600s FAIRED vNAKED SUPERTEST

NEW BIKES///MODERN LEGENDS///USED METAL

GSX-Rs

SECRETSOF BUYING A90s LEGENDNSR

BIG

STILLONLY£2.99

FASTER

SET-UP//WISDOM//

GODLIKE RIDINGSECTION

BARGAIN

END CANSTEST

2009BIKESPB GUIDE TO

THE B

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METAL

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FRIGHTENING THE NATION FOR 22 YEARS

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ABS v Human

2008 YAMAHA FZ1 FAZERPRICE £7599 (£7899 ABS)ENGINE 998cc liquid-cooled inline fourPOWER (CLAIMED)150bhp @11,000rpmTORQUE (CLAIMED)78lb.ft@8000rpmWEIGHT (CLAIMED) 199kg (205kg ABS) FRONT SUSPENSION 43mm USD forksREAR SUSPENSION Monoshock, fully adjustableRAKE/TRAIL 25 degrees/104mm WHEELBASE 1460mmFRONT BRAKE 2 x 320mm discs with four-piston calipersPB LIKES Braking powerPB DOESN’T LIKE Locking the front

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p6-8 PB dec news openerCDP copy.2 2 17/10/08 11:46:04

‘Soon every bike will have ABS.’ These words were uttered by safety-conscious Honda engineers a few years ago, and

it looks their wishes might just come true. Next year’s Honda CBR600RR has an advanced version of ABS as an option, and if it goes down well, expect to see other manufacturers follow. You see, the people who really influence the manufacturers are safety-conscious focus groups and litigation-fearing lawyers who drive home every night in their safe ABS-equipped cars and think bikes would be better and safer if they were equipped with the same systems. But we’re not convinced.So is ABS really a bad thing? We took an

ABS and non-ABS equipped example of the Yamaha FZ1 Fazer – the fastest mainstream performance bike to be fitted with ABS – to PB’s test track and plugged in the datalogger to find out. Ó Ó Ó

007

WORDS MATT WILDEE PIC RORY GAME

SHOULD THIS BIKE’S BRAKES BE CONTROLLED BY A COMPUTER?ABS IS COMING TO EVERY PRODUCTION BIKE.PB ASKS: DO WE REALLY NEED SAVING FROM OURSELVES?

p6-8 PB dec news openerCDP copy.3 3 17/10/08 11:46:28

ALEX HOFMANNFORMER MOTOGP RACER AND APRILIA RSV4 TEST RIDER LIKES TO TAKE IT EASY.

WHAT’S THE BEST CIRCUIT AND SET-UP FOR LAST-GASP BRAKING?Motegi in Japan demands so much, due to its stop/start, straight/hairpin configuration. It’s always heavy on the brakes so a very stiff front end set-up is a must on any bike. In 2004 my set-up there was wrong for my weight. Unfortunately the brake temperature increased too much through the race and towards the end the calipers weren’t releasing properly and the carbon pads were burnt down. So, a horrible track for me, too.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?Comfort. It’s the key to good racing and riding in general. Everybody brakes differently but however you prefer to brake, if the balance doesn’t feel right you won’t have the confidence to brake later. Take it step by step until you find your natural comfort zone.

WHEN DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BRAKED TOO DEEP INTO A CORNER?After I’ve just missed the apex! Generally speaking I have an initial feeling that I’m too late on the brakes, but that feeling isn’t always right. Like if I’ve been early on the brakes for 10 laps then go beyond that braking point next time round, although I ‘feel’ like I’m braking late, I’m not as I’m still within my limits.

YOUR WORST OR BEST MOMENT...I got it badly wrong at Motegi in 05. I was trying to overtake down the straights but couldn’t, so tried my luck going into a corner but left it far too late and collided with Roberto Rolfo. We both retired from that race.

BRAKE LIKE A HOW TO

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WHAT’S THE BEST CIRCUIT AND SET-UP FOR LAST-GASP BRAKING?Monza without a doubt. You have three or four huge straights with all but one ending in either a chicane or hairpin; on a WSB bike you’re doing 200mph leading up to them. I have a slightly lower rear ride height and stiffer forks.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?If you have a slower bike everything’s made up on the brakes. You have to get the bike in the right gear and change down at the right time; the gears and clutch control are the biggest thing to get sorted. The last thing you want is the bike too sideways, especially on the roads.

WHEN DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BRAKED TOO DEEP INTO A CORNER?Earlier than you think. The hardest decision is to decide whether to carry on braking, go straight on or run wide. Just have a go and put it in there – lean the bike over further and nine times out of 10 it’ll get you round.

YOUR WORST OR BEST MOMENT...I lost at Oulton Park in 2000 battling against Neil Hodgson. I braked late into Lodge, but Neil was later and we collided. I came off worse. Two races later at Silverstone I saw a gap on the first lap but I got it wrong going into the hairpin and punted him off at 70mph.

