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/128644
Kenny Roberts Jr. Und er power, the Suzuk i is so finely poi sed , o nly shak ing it s head on ce per lap ov er the big bum p leadi ng on to the m ain st art /finish stra ight - bu t fo r sure th at was down to a re ar shock tha t was a littl e to o soft for m y extr a we ight co m pa red to K enn y 's . E lse wh ere, the XR89 cha ssis w a s u ltra stable - th ou g h if yo u sq u eeze the bra kes to c orrect yo ur ent ry spee d on ce leaned over and co m mi tted to a t urn , i t w ill sit up a nd und ers t eer str aight ahead . Th is m ean s it rewa rds a clean, precise style of riding such as Robert s and , it must be said, his new t eam m at e Gibern au , ex c el in . On ce you work up to it , yo u ca n keep up corne r ing speed b y t a k ing l o t s o f ang le, wh ich the extra side gr ip of the 16.5-inc h Michelin rear allows you to t ak e advantage of wh en dr iving hard out of the ex it . Th e fact th at I, ahem , fo und th i s out by m i stak e , w hen I m issed m y b rak ing po int for Turn 2 and had to sc ramble aro und at what seemed a suic id al turn speed, is of co urse completely irrel evant . On th e f o ll owing l ap , I we nt equally fast aroun d th er e , but th is t im e o n pu r pose. Th e on ly time th e X R8 9 c hassi s displayed any nervousness was when braking really hard · espe ci all y downh ill into MG Corn er , when the ex tra we ight t rans fer su ppli ed b y grav it y m ade an already awk ward situa tion even wo rse. Though Roberts say s he uses the ba ck brake fi rst to cou nter thi s, in such situations it does bec om e a bit of a handful , esp ec ia ll y c om pared to th e more bal an ced behav ior of its Honda NSR500 ri val. Iron ically , bec ause of th e name, this was part ic ula rly apparent too at Hon da Corner, wh ere you com e sweeping around the left -hand er bef ore it at h igh revs in fifth gear on the side of the tire, then ha ve t o bra k e rea lly, really hard while sti ll cr anked ove r, for the bott om -gear riqht -h and Hon da hairp in immediately afte r. The fea rsome g rip of the carbon b rak es, co upled with the hiqh -speed mom entum, lifted the back wheel in the air as I was tryin g to pull th e Suzuki up right , send ing it waving around and th e bi k e snaking under sto ppi ng all of whi ch ma de it very hard t o pick a line for th e tu rn and hold to it . Tw ic e I chi ck en ed out of tr ust ing t he fr on t Michelin 's abilit y to m ake up for all th is and take me th rough th e turn at exces sive spe ed on th e wrong line , and took to the esca pe road. A ctually , I visite d it thr ee times in all . th e th ird at t he en d of the Rob erts left boot , aft er the y'd forgotten t o sw itch on the fu el ta p before sending me o ut fo r m y second ses sion, send ing th e V -fo u r motor sputtering to a standst ill on th e run down to Honda. Roberts does a mean tu rn in break down d iagnosis and repa ir for one of his subjects while th ey ho ld his m ount for him - thou gh th is didn 't extend to b u m p - st a r t i n g it so lo i n to ac t i o n 16 JANUARY 3 ,20 01 • eye I again, o nly to shouting out words of enco uragement lik e , " Push ha rder! " and "Stop gassing it!" It's o n th at very engine that the greatest im prove men t b et w een the Roberts run ner -up b ik e I rode a year ago and his ti tl e-w inn in g m ot or cycle is most obvio usly ap parent, because the bottom -end pow er, whi ch Warren Will ing co nfirmed back then was o ne of the bike's we ak a re as , has b een substa nti ally improved , pl us the tr an sition into the stronger midrange zone arou nd 10 ,500 rpm has b een eve n more sm oothed ou t. Compared to the m eatier, m ore abru pt power deli very of th e Ho nd a at the same revs , th e twin-crank Suzuki engi ne is now more user-friend ly , onl y just not as powerful as the more brutal , brusqu er si ngl ecrank NSR motor. A rguabl y , thou gh , it' s now better lo w d own th an th e Hond a , so th at exiting MG it's po ssible to sho rt -s hi ft from fir st to second at around 10,0 00 rpm wh ile br iefl y upright, before fli cking it into the long left -hander th at fol e n e vv s s Suzuki RGv500 lows, playing th e responsive throttle to drive clean ly arou nd an d pi ck up spee d as the track opens out, reaping th e benefit of the revised porting and electronically -contro lled va riabled im ension ex hausts (same effect as a power va lve) to save perform ing the rath er n otch y b ottom sh i ft l e a n ed ove r , w h en i t ' ll g et th e r ea r w heel sli gh tl y unh ooked . T he powersh ifter gea rsh ift on t he race -pattern gearbo x is nicely set up, though, n ot t oo ov er - sen s it iv e in response a s so m e rid e r s pr efer thou g h I'll ad m it not t o paying t o o much attention to the row of five red shift lights wh ic h ill um inate in succession ac ros s th e top o f th e ana logue tachometer, on th e grounds that I was too bus y ho ld in g on tight as the Suzuki 's fro nt wh eel pawed the ai r and I desperate l y t r ie d t o p e r sua d e m y bra in to k eep up w ith the fears ome ac c ele ration o f a 500 two -strok e on such a daunting tra ck. Remembering what Willing had tol d m e last year as I struggled to k eep the front whee l on the ground exiting the fi n al tu rn at J er ez befo re the pi t s, I coped with the sim ila r power wheelies out of Sib er ia by revving the Suzu k i hard so th at the engine fell off th e end of the t orq ue curve, wh ich pa radox ic a l l y pro vi d ed a b etter d r i v e t h an us ing th e fat part of th e power band aro und 1 1,5 00 rpm . Also be tter fo r my hea rt ra te: at least I co ul d now see w he re J was po intin g it fo r th e next turn , without landing th e front wh eel w ith th e bar s all crossed up where I w as tryi ng t o tu rn the b ike wi th th e wheel in the air. K ing Kenny II may have his work c ut out to d ef end h is 500cc wo rl d cro wn in 20 01 , un less Suzuki rethinks it s decisi on to suspend two -stroke R& D in favor of its new fo ur -stroke GP p roject. Bu t he won it fai r and square this season , on a bike that proved to be the best all -round pack age on the . grid. Now the trick will be to double up next season, just as his father did on a similarly underpowered bik e 20 years ago. CN