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/128611
Cyele News 1DDDee V-twin Superbike Shoot out P HOTO S BY J O E B O NNELLO hey a re somewhat paradoxical, m aybe even paranormal , but they have com e to epitomiz e the p inn acle of sportbike pe rfor mance in the new millennium. We 're ta lking abou t V-tw in -pow e re d Superbikes , of course . You know, those sl icked -back thorough b red s whos e w ind-tunn el-te st ed bodywork c oncea ls a high -t ech ver s io n of an e ng ine d esign th at da te s back to th e dawn of th e motorcycle . Gu ess we 'v e come full circle. Not so long ago, th ere us ed to be onl y on e m o t o rc y cl e like this , as Ducati introduced its otto-va/vole 851 Supe rb ik e j ust over 10 y ea rs ago . Sinc e then, th e boys from Bo logn a , Ita ly, ha ve used su bseq ue nt editions of t h e m a c h in e to earn n u m e ro us national and world superbike champi onships . It took a whi le , b ut others joi ne d in , S u z u k i de bu ting its TLl OOOR racer hot on the he e ls of its successfu l TLl OOOS street sports b ike. Earning mixed reviews for the stree t R and mixed results for the fa c t o ry in AMA and Wo rld C h a m p io ns hi p supe rbike co mpetition in its first year, th e R is currently on a rae. ing hiatus , th ou g h it remains in the Suzu ki line up. Then last yea r, a nother Italia n company, the m uch rejuv e nat ed Aprili a , got its act together and delive red th e RSV Mille. Th is jewel of a 1000cc V-tw in de b uted with the type o f fan fare in th e motorcycling press th a t would indicate t here was no way it would be able to measure T 14 MAY 3 . 2000ยท c u e I e up , a nd yet th e RSV se ems to have bee n ab le to back up that hype with fa ir s uccess in World Supe rbike com peti tion already . And th en came the Honda RC51 . Recognizing that the end of th e road wa s near for its legendary line of Vfour-powered "homologation sp ecial" superbikes , Honda el e cted t o t ak e advantage of what it pe rceiv e s to be V-twin favorabl e rul es a nd c rea te a true : mass -produc ed V-twin motorcy c le in th e Honda im a g e , wh ich mea ns tha t it wou ld be ca p a ble of tota l wor ld do mi n ation . With an impre s s ive runner-up finish at the hands of Nicky Ha yde n in its world racing debut at the Daytona 200, and a subsequent victory by Colin Edwards II at the South Africa n round of the Worl d Championship Superb ike Series, the RC51 s eems destined for greatness already . So there they were, four motorcy cles that have appa rent ly ca s t dou bt o n the reg ime of the once -dominant inline four. We decided it was time to figure out which one in this new family was best and , in the process , answer a lot of questions, such as: Is the all-conque ring Ducati 996 still the best V-twin su perbike on the market? nil!"" s _ Is th e Apr ilia RSV Mille the hottest of th e Ita lian hot ro d s ? Is the Hond a RC51 th e new dominator in the V-twin world? And wha t about the oft -forgotten Suzuki TLl OOORY? Is it a bad bike or a good bike when forced into com pa rison with the others in its class? Aft er a h jll da y of testing at th e track, followed by a few roadie hours in the s a ddle ab oard a ll o f th es e m a ch ine s , we kn ow th e an sw ers. If yo u want to know th em to o , read on . T H E SETUP Due to a sc hed u lin g s n a fu at a faci lity o t her t han La s Vegas Motor Sp e e d w a y , o ur track day was in jeopardy until t h e good folks at Fre d d ie Spencer's Hig h Pe rform a nc e Riding S c h o o l bailed us out b ig -time . The school offer ed us the use of the 1. 1mile road course on which the threetime Wo rld Roa d Ra c in g Champ ion and his staff teach the funda mentals of rid ing fast and ridi ng safe . T he pri ce was one th a t we co u ld not re fuse , and sin ce we had a lready drafted one of S pencer's instructors his fo rmer Tea m Ho n d a te a m m ate J eff Haney - to assist us d uring o ur shootout , t he timing couldn 't h a ve been better. We owe a tre mendous debt of thanks to Spence r, Han ey and school coordinator Gregg Kearns for all of their assistance with this pro ject. Ditto for th ose of us who helped to e ns ure as level a playing field as pos sible d ur ing this shootout. We also elected to shoe a ll of the bikes with the latest in Dunlop's s uccessful fam ily of DOT-leg a l supers port rubber. Dun lop 's J im Allen sent us the c ompany 's new D207 GP Star soft-compound DOT raci n g t ire s , enough for a ll of the equipment. We a lso enlisted th e aid of the knowledg e a ble suspension ex p erts at Race Tech to a ssist us with suspe nsion setti ngs a nd generally act a s p it s upport. Rich Watcho rn , Greg Sanchez a nd Kaipo Chung wer e on the case all day , a nd in a ddi tio n to helping us get the bikes dialed in, they generally made our lives muc h easier throughout the day . Last, bu t certa inly not leas t, a call by Fredd ie Spencer himself produced Michael Belcher and Dynojet's m ob ile d ynamo meter, delivering insta nt horsepower and torque numbers for our e d ific ation. We appreciate a ll of their efforts. GETTIN' ON THE GAS In addi ti on to the fac t th a t both AMA a nd Worl d Cha mpions hip su perbike rule s a llow them to ca rry g reater displace me nt t h a n in lin e fo urs or t riples, it is h o w they make their power that usually endears them to m o s t rid e rs . De sp it e t he fact t h at