CHRIS WALKERVETERAN LAST LAP SCRAPPER DOES IT ALL ON THE BRAKES

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If your bike’s not the quickest on the grid, you’ll be needing nerves of steel to outdo the fast boys on the anchors

p112-113 PB DEC How to CDP copy.1 1 17/10/08 13:14:00

My Set-up

BEN WILKINSPB’S ROAD TEST EDITOR WON’T JUST GRAB THE BRAKES. IT’S FIRM BUT FAIR FOR OUR MAN.

WHAT’S THE BEST CIRCUIT AND SET-UP FOR LAST-GASP BRAKING?Mallory Park is good. The last time I raced there was pre-Edwina’s and going into the hairpin [Shaw’s] you were flat-out to almost nothing, so if you were good on the brakes you could make up loads of places. For a heavy braking set-up [on most bikes] I’d increase the preload and compression damping slightly to reduce up-front weight and stress on the front tyre.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?Don’t grab the brakes. Build the pressure quickly but progressively. Use a little back brake to steady the bike on the way into the corner. Push yourself back in the seat to put weight further back so it applies more braking effort before the back end lifts off the ground.

WHEN DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BRAKED TOO DEEP INTO A CORNER?You can’t turn. You’re still trying to scrub off speed at the point where you should be turning in, and you can’t turn because you’ll wash the front end out. You have to progressively let off the brake as you lean in so at the point you’re making your actual braking you’ve got the brake off.

YOUR WORST OR BEST MOMENT...You can make up a lot of race places by charging down the inside of a hairpin but you’ve got to be aware that someone can turn across you if they’re turning in too early. I’ve run wide plenty of times through out-braking myself but nothing catastrophic.

TOM SYKESNEWLY SIGNED WSB YAMAHA YOUNG GUN SAYS LATE BRAKING JUST COMES NATURALLY. LUCKY GIT.

WHAT’S THE BEST CIRCUIT AND SET-UP FOR LAST-GASP BRAKING?UK-wise it’s Donington. The last three corners plus turn one provide four heavy braking sections close together and can win you the race if you get the braking right. Set-up is a compromise, as you need the bike to turn well through both fast and slow bits, so running a firm front end gives you support where you need it without too much weight on the front tyre. The Suzuki needed more rider input to set it up correctly compared to the Honda I rode the year before, but that’s no bad thing as it helped me understand the bike more.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?To me, it just comes naturally; I like braking late. There’s various techniques but I find what works is trailing the brake all the way to the apex. For successful racing it’s important to have good front end feel.

WHEN DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BRAKED TOO DEEP INTO A CORNER?Speed. When you start arriving at the corner you can judge by your speed if you’re going in too hot and you start tipping onto the side of your tyre. All you can do is sit the bike back up and run a bit wider. YOUR WORST OR BEST MOMENT...I can usually out-brake riders and still make a comfortable pass. At Mallory this year I had a slight problem with the bike and had to use a different clutch, but this, combined with my braking style, actually let me pass two bikes at the hairpin instead of the usual one.

LEGEND#4David Westwood’s2002 SP-2HRC’s revised SP-2 was good enough to win WSB and be a sales success on the road. David Westwood tells us about his.

‘The stock suspension was okay but the forks sagged a lot, and the bike had a nose-up attitude so didn’t hold a line. Sticking a spacer on the rear shock top mount improved the steering but because of all the sag up front, it ran wide out of corners as all the fork travel unloaded under power. At the back, the standard shock had a ton of preload on the spring, so there was no static sag whatsoever. K-Tech suggested the forks were resprung, and their ‘road and track’ re-shim. The forks now sag properly and the damping is bang on.

‘Lovely as it is, the WP shock I now have at the back is a bit of a luxury. I’ve added a couple of clicks of rebound at the back and the compression is as suggested by WP. It now holds a perfect line.

‘I’m 6ft 4in and the SP-2 is cramped at best. Harris rearsets are adjusted to give more room. I also use Harris GP clip-ons. I found the stock bars too narrow and angled down – they put a lot of weight on the outsides of my wrists and hands. An HRC quick-action throttle tube helps too.

‘It wears Akrapovic Ti cans, a Power Commander and a custom map. The airtube flapper is removed and blanked off and the airbleed system has gone too. It’s just short of 130bhp at the wheel and some of the snatchiness in the fuelling is smoothed out. My favourite tyres are street compound Pirelli Dragon Supercorsa Pros.

‘There’s a Brembo 19 x 18 master cylinder, HEL brake hoses (I always use OE brake pads) and a Gilles chain adjuster. I’ve also fitted a smaller front sprocket, mainly to compensate for the taller (190/55) rear tyre and shorten the gearing slightly. The Sigma slipper clutch is my insurance policy against ham-fisted downchanges. It was expensive at £500 but it gives just the right amount of slip to keep it all under control.’

