[sportrider - features] - Kawasaki World Superbike ZX-10R Racer Test | Green is the N

[Ninjette Newsbot]

If Tom Sykes seems encouraged by the Kawasaki Racing Team and its ZX-10R, it’s for good reason; success isn’t handed to a manufacturer, team, or rider, and KRT has worked tirelessly to put the Yorkshire-born rider atop the World Superbike Championship. Need confirmation? Look no further than the champagne-soaked trophy precariously perched above the team’s tool bin. More proof? How about the ZX-10R that sits just a few feet behind that award? If ever there were a mark of KRT’s commitment to winning, then the team’s 2013 model 10R is it. By some good fortune, that bike would also be my mount just one day after the series came to a close in Jerez, Spain, and only hours after Sykes had clinched the 2013 FIM World Superbike Championship title.

Having only read about the team’s previous weaponry, it was important for Sykes’ Chief Mechanic, Marcel Duinker, to first explain the differences between this year’s bike and the 10R that brought Sykes to within half a point of the 2012 World Championship title: “The bike is not so much different actually. Sure, we have consistently new components and we never stop developing the bike, but it’s not so far. We have several updates, but we played a little with the geometry last winter, and that’s a part of the reason why we are performing so well this year.”

KRT was the only team to use Showa suspension in 2013, and Sykes’ Chief Mechanic Marcel Duinker says it was a big part of Sykes’ 2013 success. An entirely new fork was tested following the Jerez event, and Sykes’ lap times dropped significantly. Notice also the modifications to the frame.





One of Sykes’ most documented problems one year back was with rear tire longevity. “Last year we had traction problems on the front, and that’s why we were suffering from rear tire endurance,” Duinker explains. “If your bike generally doesn’t have enough front traction, you will spend too long on the side of the tire, and you must abuse your tire more to be fast because you stay too much at lean angle. This front traction we fixed this year with geometry and new fork specification. That’s why he’s champion,” Duinker adds with a laugh.

Speaking of suspension, KRT was the only team on Showa suspension in 2013, and the benefits to that relationship are tenfold. “We make a development parallel with MotoGP and World Superbike,” Showa Suspension Technician Javier Gonzalez says. “And like here [at Jerez for the post-season test] we have a new fork that’s quite a lot different.” Sykes would test the setup and immediately churn out laps at a quicker pace than he had just a day before in either race.




It’s hard to imagine the setup being even better than what I rode, as the Showa fork and shock were already quite spectacular. The bike never felt harsh as it rolled over the same bumps I’d found during the HP4’s launch earlier in the year, and as a matter of fact, I never felt a single blemish in the pavement. You’d expect KRT’s 240-plushorsepower superbike to be about as pleasing as an eight-second bull, but that couldn’t be further from the truth; there’s very little chassis pitch into or out of a corner and the bike doesn’t move around with aggressive inputs, but at the same time the suspension doesn’t patter across the tarmac. It’s an amazing balance between composure and suppleness.

Another benefit to the ZX-10R is that it’s amazingly user-friendly. From brake actuation to transitions, it’s smooth and linear. Initial steering inputs feel like they require some effort, so it’s not to say the bike is the lightest at turn-in, but it feels like the more you load the suspension the better it responds—presumably, Sykes’ eight-to-10-second-quicker pace allows him to do that with relative ease. At the top of a transition, like as you flick the bike from full lean right to full lean left, the bike feels as nimble as a supersport bike, a feeling I immediately attributed to the 10R’s center of gravity.

Tight transmission tolerances mean the KRT ZX-10R needs to be pushed as it’s set into gear, lest the team risks tearing up the gears. “The gearbox is something that takes some effort during the weekend to set up,” Duinker says. That being said, the new rule format will limit teams to just three gearbox options, and they can only swap gearboxes twice in one race weekend.





Duinker later confirms the bike’s CG was of utmost concern: “Actually, two years ago when we started on this project, when I started to work with Tom for the first time, this was the first thing where we work on. So in three or four test days we make some very fundamental big steps on the bike—heights, lengths—and we find out the direction. Because if you play with 1mm, you will not find the direction. You must make 10mm, 5mm, something big. From that moment, once you set your CG more or less in the right place, you can start to push and go faster, find the limit.”

