KAWASAKI RACING TEAM ZX-10R
RACE TEST
P106
what he used throughout the 2015
and 2016 seasons.
"Johnny is a bit of an old style
rider," says Marchetti. "He likes
control in his wrist. Before he
was complaining sometimes that
the bike was doing too much for
him. Now he's got much more in
his hand."
Another area Marchetti is con-
stantly working with Rea on is the
electronic engine-braking maps.
"Jonny is obsessed with the
engine brake," says Marchetti.
"He carries a lot of corner
speed, but to think of engine
braking as more or less is a bit
too simplistic. It's a matter of
how much you want, but you
must think, for example, when
he brakes into the corner, you
have to follow the rear tire slip
from this point to this point
(gesturing with his hands differ-
ent points in the corner). And
you have to say, 'okay, I want
this, this, this engine brake…all
the way through the corner.' One
corner, you can find the perfect
setup. You can even find the
perfect setup all around the cir-
cuit, but then it's a race and he's
fighting the other riders; he's
braking harder and deeper, he's
using a different gear or chang-
ing gear at a different point or
he's on a different line. So for
him, it's very important to have
the right amount of negative
slip. The right amount in every
second, in every angle he's go-
ing into the corner. And this is to
follow the tire grip."
Does the system learn the
tire grip is going down and then
adapt?
"It's a bit smarter than that,"
"From the chassis point of view, the difference between 2015 and
this year's ZX-10R is just the swingarm pivot—3mm lower for this
year. This is normal for the street rider. This lower pivot creates
more movement of the rear shock, and the rider feels a little bit more
comfortable—it's not such a harsh feeling. The production engineers
are going to this direction, but this is not suitable for a racing bike. So
we go 3mm back up."
– Ichiro Yoda, Kawasaki Racing Team Senior Engineer
"You must always find a balance, because in the end, most of these bikes are
riding over the limit. You need to have a very nice machine for people who use
it on the road but you also want to have a competitive bike on the racetrack.
Kawasaki has probably one of the best machines on the road, and we were able
to win a championship in the last couple of years. So Kawasaki did a really
good job."
– Marcel Duinker, Crew Chief to Tom Sykes