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p112-113 PB DEC How to CDP copy.2 2 20/10/08 13:49:37

PERFORMANCE

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Staff BikesExtra

Forget glamorous foreign trackday tomfoolery, PB’s 08 bikes do most of their test miles scuffing across the windswept B-roads of the East Midlands – to work.

TIM THOMPSONSUZUKI GSX-R750 K8DAILY MILES 10 each way. THE JOURNEY Stare at the temperature gauge until it shows 70 degrees. Go. Trees clear, road arrows like Sulby Straight. Brief squirt up to 125, suspension warming on mud pies and pot holes. Nod to the Polish kids smoking outside the strawberry farm. Hard brakes, turn left at a mate’s house, picking up the throttle early in case he’s watching. Horses and cyclists keep speed in check down this single track, four-mile rat run. Right at the footballer’s mansion. Flat to the next village. On a good morning I see my first car less than a mile from the office. AVERAGE SPEED 60mph. TOP SPEED If I didn’t worry about blind crests with oncoming JCB Fastracks driven by beer-and-Red-Bull-fuelled Kiwis who haven’t slept for seven weeks, I’d see 150mph every morning. However, life-affirming bursts of 130 are much more normal. BEST TIME 8 minutes 17 seconds on a ZX-6R B2 – the most mental 600 ever. A new housing estate and a fresh stretch of 50mph limits along my commuting route mean this record may stand for some time. Same for many of us, I suspect. TYPICAL OFFICE TALK ‘It came from nowhere. Took off and smacked into my helmet. Luckily it was a glancing blow. Cock pheasants are like house bricks at that speed. Got any nurofen?’

THE BIKECONSUMPTION 34mpg, no oil.MODS Disc lock in tail, display toggled to clock, tail-piece covered in protective gaffer tape. TYRES Bridgestone BT002 (Street Race) maintained profile for 2500 miles and inspired with their early-morning feel. Currently Dunlop GP Racer, which turn more aggressively and seem to have no limit on the road.SET-UP Standard rear; rebound and compression wound in on the forks. FIT FOR THE JOB The GSX-R’s ponderous gearbox is a weakness; the compliance of its chassis with all sorts of surfaces is its strength. The way it translates a zillion bumps per minute into a nonchalent glide is exceptional even by 08 Fireblade standards. I set off each morning unsure if I’ll dawdle in at a cloud-gazing, short-shifting 60 or go for broke. The bike’s happy with either.

KITSTYLE Lazy. Old Richa leather jacket and BMW Streetguard trousers. Possibly a Hein Gericke mac if the stratus is low. GOOD KIT Lovely Sidi Vertigo boots – squeak-free with much feel and quick to

put on. Ancient Krug rucksack with clip-on 10 litre Kriega extension bag. And Held gloves with an integral wiper blade for scraping atomised manure from my visor. BAD KIT No bad kit recently. But my Krug bag, Richa jacket and BMW trousers all have broken zips.

024-025_PB_Dec08 a5.indd 1 17/10/08 11:18:03

COMMUTERS

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‘HEAD DOWN, REVS UP, WATCH FOR MUD ON THE APEX’

MATT WILDEEYAMAHA R6MILES 76 round-tripTHE JOURNEY Out of the flat-pack garage, cathedral on the left, posh schoolgirls on the right. Onto the Fen. Head down, revs up, past oncoming traffic. Cruise at 90. Wheelie from roundabout camber change. Crash-brake for Gatso. Onto broken B-road. Under the tractor, watch for mud on the apex. Into the city. Taxi drivers just off the boat, no indicators, gridlocked parkway. Knee-down roundabout, brick-weave car park. Work.AVERAGE SPEED 61mph.TOP SPEED A potential 165, a real 61mph, officer.BEST TIME Once clocked 28 minutes at an average speed of 77mph.BEST OFFICE-TALK MOMENT ‘Chasing a Porsche 911, I overtake a Mondeo Estate. I glance inside, and see a uniform as I’m alongside. I brake and fall in behind. Copper waves at me, drops it down a gear and chases the Porsche. A mile later he’s nicked. Lucky...’THE BIKECONSUMPTION 37mpg, zero oil, ever.MODS Leave the standard numberplate hanger on – great bungee point. Toolkit removed, big lock in tailpiece. Lower pegs are for the elderly.TYRES Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas. I believe the SC2 race compound was developed directly for commuting. SET-UP Same as a trackday, but with the high-speed comp backed right off. Fens still hurt kidneys.FIT FOR THE JOB? Yes, so long as you think of it as the opportunity to ride a great sportsbike twice a day, rather than a daily grind you have to get through. You

don’t have to ride to work on an overweight, underpowered commuter. I’ve got a VFR750 in my garage. I haven’t ridden it in so long I’ve lost the key. Why would you want to ride it?

KITSTYLE Sensible at the core – Gore-Tex. Sporty at the extremities – race boots and gloves. Like a mullet.GOOD KIT Alpinestars GPS-3 waterproof boots. Do what they claim to, mostly. Discontinued and now good value at £120.

