VOLUME 59 ISSUE 48 NOVEMBER 29, 2022 P67
venue by modern racetrack
standards and fast as hell. The
back straight, which isn't really
straight at all, will see a 1000cc
superbike max itself out if geared
correctly. That's 190-odd miles
per hour between the walls and
trees as you charge under the
Canadian Tire bridge for the up-
coming third-gear right-hander.
It's just one of many hair-raising
parts of the track.
Our Aprilia had already had a
hard life before I got on it. As a
former press bike that had been
cartwheeled by a rider at one of
the Aprilia Racers Days events,
the frame had a nice big ding
in the side which meant it was
either going to get scrapped or
turned into a racer. Luckily for
me, it was the latter.
Given the horsepower limit,
there was very little we could do
with our bike to make it legal for
CSBK. A full titanium SC Project
pipe, a race ECU, some body-
work, Ohlins cartridge kit, a race
shock and some Dunlop slicks
were all that was done to the
RSV4. And we were ultra-close
to not being allowed to race due
to the horsepower. Our bike
consistently dyno'd between 197
and 200 horsepower at the tire,
so I was sweating a little each
time the bike needed to go into
the Dynojet truck.
Mosport is ultra-fast and has
some rather sharp bumps to it that
made the RSV4 quite a handful.
We were not only having to learn
the track against Canada's best,
but also chasing our tails almost all
weekend with suspension setup,
as the bike had previously been
set up for riders that were, shall
we say, smaller than me.
Qualifying down in 14th was
not ideal at Mosport but after 16
years as a journalist, I seem to
Excessive heat from the exhaust
mounted right next to the
shock caused the shock to
progressively lose its damping.
