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/128307
An Amazing 11l Tha t's how many World Championships were represented when the likes of Max Biaggi (four-time 2S0cc World Cham pion), Co lin Edward s (two -time World Supe rbike Champio n), Kevin Schwa ntz (1993 SOOcc World Champ ion) and Freddie Spe ncer (tw o -time Soocc World Cham pion and one-time 2S0cc World Champ ion) were th row n in the same room as guests of Michelin at its re ce nt Pilot Power tire introduction in Las Vegas. Nevad a. And they weren't the o nly past and presen t GP stars in attendance, as Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden also showed up at the event. The common bond among the five riders is obvious ly the ir use of Michelin tire s. T he co mpany's brand-new Pilot Power streetbike tire is derived from tec hnologies curren tly used in its MotoGP slicks. So who be tt e r to show a group of jou rnalists around a racetrack than Mi chelin's p remier testers? Joining the curr ent and former MotoGP/Soocc/2 S0cc pilots were Miche lin's AMA te am riders . Ducat; Austin's Eric Bostrom blitzed the Las Vegas Motor Speedway o n a Michelin-shod Ducati 999, while Valvoline EMGO Suzuki riders Steve Rapp and Vincent Haskovec strutted their stu ff as we ll. Book Relea§e The 2003 -04 versio n of Motocourse will be available soon . The annual. which is cur rentl y ce lebrating its 28th year of pub lication , is the road racing bible for mot orcycle en th usiasts. If you like Cycle News co nt ributor Michael Scott's coverage of MotoGP o n th e pages of this publication, th e boo k is a must-have, as it features in-de pth deta ils of each and every event from Scott himself. Mu5t Do§ For t he RM-Z 2 51l Yo u just bought your new Suzuki RM-Z2S0 , you 've ridden it for the first time - now what? Well. acco rding to Team Suzuki factory mecha nic Tim "Tool-Time" McAdams, Brian Gray's tu ner, there are a few important things you shou ld do to the bike right away that can easily be perfo rmed in your garage with just t he basic tools. Many of these tricks can be ap plied to the Kawasaki KX2S0 F, as we ll. O ne of the first th ings McAdams suggests , which he does with Gray's bike , is to Lock-Tite as many bolts as possible, but instead of using Lock-Tite, McAdams simply uses clear silicone, which he says works extremely well beca use it's more pliable and does n't dry out and tum britt le after a long period of time. For heat-s ensitive areas , he uses the red high-temp silicone. Since the RM -Z2S0 does n't have an engine counterbalancer, the Suzuki (and Kawasaki) is a llttle more susceptib le to having bolts vibrate loose, hence t he ext ra pr ecaut ion. McAdams also strongly re commends stripping do wn the bike and co mplete ly reg reasing "everything," especially the rear suspe nsio n linkages and the steering stem . "The bike comes with a th in layer of grease from the factory," he warns. As far as oil and coolant. McAdams says to chec k these things afte r eve ry ride. T he oil shou ld level o ut on the lower line of th e sight window rath er than in the middle o r the top . This, he says. takes a litt le press ure off of the motor. T he mo to r shou ld also be cool whe n you chec k the oil level. Finally, on the right side of the motor, there's a litt le vent hole o n the cylinde r head - see it? McAdams says never to let that hole get plugged, beca use mo isture can get trapped in there , and w hen the engine gets hot, t hat m oi sture can t urn into stea m , cr ea te press ure and blow the spark plug cap off the bike, resulting in a sudden loss of horsepower (no do ubt at a very impro mptu time) . Motocourse reviews allthree Grand Prix classes . including MotoG p,2S0cc and 12Scc com petition from the 2003 seaso n, and that coverage is accompani ed by stunning photography fro m the world's best phot ographers . Additionally. the Wo rld Supe rbike and Wo rld Supers port Championships are cove red in det ail. M oreover , year-in-r evlew fea tu res fro m the AMASuperbike Cha mpionship (from o ur own editor, Paul Carruthers) and the British Super bike Champio nship. as well as the Isle of Man. are also well chronicled in Motocoufse . If you are looking for the ultimate book that takes you through the year in road racing, th is is the one. The boo k w ill retail for $54 .95. Fo r more info rmatio n go to www.motocourse.com or look for it at yo ur local boo k re tailer. To cast your vote , log on to www.cycienews.com. WEb INSiYE Cyclenews.com reader poll question of the week Is the IO-point penalty that was given to Kevin W indham for block-pass ing David Vuillemin too harsh? A. Yes B. No On-line poll results from last week Afte r a dominating performance at Anahe im on Saturday night, will Chad Reed run away with the rest of t he AMA Supe rcros s series? Yes No 1262 469 (72 .91 %) (27.09%) Total Replies: 173 1 www.cyc lenews.com CYCLE NEWS • JANUARY 2 1, 2004 93