BAD KIT Dainese Gore Sport jacket. Looks great, feels great, waterproof for two months until the press-studs fell off. £300.

BEN WILKINSKAWASAKI ZX-10RMILES 51 round-tripTHE JOURNEYWheel bike out of carpeted, heated double garage/workshop. Look back into garage longingly as the remote control door closes. Arrive at the national speed limit sign. Big handful. Front wheel lifts. Junction. Front wheel lifts. Slow for queue of traffic. Front wheel lifts. Stop at level crossing. Front wheel lifts. Front wheel lifts. Front wheel lifts (this is a litre sportsbike after all). 25 minutes later arrive at office with thousand-yard stare and not a bead of sweat on my brow. Not a bad way to start the day. AVERAGE SPEED 128mph. Nah, just over 60mph.TOP SPEED La la la la la la la... [fingers in ears...].BEST TIME Not far off Matt’s – 20 minutes at an average of 76mph.

BEST OFFICE TALK MOMENT The time I rode to the office in jeans. It pissed it down when it was time to go home. How they laughed. They will pay. One day...THE BIKECONSUMPTION Because the engine rarely needs revving hard, or even given big handfuls of throttle, the Ten is proving itself to be surprisingly economical – 42mpg ain’t half bad. Not a drop of oil burned either.MODSJust from some suspension adjustment (see SET-UP).TYRES Dunlop Qualifier RRs have served well for 3000 miles. They’re pretty good in the wet and top fun in the dry. Recently fitted a set of Bridgestone BT003 road homologated race tyres. They’re good.SET-UP See page 23 for my comfort settings.FIT FOR THE JOB?Strangely, yes. It fills my ride with adrenaline. A hose over with cold water at the end of the day, followed by a spray with Scottoiler FS365, is keeping the 10R lovely.

KITSTYLE None at all. As long as my kit keeps me warm and dry and is comfortable I’m happy. Gericke waterproof leather jacket and Weise cordura trousers for me. GOOD KIT Daytona Non-Stop GTX boots (£219.99). Expensive but waterproof and comfortable

for walking in. This is the second pair I’ve had in eight years and I do over 20,000 miles a year. There’s no fancy plastic armour but that means they don’t squeak when I walk. Hein Gericke HG Sports X-Trafit GTX (£54.99). Crap name. Good gloves. Warm enough for most of the year (barring December-February period), thin enough for good control, waterproof and cheap. BAD KIT No have time for it. I’ve not had any in years.

Flat-outin black Cordura

024-025_PB_Dec08 a5.indd 2 17/10/08 11:18:42

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500GP RACING IN THE EARLY 90S WAS BRUTAL. DOOHAN, SCHWANTZ AND BARROS WERE LUCKY TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS HORRIFYING MELEE ON THE OPENING LAP OF THE 1993 BRITISH GP

WORDS BEN MILLERPIC WOUT MEPPELINK

01/08/93Donington 500GP

Get the Picture

046

4 LUCA CADALORAAfter this incredible piece of evasive riding – he even stuck out his left foot at one point to catch the inevitable fall – Cadalora tailed Rainey for much of the race, torn between playing the dutiful team-mate and taking his first 500 Grand Prix win. On the penultimate lap the racer in Luca prevailed and he made his move. Rainey understood. Team boss Roberts didn’t.

6 DONINGTON PARK By 1993 Donington Park was the established home of the British motorcycle Grand Prix, having hosted the race since 1987. By turns inspirational – Redgate through Craner, Old Hairpin, McLeans and Coppice – and frustrating – the Melbourne Hairpin and Goddards – Donington is a track many racers nevertheless profess to love. This accident happened on the approach to The Esses, a chicane now colloquially known as the Foggy Esses and living on borrowed time. As part of a raft of changes brought about by a successful bid to host the British Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2010, The Esses will go in favour of a gently curving straight between Coppice and the Melbourne Hairpin. Further tweaks will see the track then plunge down into the infield instead of fumbling through the existing Goddards, before climbing back up from a tight left-hander to join the current start/finish straight. The Foggy Esses’ namesake was on course for a podium finish in the 1993 British Grand Prix on a Cagiva until it ran out of fuel, handing the third place to Niall Mackenzie aboard a privateer Roc Yamaha.

046-047_PB_Dec08_ah7.indd 1 17/10/08 14:47:29

My first knee-down experience was a long time coming. The reason – I was poor. My teenage years combined crap jobs with getting through college. I spent all my money on bikes, not kit. When I was 16, my mates had matching paddock jackets and lids – I had a race-tuned motor and a pair of Reeboks. They were a bunch of fakers.

Any money I had went into the bike. Usually I had insurance, but I always had proper tyres and sorted suspension. Unfortunately I looked like a tramp. I passed my test in jeans and trainers.

By the time I was 18 I’d graduated to a KR-1. It wore Bridgestone BT90s. It rode around the outside of anyone and leaned until the pegs scraped. I got faster and faster. Each late-90s summer evening was about corner speed. But my knee still hadn’t gone down.

