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/1485886
W e grabbed 10 minutes with the man who's been in charge of the CBSK Championship for nearly 30 years, Colin Fraser. How many years have you run this championship for now? I was just getting done with school and was working at a motorcycle magazine, and I could still fly student standby and when superbike first be- came a thing, there was a renewed national interest in the series. So, the magazine wanted to send somebody to go to those races and I was the guy they sent. I got involved there, and then I started working for the organizers. I was studying film-making in school and got more involved in the television end of things. At that time the manufacturers wanted a homogenized series for tele- vision. And the organizing was parallel. That happened around 1995-ish. So, my company has run the series since then. Are you happy with how the series is evolving? Yeah, I am. It's tricky because until recently, we were non-affiliated with CMA (Canadian Motorcycle Association). That meant we weren't with the FIM. So, we aren't part in parcel of how those rules are being developed. And we have a rule outlook that's from sort of a predominant theory of the '90s when there was a lot of protests about camshafts and valve angles and crazy expensive stuff. At the time, it was quite popular. Like CCS with NASB and Formula USA and some of these not- quite-AMA national series back when there were a lot more privateers, a lot more guys running on not much of a budget, scraping it together national race. It was the dyno and basically the simplest "does it fit in the box" type. What's the weight, what's the dyno? And we were the last people still running that format. So, when the FIM talks about a control ECU, that's not going to work for us. It's not appropriate financially. The situation ba- sically is we're trying to find a way to mimic the rules everywhere else with the simplest possible devices. Will that blanket rule of 200 rear wheel horsepow- er remain for next year? I wouldn't say that because it comes down to what we measure. In terms of completely OE stock, it's the bike you're riding (Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory) that we've had the highest consistent base line numbers. The BMWs, years ago, had very high dyno numbers. Now they're not dyno-ing that way. They're not crazy low, they're just not as high as they were. A lot of our series bikes are going through around 192. Those are built bikes, but not hugely built. Basically, we push the number up when the manufacturers deliver the higher number for the base bike. Tell us about the possible Twins Cup class. Aprilia is obviously very keen to get its bike in there. And I anticipate it will be the benchmark bike. I don't know that yet, but that's where I think we are. The trick is to write the rules so that other bikes have a chance for the price. Because typically, if it's an RSV4 in superbike, or flip it around, a Ninja 400 in Lightweight, something has to be the easy way to do it if you just want to buy the right bike. There's almost always going to be a bike, arguably, that's the right bike. So, what you want to do is say 'okay, these guys can have cams.' Give them a certain variety. But hopefully not re-balance the crank on a $20,000 Suzuki SV engine. Because one person will build that, and it will com- pletely tilt the series. FEATURE I RACING IN CANADA P68 Colin Fraser presents the 2022 Pro-AM Lightweight Amateur title to Bryce DeBoer. >>>>>>>>>>>>> TALKING WITH COLIN FRASER