Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

abo ve the Mo T eC in foce n te r d a s h flash es br ightly in you r eyes at 13,400 rpm , telli ng you its time to cha ng e up b e fo r e hi tt in g the fourteen g rand re vlim iter. Wh y set so low? Be c a us e both Ch amb on a nd teammate Fa b rizio Pirova no a re re vho un ds for whom a revli mit er is a n invitation to see how often yo u c an hit it each la p - bu t then th ey also have a way to s hift up wide open that not many other Su persport ride rs ha ve th e benefit of. Although el ectronic powershifters ar en't allowed in SuperS port racing. the FIM tech police have okayed Alstare 's ingenious mech an ica l substitute, in the form of a kill sw itch on the left clip-on which you thumb as yo u change up at full th rott le, without backing off the gas. Flat-shifting this way in dirt -tra ck sty le is a n ac quired s kill that you sw iftly get the han g of a nd start to relish us ing thou gh it needs a little coo rdina tion to do this clea nly, while ha ngi ng off the side of the S uzuk i, when yo ur thu mb is bus y gri p pin g t he handleba r to keep yo urself in place - but for sure it's a real advan tage, which othe r tea ms are now starting to copy . Th e y h a ven 't yet had th e c hance t o a do p t a not her Alstare technic al ge m , t h o u g h , in th e form o f t h e 'Ma rg he rit a ' (t he Ital ian nam e fo r a fl ower , s o ca lled b e c au s e of th e ir shape ) 320mm fro nt dis cs de veloped b y Br a king in Ita ly an d int roduced th is sea son excl usively on the Corona SuperSp o rt Su z u k is , whose petals ha p e d de si gn sav es a c ruci a l two p o u nds in u ns prung weight , wh ile provid ing superb stopping powe r and lot s o f fe el v ia t he s tock fou r - pot Tok ico cal ipers and the we ll-chosen grad e of EBC pad s: Als tare s a y s these are a b ig fa ctor in getting th e bike to s top so well, in spite of th e slight ly red u ced swept area o f th e discs. The pa c ka ge ha s lots of b ite - the sort I remember from the old cast iro n brake discs of a generation ago in SuperS port /Superb ike t e r m s , so much so I kept surprising myself how hard I could stop from wide open in fifth gea r into Zolder's sweeping first turn , or the c h ica ne beh ind the pits. The only proble m whe n yo u do s o is t hat t he S uz uki starts t o squirm ar ound quite a bit under really heavy bra king , which a tr ick cyc lis t li k e Chambon p robably reg ar ds a s a ll p art of life' s ric h pa s si on , bu t which ha d me ou t brak ing myself a couple of times into Zold er 's Turn One , when I m iss ed the apex and had to regroup. Us ing the stoc k ba ck brake first to p rel o ad th e rea r shock an d c o unte r th e weig ht t rans fer d idn 't s e e m t o m ake a lot of diffe re nce , for th e sim ple rea s on that it d idn 't seem to work a t a ll - but th en wh en I sto p ped to com ment on th is, Alst a re 's tech nica l bo ss Beno it Begu in to ld me why . "Bo t h Stef and Pir o a re for me r m oto crossers used to usi ng a lot of ba c k brak e , an d if yo u have it set (Righ t) The 2000 version of the Corona bike once again p roved to be a race winn e r in the ultra c ompetitive S upersport class - and it was t he o nly GSX - R 6 00 in the world that met su c c ess In top-level Su pers po rt ra cin g ~ (Below) Thanks t o th e Alstare team's hard w o rk, the GSX-R600 w a s right on the weight limit for the W orld SuperS port c lass at 3 7 0 pound s. T he bike a lso produc e d 6 more horse po wer than the bike th e team used last ye ar, with a broa de r spread of power. norma lly , th ey e nd up stamping on it and using it too hard ," he e xplai ned . "We ha ve to s lac ken it right off so it o nl y works rig ht a t the ve ry e nd of th e pedal trav e l, oth erw ise th e y e nd up locking th e ba c k wh e e l." But th e Italian brakes ' rea l a dva n ta ge co mes in flicking from s ide to s ide in turns, whe n the ir red uced gyroscopic mass a s well as lesser weight makes the Suzuki steer almost as fa st as a GP rac e r e quipped with carbon b ra k e discs , which have a s imilar effect bu t a re, of co urse , ba nned in toda y's fourstro ke ra c ing . In fact, aft er sa m p ling the Margheritas , yo u have to ask yourse lf why Alstare does n' t fit th em to Chi li's and