Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

need to switch the headlight on before I stopped - but it was getting close ... After being pretty critical in print of the 2001 V-twin Honda Superbike after I rode it at Jerez a year ago just a week after completing in-depth track tests of its Ducati and Aprilia rivals, I was looking hard for the improvement that must surely have been wrought on the 2002 version to allow Edwards to blitz the still better ultrashort-stroke Ducati 998R he had to contend with this past season. I needn't have worried: first lap at Suzuka, it was immediately apparent what those clever folks from HRC had done. A year ago, the main impression I had after a dry-weather ride at Jerez was that the Honda was peakier and harder to ride than either of the Italian V-twins, without such a wide spread of usable power - it wasn't as muscular and meaty in its power delivery low down, as the Ducati especially. It felt more highly strung and less torquey, meaning I had to change gear a lot to keep it accelerating hard, and there was a big hole in the power band around 8000 rpm, which, when the revlimiter cuts in hard at 12,000 revs as it still did in 2002, meant it was short of midrange power and needed to be kept revving. Hard work - and with the same engine specification for the Honda at the start of the 2002 season, it's not difficult to see why Ducati dominated the early races so convincingly. But then riding the Cabin SP-2W at Suzuka immediately uncovered the difference: on this 8 Hours bike, Honda filled in the power and torque curves all the way through the rev band, so that not only is there more power from the 6500 rpm mark you're forced to let the engine run as low as through the walking-pace Suzuka chicane, there's a comparable improvement all the way through the powerband till you hit the 11,500 rpm rev limiter on this endurance which is their trump card. You can hold a gear from way low to way high, like running up the hill behind the Suzuka pits or along the straight between the Dunlop and Degner turns, saving gearchanges as you do so, whereas before you'd be zapping through the gearbox like riding a peaky two-stroke GP bike, rather than a long-legged, lazy-sounding Vtwin: fun, but frantic. There isn't the sense any more that the Honda must, at all costs, be kept revving hard - it feels torquier and more muscular, while at the same time picks up revs even faster than before, all the way through the revband. The SP-2W is now hyperresponsive but not snatchy - you don't need to worry like in the past about a jerky pickup when you get back on the gas at the Suzuka hairpin from a closed throttle, still cranked over. That's because the EFI mapping is considerably improved from last year. Sure, there's instant response, but of the measured, controlled kind rather than a snatch which kicks the rear wheel out and makes you worry about powersliding out of a slow turn. Before, you needed to be sure to keep the engine revving above 10,000 rpm to leave yourself still in the fat part of the powerband; tapping the Honda's perfectly setup smooth-action wideopen powershifter to click a gear higher on the race-pattern gearbox as soon as the blue shift light on the dash started flashing at 10,500 rpm was really important. Now, there's a fatter midrange which makes this less vital and gives noticeably better acceleration when you get hard on the gas. When that happens, be prepared for the front wheel to pick up a little in the bottom three gears as all that torque makes its way to the back wheel - but only a little, with not as aggressive an engine response or as rearward a weight bias as the Ducati, which frequently created the sight of Troy Bayliss and Ruben Xaus with the front wheel a foot in the air and the bike going one way while their bodies go the other. There's something else I noticed that's an improvement over 2001, even at my gentle pace compared to the Texas Tornado, and that's how well the world champion Honda hooks up out of a turn. Crack the throttle hard open, and the Honda just motors, squatting the rear Showa a little as it does so, but without any drama, any tire walk, or any understeer. It just drives hard away from the apex, shooting out of a corner arguably even better than Rossi's RC211 V I was riding earlier, until the enhanced power-to-weight ratio of the MotoGP bike asserted itself. Even above the trademark whine from its gear-driven cams, there's quite a distinctive exhaust note from the SP-2's twin Sloven ian-made silencers, because the Honda engine sounds slightly higher-pitched than its 90degree desmoquattro rival, though not so much as the 60-degree Aprilia, which also vibrates a little more than Th. VTR1000 SP-2W had split pe nalltles In 2002 - at the beginning of the s.ason Colin Edwards' blk. was ntlally the same as his 2001 bike. Lat. In the season he received engine updat.s that developed for the Suzuka 8 Hours bike, which helped him win the final nine races of the year. _re racer. The limiter comes in 500 rpm lower than on the Superbike to make sure the endurance bike lasts eight hours. But even more important, there's a flatter spread of torque all the way through the rev band, so the Honda is at last a true V -twin four- stroke, not a two-stroke GP racer masquerading as one. This means not only does it have more explosive acceleration from almost any revs than before, it also now, for the first time, rivals the Latin V-twins in terms of the seamless grunt from low revs (Left) Edwards prefers the Nissin six-piston calipers and 320mm discs over the Cabin Honda's Brembo units. (Right) Edwards ran 16.!5-inch wheels/tires both front and rear on his VTR1000 SP-2W for the added grip they offer. cue I e n e _ s • FEBRUARY 19, 2003 25

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