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/128312
leo MPARISO N b WORLD SUPERSPORT 2003 COMP ARATIVE lays into turns we ll - steering is spot-on, though you just have to worry about being totally in control of where the bike's going to go when it backs into the corner. This is a Supers port co nte nder brimming with potential, needi ng ano ther year of development to get o n terms with the best of the J-bikes. It'll be Valmoto's task next season to prove that the frant ic P.i!ee of evo lution in t he 600 Supe rsport hasn't passed Britain's best by. That my helmet says I hope that's not the TEN KATE HONDA CBR600RR No co ntes t. By w inning seven of the eleven ro unds in the 2003 Wo rld Supersport Championship, courtesy of thei r Australian double act of new World Cha mpion Chris Karl Vermeulen and teammate Muggeridge, t he Ten Kate Honda team fro m the Ne therlands und erlined thEf~ Supe rsport supremacy first established year ago w hen Fab ien Foret too k their; Ho nda's, debut world title in this co mpetitive of classes . Defending that tit le w ith the CBR600RR produced a con demonst ration of the sup erior ab ility and te amwork of the Dutch squad , duly recogn ized by Hon da in as king the m to Superbike e the Fireblade, w ith Chris Verme ulen stepping up from t he Supersport class to ride it, wh ile Muggeridg e and a th ird new Aussie recru it, Brae Parkes, will seek to make it a hat trick of Supersport wo rld t itles for t he Dutch team. T hey 'll be hanging corks off the edges of the Ten Kate team hats, next . T hrowing a leg over the Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR at Valencia ex plained how successfully Gerri t ten Kate and his team of ~n FFRRIIARY?/i ?OO,f • CYCl.E NEWS mec hanics had honed the Honda into such a domi nant package. The Ten Kate C BR fee ls much smaller and slimmer than the previous mod el, and this impression is rein forced out o n the track, where it fee ls easiersteering and more nimble just about everywhere . Everyth ing is just so - all t he contro ls are so refined and precise in nature, the th rottle seems to have that legendary d irect connection w ith the rea r tire , and all told, this feels in every way a t rue Honda works racer. It's just that little bit bette r in terms of all-around pe rfo rm ance than the R6 Yamaha, w hich I'd nominate as its closest rival, w ith for sure a str onger engine and a chassis package very much the equal of the Belgard a bike . The PI Research telemet ry system that Ten Kate runs full time on t he bike doesn't help lose weight on a bike 3kg [6.6 pounds] over the class limit, but this includes the mpact dashboard d isplay showing lap times , lap co unt, and iVwater temps - but no tacho! s right , Ten Kate belon gs to the John Britten school of though t, which reckons the rider doesn't need to now what revs the bike's do ing at any given moment - just shut up and race it, s pid! Gea rchanging is t riggered by the orange lights on the display w hich flash in r face from 14,300 rpm upward, the n a !:lright red one at 15, I00 rpm, telling you Ow might be a good t ime to hoo k anothar because tha t' s wh ere peak power over 135 bhp " at the rear wheel is ed . Ronald ten Kate says the riders rev the bike out to 16,000 rpm in ears and can run even higher to revs just once a race if they need to III a gear on the run to the line. I d idn't find any trace of a revlimiter, t hough maybe there isn't o ne! What's most impressive abo ut the Ten Kate Hond a's performanc e is t he huge spread of se rious power o n ta p at w hat fee ls like almost any revs. Th e 67 x 42.5 mm e ngine has the same d imensions as the Suzuki and Kawasaki it races against, but it spins up even faster than either of these and much mo re so than the st ill shorter-stroke Triumph . The fact that it does so even fro m low revs is presumably t hanks to the twin injecto rs in each cylinder 's 40mm thro ttle bod y, differe nt ially mapp ed to provid e ext ra lowdown dr ive, which gives the Ten Kate bike its trump 40t h Annlveraaru card - the explosive eng ine acceleratio n that cata pults it out of turns noticeably quicker than any of its rivals. However, there's mor e to rque than you'd ex pect from a bike with such an appetite fo r revs, as I found by using a gear too high to begin w ith in the first part of the Valencia infield before I realized the Honda likes to be revved and wo uldn't bite if it were - the power delivery is strong but very controllable, t hanks not on ly to Ten Kate' s clever map ping of t he HRC kit ECU co ntro llin t he PGM-F I EFI (how's that for g alphabe t soup!), but also the way Gerrit ten Kate has gone for a smooth ra ther than fierce build of power in the way he 's built the engine. The Ho nda doe sn't have a slipper clutch, but it was very sta ble braking hard into the last turn at Valencia o r at t he end of the pit st raight - and even using a lot of revs on the overrun didn't send it backing into tu rns like the Triumph, nor d id it start t he rear wheel chattering under the ou ter extremes of reverse torque engine braking. It just - stopped , with the minimum of fuss and the fee ling of lots of co ntrol. The CBR600RR feels beautifully balanced bot h into and o ut of turn s, allowing you to pick a line and hold to it, even tra il-braking into the apex in sea rch of the increased corn er spee d, whic h the new mo del's nar rower build, allowing three degree s more lean angle than the o lder mo del, will give you . Ronald ten Kate ad mits it wasn't always this poised , moving ar o und a lot under hard braking at the start of t he seaso n 'til the team wo rked out how to cure this. When they did so , it was so effective tha t they received a big co mpliment from o ne of their rivals, who protested them at the Silverstone rou nd bac k in June for - having an illegal slipper clutc h! A post -race stripdown proved otherwise! Ten Kate has exploited t he fru its of this R&D commercially, building an incred ible to ta l of 45 customer CBR600RR Supersport bikes in 2003, including many for track days. A close re plica of a World Champion mot or cycle sounds like a pretty good way of getting it o n at a circu it near yo u: log o n to www.t enkateracing.com for mor e de tails! "I've worked with Honda for many years ," says Gerrit ten Kate, "and the CBR600RR is the bike that will be remembered for years to come as the one which moved Supersport racing to a new level. It's a winning package!" Though he's too modest to say so, it's the Ten Kate Honda Team's own performance this season in winning the World Championship that had a decisive hand in making that happen - and after riding their bike, I know why: It's a worthy champion that will take some beating next season. CH