Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 1DDDcc V-twin Superbike Shootout The Suzuki was a bit of an enigma, making great power in the middle and upper rpm, but doing it in a rather bumpkin-like fashion when compared to the o ther three bikes. The TL can get with the program , and in fact makes the most peak ho rsepower of a ll of the bikes in our shootout. The problem is that the TL just feels a bit on the lazy side when ridden aggressively . Th e situation was furt her aggravated by th e fac t t hat the T L was geared much t a ller than the o ther t h re e machines , requiring an extra shift on the back section of the course, bu t for different reasons than the Aprilia ; the Suzuki just preferred to be shifted in order to stay somewhat in the middle of its powerband. some are capa ble of re vving almost as high as the ir four-cylinder counterp arts, tractability is the dom a in of the V-twin . With its tight l.!-mile layout offering little opportunity to really let our test subjects s t retch t h e ir legs and run out on the top-end , it d id ens ure that we would be able to get a good feel fo r how t h e y acce lerated off s lower corners as well as a few faster o nes . In o u r tes t f l e et , t he H ond a was g en e r a l l y re garded as th e best of th e bunch. Th e RC doesn' t make the m o st pe a k ho rse powe r of the four bikes here, but its 999cc electronic fuel-injected, fou rvalves-per-cylinder mill always seems to be able to g rind out serious thru st from anywhere in the bike's rev ra nge - from around 2000' rpm on up to l 0 ,000 . Its incredible throttle res ponsiveness intimidated some of our newer riders at first, but once our crew got up to speed, almost everyone regarded the RC5! as the king of sti ng in the engine department. Our testers were split as to which Italian engine they preferred more after the RC5! , tha t is - and that may have been because they appeared to be polar op posites if each other. The Apr ilia RSV Mille 's fuel-injected 997.6cc powerplant made mountains of torque off the bottom a nd through the m id d le , only to taper o ff rather abruptly around the 8000 rp m mark, forcing the rider into on e m o re s hift tha n either t he Honda or the Duc at i 996 on the fa ster ba c k sections of the track . It was hardly a s ho rt-shifte r, ex hi biting a very u s e abl e sp read of power that q uickly led everyo ne to belie ve that the Mille wo uld be a great s t re e t b ik e . T h e 996, on the ot her hand , didn't seem to get exciting until about 7000 rp m on th e tacho. From t h a t poi nt, t h e b ike felt as t h o u g h it cou ld pu ll to the moon, bu t s om e care had to be take n to kee p it s pinning , which was not a problem in the sec o nd- a nd th ird -ge a r ru n s tha t w e r e requ i r ed t o negotiate most of the corners. Off of slower tu rns, like turn nine which sets the rider up for the fro nt straightaway , the Duc k's desmo twin took an e xtra bit to get rollin g in ea rne s t. By th en , eithe r the RC5 ! o r the Apri lia we re alr ead y m akin g ti m e u p the fro nt straight. Running around the nine-turn LVMS road course in under 40 sec onds all day meant one thing for sure: that we got a lot of chances to experi ence how well these bikes negotiated the corners! Here again , the Honda RC5! reigne d supreme. Des p ite the fact that the massive a luminum m a in s pars and beefylooki ng swi ng arm s ugges ted tha t th e RC might provide a r a th e r gir t hy r i d e , Hon da e ng ineers we nt to great lengths . in c re a ting a wei g ht bia s th at would eliminate the high cg inheren t in the Vtw in e ngi ne config uratio n . Well , they got it right, as the RC5 ! rails th ro u g h all ty pes of bends with inc redible fluidity . Iro n ically , said corneri ng prowess is m o s t likely d u e to the incredible rigidity affo rde d by t he c h assis. Th e RC5! offers treme ndous feedb ack wh ile not fe el ing nervous , a nd th at makes it a com plete natura l in the corners. More than on e test rider repo rted tha t the bike was so confid en ce ins p iring tha t m id-line corrections could be hand led with out the slig ht e st hesita tion. Th e Honda was the co mer king . 