VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P35
ROCZEN TO SIT OUT REST OF SUPERCROSS
R
CH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy
Johns/Suzuki Factory Rac-
ing Team's Ken Roczen will sit
out the remaining few rounds of
the Monster Energy Supercross
Series. Roczen was originally
scheduled to return last week at
the Houston Supercross but will
now wait until the opening round
of the outdoor nationals in May
before returning to action follow-
ing his ankle injury suffered at
the Atlanta I Supercross.
"I'm super-bummed to sit
out the rest of the Supercross
season but everyone agrees
that we're doing the right thing,"
said Roczen who won two
Supercross rounds this year.
"We started out the year really
strong and that's a big reason
why missing all these races
has been so tough. But, at this
point, we have to move on. I
need to make sure that I'm ready
when the outdoor season starts
next month. I owe it to myself,
the team, all of my fans and our
sponsors to make sure there are
no question marks when the Pro
Motocross Championship starts
next month. I'll be 100 percent."
NEW GSX-R1000 RUMORED
S
uzuki is planning an all-new
GSX-R1000 for the 2016
model year, if rumors from Ja-
pan are true.
Britain's MCN is reporting the
new machine is to house a ver-
sion of the company's Variable
Valve Timing system in a totally
new engine, as well as a slim-
mer, lighter chassis and elec-
tronics coming from MotoGP
development including traction
control and the Bosch cornering
ABS found on many rival ma-
chines.
The 2016 model year will be
the 30th anniversary for the
GSX-R brand and 15th for the
GSX-R1000 itself—a fitting time
to update a machine that has
been left behind in the techno-
logical arms race over the past
few seasons.
Suzuki has released a num-
ber of new bikes in the past two
years, including the V-Strom and
GSX-S1000 and 750, debuting
a number of new technologies—
such as traction control on the
V-Strom—and with the current
crop of 1000cc superbikes now
sporting a plethora of electronic
add-ons, you could reasonably
expect Suzuki to implement new
electronic technologies in an
effort to close the gap to compa-
ny's such as Yamaha, Kawasaki
and the European manufacturers.
When contacted by Cycle
News, Suzuki America denied
any knowledge of new GSX-R
developments, although they did
acknowledge the 30th anniver-
sary of the GSX-R is a special
one for the company, so you can
read between the lines on that
one.
