Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2001 02 21

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Strange as it may seem, last year's new generation GSX-R750 was used In Superstock bim by the team while the Superblke squad used an updated version of the 1999 bike. The difference in aerodynamics alone is visible when the two are parked nose to nose. scopic effect on the steering, as well as unsprung weight, when getting the bike stopped isn't so difficult. Last year, for the first time, it was right on the 162 kg. (356.4 pounds) class weight limit, partly from saving over half a kilo on the rear brake, which Chili apparently never uses, so it is as light as possible, employing one of the distinctive Braking 'margarita' discs used on the front of the Corona team's 600 Supersports. However, it wasn't always so good, for previously the bike did move around a lot under heavy braking, till some typical lateral thinking by Alstare saw them firstly set the engine idle as high as 4000 rpm, on the bike I was riding - then use a couple of solenoids to inject air into the cylinders changing from third to second and second to bottom gears, to counteract the effect of the reverse torque loads. Now, the slipper clutch really does work properly, and you can brake very hard and late from high speed for any slow turn, without the bike moving around and snaking about as you do so. The Suzuki stays planted: the back end doesn't chatter under engine inertia or move about under weight transfer, and the sensitive brake setup allows you to finger the lever to hold a line in several places - like around the long, long, Turn Three sweeper, or over the hills comprising the pair of blind turns. Another reason Chili opts for that high four-grand idle speed is that it also serves its purpose in eliminating the effects of any remaining throttle snatch even once the EFl's been properly mapped, by ensuring the engine is always under load. This does make the warm.up lap a little exciting, before you're sure the tires are cooking properly and you won't be inadvertently propelled toward the at around 9000 rpm, with another kick of power at 11,000 revs which sends the digital tachometer reading on the compact Australian-made 132-channel MoTec infocenter (which incorporates the bike's entire onboard telemetry system) scooting around toward your appointment with the bright-blue shifter light which glows on the dash at 14,000 rpm. Tapping Suzuki's own sweet-shifting race-pattern wide-open powershifter repeats the process - engine acceleration is really strong, and there's no tail-off in power before you hit the revlimiter: the bike does really seem as if it has the appetite for higher revs. There's simply no comparison between the power delivery of today's fuel-injected Suzuki and the old carbureted bike, whose pickup out of turns was much more gradual by World Superbike standards, even leisurely. This in turn made it paradoxically more difficult to ride than today's EFt bike, because you had to work hard at keeping it revving up high, where all the strong power was. Chili's Suzuki is a lot different - not only in the way the power is delivered, but also how much more of it there is, all through the rev range. Stopping hard from high speed, as you must do three times a lap at Almeria, would previously have been a recipe for concern on the older GSX-R750, which was very unstable under heavy braking, making it hard to pick a line. The '99 Suzuki was far better on the brakes, and the 2000 bike is better still, with the latest-spec radial-mounted Brembos giving lots of bite, aided by the effective engine braking delivered by the slipper clutch. Front discs measuring 320mm were fitted for our test, but the team also has 290mm and 305mm versions available to reduce the gyro- 20 FEBRUARY 21,2001 • cue I e n D vv s outside of a turn you're trying to negotiate. Just make sure you use the clutch early when stopping at the pits. "Pier-Francesco wants to be quite sure that the rear wheel doesn't lock when stopping hard from high speed," explains Moro. "If he lowers the idle speed, there's too much engine inertia for the slipper clutch to cope with, which leads to rear wheel . chatter and makes the bike move around a lot under braking, so he can't pick a line into the turn properly. It's with all the in-line fours, and raising the idle speed really helps, as well as resolving the problem of the jerky pickup from a closed throttle. That's because there's still fuel entering the cylinder even when you let go of the twistgrip, so the unburnt mixture which gathers on top of the butterfly with a low idle doesn't dump into the cylinder when you open the gas even a little, producing the jerk. It worksl" Yes, but only if you also get the mapping somewhere near right. The Suzuki's riding 'position feels different from the '99 version, though it still seems just as wide as before much more so than the R7, by comparison, and more too than its kid sister, the new girl on Suzuki's Superbike roster. Chili reckons the bike is too light on the front, says Moro, even with the 16.5-inch Dunlops now a constant fitment, so he experiments with trying to alter the riding position. "We try to reduce the rear weight bias in order to give more life to the rear tire," he says. "Even with the lightweight exhaust it's only a 50/50percent weight distribution with gas, and we first tried to improve this with a 15mm longer swingarm - but then we had problems with grip. We tried to resolve this by a,ltering the sWingarm-pivot height, but this didn't work, so he asked to move the rider's position further forward, in order to load up the front wheel more with his body weight. We succeeded partly in improving tire life, but not completely - at some circuits we still had a problem with the tire failing to last and gfJing off, like at Brands Hatch in August. The bike is quite sensitive to the two kinds of Dunlops - the ones made in Japan have a more pointy profile which makes the handling more nervous, but the bike turns better, whereas the British ones are flatter in section, which means they give stability at the expense of being heavier to ride. We change the geometry around at most circuits to try to make a good compromise depending on the tire we choose." Suzuki has braced up the stock GSX-R750 twin-spar alloy chassis with a strut above the cylinder head to tie the two spars together, and the result is a stiff-feeling frame that doesn't twist or move around when you get hard on the gas out of a turn. Showa's smaller 43mm upside-down forks were fitted, rather than the 47mm ones on the '99 bike, using quite different springs for more compliance and greater feel, as well as reduced weight. The riders say it turns quicker with these, and I'll confirm this, especially at Almeria's walking-pace chicane where you hardly need to move your body to flick the Suzuki from side to side as easy as a twin - well, easier than some, in fact: the steering has a balanced feel that gives you confidence. I always wondered how Chili could pull some of the stunts with an in-line four that he gets away with when battling with the twins - like some of his passing maneuvers en route to victory at Monza, or the fantastic way he kept up the pressure on Colin Edwards' Honda right up to the flag in the final race of the season at a tight, tricky Brands Hatch. Well - now I know: this Suzuki was born well, and though it had more than its fair share of growing pains in carbureted guise, it ended up a fine, upstanding young Supe~bike once they fitted EFI. "The fact that this bike allowed riders with such different styles as Chili, Mladin, Walker and Ryo to all ride it so successfully and to win races on it against supposedly superior V-twins, underlines its true worth," says Moro. "But it needed the final push to become a true champion - and from everything we've heard, it seems the new bike may provide that missing link. I hope so - it's Pier-Francesco's turn to be World Champion - and Suzuki'sl" Amen to that, I hear all Chili's fans whispering, in every country in the Superbike world. eN

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