I wouldn’t find the “limit” in my two five-lap sessions aboard Sykes’ bike, but even at an ass-not -on-fire pace I could feel the Kawasaki’s traction control system managing grip. The bike slid a considerable amount—more than I expected given the fresh Pirelli rubber beneath me—but as KRT Telemetric Engineer Danilo Casonato explains: “We have two different traction control systems. Basically we want bike to slide a little bit to make better corner. But if you are a bit aggressive on throttle, we need to stop. This means we have the softer to give you the smooth feeling to slide, but in case mistake come in the traditional cutting.” I’d never get to the bottom of the softer system’s performance envelope but can say this is one of those magical systems that’s more a help than hindrance; power doesn’t come and go but is managed in a way that allows you to simultaneously drift and drive out of the corner. By controlling cylinders one and two independently of cylinders three and four Kawasaki engineers are able to better manage the screamer engine’s power, and you also get this enthralling sound as the throttle is rolled open mid-corner.




KRT has benefited tremendously from a new rule structure that allows the team to use ride-by-wire throttle and even more from Kawasaki’s defunct MotoGP program. “This result is coming from MotoGP result,” Casonato continues. “Because in this moment, with this kind of budget, is impossible. So when two years ago they say, ‘Okay you can have ride-by-wire throttle body,’ one or two months we went from nothing to being on track. Of course we also improve. The throttle connection we improve. Many other small things, but all this strategy shifting down from MotoGP.”

The ZX-10R is a big bike, and Sykes isn’t exactly jockey size. “So from aerodynamic point of view, Aprilia and Laverty were better than us, but engine performance we are the same or even better,” Duinker adds. And while I’ve yet to ride anything outside the KRT garage, I can say the Kawasaki powerplant (which is developed at KHI, not at the team’s headquarters in Barcelona, Spain) is undoubtedly strong. Power builds in an amazingly linear fashion from exceptionally low revs, but through the midrange it picks up so quickly that reference markers begin to blur into oblivion. The engine’s just as exhilarating up top, though I’ll admit that on very few occasions did I let the revs run all the way to the limiter. If anything, that’s how meaty the midrange is.




The team says Sykes’ success is a result of his being able to get into a corner, turn the bike, and immediately stand it up on the fat part of the tire. I’d try to do the same but wasn’t able to accelerate hard without the front wheel pointing at the Spanish heavens. I’d rely heavily on the rear brake lever mounted beneath the left clip-on, and it wasn’t until I buried the lever to the stop that I could keep the front end from lifting uncontrollably at the exit of turn 13 or as I crested the hill out of turn five. Sykes uses the lever for the same purpose but “he uses it everywhere else, too,” Duinker says. “Because with thumb brake you can influence your chassis quite a lot.”

Magneti Marelli display is difficult to keep your eyes on at the speeds KRT’s ZX-10R is capable of reaching. The bike builds revs insatiably quick and was strong enough to bulge my eyes before coming remotely close to the limiter. Engines are built at KHI then delivered to the team’s shop in Barcelona, Spain.





The 10R’s Brembo front brakes are insatiably powerful, and heading into Jerez’s right-hand turn six I almost always slowed more than I intended to. But like the overall package the brakes are user-friendly, with an extremely restrained initial bite and spectacular feel through the pull. This, in addition to the equally as entertaining auto-blip downshift program which was surprisingly easy to accustom myself to, is what allows Sykes to get into the corner more aggressively than nearly anyone in the Superbike paddock. And for me, it was these relatively small attributes that made the bike feel like something I could easily get along with. The bike’s still mad at a race pace, but as a whole it’s surprisingly easy-going.

Switches on the left include adjusters for the traction control program and on the right for engine kill and pit limiter. Notice also the rear brake lever just below the left clip-on, which Sykes uses to manage wheelies and the chassis mid-corner.





The Kawasaki Racing Team thinks there’s more to be had even still, and if its off-season testing results are proof of anything, it’s that the team is committed to winning yet another title. Don’t be surprised if Kawasaki, KRT, and Sykes stand atop the World Superbike Championship yet again next year. Their ZX-10R is that good.

Related articles:

• Tom Sykes interview
• Latest World Superbike news
• 2014 Kawasaki Sportbikes

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