Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ranking member of the Yamaha team, now entering his fourth year. "I've got a great job and a great life ," he said. " I'm not going to throw everything away to race Superbik e.' The new R I is among the most highly to uted bikes of recent years , and its earliest appearances con firm the hype. They've been fast everywhere, with DiSalvo as fast as som e of t he Superbikes at Daytona. That it cou ld be so fast in more sedate trim than Fo rmula Xtreme is impress ive. "It just feels like a prod uction -based mot o rcycle, not hing factory or fancy abo ut it as far as a tr ick race bike," Buckmaster said. "No t to mean that in a bad way. That's just the way the rules are. We race t hem out of the crate." Buckmaster said it's a different-feeling racebike with far less adjusta bility. The power is softer, more user-friendly, and it doesn 't put the same stresses on the chassis. "The re 's defin itely a new equation brought in with the new bike," he said, one w hich the fans will be able to see . "Physically, we're going to be muscling the bikes around more, over bumps and certain types of racetracks. With Formula Xtreme bikes you could always make some kind of adjustment with link or shock or so me kind of component that would help w ith grip o r bum ps o r acceleration bum ps, but we just cannot do that w ith these bikes. And be ing as fast as they are, it does put a w hole new perspective on race tra ck. Essen tially we 're going to be racing o n all new racetracks with these bikes." Spies said his new GSX-RI000 is a whole new bike , a Superst oc k bike w ith slick tires. Because it makes its power down low and does n't rev as high - only to 12,000 compared to the I3,000 of his Formula Xtreme machine - it means he has to ride it diff ntly. ere "I like the way it handles better than the Formula Xtreme bike did; it handles more like a 600," he said. "I feel I can ride it harder, and I can feel the limit. I can find the limitof that bike and feel what it's doing more, even though it's moving around more . "The Formula Xtreme bike, I had to just get it in there and get it turned . It feels like the 1000 ride is closer to a 600, and I have to keep up comer speed more. It fee ls like it works better for me because feels like the 600 more ." Having tested against t he competit ion , Spie s sa id each of th e bike s has its streng ths and weak nesses and that it sho uld all even o ut. "I think it'sgoingto be Supersport classlike it is in 600," he said. "I don't thinkthere'll be a dominant bike in that class." The same can't be said for the Fo rmula Xtreme class. Despite a wide variety of machinery being eligible for the class, including Buells and BMWs, Ho nda will do minate , and the res t of the 600cc sportbikes w ill play supporting roles. That's a given . Having opted for the Formul a Xt re me class over Supersport means Honda is t hrowi ng its conside rab le reso urce s into bullding a 600cc Superbike . It's a safe bet that the champ ions hip w ill be w on by e ithe r Miguel Duhamel or Jake Ze mke. American Honda te am manager Chuck Miller said Honda decided to forego Supersport for Formula Xtreme for a few reasons. First was tha t the y thought all the facto ries would be involved and that wou ld make it one of the most com pet itive classes. Secon dly, "It' s an area that allows Honda to kind of exercise their engineering capa bilities and further the develo pme nt of the machine, and they've always used racing as a hot bed o r platform to build better prod uct io n bikes eventually," Miller said. "So that's one of the things that's kind of excitingfor us right now isallowing us to see what some of the capabilities are of the CBR600, breathe on the engine a little bit, test a litt le more different brakes and suspension and kind of see what the other capabilities of the machine are." Cynics might point out that Honda is ducking the Supersport class because of a lack o f competitive machinery. The CBR600RR was int rod uced w ith great acclaim last year and made a splashy debut by w inning at Daytona. But once racetracks with comers were introd uced, the weight of the Honda was a liability and , there was little success to follow. Instead the Yamahas took control with Hacking, t he Dayton a run ner-up, walking away with t he crown . "Certainly, we 're not trying to lessen t he value of the Superspo rt class by any means," Miller said. "I think if we had more resources, we woul d certainly field a rider in that class also. But given our rider lineup, the contracts we had in place with our support teams, wh ich is Erion, as well as ours elves , to expand and do mo re , it's just add itional parts and addit ional riders, just additio nal everything." Miller sees Formula Xtreme as another o ppo rt unity for his crew to be challenged , to allow them to show their best. "O ne thing that's exciting for us is that it allows us to begin to set the stage for w he re Superbi ke is going and test ou r abilities in building competitive race machines out of production bikes," he said. "Most all of us have relied a lot on resources abroa d to make ou r bikes competitive, and in the future we may not have all those resources available to us. So what we 're trying to do with this Formula Xtreme pro ject is also to test ou r abilities. We got a beau tiful piece today we've been working on for a mont h and a half of a tail sectio n. We duplicated a tail section o ut of carbo n fiber, and the thing's beautiful and weighs 700 grams ver sus t he 4 .5, five po unds t hat the stock one weig hs. We 've had it built, and now w e 've made some adjustments , and we've got to go thro ugh a test process and make sure it w ill endure the rigors of racings. But it's a good class to begin to test your abilities before you go to the premier class of Superbike." Zemke and Duhamel are the beneficiaries of Honda 's enthusiasm. The machine looks like a little Super bike, but it does n't ride like o ne . Because they run on a big 16.5-inch rear slick, the motor can't overpower the tire , so the handling is mo re like a 250 GP bike than the big bikes Zemke's ridden in the past . "Th is is high corner speed bike," he www.cuclenews .com said. "The old Supe rbike and Formu la Xtreme bikes, they 're point and shoot." Zemke said the rear tire "is so hooked up, it's almost scary. If you get into a slide, you can't keep the thing spinning with the motor. Once you get up to edge, once it breaks traction, there's not enough power to keep it spinning. Once it breaks that edge of traction, it wants to catch traction and wants to stand you back up and high- side you." On the plus side , Zem ke said the hand ling is superb , "pro bably the bestturning bike I've ever ridden ." He says that the braking performance of the four-p isto n 290mm Brembos up front "is amaz ing. The th ing stops unbe lievably qu ick." No Limits Suzuki's Jaso n Pridmo re is o ne of the ride rs faced w ith challenging t he Hondas . He wanted to move up to t he Supe rbike class, but Suzuki tho ught otherwise. No Limits is making t he switch from Honda to Suzuki this year and taking on Superbi ke was too much of a risk. Instead t hey'll re ly o n the e xperti se of the Yoshimura Suzuk i team for t he ir Supers port and Formula Xtreme bikes. He has no doubt who the com petition is. "I know right now ; obv iously Miguel [Duha mel] and Jake [Zemke] have to be the two kind of guys every body 's loo king at," Pridmore said. Pridmore w ill start out be hind at Dayto na. The machinery is still be ing pre pare d, so the first pract ice sess ion will be his first test. It' s not ideal, but Pridmo re is realistic about his chances in Florida. He wants to get in and get out w ith some points and his health intact . "I never really had respect for that place until I got on a Superbike and said, 'W hoa, this is retarded," he said. Luckily he can get in and out fairly , quickly. Practice starts on Wednesday morn ing, and his Form ula Xtreme and Superstock races are back to back on Thursday afternoon. He cou ld be in on Tuesday and out Thursday night, hopefully eN with some results . CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 25.2004 35

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