Chris Walker has been racing Superbikes for the last decade and knows what makes a good race bike and what doesn’t. In this frank interview with www.rizla-suzuki.co.uk he explains his thoughts on the current Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 racer and how far he thinks it can go.
Q: Describe Rizla Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 in one sentence?
CW: Lots of power, good fun to ride but hard to harness.
Q: What do you mean hard to harness?
CW: I mean over race distance I struggle to maintain the fast lap times. It’s not about outright pace, the bike has that and on a single lap is as fast as anything out there, but over a race distance, when the tyres go off, it is difficult to keep fast lap times. There are lots of chassis and tyre settings and we have now struck on using an older version Dunlop tyre that appears to work better with our bike. It is allowing us to be quick from start to finish on a race.
Q: Rizla Suzuki has tested a lot this season, has that helped?
CW: No question that it has helped us to develop the bike. The thing about testing is that it isn’t racing – sounds obvious eh? On a normal three day test we would end day one a second or so behind the competition. Day two we’d be in the ball-park and then on the final day we’d be at the head of the time-sheets. That’s fine when you have three full days and work as hard as the Rizla Suzuki squad does but the fact is that when you go racing you don’t have three full days – more like two-and-a-half hours before qualification - and we are still learning about the GSX-R1000 while the other teams are sitting on mountains of data on well-developed bikes.
Q: Do you share data with the WSB and AMA teams?
CW: Yes but only so much of the information can cross over. We run different suspension and electronics to the AMA lads and different suspension and tyres to the WSB crew, so any settings are very different from both of them. There’s no doubt sharing knowledge on engine etc really helps but there is a limit to how much we can learn about setting up the Rizla Suzuki – we are on our own really.
Q: Does the GSX-R1000 give good feedback to you as the rider?
CW: Very good. We have been working on the connection between the throttle, the tyre and my backside on the seat - and at Knockhill we made a breakthrough using the electronics. It’s helped me get on the gas on the exit of turns and is giving me good confidence and feel.
Q: Does your riding style affect the Rizla Suzuki?
CW: My riding style has always been the same, 100 per cent effort every lap. But I do recognise I can over-ride a little bit and be too aggressive. I can ride smoothly, as I do in the wet and I’ve won a WSB race in those conditions. The Rizla Suzuki appears to perform better if ridden smoothly and is very sensitive to changes in chassis geometry. I am trying to adapt my riding style to fit this although it’s not easy after so many years of riding and won’t happen overnight so we are trying to meet in the middle ground – more smooth and less sensitive.
Q: How is the top speed of the Rizla Suzuki?
CW: Strangely, not as impressive as you’d thing for a bike with well over 200bhp. The fact is we have struggled to get the power down on corner exit and that means you are a little behind the other bikes at the speed trap. It has improved recently though and if we can get on the gas with the other bikes, they’ll not know which way we’ve went and it will be the quickest out there.
Q: Can you have too much power?
CW: No, but how the power is delivered is the key point. We have been working on different engine specs to last race distance and give the tyres a chance and it is showing positive results. When Neil Hodgson tested the bike he supported my view that a type of engine and power delivery was better than another. You can alter power delivery with electronics but at the base level the characteristics of the engine determine power delivery – how quickly it spins up and so on. We are changing the engine build spec to make the delivery more friendly to me as an aggressive rider.
Q: What about the overall performance of the Rizla Suzuki?
CW: There is nothing on the bike that isn’t the best out there. Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes – all the ingredients are exactly what you want and we are tweaking the recipe for the best result. Rizla Suzuki lacks for nothing and in my opinion all we need is more track time and understanding of the bike so we can get the mix of ingredients just right.
Q: You’ve recorded a 0-62mph time of 2.24secs – are you pleased?
CW: That’s quicker than most MotoGP starts and I am very happy. It all goes back to my days as a motocrosser and when the gate dropped 40 of you barrelled into the first corner. There was quite a bit of self preservation going on and you needed to be first to the corner if you wanted to avoid being run over and I’ve carried that skill to Superbikes. I’ve got a good useable clutch, strong engine and that makes the starts easier.
Q: How is the GSX-R1000 as a production bike?
CW: The only standard GSX-R1000 I have ridden on the road was during a ride out event from Crescent to Poole Quay in early July. On the way back I pushed it a little and found it is as close to perfect as you can get. It’s light, flickable and even touched 186mph on the limiter (that bit on a private closed road of course) without any dramas. I’d recommend to anyone and have already asked Suzuki if I can have one!
Q: Summarise your Rizla Suzuki and season to date.
CW: It has all the potential in the world but we haven’t unlocked it yet. I think there is more to come from the bike and from both Cal and I. We can adjust our riding styles to make the most of the bike and the more we learn about it the better it will deliver what we want as well. We’ve had four months racing the bike, Honda and Ducati, our main rivals, have been using the same bikes for three years. To be as close as we are is testament to how good the GSX-R really is and next year when they have new bikes they’ll be developing while we will have a well-used and understood machine, I think they’ll be a year behind us. There’s no doubt the Rizla Suzuki can win races and challenge for a Championship. We need to be racing at the front at the end of this season and then get a good winter test schedule under our belts because if we do then we’ll come out ready to win in 2008, right from the off, and that’s what makes a Championship challenge possible.
Related News
Related Articles