It took a set of NEC bargain bin Akito leathers to do that. They were so small that the kneeslider Velcro finished above the knee. The sliders were taped on. At the time I was working in Peterborough, but living in Lincoln. The commute was 50 miles along the A15. Flat-out all the way it would use most of a tank of gas just getting to work. My favourite section was the Aswarby Bends, a left-right-left complex about five miles from Sleaford. The middle corner was the best. Paved in high-grip tarmac and about 20 degrees of positive camber, the KR barely needed slowing. It scraped its pegs and smeared yellow paint on the tarmac as the knackered shock gave way enough to drag the bellypan.

I was on my way back from an interview for my first-ever job on a bike magazine. I’d boasted to the editor about my ‘brilliant’ riding. He spied my virgin sliders and looked doubtful. Riding home I entered the corner at the same speed, but hung off like an idiot. Left slider went down, scraped, and then flew off as the tape failed. I wobbled, stopped, taped it back on and went around the other way. Right slider now scraped. The next day I’d worn it through to the backing lapping one of Peterborough’s many roundabouts. Job done. MW

* Share your kneedown memories with us at perf.bikes@bauermedia.co.uk

3 KEVIN SCHWANTZ Schwantz may have mastered the art of finishing races but he was still riding hard enough to fall off, in practice at least. At Donington all three 500cc frontrunners – Rainey, Schwantz and Doohan – fell on Saturday, victims of low temperatures and Donington’s infamously fickle grip levels. Nevertheless Schwantz set a time (1:33.45) over a second quicker than second place man, Marlboro Yamaha’s Luca Cadalora, to take pole position.

2 WAYNE RAINEYWith his first two world championships in 1990 and 1991, Wayne Rainey made winning the greatest prize in racing look easy. With mentor Kenny Roberts at his side and the beautifully balanced Yamaha YZR500 beneath him, he carried an air of invincibility that made his catastrophic accident at Misano just weeks after the British GP all the more shocking. But in truth it had got tough for Rainey before then. He crashed in testing at the tail end of 1991 and went into 1992 on the back foot. He forced himself into contention by over-riding but more crashes followed. Racing 500s was a brutal pastime in those years, one that punished its top men without mercy. When Doohan and Schwantz were both injured, Rainey ground out a third world championship on determination alone. 1993 was similarly tough. Going into the Donington race, Rainey trailed Schwantz by 23 points. Nevertheless he got a flyer of a start and led the race until he came under the close scrutiny of team-mate Luca Cadalora.

1 MICK DOOHANDoohan was kept from the 1993 title race by the same leg injury that denied him the championship in 1992. Busy adapting both his riding and his bike (he switched to a thumb-operated rear brake), he still found the time to win in San Marino on what was undoubtedly the fastest 500, the factory Rothmans Honda (Shinichi Itoh hit an unofficial 200mph at Hockenheim on his).

Flying under the Dunlop Bridge for the first time, Doohan was on the far right of the track and tucked up behind Barros when he went for his NSR’s carbon Brembo brakes. He did so moments too late. Caught out by the weight of his own brimmed fuel tank and by Barros’s now legendary skill on the brakes, Doohan ran right into the back of the Brazilian, skittling him out. Mick and his Honda then fell left, directly into Kevin Schwantz alongside. The RGV, its front end already loaded beyond comprehension by Schwantz’s braking, hurled itself into a sickeningly violent forward roll, flooring the world champion in waiting. In the aftermath Doohan limped to safety, as did Barros, while Schwantz lay on the track in pain. While openly gutted at having knocked down Schwantz, Mick filed the crash firmly under ‘racing incident’: ‘I don’t think it was all my fault,’ he said afterwards. ‘In racing you have so many near misses. This time I didn’t miss.’

As recently revealed plans for a revised Donington lay-out spell the bulldozing of the Foggy Esses, we look back at the chicane’s most infamous moment.

As teams descended on Donington Park for round 10 of the 1993 world championship, Texan Kevin Schwantz and his Suzuki RGV500 looked to have finally got the measure of arch rival and reigning champion Wayne Rainey. Schwantz climbed the podium after each and every one of the first nine races of the year. He won four of them. As the race got underway, Schwantz and team-mate Barros were second and third as they approached The Esses for the first time, content to let Rainey lead for now. Then all hell broke loose.

Watch the action at uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pMG5veV6xcg

YOU NEVER FORGET*

MY FIRST KNEE DOWN WORDS

AND PICS MATT WILDEE

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5 ALEX BARROSAfter three years with Cagiva, the young Barros moved to the Lucky Strike Suzuki squad as Schwantz’s team-mate for 1993. Experienced beyond his years thanks to an early start – Barros contested his first 80cc Grand Prix aged just 15 – the Brazilian was more than a little miffed at being collected by Doohan, particularly since the Australian had blasted Alex earlier in the season for dangerous riding. Barros proved himself a genuine contender by winning the last race of 1993, his first in GP racing. Nine years later, in the first season of the 990cc era, Barros relentlessly harried the faster four-strokes on his West Honda Pons NSR500 before being rewarded with an RC211V. He won two races to finish fourth in the championship.

