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/128310
Jan. 2 6, 2004 AMA SUPERBIKE __ Daytona Tire Test just blowing my doors off on the banking, but the Yamaha likes to stay right w it h th em: ' Though AMA ru les pr eve nt him fro m racing in the Superbike class, it didn't stop DiSalvo from dreaming. "I think th is bike wou ld be a conten de r for the 200 if we could race it," he said. Because there was o nly one viable rear tire , Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden spent the two days working on a race setup. "For me , I just concentrated on getting the most grip poss ible," he said. He and Roger Lee were try ing radical setups and hadn' t quite hit o n the optimum . "Yo u can soften it up a lot and get a lot of grip , but she's hard to hang o nto on the banking; she starts w o bbling really bad," Tommy said. " I was trying to find a happy mediu m th ere , and shortening the wh eelbase he lps, ure on Haskovec's bike. T hat was caused by fitt ing a 180/55 Supersport tire on Haskovec's Superstock Suzu ki (normal Superstock size is 190/55 ). Putting 600 tires on a 1000, especiallyat a tire-eating track like Daytona, seemed like a fool's errand. '~t first we thought we'd have the 600 here, so we brought tires for t he 600," Herisse said. "We know that's normal w hen you come he re . T hat 's why we test:' However, all the t ire co mpanies were told that the te st was strictly for big-bore machinery. "No body left the December test with any issues on the 600," an AMA official said. Her isse said Bostrom was prevented from doi ng mo re endurance runs by the tire failure and an oil cooler leak caused by a rock hitting it. "That was the biggest problem for us," he said. Michelin tested at least a dozen re ar tires and two fronts and will build new tir es fo r t he race, He risse said. "We may come with so me thing a little bit differe nt fo r the race ," he said. "We w ill come with so mething we know." Michelin expressed concern about its tires' lasting th e three 19-1ap stints. It said t hat if the race went to term without interruption, it may have to make more th an two pit stops, a considerable handicap if ot her teams need o nly two. "If we' re forc ed to do an extra stop, we'll do an ex tra stop," Michelin's Jim Rhoades said. "We' re not going to go against safety. We 'll take our po ints and get out of there. In December, we we re 46 FEBR R 11, 2004 • UA Y real close to where we needed to be , and we actually went backwards from the Decembe r test. We'll make an adjustment from the December test." T hat said, can Eric Bostrom win the race o n t he new bike and new tires? " I th ink so ," Bost rom said afte r being put on the spot. "I didn't get to se e any real endurance out of anybody else, so I don 't know what t hey've got up the ir sleeve. If we can take the best thing that we have, and t hat works, I be lieve t hat's th e right stuff to w in the race. I think we're looking rea lly goo d." Bost ro m , his brother an d D uhame l were all hound ed by DiSalvo at one po int or anot her, w ith DiSalvo passing Eric's Ducati on the tri-oval. "It's unbelievable," Eric said about the Yamaha's speed. "I guess I'm not really allowed to say that. I'll tell you this: There's a big difference in some of the Superstock bikes o ut t here," t he fo rme r Kawasa ki rider ad ded w it hout d istingu ishing between th e Kawasaki and Suzuki Supe rstock bikes. DiSalvo did a I;48 .6 on a qualifier and was always the quickest of the Superstock riders . " I like to give the Superbike guys a hard time when I'm o ut there just bec ause they 're o n Superbl kes .' DiSalvo said. " It 's surprising that these guys aren't CYCLE N EWS (Above) Afte r all w a s s aid and done , J a ke Ze mke w as th e fa stest of the riders w ho part icipated in th e test. (Below) Steve Ra p p (S) rode h is Superstoc k Suzuki GSX-R 10 00 at the test, u sing Michelin rubbe r. 40th Anniversary too, but we have to put th ese big t ires in the re. We don 't have a lot of room to work with ." Roger Lee echoed t hose comments: "We 're wo rking w ith setup in a pretty big different way than when we we re here in Dece mbe r. We made the bike a lot softe r in the year, w hich seemed t o help a lot , so we're going to kee p going in that d irection." Steve Rapp had a short test afte r t he engine in his Valvoline EMGO Suzuki GSXRI000 failed on Sunday. "The th ing is, the motor was lo sing co mpressio n, and I think it was progressively losing it th rough the day," he said. From the middle of the day on , he cou ldn't pull sixt h gear o n the fro nt straight. "I thought it was the headwind, but it wasn't just that," he said. In th e time he had on track, Rapp con firme d th at Michelin was going in the right direction . "The most I en ded up doi ng was 12 or I3 laps because I was going to do 17 laps when the motor started run ning bad at th e end of the day," he said. "On the I It h lap, my lap times were still coming down , so I thought th ey we re go ing to be okay:' Rapp said these tires had mo re traction than the tires he' d test ed in Dece mbe r, some of that due to profile changes. He also tested 600-spec tires, but o nly to the mandated five-lap limit . The sma ller tire allows the 1000 to turn better, he said. Haskovec is on his third tire brand in three years and is still mak ing the adjustme nt.