Fujiwara 's works GSX R750s, but while these do use a m inus cule ve rsion at the rear to ben efit from the fact Chili neve r uses it, it seems approval ha s no t been forthcoming from Japan to fit the Braking front brakes to the factory Superbikes. Pity. The Suzu k i's race -p rov en alu mi num tw in-spar c ha s s is was furth er refined by Alstare this season in c on junction with th eir new Dutc h s us pe ns ion partners, WP, wh ile some serious atte n ti on t o weight saving ha s k noc ke d off th e co u ple o f k ilo s th e bik e wa s still o verwe ight in its cham pio ns hip years: it now s ca les right on the 3 7 0 -p oun d Wor ld Su p e r sp ort we ight limit , thanks to extensi ve use of ca rbon fiber for the battery c a rrie r, re a r s ubfra m e and suchlik e , as permi tted by th e rules. The result is a bike which is more sta b le in turn s tha n I remem ber last ye a r's b e in g , w it h n o n e o f t he ' 9 9 bike 's c ha tter fro m th e fron t Dun lop D20 7 , even over the car-induced rip p les of Zolder 's first turn - as well as de live ring bette r gr ip exiting a tu rn , in s pite of th e increased powe r, thanks to a lower rear ride height a nd improved compliance from the more sophist icat- (Above) The Aistare bike now uses WP rear suspension , a change that made the bike firmer, yet m ore compliant. (Left! Up front, the GSX-R600 uses a 4Smm Showa f ork and petal-sha ped front d iscs developed by Braking in Italy. Rider Stephane Chambon says that the bra kes went a long way in making the Suzuki competitive again this year . out with mor e time. Anyway, for sure brak in g is no w o ne of the Su zuk i' s tru mp cards , sa ys Cha m bo n , si n ce while with a 1385mm whee lba s e, th e GSX-R600 is short and therefo re nim ble , it is also rather wide , s hari ng th e identical bo d ywo rk to its old -model GSX-R7 50 s ister. This allows yo u to tuck down well behind the screen, at the ex pense of flawed aerodynamics which com promise the Suzuki's topspeed perfo rm a nc e . "I ca n s lipstream the Yamahas o n fast ci rcuits , but I ca n 't pull out and pass the m, " Chambon said. "Luc kily, our bike bra ke s so well a nd is now so stable, th anks to the WP suspension , I c a n usua lly g et th em in t h e turn s . ed WP shock, the sa me as fitted to the Cor ona Suzuki Superbike s . Th is wa s set up too soft at first fo r my ex tra pounds compa red to th e sta r midget who normall y rides th is bike - nine inch es shorter th an m e , if yo u must know , a nd ... well , about 45 pounds light er , even before our team dinner in o ne of Liege's better bistros - but Alst ar e mechanic Didier Migeotte stiffe ne d up th e pr eload one and a half turns , and a d ded m or e co m pre ss io n dampen ing to the 45mm Showa fork s , now fitted with WP internals which felt firmer than the speciall y- c on c o cted Pal etti setup from la st yea r. F irm e r, but d e fin ite ly m o re c o m p lia nt, wit h imp roved da mpening over th e l old er bumps compared to the bike I rode on the same tra ck exactly a yea r pre viously, to th e po int that I could defi nite ly push the front harder, tha nks also to th e improv ed grip of the latest D207 Dun lop rubbe r, intro duced at the e nd of las t seaso n a fte r I' d r idd en th e Cha m bo n World Ch am pion bike . It still moved a bo ut qui te a bit on m e under ha rd braking, though t his was slig htly imp roved a fte r Did ie r firmed t h ings up qui te a bit, a n d probab ly we c o u ld have d ial e d th is cu e I e n Mais c 'est dur, tres d u r... ! " Yes , but tha t' s why Wo rld Super S po rt is su c h a t hril l - a nd in a ny case , Suzuki h a s a new, s leeker bike wai ting in the wings , re ady for 200 1 when Te a m Als tare will be abl e to put t heir ex pe rie nce of runn in g a fuel injected S u pe rbike for the past two sea sons to good advantage in s hortening thei r learning c u rve with their new EFI Su pe rS port co ntender. Don 't be t aga inst the Coro na te am find ing im m ed iate s uccess with th e new bike a nd winn ing that third wo rld title next year. Aft e r all , look how close t hey ca me ag a in in 2000 o n th e gol den old ie as it bid a fon d farewell to top level SuperSport ra cing. CN e _ S • N O V EM B ER 1 5, 2 0 0 0 15

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