Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

the way it's turned out, with Walker consistently among the front-runners at most rounds, especially at tracks where the team has been able to go testing beforehand. Look at Walker's rostrum finish at Valencia for proof of that. It's both difficult and time-consuming to find a base setting for a bike that is extremely susceptible to even the smallest adjustment - as I found out for myself when I joined the PSG-I Corse crew at Mugello for a 20-lap test that was unusually informative. I shared test-riding duties with Walker on his numberone PSG-I Kawasaki, with Chris making a series of adjustments - usually very minor ones - in an attempt to resolve the chatter that had plagued him and Sanchini at the team's home race at Misano a few days earlier. He'd make changes, then send me out to sample the result. My first time out delivered a big surprise straight away: This is a smooth and eager-rewing motor, with a completely linear power delivery from what apparently is as low as 6500 rpm all the way to the 13, 700-rpm rev-limiter, and it also provides excellent acceleration. ''Apparently'' because PSG- I shares the Ten Kate Honda approach to rider info: You don't need to tell them how many revs the engine's turning, just make them watch the row of five shifter lights across the top of the PI dash. As these lights change from green to amber and finally to red at 13,500 rpm, just hit another gear and start the process again. The mapping of the PI ECU is ideal, producing a clean and precise response coming off a closed throttle while still cranked over after trailbraking into one of the quartet of Mugello's chicanes. There's none of the jerk you get from some other fuel-injection packages, yet pickup is very strong without being fierce, delivering acceleration that is impressive in the way it builds rather than explosive in its immediacy. It's controllable, yet hyper-responsive almost anywhere in that mile-wide powerband. Really, it's impossible not to be impressed by the Kawasaki's engine, especially with the glorious scream from the Akrapovic titanium pipe echoing in your ears around the track. ''This is a great motor that's the best part of the bike," says Walker. "We're a little bit down on top speed compared to the others, but the power delivery is the best I'W! f!Nf!t" had on any race bike." With just a one-day test planned for Mugello, PSG-I hadn't changed the gearbox ratios from Misano two days earlier: They just raised the overall gearing. with the ~1We haYIng to use first gear several tinnes a lap, which you'd normally never do because of the gap going through neutral that would theoretically prevent you tam ~ the powershifter to avoid .... shock. Not on the Kawasaki. Wide-open changes from bottom to second exiting a Mugello chicane were no problem. with the front wheel pawing the air on the short-chas- \lPl,.. ......._ .. In spite of the one-dIown oplS for, the wortts briI. . PSG-I bike, jIlb. modlied the ~ 10 there's left In It, It's a reaDy quIck-chqlng WIlker. "But c:uit fllld ItIIpplId - I "'tothe line; otherwise, it means holding it in gear and frying the clutch on the grid waiting for the start." Braking from somewhere well over 18S mph down to second gear for the turn-one right-hander saw the Kawasaki really stable without excessive weight transfer In fact, just sitting on the bike in pit lane, the rear ride height seemed quite a bit lower than on most other current Superbikes - perhaps a factor of the rider's weight being lower thanks to the conventional side-mounted exhaust rather than one exiting beneath your butt. Certainly, it seemed there was less weight transfer on the Kawasaki than on the prototype factory MV Agusta Superbike I'd be riding a couple of weeks later at the same circuit. Just squeeze hard on the short brake lever Walker favors on the Kawasaki, and go back through the gears in quick succession, almost like on a two-stroke. You can tell he's a reformed motocrosser by how little travel he has on the clutch lever, which was my excuse for stalling the Kawasaki in pit lane the first time I tried to exit the pits. As little and low-slung as the Kawasaki feels when you sit on it at rest, I found it surprisingly hard to change direction in those Mugello chicanes, as if the "lX-lOR wasn't balanced right to let it tum fast enough. This was a surprise, given the Braking "margherita" petal discs fitted, which usually help a bike to flick from side to side faster. Plus, it wanted to stand up noticeably on the brakes into a tum, and was pushing the front exiting some corners on the power. Also, even at slower speeds than Walker, I had it chattering the front Pirelli on the way into a bend in two or three places - a problem Chris says plagued him at Misano. Ironing that out was the team's main objective at Mugello. Working hard but methodically throughout the day, the PSG- I crew eventually