Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

shimura Suzuki: Suzuki's Ben Spies was the fastest rider at the tire test, More importantly, he understood why. ly, Spier hasn't been the best rider when it .omes The Ben Spies that showed up in Daytona was focused, more concise, and equally successftrl added up ro the fastest lap ever by a motorcycle nd Daytona lnternational Speedway, a lap of l:37.308. a second under the I :38.232 that put Mat i4ladin on for the 2005 Daytona Superbike race. ladin was noticeably absent from the tire test. The six- AltlA Superbike Champion wa5 at home in Australia, an Achilles tendon he'd injured while recoverinB off-season ankle surgery ankle's doinS really well," Mladin said in a telephone adding that the September surgery had gone well. a lot more movement in the ankle. with that comes a of stretchinS on the liga.rnents that haven't moved (hat far I I years. lt's iust a matter ofcontinuing to work hard all ,l have my ankle and foot worked on three times a Mladin said he'd seen marked improvement just prior to Daytona test, but not enouth to make the long trip. "lt's one of those things wiere if you can't ride 100 percent sort of, not a lot of reason to be (here. Can't ride it 00 percent. Couldn't ride the way I like to ride o. be able to anything or tellthe team anythint worth them knowing. past couple years I have not been one to ride the motor- around the racetrack without trying to learn somethinS trying to improve the motorrycle, Everyone knows that I that keen on going to Daytona. After missinS the Font na test, I was hoping I would make Day- The foot wasn't ready. All in all, it wasn't wonh it." One area where l"lladin strugSled last year was with the clutch. What he finally realized is that it was mostly a mental thing. But the clu[ch did fail him at Fontana, while he was well in front, and he was tentative clear to the end ofthe season. ln Daytona, Yoshimura Suzuki continued to test a clutch q,stem desitned by Eskil Suten tie Swiss who desiSned the firs-t Kawasaki MotoGP bike. "The Suter system seems to offer a lot more adjustabilit/ than we've seen before of other systems," team manager Don Sakakura said, "That's the second time the guys have run it. So far the tests have all been very positive so it's looking like we miSht run that system for next ),,€ar. They have an independenr spring and diaphragm rystem that they've used for years now- lt's very adiustable. lt offers a lot ofadiustabili+ The clutch, the feelfor the rider, is so important. Every rider ha5 differ- ent corner-entry technique that requires dif- ferent types of clutch settings - seems to be promisinS for us." The suter clutch allows the rear wheel to track true entering the comer, instead of having it come around. Spies Flies, Knows "This sFtem seems to offer an unlimited amount of adiustment almost to the point ofdirect free wheel," Sakakura said. "l can get into the corner without getting it completely sideways." Spies said. 'That's something that's not even fine- tuned yet. There's probably l5- l6 ways to get it set-up. We probably went three different directions, There's a lot of little bit kind of adjustments. We've got it in the ballpark. This isn't a treat track for geating it dialed anyway, more like Barber, Fontana" str.rff like that, That's somethingwe've got to work on in a couple of other tests. we've 8ot a Sood baseline." Spies and teammate Aaron Yates first tried the clutch at a Fontana tes! in November. The testing continued at Daytona, though Yates Iound another way to keep the wheels in line- "l like at kind of tight where the thinS slides a bit to help you get slowed down and try to control it with the lever," Yates said. "That's the way l've always done it- I like to ke€p k that way But then some areas, it willSet too bad, like tippirE in the chicane a lot oftimes, the thing, you're waiting on it to hook up before you can tip it and you just can t push any harder gettint in there with it doint that. We actually found somethint that helped keep the bike in line. So that should be 8ood." The clutch was but one component that helped Spies to fast time, New suspension, a new motor spec, and a new swingarm also contributed. "l definitely made a huge breakthrough with the new forks we have, with the front-end feel," Spies said. "Now l'm comfortable right from the 8et-go with the forks. lt's only going to get better for me I think. They're completely new internal specs- that's wa),, way better" The difference is midcorner, at the bottom ofthe stroke. "There's iust definitely a whole lot more feel now" Spies explained. "Now I can say last year I might have had a really good setup, but I didn't know it because I couldn't feel the front end. Now I can feel i(, and l'm able to push it. Last year I thought I was toint to fall and I might not even have been close to it. lt's good, Now there's a lot of speed in this kind of a feel, and we definitely got some leel out of the Iront end, and now I can push the front end a litde bit harder, know what it's 8oint to do and react to that. "l'm working a lot on setup too and doing test parts. I'm Setting a lot better at feedback. That's what I'm really work- ing on. I w:s riding 85-90 percent where I could do that the whole day, and give good feedback, and if we felt like we needed to step it up some I could have done it, but there was no real need. we're out testing stuff and trying to rtay as consistent as possible so I can give super-accurate feedback. That's iust basi.ally what I'm working on now tr)ing to break down the bike." Yates got to show off the number-one plate he eamed for winninS the 2005 Superstock championship. Yates split his time between the two l000s, tlle Superstock and the Super- bike, and tested tires in two sizes. "Vy'e've tot to make some changes to the Superbike to get i( to tum as good as the Superstock bike," Yates said. "That s the bittest difference. And I m having some rssues with the brakes on the Superbike, just the feeling and the stroke ofthe master cylinder, all that. lt's not a tood feeling for my conlldence and for getting into the turns and stuff- I think that'r my biSteit strugSle with it- We get all that straightened out, we should be able to Eo half a second, a second, faster on the Superbike. "we got the Superstock bike working real good. lt's real comfortable for me. The bike's iust got such agood balance and stuff. lt feets tood pushing it around out there - sliding ir around - especially the tight stuff lt flick back and forth good - and it's runninS Sood too. The Superbike... we've got kind of a direction to go, make some changes on it." Spies admitted that Hladin is stillthe measure of success, but he feit that his ahances to be competitive have improved. "Mat's hurt ritht noq but he's gettinS healed up and he should be back," he said. "Like I said, everythinS we've done to the bike - clutch, swingarm, fork, couple of odds and ends, new motor spec - it's going to be good next year." whu SUPE8SIORI: l. lamre Hackins (Ymha) l:.t2.210; z. o* a'].r.-".t . (Ksasli) I :42.11 I | 3. To6try Hayden (Xa!_.iiraki) l:,13-102i l. Ben Att rd ((a@ari) I :,14.087: 5. Bin SpiE (S!zui ,z CYCLE NEWS JANUARY II,2@6 37

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