Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

leo MPAR15 0 N"I:J WORL SUPERSPORT 2003 COMP D ARATIVE worthy of a works Superbike or MotoGP race r. Don't believe me? Then look at the dial mounted in front of the 43m m cart ridge forks' uppe r triple clamp, there so the rider can switch among th ree different fuel injection maps . Or the carbon fiber chain adjus ter guard s and minimalist dash boasting just an analog tac ho and 2D lap timer. O r the busy left handle bar with Jurge n's GP-style thumb leve r for the rear brake , the hand lever for engine is so flexible. Also, better fo r handling - bike is more balanced. Plus, too hot for you to work so hard changing gear! " Ah, so very thoughtful, Katz-chan - but you know wh at? He was right! The unexpectedly mea ty torque curve for a 600 Superspo rt delivered better d rive and e xtra turn speed out of tho se tight chicanes, as I ran the Suzuki as low as BOoo rpm as it flicked eagerly from side to side. It' s not as fast -stee ring as the slimline Kawasaki or R6, but it changes direction better, thanks to the Showa suspe nsion employed this year compared to the previous WPs . Still, the GSX-R6oo remains rather tubby-feeling in tu rns so that you get the impressio n there's more weight to shift from side to side co mpared to those newer bikes . But ho lding a higher gear through fast e r be nds really helped the Suzuki mainta in momentum in corners w it ho ut sacr ificing stability. Fun, as well as fast .... Alstare blue prints each chass is on a factory jig to iro n out manufacturing to lerances and ensure maximum alignment and rigidity, and then it ballasts the res ult to meet the 167kg [3B7.2 Ibs.) minimum weight limit for the class by installing 2kg [4.4 Ibs.) of lead in th e ho llow extrusio ns of the alloy swingarm, as e vide nced by t he ru bber plugs. Th is impro ves traction w ithout de tra ct ing fro m the optimal weight bias, now S 1/49 pe rce nt frontward in a 1400mm [S6-inch) wheel base . Th e Suzuki gives good feed back from the front tire, plus it holds a line w ell on the gas and now steers real ly well on the brakes - Stef 's bike with st iffe r fork settings didn't back into t urn s as it did tw o years ago, eve n if I used - " ~ ",. - --_ a lot of back brake wh en I got ho pelessly optimistic about how lat e I co uld stop for the second-gea r horseshoe at the en d of the main straight. The GSX-R600's shelf life at world level was ex te nde d be yond all e xpectation by the efforts of the Alstare Corona team. It's go ing to be inte res ting to see how good the ne w bike replacing it for ne xt seaso n will be straig ht o ut of t he bo x. BELGARDA YAMAHA R6 After losing both the ir established riders th rough illness just weeks before the sta rt of the season, the Ita lian Belgarda Y amaha team recruited as lead rider on their allnew R6 Dut ch former Soocc Grand Prix ace Jurge n van de n Goorbe rgh - a man w ho exa ctly three months before his first Worl d Supers port test for t he team had qu alified his Brldgestone-shod NSRSOO Honda on the fro nt row of t he grid for th e Australian G P at Philli p Island the n finished a brilliant fifth in the race on an underpowered two -stroke, just three-tenths o f a se cond away from a place on the ros trum. Q uite so me super-su b - even if a) racing o n t rea ded tires, b) on a tu ned four-stro ke streetb ike, and c) trading 190 bhp fo r 13S bhp , but on a mo torcycle that is exactly 37kg [B1.4 Ibs.) (or 30 percent) heavie r requ ired quite some adjustment! How well Jurgen adapted to the Yamaha in just a cou ple of months was underscored by his third place in the championship on a bike that is a mechanical work of art, in spite of its relatively humble streetbike heritage . Gaze closely at the Belgarda R6, and every ten seconds you 'll see anoth er trick part ,,. AI"'l£.L the bee fed-up clutch handling the hefty 136 bhp at 15,800 rpm (6 bhp more than last year), which Belgarda's smart engineers have extracted from the 65.5 x 45.4mm 599cc 16valve engine, and a fake secondary kill-switch matching the real one on the right c1ipon, this one however for Jurgen to push with his left forefinger just as he shifts upwar d on the one-up race-pattern gear change. Th is yields the same effect as a Superbike or GP racer's wide- open powershifter, w hich is banned in Supe rsport. Or those sexy-loo king fro nt A _ _ h .. • • 29Bmm Braking Bat Flight (yes, really!) pe tal discs, on which the swept surface is now scalloped to remove brake dust and delive r a firmer bite from the R6's trademark onepiece Sumitomo four-pot calipers. O r the small petal disc at the rear w ith the speed sensor for the on-board te lemetry mou nted just below the Nissin caliper. O r the foot rests carved from Ergal aircraft alloy by Belgarda themselves , though the brake lever o n Jurge n's right footrest is strictly cosmetic, not being attached to anything, tha nks to the thumb brake! O r the beautifully clean castaluminum Deltabo x-III thinwall chassis, and diecast sw ingarm. O r the e xquisite WP shoc k, its body carved from a solid piece of ErgaI, bracket ed by senso r rod s for the telemetry monitoring. O r the pair of massive wate r radiators kee ping th is high-revving motor operating at around 65 degrees for optimal efficiency O r the 4-1 Termignoni titanium pipe ending in the Italian exhaust manu facturer's trademark carbon can: They should make a CD of the Yamaha's fruity howl, it sounds so musical- high-pitch ed , yet horn y. O r - but you get the picture . Did I exaggerate? This is a finely detailed race r starting life as a volume production spo rt bike, with a spec ification worthy of anything found in the MotoGP paddock . Riding Jurgen' s all-ne w R6 at Monza , on e week after his second-place finish on t he same trac k, under lined the ongoing transform at ion of World Supe rsport into a class for junio r Superbikes with performance to match , especially compared to the te am's carbureted R6 racer I rode two years ago . T he new bike has mo re appet ite for revs, conversely mat ched by better grun t from low down and a crispe r, cleaner pickup at low rpm, lifting the front w heel every lap in the bottom two gears as it' s zapped out of the walking-pace first chicane from as low as 7000 rpm in bottom gear. He re , the 3000 rpm idle speed helps reduce the effects of engine braking as you squeeze hard o n both brake levers - well, you only squeeze on e but have to push the ot he r! to haul the Belgarda R6 do wn from its 2BO kph to p speed past the Monza pits. Yo u mus t backshift through every on e

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