Quelle: http://www.2wf.com
Frequent Flyer Miles by Mike Emery ~ Photos by Dewey
OK, so we've established that the big liter bikes are the hot ticket these days especially with the change in AMA Superbike rules that saw the Suzuki GSX-R1000 rule the proverbial roost in 03'. Honda had the venerable RC51 in its racing fleet but sadly, outside of Daytona, it couldn't really compete with the power to weight ratios that the Suzuki was producing. Honda went to the drawing board, overlaid the blueprints to Vale's fabulously successful RC211V onto it and went to work replicating a Superbike around those winning numbers.
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Now, traditionally we would see a motorcycle built by Honda for the man on the street. Honda's racing division, the much fabled HRC, would then step up to the plate and build the appropriate appendages to turn this relatively mild bike into a wild race winning machine fit for World or domestic competition. This time it's different, and this really is a race platform with a couple of EPA and DOT friendly parts to market the bike to the likes of you and I. |
The venue for the World Press introduction was Arizona
Motorsports Park, in Phoenix. The track is rather unique in a couple of ways.
Firstly it was designed by the renowned track designer Alan Wilson. Construction
of the track is first-rate with an absolutely seamless ribbon of asphalt from
start to finish. With 16 turns within 2.25 miles it had some very challenging
corners ranging from fast doglegs to decreasing radiuses and more. The surface
was very abrasive and the consequent traction first rate. The track owners seem
intent on keeping this track quiet, with its current usage only extended to some
clubman racing, both cages and bikes.
| Playing superbike pilot for the day, we were greeted with a personalized bike and some decent track time to go play. The bikes were initially fitted with the stock OEM tires, namely Bridgestone's Battlax BT-014. I loved Bridges' in Europe and devoured them as fast as whatever I was riding at the time could. However, in the US they seem as popular as a leper in a card game. I recently got to try a pair on a Beemer, of all things and came away impressed. The Japanese company has been enjoying a modicum of success in MotoGP with Makota Tamada and it looks like they have a renewed interest in the sportbike market. This tire has a harder compound to reduce ch-ch-chatter and new chemical compounds to enhance the grip. I must admit I rode like a fairy (sugar plum?) for the first couple of sessions, not having the minerals to push hard. Tossing bikes at press intros is never a good choice to make in life and my times suffered accordingly. The tires stuck however and gave me a good first impression on the bike. |
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Because we were assigned bikes, there was an excellent chance to go play, fine tune the suspenders to suit, and go play some more. First time out saw me wobbling around this strange (to me) track and coming in for some suspension adjustments. First order of the day was a bump in compression and a little rebound in the inverted HMAS cartridge fork to settle some settling issues. The bike was a little abrupt on low RPM throttle inputs and with me shutting down with indecisive attempts at the preferred racing line, the corresponding "double bump" had me looking for a bit more compression, to dial out the down stroke and a little more rebound to slow down the return. These forks, by the way, seem a little plusher than of yore, more travel too. |