Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I lnt' FL D.trono ID American Honda: Hoping For Better The 2005 AMA Superbike Championship isn't one American Honda remembers fond- ly. Yes, it won its own internecine batde for the Formula Xtreme title - Yamaha has taken over that chore in 2005 - but it didn't win a Superbike race for the llrst time since the 1994 season. The reason was simple and oft-told. Deep into the off season. an American Honda executive did the race team a great disservice. The team was told it wouldn't be buying complete motorcycles {rom Honda Racint Corporation (HRC). lnstead, they had to build a competitive Superbike in-house, and on very short notice. At theJanuary 2005 Daytona tire test, the tearn said it was two months behind. The tim€ frame was elastic throughout the year, but they never caugh! up. Nor did they w'n .lake Zemke scored the team's first podium at Road America, the loth of l7 rounds. Miguel Duhamel had ovo podiums, a second and a third, a year after finishing second in the championship with six wins. Ciearly. somethinS was wron8. For 2006, Duhamel and Zemke are unbr.rrdened from having to race each other in Formula Xtreme. Except for Daytona, the pair will concentrate on Superbike, though it's possible they'll race the 600 again. (With Yamaha in Formula Xtreme, and continuing its involvement with Plazda Raceway Laguna Seca, it's not inconceivable FX could run at the Red Bull U.S. GP) "lt allows the development team and the test group to go throuSh a lot more items to try and focus on one bike allthe time," American Honda team manager Chuck l'4iller said. "Same as when we go to the races, the riders won't be iumping from a 600 onto a Superbike. And, realt; it willjurt enable them to be more competitive and Eive Suzukia run for their money.'' The team showed up at Daytona with a number of isrues to resolve. Most important were swingarms and suspension. Duham€l and Zemke had a choice of three swinSarms - stock, HRC kit, and Team Robens. None stood out, and further tests will be needed. "We are not set with the KR swingarm," teim manager Chuck l4iller said. "We've got- ten wo of them still kind going throuth our process. One thing we're trying to do this yerar is thorouthly test stuff at multiple tr-ack b€fore we make ary decision on any particular piece. But so far it has some favorable aspects to it, and our plan is to con- tinue testing it. And if we leave here, we have our t-aguna test and we'll make a final decision. ln fact, ther€'s even a chance that at some tracks we ll use it and at some tmcks we won t use it. lt's a v€ry simple change back and fonh. And the KR company's been Sreat to work wi$ and great with response times. last year Kurris lRob€rts] had tried it. ln fact. the swintarm, the llm one we got, we borrowed from Kevin lErion] . Tha('s where we got it - we borrowed it, we got it, it showed sorne favoreble things. So we're iust kind of continu- int with that process." 14iller said it had advanrages and disad- \antates, "That's the problem. lt isn't clearly better in allareas. But it has some siSns of improve- ment. Let's pick and choose this track and we'll have that - that'r an option that the t€chnicians and riders can play with. And since each dder has two bikes, they can have one bike with each swingarm on it, if they pre{er. We're kind of leavinS it oPen." Duhamel felt the same wa} "They're pretty close, both of them." he said, "but there's still some work to do there. ffhe KR piece] se€med to reverber- ate a lot less with the bike. The factory one, you get on the throttle and ifyou're pretty agSressive, you're in for a bit more of a kickinS ride. The KR swintarm seems to smooth that out a bit. I personally thouSht that maybe the swingarm. lt's a more Iun bike to ride with the KR- We spent most of our time on the kit swinSarm trying to make that one work. There're a couple of things about it that I like. That s deflnitely one thing that willgo down to the wire as far as we're concerned. Right now' for me, it's not clear cut." Zemke said paft of Duhamel's indecision may be becar]se he didn't try the KR link. 'Apparently, comint into this test we were pretty much on the same page, and now going away from this tes(, I iutt heard that he was preferrin8 the other swingarm," Zemke said. "But I also know that he never tried any of the other links with the swinSarm. And lwas on a different link than he was on. lt's kind of up in the air. we'll have to see what happens in the end there." Zemke said that what they'd found at orher test5 is that "when you're up on the rire, when you have trip, the thing drives unbelievably well. The thinS drives really, really good. That's always a good thing when you go forward faster" The choice on suspension was between long-time supplier Showa, a Honda-owned company, and Yamaha-owned ohlins. Miller said the team was about 9o-Percent cenarn to use 6hlins. "The riders like the feel," Miller said, "VeD/ similar situadon to the swingarm, where there's b€nefits with the Ohlins tha( the Showas don't have and vice versa. But right now all indicators point to that there are more benefits with Ohlins than rhere are ne8- atives. The),,'ve b€en a great aompany to work with so far They've given us a lot of techniGl supporL The equipment's been real_ ly good. So we've been really pleased with it." But there ;s a political element, "and quite frankiy not iust within our company but within Ohlins," Hiller said. "Sin

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