Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Continued from page 2S Pirelli in 2003. I got used them fairly quickly after a few hundred miles because I just use the production stuff, and that was, back then, very good and available anywhere. It was good. But after experiencing the Michelin last year and many, many race There wasn't much separating Tommy and Roger Lee Hayden, and they weren't far from the fastest. Of the two, Tommy was the faster, showing off the number-one plate on the new ZX-6 with the thirdfastest time. "It just has a different feeling with the front end," Tommy Hayden said of the 600 he first rode in Japan. "Turns a little bit sharper, some things like that. The power seems good, really good, pretty close to last year I think, which we had a fast bike last year. We're getting right in there with that. That's always good when you come to Daytona - trac- tion and power, those are real important here. If you've got either one of those, you're in good shape." Roger Lee didn't emphasize the 600. "We didn't spend a kazillion laps on it; it's just a 600 around here," he said. The big bi ke got his attention. "I could never get comfortable on it," Roger Lee said. "We kind of fought the front end a little bit, and yesterday was pretty frustrating, and I didn't think I was ever going to get it fixed. This afternoon, we made a huge change. We figured out where the chatter was coming from. We really started using the data. Yesterday, I was about three seconds off the guys. Today, I got it down to about a miles and testing, I see what Is the difference what can tire make. It's huge. It's the most important thing in the whole package. After this year jumping again on the Pirellis, it's kind of a wakeup call for me. I've got a lot of work on my side to get that feel back." Haskovec said Plrelli was in new territory. It runs as the spec tire in World Superbike, but on 16.S-inch wheels. The Superstock 17s are different. "This is all new territory for not only us, but them [too]. We got some work to do on both ends. Let's see how it's going to work. Got second." still some time before the season start. Even after the first race, we got some time, so we've got some time to improve. do Roger Lee said that the team fought a lack of traction almost to the end. "We made a lot of progress," he said. "I'm pretty happy. At least we went forward instead of backwards." His best was a lap of I :42.109, about 1.3 seconds behind the benchmark set by Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo. He tried to improve his time with a qualifier late in the day but didn't complete the lap. "I was going into the new part, where you go right instead of left, and I got in a little hot," he said. "I wasn't sure Icould make the corner, and I didn't want to crash today." vowed not to ride Daytona. "We're done testing, and I won't be at the 200 either," Mladin said at the time. "We were guaranteed on Sunday that this wouldn't happen. This is simply too dangerous." Cooler heads prevailed. Since then, Daytona's been problem-free for Dunlop, though Yamaha's Jamie Hacking had a tire come apart at Mid-Ohio this year. Tires fail because of heat. The more heat generated, the shorter the tire life. Daytona is unique in that the g-forces of the banking distort tires like no other track, greatly redUcing tire life - which his why the multi-compound tires are hard on the left and less hard on the right. Dunlop tested both dual- and multi-compound tires. The dual-compound worked best. The removal of the west banking from the road course knocked temperatures down a significant 10 degrees Celsius. "Basically, it keeps its integrity longer," Allen said. "The temperatures here are higher than anywhere else we go; they have been traditionally. While they're high here, they're not nearly as bad as we've seen in the past." Because of the lower temperatures, the riders can pin the throttle through the east banking lap after lap, a new phenomenon. "They can actually now keep the throttle full open on the banking," Watkins said, "whereas the old type of tire, they could only hold it on the first lap and then have to feather it after the first lap." Most of the teams have sophisticated data logging that can measure, among other things, tire surface temperature. Surprisingly, it does Dunlop no good. "Surface is interesting in that it doesn't actually correspond to casing temperature every time," Allen said. "Highest surface temp's coming off turn one, places like that where they're really spinning it. But that doesn't really put the heat into the casing like the banking did." Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden gave Dunlop its first race win with the new tire, in 17-inch format, in the Superstock class at Road America. Months later, Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin was the first to test the 16.5-inch N-Tech Superbike tire at Road Atlanta. It was the some testing, feel it out, both parties." Haskovec said they'd found a solution for the banking, but it hurt in other areas. "It's not going to be the best everywhere." last in a string of five tires, and Mladin knew it was something special. "I happened to be there when he came in the first time," Allen said. "He just talked and talked about the tire. He was very impressed, so it was a huge difference." Mladin noticed the difference again at Daytona. "I think the safety's better and the stability's better at high speed on the banking," he said. "It's like apples and oranges. It's a totally different tire. It makes the motorcycle feel so nice on the banking, where before, you were scared for your life every time you were up there." Because of the increased grip, the wear patch on the tire is different, inching closer to the crown than ever. "One of reasons they look so bad is that they were completely worn out," Allen said. "When you get down to the bottom bit of rubber, there's not a lot of room for the heat to go, so it tends to overwork the compound in the work area." The trick now will be to increase durability through the compound. Adding rubber isn't the answer. More rubber means With Kurtis Roberts unable to reach Florida after his last minute signing, Alex Gobert flew the Erion Honda flag in Daytona. The youngest Gobert brother kept fit riding Supermoto and Supercross at home in Australia. Now, it was back to the pavement with a concentration on Formula Xtreme, the class where he finished fourth last year. "The first day was my forst ride since Virginia, so just got myself going again, and I crashed it that aftemoon, so I missed out on half a day," Gobert said. "From there, I'm riding Jake [Zemke's] FX bike from last year, getting myself comfortable on that and just working on front-end feel. We've also got the 200S chassis, which has different... the way the suspension mounting is quite a bit different, so I'll be out on that later to see what that's like. It should make a bit of a difference to the stiffness of the chassis. Right now, just working our way through. The guys have had three months of being in the workshop, so they've come up with quite a few ideas for me to try. I'm just trying to concentrate on gMng them the right feedback and doing a good job for those guys." Eric Bostrom had two adjustments to make. One was to the Dunlop tires; the second was the addition of a very fast teammate, 2003 World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson. "Yeah, I've been chasing him all weekend," Bostrom said after finishing about .4 of a second and three spots Continued on page 28 CYCLE NEWS • JANUARY 26,2005 27

• Cover