Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 3, 2013 the throttle while still leaned over, just one pair responds, so you've only got two cylinders being filled with fuel mixture and firing. So at that point, it's a twin. This is one reason why Sykes uses practically no traction control, a fact I discovered in successive laps at the end of my second session, as I began to build confidence and had the rear tire walking a bit in the third-gear Curva Alex Criville right-hander that leads back to the pits. By then, though, I was back in screamer mode, because as soon as you've got the Kawasaki most of the way upright exiting a turn, the second pair of cylinders chime in. And you're back riding a four- cylinder bike. "We had the same system on the BMW, but we had to have it almost upright before all four cylinders would fire," said Marco Melandri when he stopped to chat in the paddock the next day, on his way for his debut test as an Aprilia factory rider. "The Kawasaki system is better, I think, because it comes on strong again sooner – the bike has better acceleration than the BMW, and I think it's very fast. Sykes rode it very well, and it will be hard for us to beat him next year. But we try." Once you learn that it pays to pull the Kawasaki upright as soon as possible (so as to activate the switch to screamer mode), this dual personality is addictively effective with the only caveat that you can't be lulled into thinking you're riding a twin. So don't get tempted into riding the torque curve as you might aboard an old-style pre-Panigale Ducati, because there is serious extra performance available the higher you spin the motor. Roughly 7000 rpm is really the performance threshold, but above there the Kawasaki motor has unbelievably strong acceleration, albeit via a smooth and linear build of power from way low to way high – the same as before. Everything happens very fast in the way the ZX-10R accelerates out of a turn, building speed in such an explosive and irresistible manner. While for our test the engine had a 15,200-rpm limiter, the engine is actually P51 safe to 15,500 rpm, according to Yoda, and it does pay to rev it to the very end since power is still building when the limiter cuts in. Phew! The wide-open gearshift is a little less notchy than last year, but in backing down through the gears (with the aid of the fabulous auto-blipper that means you need never touch the clutch lever again after leaving the pits) it was noticeable that going from third to second took a real physical effort - so much so that it didn't always go in and I at times ended up going through a corner one gear higher than I'd intended. Even using the clutch lever wasn't a fix. Yoda believes it could be that the DLC/diamond like carbon surface treatment they've applied to many of the gearbox internals to smooth engagement and combat wear, may not have made it to second gear. "But Tom-san doesn't complain, so no problem!" he said. And my feet are also bigger than Sykes' - even though we're the same height! Gone is last year's MotoGPderived riding position, where you found yourself wedged in place by a massive Biaggi-style three-inch thick pad fixed to the squab, which pushed your body weight further forward to load up the front wheel for extra grip. There's a more balanced feel to the whole setup, without an overly tall rear ride height aimed at maximizing weight transfer under braking, which in turn means

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