put the rear swingarm pivot back to zero and steering geometry back to standard via their multi-adjustable package, with a steeper 23.S-degree head angle than the 24 degrees Walker normally uses. "You'd think doing this would generally make it more nervous going into the comers," explained Walker, "so what we did then is soften the rear shock slightly to cope with the lack of grip we've got at the moment, and this is giving it more effective rake, which compensates for the steeper head angle, plus we've altered the length of the top-out springs so the rear going into a comer wasn't riding as high as before. That eventually made it lighter and easier going into comers, and to change direction, but it still felt composed on the brakes since the rear was basically more settled, and there was more grip on the way out, as well. It was a good day's work finding a better bal- ance." Sampling the bike at various stages in this time-consuming setup process showed how sensitive the Kawasaki chassis is to even the smallest adjustment, a factor that makes leaming about the bike's responses to adjustment an ongoing labor, and juggling the settings to find the optimum setup at any new track often a lengthy job. "It's always a problem running a new bike for the first year to establish the data at each circuit which helps you set it up comeetly for qualifying," says Pierguido Pagani. "That's why Pier-Francesco wanted to persist using his old 998 Ducati when he raced for us last year, rather than the new 999 we were stilileaming about. Chris is much more open-minded and eager to experinnent, but it all takes tinne we don't always have enough of at a circuit we're new to. I'd like to think the data we're gathering will stand us in good stead in 2006 - but it depends how different the new "lX-lOR that's coming at the end of the year is from this one in terms of chassis design." The PSG-I finished package I rode at the end of the day at Mugello underlined the worth of the "lX-lOR's potential, because it now felt a lot more composed. Whereas before it had wanted to stand up and head straight on if I'd wanted to brake deep into a tum, now it felt much more Tech: =- In developing a competitive Kawasaki zxlOR Superbike from the ground up, PSG-I boss Pierguido Pagani opted to concentrate the team's in-house resources on chassis R&D, subcontracting responsibility for extracting competitive, reliable horsepower to his French-based partners Akira Technologies. 'We needed to be independent of Kawasaki's own race departnnent, because I knew Walker uses a 43mm Ohllns they'd be mainly concerned with MotoGp, and fork and Brembo brakes. probably unabie to deliver even any special race parts to us beyond those already in the race kit they sell to privateers like Bertocchi, let alone full factory race motors," he says. "I wasn't asked \' by Kawasaki to collaborate with the Superbike and Supersport test pr0gram being run by Christian Bourgeois for Kawasaki Europe, so it was up to me to make the necessary arrangements on my own. Akira and we had a common supplier, who introduced us; I liked what I saw, so when we received 10 ZX-IOR engines from Japan in October 2004, they went straight to Akira to develop quite independently of KawasaThe discs are Braking's "margherita" petals, which ki's own factory or satelhelp the bike transition from lite R&D operation, which side ta side. I think was, in any case, KHI's objective in the first place. Since then, Akira and the factory race departnnent have been in constant communication, exchanging ideas and information - as well as parts. For example, we've developed three different profiles of two-ring pistons with our supplier Piston Racing which are 13 grams lighter than the ones in the factory race kit." In fact, the team is developing a whole range of honne-brewed engine parts under the PSG-I label - such as camshafts, rockers, vaJve springs and various electronic parts - which could represent a future aftermarket option for Kawasaki ZX-I OR owners. Akira principal Gilles Keller heads up the Bayonne-based French engine specialist's PSG-I R&D team, and he is a graduate of the RenauJtJWjlliams race-engine university, though most recently they've focused on two wheels rather than four, specifically on Voxan's newgeneration V-twin engines. "We had only a four-month period since receiving the ZX-I OR motors to prepare them for the first race in Qatar at the end of February," Keller said. "Our main objective was not to obtain big h0rsepower numbers, but to make the delivery usable - so although our first dyno test in mid-January gave us 210 hp at the gearbox, with a 12-hour duration at peak revs, it was very fierce in delivery and not so usable. So we had to lower our sights, and aim for ridability. The engine you've ridden today at Mugello is the result." Continued on page 40 CYCLE NEWS • OCTOBER 19,2005 39

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