PB mixed issue sampler - updated Jul18

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THE BIG TEST MIDDLEWIGHT NAKEDS THE MIDDLEWEIGHT CUP HEN MIDDLEWEIGHTS inaugural Performance Bikes World were the poor relation to Middleweight Cup race be? W supersport bikes, a series Off the line, the lighter Triumph Street could easily have been Triple RS would lead into the first corner, arranged, as the naked bikes were all easily out-braking and out-cornering its 600cc. But as the supersport class’s rivals and then pulling clear bike lengths popularity dipped and the through the bend due to its sporty middleweights flourished, it led to a chassis. Once it stopped wobbling and greater diversity within the naked bikes. was upright, the Yamaha MT-09’s instant How do you regulate a class that includes punch would see it gain back the metres triples, parallel twins, inline fours and it lost on the Kawasaki under braking as V-twins that are all of varying capacities? its long-travel suspension was no match It can’t happen. So what’s the answer? for the Z900’s standard-length units. You could impose a horsepower cap Powering away, it would be near the RS and minimum weight limit, but no by the end of the straight and a few manufacturer would get behind this with metres ahead of the Z900, only to lose its factory-supported teams as all the ground gained come the next bend. A performance emphasis would be on the pattern that would continue for the lap, bike’s chassis – and that’s exactly what seeing the Triumph win the race, caused the spiralling costs, track focus followed by the Yamaha and the and eventual decline of the supersport Kawasaki, with just a few bike lengths class. The only viable solution would be a separating them. But what of the Suzuki? one-make naked bike series, but that’s Last into the first corner due to a lack of not in the spirit of WSB’s ethos and would low-end drive and underpowered on the only benefit one manufacturer. However, straights, sadly the GSX-S750’s lack of putting reality aside for just one cubes sees it trailing home in last spot second, if we race-prepped these with its rider wishing for a bit more four middleweights, what performance everywhere to help it close would the result of the the gap on its rivals. SECOND OPINION REPLACE A SPORTS 600 WITH THIS… REALLY? LIVING IN A household with three supersport bikes is a lot of fun: a decade-old CBR with the right mods, a Daytona 675R with trick parts as standard. And my 2017 R6 is a very capable machine even before getting the personal touch. But, in a few years time, what will replace them? I’ll tell you what won’t: the Suzuki. It has a cheap-looking frame, awful Transformerstyle looks and a motor milking a tenuous K5 connection to create the most forgettable use of a GSX badge. It’s the cheapest on test by £300 but is still too expensive for what you get. A clear loser. The other three are amazing in their own little ways. The Z900 was a surprisingly good package and the one to go for if I was to stick with an inline four. It’s powerful, it handles, it just about gets away with the styling and it wheelies like a dream. Triumph’s 765 Street Triple is an interesting one. I owned a 675 Street R in ‘I WONDER IF YAMAHA SHOULD CHANGE THE MT NAME TO ‘TDR’ INSTEAD’ 2009 and had some big laughs. I had high hopes for the 765RS. 15bhp more with a similar chassis is surely a no-brainer... but not quite. The midrange feels flatter, it’s not as exhilarating to ride and is missing ‘purity’. A glorious bike, and it would win on track, but it’s not my favourite. Expectations of the MT-09 were high, but I was ready to be disappointed. By the time I’d pulled away, funky headlights reaching up to the treetops, I was converted. It was an absolute blast. The wide bars, perky motor, upright riding position and on-the-limit chassis make me wonder if Yamaha should change the MT moniker to ‘TDR’ instead. It’s the one for laughs, and the one I could see filling a supersport void in my garage. Kar Lee If R6 owner Kar was forced to part with it, he’d take the MT-09 Triumph’s RS is the winner on the road. It’d be the same story on-track 68 PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK | NOVEMBER 2017
