Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Etfrffi done it. The engine is owiously beBer, and th€ chessis and tEction have imProved as well. Valentino Rossa and I comPlained a cou- ple of times about brakinS stabiliry beint a bit of an issue, but we've fixed that." Edtvards says the bigFst proSr€Gs hils come frcm the front end after he'd escap€d unhurt faom a crash on the first morning when he lost the frcnt. "The biggest improvement for me is that it's got lots more front-end feel with the new dhlins fo.ks and better traction." he said. "We 5eem to have tot more d.ive and a.celeration 8np as well. lt fe€ls likethe bike and rear tire are working together rather than strainiflg the tire. l'm realt excited about the season, because I haven't tfiis much front-end confidence for a long time. l've ahrvays been frghting aenarn gray areas, not knowiDs what the front is going to do and was doing. with this bike, I feel like I'm secure with what the front tire is doing, and that's what you need to be able to ride 6st." Mct,'hew gitt Texan Colin Edwards was jubilant with I Yamaha's new MotoGP contender at the conclusion of last week's test ln Malaysia - even if the rzR-M I did brinS back memories of his horrilic fireball crash three yeals ago. Edwards blew an enSine on the final morning that Ieft flarnes lapping around his left leg before he qukkly thr€w the bike to the ground. Edwards was lucky to escaPe serious iniury in 2003 durinS his rookie MotoGP when hls Aprilia R53 was spectacularly engulled in a huge lirehall at the German GP His latest brush with fire was somewhat less dramatic, but he said: "What is it about f----ing fire?! lt iust seems to follow me around." when asked what had aaused lhe cata- strophic failur€. Edwards smiled and issued a [irm, "No comment," when h6 wa$'t dodging flames, Edwards ended up with the eighth-hstest time, with a best of 202.00 that was Sood enough to secure the third-best l+ on day Nvo. Edwards left the test early to catch a plane horne to America" but not before he'd completed a $Jccessful 2l-laP race simula- tion that tave him renewed confidence into thinkint 2006 could be the year he ends his MotoGP victory drought, He completed the simulation during the hottest part of the day to get as cloie to race conditions as he possibt could, and his over- all time was a massive 35 secondr faster than he mana8ed on his way lo a disapPointins loth place at last October's Malaysian GP That was Sood enough to beat Loris Capirossi's overall winning time by 13 sec- onds- His best lap time durint the simulation was a 2:02.7, whach was 1.4 seconds fastea than his best race lap three months qgo. He was relieved to have 8otten the simu- lation out of the way after a scheduled 2 I Jap run on day two had been ruined by the rain when he was into his l6th l+. "The new bike is really 8ood," Edwards said. "Yamaha has definitely \torked its ass orf over the last year to come up with the improvements. You name it and they've Edwqrdr crsshed the bikc - oltor it cdught fire. o o P s o o o o o s Hopper's Malaysian Test Suzuki's radical new factory GW-R MotoGP bike showed tlimpses of its po(ential at the recent test in s€pant - despire John Hopkins and Chris Verm€ulen being plagued by a cat- alogue of disestrous technical failures. The test was the all-new GSV-Rs first seri- ous outin8, and for the mos! part Hopkins and Vermeulen remained rooted to their chairs in the taraSe mther than gathering pre- cious data on the track- Team boss Paul Denning, desperatety try- in8 to put a brave face on the Proceedints, branded the bike's debut "distinctly avera8e." Denning revealed some more sPecific details about Suzuki's drastic GSV-R rev_amp as engineers try to spark a dramatic turn- around, The mo$ intriguinS chanSe on the V-four is the fact that it runs pneumatic valves, rais- intthe bike's rev ceilinS by another l000rPm. The GSV-R now revs over 16,000 rpm. That w.s pretty much all suzuki had to shout about, though, as preteit optimism and anticipation after positive dyno and track test5 in Japan quickt turned to frustration. Plagued by constam me

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