16 n MAV3,2000' cue I e A GRASP FOR HAN OLIN G e uv 51; Finishing a ra t her close second was the Duc ati, which was al l busi ness when pushed a t race speeds around the course. The 996 imparts a rather short, rather small and light feeling to the rider, just begg ing to be flicked in . The only com plaint that some our testers had was that the bike didn't like to be moved around much once in the turn , forcing a to tal line commitment when heeling over. That usua lly wasn 't a prob lem , but the 996 , the former titan of the turns , wasn 't quite on par with the RC5!. The Aprilia ' RSV Mille is a willing turner, and very stable at that. In fact, most of our te ste rs admitted tha t the , S V fe lt ve ry R plan te d w he n de cke d . Howe ve r, a somewha t big , rather ta llish fee ling gives one the sense that the Apri lia is a litt le , le s s willing to be flicked into the bends. Some test riders ha d no trouble adapting to th is, while others noted that the width of the Mille's tank probably contributed to the bike's sensation of largeness. It takes getting used to, bu t once you do, the RSV is a serious weapon for carving the b a ck ro a ds or the track . Last but certainly not le a s t is the TLR . Be lie ve it or not, t he Suzuk i is p len ty capable of ca rv ing right with t he rest of t he pack, b ut the fact is t h a t it's Iivin' la rge . It m ight see m rather m y s t e r ious that a bike such as the T LR , which carries ' a whee lbase of 54.7 inches - ne a rly o ne fu ll inch shorter than the RC5! - co uld a ctu a lly be less willing to b end into a turn , but t he tru th is that t he TLR is wi de r throug h the mi ddle t han th e other bikes , and features a seat- bars-pegs relationship that sort of stretches the rider ou t a b it. We also think th at despite the low profile of its tank, the TLR may suffer from havi ng a bit too m uch mass located high in the c hassis. Th is is e vident in the sloth that is fe lt when flicking the bike from side t o si de in ti g ht esses . F in a lly , ou r S uzuki m anaged to drag its kicksta nd wh en bent over in left-h ande rs . Not so good . BRAKING I T UP J us t go ing by the fa ct th at all o f th e s e m a ch in e s are haul ed d own from s peed by a combination of dua l 320mm front d is cs an d a si n g le 220mm rear, you might thi nk that all of them would offer somewha t similar braking feel - especially when you consider the fact that the Ita lia n bikes are s pec'd with p ractically identical Brem bo units. But throw in variables such as chassis dynamics, the nu mber and size of the pistons in the calipers and the lever ratios at t he master cylinder, and all of them take on characteristics all their own . Most inte resti ng , however, is th e way in which all of them exhibit braking tendencies , which remain in character with the rest of their respective compo ne nts . Th e Ho nd a RC5!'s dua l 320 mm fo ur- pis to n Nissins c ould stop a s peeding freig h t trai n o n a dime. Rac ing around La s Vegas Motor Speedway, each rider on the RC even tually found himself diving in further and tra il-braking longer than he ever thought possible. the RC's overall rigidity and excellent weight distribution working in concert with the Nissin 's fan tastic progressiveness and awesome power. Race -bred , for sure, but the Nissin 's are also userfriendly. Once again , the Italian bikes are s triking ly d iffe re n t , the four-pis ton 320m m Bre m bos on the front of the Du ca t i 996 displaying vice-l ike clampi ng , but with a bit le ss modu la ti o n than t he similarly equi pped Ap rilia RSV Mille . En teri ng turns at hig h speed on the 996 requires a bit more concentration, as snatching at the fro nt lever wo uld create a bit of a tw itc h in the c hassis, which m a y s ug gest that the Duc k's frontward weight bias is right on the ra gged edge of too far forward . The more skilled riders in o ur gr o up totally dug the 996's stopp ing ability , bu t they did note that the b ike required just e nough initia l setup tim e that th e y rated it sec ond to the Hond a. Th e Aprilia , m eanwhile , did n 't do a ny thi ng wro ng, offe ring s moother initial powe r than the Duca t i, but pe rhaps lacking t he cl amping force of the 9 96 despite be ing more -harmo nio us through the lever tra vel. Call it a draw. The twin Tokic o 3 20m m six- pis ton bi n ders fo und on th e fro n t of th e Su zuki T LR weren' t necessa rily a ny we a ker than the other thre e bikes , bu t they did fee l far mor e vag ue thr ough the le v er , as thou gh y o u wer en 't ex actly sure of wha t yo u wer e getti ng . Ke ep in m ind th a t ,. to u s , th e TLR feels like a big motorcyc le, a nd th at ma y account fo r pa rt of th is se nsa tion. Furthermo re , whe n p ress e d, the Suzuk i's puck s e ma n ate d a high -

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