JEREMY McWILLIAMS ‘ Pulling the front brake at full lean in the wet takes getting used to’ These panniers may or may not be full of concrete Jezza with RC390 R&D colleagues Thomas Kuttruf and Wolfgang Welber I HAVE WHAT SOME bike nuts regard as the ultimate day job: testing the 1290 Super Duke R, Super Duke GT, 1190/1290 Adventure and now the new 790 range. I work with the R&D team and project leaders at KTM who are tasked with developing the road bike range and Customer Racing department where we develop road bikes, like the RC390, for racing. Yes, there is a lot of pressure to get it right but there’s plenty of job satisfaction if the bikes are well received by the press and owners. The R&D department does an outstanding job; every aspect of a bike is evaluated. They can replicate real road riding on test benches in their new facility. The department has grown from about 40 people when I started to more than 500, with many smaller departments within it dedicated to data recording, brakes and wheels, chassis, motor, electronics, suspension... Test riders evaluate everything – tyres, traction control and ABS, chassis, suspension, handling and brake performance, ergonomics – usually at different proving grounds through Europe. We work with the team to improve the bikes before they’re approved for production. Tyres, for instance, have to pass stringent testing in all conditions at every lean angle on road, track, wet and dry handling courses. How they perform at tip-in, how much effort is required, how they react to rider input, do they have self-steering tendencies or any lift up under brake and acceleration? Where one tyre might outperform another in the dry it won’t make the final list if it doesn’t perform in all conditions. The bikes go through a severe shakedown. KTM know how stiff a chassis needs to be, and they know how stiff every other chassis on the market is, but this doesn’t mean if you make one with same lateral and torsional stiffness it will react identically to a competitor’s. We start with something the team know will be in the ballpark then change it according to test feedback and data. Street bikes probably have as much data acquisition hanging off them as a MotoGP bike. It takes the engineers days to get through all the data from a test. When we started with the 1290 Super Duke we had about four WP technicians over the test cycle. We’d have forks and shocks in different lengths, damping and spring rates, and we’d ride up to the top of the roughest roads and mountains in Spain. I’d be hammering the bikes over those roads, then back to normal road riding, motorways, city centres then back to the proving ground with dry, wet, rough and dynamic handling tracks in one facility. Then do all the tests again until we had covered every angle. Every time you ride a bike in a new environment something else shows up. We’d ride two-up with concrete in the tank bags then go to the track and deck the footpegs out to find the best suspension settings. The toughest test isn’t opening the throttle to maximum while dragging your toes on a soaking wet track to test traction control – it’s testing lean angle ABS. Squeezing the front brake to maximum pressure at maximum lean angle on a wet track takes a bit of getting used to. We worked with Bosch at their facilities in Germany and Japan to perfect the TC and ABS. KTM were the first company to come up with the idea for lean angle-sensitive ABS, and I had the pleasure of testing the early systems. When they first asked me to be the guinea pig it was a relief to find it worked first time and just needed minor adjustments. The test is to see if the bike can hold a line without crashing with full brake pressure – you need to squeeze the brake to about 50 bar pressure. We use no more than 15 bar for an emergency stop... Chassis stiffness is complicated, but the boffins in the design department know where it needs to be. We have been testing a stiffer chassis lately for one of the bikes as we noticed that when we used super-soft slicks on a track there was room to improve. Flex is good – we need some at full lean angle to aleviate chatter. It is easy to produce a chassis that is too stiff; at maximum lean you feel every ripple in the surface and the bike is not pleasant to ride. To find the best solution we had to beef up one of the current frames to make it stiffer. We went back and forth a few times before making a change; the test is rigorous and it has to work with road tyres in normal conditions and on the race track. Every rider in the department, including the project leaders, then tests the bike, then the test chassis is measured and a new chassis is designed to the same lateral and torsional stiffnesses. And then we repeat the test... It’s not all high-action; there’s a fair amount of sitting around involved... When your 9-to-5 involves pushing new bikes to – and beyond – the limits of traction, this is sometimes how your day ends. Followed by a lengthy sit down with your boss to explain the demise of their priceless pre-production performance motorcycle. WHO IS JEREMY McWILLIAMS? Ex-250 and 500 GP racer Jezza is also a KTM development rider, road racer and occasional film star... KTM We’ll twat anyone who questions McWilliams’ commitment MARCH 2018 | PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK 21
Page 1 and 2: 125s TO VALENCIA: 1800-MILE FLAT-OU
Page 4: THE BIG TEST MIDDLEWIGHT NAKEDS Odd
Page 11: INTERVIEW / RICK ENGLISH I DO ALL M
Page 15: INTERVIEW / RICK ENGLISH in Transyl
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PB mixed issue sampler - updated Jul18

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