We’ll let you caption these. Send to perf.bikes@bauermedia.co.uk. Best ones get published next month

046-047_PB_Dec08_ah7.indd 2 17/10/08 14:48:18

WORDS MATT WILDEEPICS PAUL BRYANT/SUZUKI

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THIS IS MOST EXTREME GSX-R EVER BUILT… 2009 SUZUKI GSX-R1000

The 2008 Honda Fireblade is one of the most accomplished bikes that’s ever been built. Mind-warping powerful, with handling, usability and an

integrity that’s never been seen before. In every qualitative way it is the best bike that’s ever been built. And it must be giving every Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki engineer a serious headache. This is the bike they all have to beat if they want to salvage some corporate pride.

This is Suzuki’s answer – and it’s the raciest, most focused GSX-R1000 we’ve ever seen.

Looks the same as the old K8? It isn’t. There’s a new, lighter, shorter, revvier motor, a new chassis, and some of the most advanced suspension components ever fitted to a production bike. The specs point to it being less road-bike, more race bike, just like GSX-Rs used to be. This bike needs to win WSB races one day, then win hearts in the showroom the next. We can’t wait to ride it.

080-083_PB_Dec08_ah7.indd 2 17/10/08 15:43:57

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ENGINEYamaha might be trying to make their new R1 more usable with its faux-big-bang engine, but Suzuki look like they are trying for the opposite. And this is a virtually all-new motor. It’s 6cm shorter than the previous model, and has a host of internal changes with much-lightened reciprocating parts. The engine’s architecture has been revised and simplified. The use of two-piece crankcases rather than three means much lighter case design that saves 16 bolts and nearly 600g. The clutch is now cable-operated because it is lighter.

But it’s the business end of the motor that really shows Suzuki’s intent. Every change that Suzuki have made has been for more top end and more revs. There’s a new cylinder head with shorter, lighter inlet cams and bigger valves (both inlet and exhaust are now 1mm wider). The bore has been increased and the stroke reduced (previously 73.4 x 59mm, it’s now 74.5 x 57.3mm) which should help it rev harder, the reduction in piston speed helping racing reliability too. The compression has also been increased from 12.5:1 to 12.8:1, and the redline has been raised from 13,750rpm to 14,000rpm. Suzuki insist it’ll be more flexible than before, but we reckon it’ll be a screamer, even with their trademark switchable mapping. There are no power figures yet, but we’d be surprised if it produces less that 170bhp at the rear wheel.

SHORTER CHASSISThe chassis retains the same elements of the K8, (a five-piece, cast and then welded frame), but is refined, shaved and shortened. The twin spars have had a nip and a tuck, and thanks to the 59mm-shorter engine, their length has been reduced. This reduces the distance between the headstock and the swingarm pivot and allows a longer swingarm, meaning more traction, less wheelies, more stability. The swingarm is now 577mm (41 per cent of the 1405mm wheelbase). The wheelbase is also the shortest in its class (5mm less than a Fireblade).

TRULY UPSIDE-DOWN SUSPENSIONThese are some of the most advanced forks fitted to any production bikes. Developed by Showa and used to win the Suzuka Eight-Hour, they do away with the cartridge assembly that controls the damping in a modern upside-down fork. The BPF (Big Piston Front fork) system simplifies the fork assembly and saves weight. Each fork leg has a 39.6mm piston running inside the inner wall of the fork tube. Showa reckon the bigger pistons and shims that go with them improve damping quality. The fork springs run at the bottom of the forks and are totally submerged in the oil, which is said to reduce oil foaming. This means that preload is adjusted at the bottom of the fork, while compression

damping adjustment now joins rebound on the fork caps. Everything has been turned on its head, meaning the damping components can now be removed without stripping the fork. Race teams will love this, but it’ll only effect us if we’re serial fiddlers. Rear shock is adjustable for high and low speed compression. Electronic steering damper is retained.

MONOBLOC BRAKESThe monobloc revolution continues. Ducati had mono Brembos on the 1098 in 2007, then Honda had mono Tokicos on the Blade this year. Cast in one piece, the monobloc caliper means more rigidity and less weight, but needs advanced machining for the fluid ways and piston bores to be cut. This makes them expensive to produce, but their consistency and light weight mean they are worth it, if only for national racers and car park posers. What’s more important is the fact that each caliper is 205g lighter than before, reducing unsprung weight and therefore improving damping.

