advantage at every circuit. but it could offer some advantages at some tracks. All teams now try to reduce the rotating mass from the whole front end. Many use lighter wheels now as well, • Ben Bostrom, out to run an endurance test on tires just after lunch on the final day, ran straight on at the entry to Nashua, and suffered his second crash of the test. Unhurt, the American had earlier improved his best time, hammering out a 1:42.290. "I have to say I struggled a little during these tests. 1wanted to get inside the 1:41s but I missed my goal. I guess it didn't help that this country is 10 hours ahead of my home, which throws my sleep patterns right out. I haven't been sleeping properly. I know now I didn't get here early enough to acclimatize to the time difference. I had two crashes and both times had to lay the bike down before I went into the trackside barriers. The walls are really close here. The track is a nice layout. but I'm not looking forward to coming back here to race. But I still plan to win both races.• Davide Tardozzi finally had some reason to celebrate on the final day, with Bayliss !ind Bostrom setting very good times. 'We had a lot of crashes this test. It has been hard but we have leamed a lot and now have some good times to show for it. " With lots of Dunlop teams on display the British/Japanese tire company reckoned they had been buming their way through over 100 sets of tires per day. Plucky Frenchman Stephane Cham bon set about his new task VI" S Stephane Chai.lbcMls anolMr WOltd SuperbIIle .....comer. He wi. be ~1CelIoCOChIII's ......18te on the factory SuzI*I squad. than I do now. I adjusted the handlebar position of my bike, back to the original one. because it wasn't allOWing me to feel natural entering corners. " Pier-Francesco Chili, one of the hardest working testers in the paddock, found himself overloaded with information inputs as he continued to jump from one machine to the next. "We are making progress but it is coming much slower than I hoped, I don't have such a good feeling with the bike - and I am very tired. It is a lot of work with two brand-new bikes. Testing for four days with no break is too much, I think. I like to test at the maximum and you cannot do that for four days. Sometimes you lose concentration and then you pay. And now we got to Welkom - but I don't know what we can do there. It is supposed to be very slippery. - His exhausting routine finally delivered him a best of fifth overall, and possibly without the aid of the much hyped tractioncontrol system. Still a thorny point. cloaked in mystery by any member of the Suzuki team, Chili claimed that "No I don't think we are. Last year we tested something. You have to ask the technical people about that. I am not so sure there is one here because when it starts to spin it spins! - There were few tell-tale signs of any such device on the final day, but there were extremely trick Eight-Hour style QD wheels and hubs on display every day, an initiative devised to save the overworked Suzuki race shop from having to make two styles of hubs, spindles and so on. Gregorio Lavilla and Akira Yanagawa finally got to test their 2001 machines on the final days at KYalami, but their unhappy lack of real competitiveness was no surprise to team boss Harald Eckl. "This circuit is not so good for us, so we knew it would be hard.' When asked if Kawasaki's possible involvement with building a four-str6ke GP bike was detracting from development of the ZX-7RR, Eckl claimed that" I keep asking Kawasaki if they have a GP bike under development. but so far they have not said yes or no. " Gregorio Lavilla's first impression of the new engine is that it is not significantly faster or better than the other one. "The bike feels pretty much the same Gregorio Lavilla puts the to me so far.' said the Catalan Kawasaki Superbike rider - a point that possibly just underlines the fact that Kyalami through one of Kyalami's is a one-off, and not the ideal comers en route to the place to look for engine nlnth-quickest time of the test. improvements.

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