AERODYNAMICSSuzuki claim the tweaked looks are more than just a styling exercise – they say the shape is dictated by wind tunnel work. The ram-air ducts are moved closer to the centre of pressure, the upper fairing wider for more wind protection (perhaps the only improvement to practicality on the entire bike) and the lowers narrower for less drag. Ó Ó Ó

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GSX-R1000 K9 VS K8

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…BUT IT STILL HAS TO BEAT THIS BIKE.2008 SUZUKI GSX-R1000

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Head down, throttle open charging across the wide skies and wind-beaten expanses of Cambridgeshire, the 2008 GSX-R is in its element, eating up vanishing point straights, throwing itself head-long at the final

heat haze of an all-too-short Indian summer. It’s stable, composed and in isolation feels like one of the most advanced bikes in the world. Right here, right now, I’m at a loss to see why Suzuki want to replace it.

Less than two years ago, while every other motorcycle magazine was sunning itself on a freebie bike launch and a handful of 20-minute track sessions in Australia, PB managed to get hold of one of the first GSX-R1000 K7s to land in the UK. The bike deserved proper miles.

There was only one thing to do: we luggaged it up and headed south, 1500 miles south, to St Tropez and two days lapping the Le Luc circuit in the Provence mountains. It would have been special on any bike, but the K7 made it a dream trip. A brand new 2007-spec R1 came along for comparison, but the GSX-R made mincemeat of it on the road. The R1 felt fickle, revvy and reedy, the GSX-R brawny and bullish. On the Peage, hiding from 18-wheeler spray it made the most sense. It pulled yards on the R1 every time we rolled on the throttle. It spun its wheels from the toll booths and carried its luggage and rider much better than the R1. Comfortable and fast enough to make your brain bleed, on the motorway the GSX-R is a Hayabusa for people who hate the excess of Hayabusas.

On the track it performed too. Like all the best big-bore GSX-Rs everything centrered around the engine. Out of every corner it pulled yards on the R1, by the end of every straight it was 5mph faster. Such was the power and torque available, it had shredded and blued its rear Bridgestone after the first session. On road-rubber on at track speed it felt like a barely-guided missile.

And now back on the Fen, it feels like that very same missile. Like any other big-bore GSX-R, it is all about the engine. It dominates the bike in just the way that a litre bike’s motor should. From about 5000rpm it just digs in and drives – and it is this low-end grunt that makes it feel special – 08 Blade aside, it feels 200cc bigger than any of its rivals. Out of every corner the GSX-R sits on its haunches and just drives hard, smearing rubber, even when you’re not trying.

In second gear it drives hard out of the 90-degree switchback, and the throttle is as open as I dare. Big bumps kicks the front tyre skywards, and it floats as it rides the power curve – the easiest wheelie of my life. I don’t bother changing gear, the front comes down as the torque tails off. It lands at 120mph, tyre chirping as it does. Written down, this sounds crazy, but on a K8 this sort of thing is as easy as it is commonplace and takes no skill whatsoever. This is simply an amazing roadbike.

The handling is tuned for the road too, the recklessness with which you can take bumpy roads never fails to impress. The electronic steering damping means it stays stable. The front just surfs. The limit is how hard you can hold on. It might be slightly leaden compared to its smaller brothers, but this just reassures you. The compromise between agility and stability is spot-on. It hasn’t swept all before it in WSB like the K5 did, but it is still the automatic choice for hard riding proddy racers.

The problem is it just isn’t enough. Suzuki need the bike to win WSB races and this is what the K9 is for. If Suzuki have got their sums right, the sharper geometry and their claims of more centralised mass should make the bike even more agile, which we’ll love, but we’re not sure about the new engine. Suzuki’s dream of chasing revs is at odds with the midrange and usability of

the current GSX-R1000 that makes it so devastatingly fast on the road. We hope that the GSX-R1000 K9 isn’t just another revvy track bike. Big-bore GSX-Rs should have balls.

‘R1s are fickle and reedy, GSX-Rs are brawny and bullish’

2009 GSX-R1000K9You want one because…You want to win a WSB race. Yamaha have tried to make their new R1 more usable, Suzuki just boast about making their new GSX-R faster. The first three new models of GSX-R1000 (K1, K3, K5) were head and shoulders above everything else. The K7 wasn’t, and while it is impossible to tell what the new one will be like, the fact that it is lighter, shorter and revvier points to the fact that it’ll be the one of the most extreme. Capacity 999ccBore/stroke 74.5mm x 57.3mmWheelbase 1405mmRake/trail 23.8 degrees/98.3mmClaimed wet weight 203kg

2008 GSX-R1000 K8You want one because…You want a superbike AND a sports-tourer. The K7/K8 will do both. There isn’t a performance bike in the world that is as effective or as involving as this. Adjustable footrests make the Hayabusa irrelevant, huge midrange grunt means it eats R1s on the road at least. And there’s a good few still stuck in dealers showrooms. Hunt around and you can get one for much less than £8k. PB reckons there will still be old ones in the showrooms when the new ones appear. Capacity 999ccBore/stroke 74.3mm x 59mmWheelbase 1415mmRake/trail 23.8 degrees/98mm Claimed wet weight 215kg

2008 FIREBLADEYou want one because…You want to go fast without trying. Build quality, integration and sheer friendliness have never been matched by another 185mph sportsbike. Best bike in the world is an easy tag to throw about, but more people say it about the Blade than any other. It’s so fast, and yet it reassures every time you ride it. The handling is remarkable, the midrange grunt makes a mockery of its short-stroke architecture. Lets you have more of its power more of the time, this is the benchmark by which the GSX-R will be judged. Capacity 999.8ccBore/stroke 76mm x 55.1Wheelbase 1410mmRake/trail 23.3 degrees/96.3mmClaimed wet weight 202kg

WHICH ONE...

080-083_PB_Dec08_ah7.indd 5 17/10/08 15:45:53

EXUPS ARE FOR GIRLSMEET THE GSX-R1100L A REAL MAN’S SPORTSBIKE

WORDS MATT WILDEEPICS PAUL BRYANT

MODERN LEGEND

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In 1990 you couldn’t have your cake and eat it. There were really two choices to be made if you wanted a proper sportsbike: small, sweet handling and slow; or big, scary and stupidly fast. And, a few 750s excepted, everything else in the middle was built down to a price or impossibly bland. The Fireblade was still two years away.

The old oil-cooled GSX-R1100 was a muscle-superbike. Ballsy, brash and with the kind of broad-chested 1127cc motor that warped people’s minds and created moral panics in Europe, it was the poster-bike for a generation of wannabe hooligans. A Yamaha EXUP might have been more sophisticated, but it lacked the blunt-nosed aggression of the GSX-R and didn’t have the heritage – this was the original big-bore race-rep, and five years after its launch it still looked like a refugee from a French Endurance race.

And the L model was the best yet. A combination of old engineering with the kind of running gear that was to become commonplace in the 1990s, the GSX-R was a brilliant juxtaposition of styles and engineering ideals. Upside-down forks and fully-adjustable suspension were at odds with a frame design that was firmly rooted in the 1980s. The engine was stubbornly oil-cooled when no one else was even considering it. On face value it seemed archaic, but it was effective. Like all big bikes of the time it was like a Vegas-era Elvis – it trod the fine line between brilliant and slightly too fat. But it was indisputably cool. This was a performance bike for real men and small boys. Ó Ó Ó

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AS WELL AS THE SIGMA CLUTCH, WE FITTED EBC FRICTION PLATES TO OUR CBR600RR.

p108-110 PB Dec clutches CDP cop1 1 17/10/08 13:11:38

SHOULD I FIT A SLIPPER CLUTCH?

Your bike Made faster

WORDS ALAN SEELEY PICS JAMES CHEADLE

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RACERS HAVE LONG KNOWN THE WORTH OF THE BACK-TORQUE LIMITING CLUTCH. BUT DO THEY HAVE ANY PLACE ELSEWHERE?

T he acquisitive aspect of human nature demands that we gather an abundance of things around us, whether we really need them or not. Slipper clutches are a case in point. They’re rapidly becoming

de rigeur on the latest performance bikes, but where does that leave the rest of us who own bikes built before this technological stampede? Should we simply nurse quiet resentment over the more comprehensive equipment lists of our riding buddies’ newer machines, or set about up-speccing our older bikes? After all, they were brilliant when they were new, so why should they suddenly be inferior now?Last month we posed the question, ‘Should I fit a slipper clutch to my

CBR600RR?’ In the absence of any empirical evidence, we could only conclude ‘probably’. So this month we drag our hard-working 2004 Honda CBR600RR to the wide-open expanses of Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in the hope of providing a definitive answer.Specialists, and multiple title winners, Sigma have provided us with the

latest version of their CBR600RR slipper clutch and EBC a fresh set of friction plates to replace the Honda’s over-worked and abused originals. As well as the CBR, I’m joined here by PB’s German Supersport racer and

technical writer Alex Blome and the all-seeing, all-knowing datalogger.First we’ll fit the new EBC friction plates to the standard clutch so that

Alex can get a feel for the bike as stock and then turn in plenty of fast, consistent laps to provide us with a baseline to compare to his performance on the bike when we fit the slipper clutch.Then we fit the Sigma slipper clutch and send Alex out again, initially

to get a feel for how the new unit behaves and then incorporate its advantages into his riding.What we’re hoping to see on the datalogger traces is harder, later

braking, tighter lines and higher corner speed plus earlier application of throttle out of turns as the slipper clutch helps maintain the composure of the CBR600RR’s suspension and rider’s confidence grows. All of these are plainly crucial attributes for racers but their value to fast road and trackday riders is more subjective. The real test is how Alex feels about the bike above and beyond a few seconds saved here and there. After all, there are no trophies at stake here.Another useful by-product of our experiment will be discovering how

easy or otherwise it is to fit and set up a slipper clutch and test whether it’s a task that’s within reach of the average home mechanic. Ó Ó Ó

Al effects the quickest clutch change Bruntingthorpe has ever seen. Clutch tool and verniers (right) are vital

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