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No.365 May 2020
£4.50
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ISSUE 365 MAY 2020
IT’S THE NEWS!
Upfront............................................ 10 All the latest gossip from the world of motorcycling.
GEARED UP!
Products.......................................... 18 All the latest, coolest and trickest products.
THE KNOWLEDGE Used Bike Guide.............................. 70
Everything you need to know when buying a 2004-2005 Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Track Craft ......................................86 How to make the most of your trackdays, with ex BSB rider Dean Ellison.
Master Legal ................................. 104 FB’s Legal Clinic with Andrew Dalton.
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
Addiction.........................................56
The centrefold model this month: a Kawasaki H2R.
20
You & Yours.....................................92 All of your latest adventures!
Chatter ............................................ 94 It’s only fair we give the best readers in the world a page of their own!
36
WORKSHOP
Know Your… ...................................90
Electric motors. We caught up with one of the bods at Zero Motorcycles.
Project Mille… ................................ 76
Bruce has been busy trying to tidy up his latest project.
RACE SECTION
British GP2 ......................................96 Could the new championship lead to great things for the UK racing exploits?
Pit Pass.......................................... 106 All the latest from the BSB, WSBK and MotoGP paddocks.
COLUMNISTS
Christian Iddon ..............................111 Iddon’s had his first taste of his PBM Ducati, and he likes it. A lot.
Neave twins .................................. 112
Gar Johnson ................................ 113
TESTS
2020 Kawasaki Z H2 .........................20
Finally some news about Gary’s road-racing season.
Dangerous Bruce has been to Vegas to test Kawasaki’s newest supercharged superweapon.
Parrish’s take on all things bike-racing.
2020 Zero SR/S..................................36
Steve Parrish................................. 114
30
Frodo‘s taken a trip down Electric Avenue.
2001 GSX-R600..................................42
The new Gixxer 6 was something special in 01… Read what we said about it back then.
FEATURES
Blow Me ........................................... 30 Turbos, superchargers, what’s the big deal?
Ten with…....................................... 54 Jake Dixon. He’s signed for a new team and all’s looking good for 2020.
Back to School ................................. 62 …Speedway style. Boothy’s been learning how to go sideways with an ex champ.
Metzeler M9 RR ................................50
Bruce has been over to Spain to test out the new sporty road tyres.
SUB
Tom’s been testing his HRC Superstock Fireblade, ready for the 2020 season.
B I E R C S e8 pag See etails d for
WELCOME
In other news...
A
nd to think Corona used to be my favourite beer! Not just because I got to drink as much of it as I wanted when I raced in the European Cup (and they were the sponsors), but because it actually tasted alright. What a crazy month it’s been. I’m hoping that by the time you’re reading this we’ll have forgotten about loo roll shortages and shopping aisle fights over hand sanitisers, and we’ll be back to the status quo where only extremely kinky folk like Boothy walk around wearing masks. As it is, it looks like we’re in for a pretty interesting time, with quite a few launches either cancelled or looking more dubious than the current state of the stock market. Still, we’re troopers and before things turn apocalyptic, we’ll do our best to bag some top shelf content to keep your reading habits constant for the issue after this one. While I can’t tell you what the future holds, I can tell you all about this issue, which is headlined by Kawasaki’s supercharged brute, the Z H2. I had a right blast on that in Vegas, and just as good a time off of the bike, as it happens. It’s mad to think that supernakeds are now making nearly 200bhp as standard, and Ducati’s set to topple that figure next month with its all-new V4 Streetfighter. Is this the shape of modern-day sportsbikes? Are fairings set to be a thing of the past? As brilliant as a naked bike’s virtues are, I think faired motorcycles have something very different on offer – and it’s not something you can’t just pass off. That said, as has been mentioned before, we’re in for a treat on the naked front this season and the Z H2 really got me in the mood for what’s to come. Does it float your boat, or would you sooner opt for a hand-crafted, Triumph 765-powered GP2 machine? GP2 is a relatively new class at BSB, but it appears to be a change of direction that’s on a good course, as Frodo found out when he bothered the guys at Associated British Motorcycles to find out how they make their hybrids so fast. While we’re on the topic of fast, Boothy’s been hitting the dirt to try and up his game, in the company of Tim and Tom Neave. If you want to improve throttle control, body position and your riding fitness, speedway might be something for you to try. Failing that, you could just go and have a role around on the floor like Mike did (well, for most of the time). With these features and loads more content, including the next stage in my Aprilia Mille build, it’s made for a pretty manic month. We’re just hoping that with the weather picking up, next month will be even more manic, but for all the right reasons. Stay safe and enjoy the read.
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BOSS MAN
‘Dangerous’ Bruce Wilson dangerous@fastbikes.co.uk
AD MAN
Charlie ‘The Sheriff’ Oakman coakman@fastbikes.co.uk
NEW MAN
Carl ‘Pretty Boy’ Stevens teaboy@fastbikes.co.uk
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Mike ‘Boothy’ Booth race@fastbikes.co.uk
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MAY 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 7
FEATURE
20 MAY 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
KA KAWASAKI A Z H2
WORDS: DANGEROUS IMAGES: DOUBLE RED / K AWASAK I
KAWASAKI Z H2
FULLY
CHARGED 2020 is the year of the supernaked. The question is whether Kawasaki’s supercharged Z H2 has got the minerals to bag the top spot in that headbanging category.
B
ig power, a big supercharger and big attention; the introduction of Kawasaki’s Z H2 caused quite a stir at the back end of last year, but was this to be a parts bin special or the supernaked we’d all been lusting for? One thing’s for sure, with a claimed 197bhp on tap and an arm-wrenching 137Nm of torque to back it up, even the most cynical of critics would struggle to lambast its potency. To put things in perspective, there has never been another production naked bike this powerful (…although Ducati will soon have something to say about that), top-trumping the onslaught of stripped off head-bangers that have swarmed to the supernaked market in recent years (think BMW S1000R, Aprilia Tuono, Yamaha MT-10). Based largely around the H2 SX’s proven motor, tweaked cams, a freer flowing exhaust and alterations to the fuelling
characteristics have maintained the SX’s impressive peak performance figures (…to be found towering all the way up at 11,000rpm), but max torque is reached one thousand revs lower, and the benefits to the midrange are so blatant even Stevie Wonder could see them. The tubular steel frame is new too, the swingarm – for the first time on a supercharged Kawasaki – is double-sided like on a ZX-10RR, and the electronic suite has been given a good going over to make sure it’s as appropriate as possible for ham-fisted street fights throughout gridlocked suburbia. Of course, the other major feature is the styling that was said to be minimalist and Sugomi-inspired during the model’s presentation in America. From a purely aesthetics point of view it’s fair to say the Z H2 is likely to split opinion worse than jam and cheese sandwiches, with the culmination of its quirky MAY 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 21
FEATURE
M W O BL
WORDS:
NNING DAV E M A
N & MORTO DAV E M IMAGES:
VE S ARCHI
RE U S S E R P HE T G N I T T PU ION T C U D N I ON trip his ll you after get e t l 'l e c u r B As to really easy ’s it , s a g e V to d not really n a , s y a d a w blown no ive… that expens
30 MAY 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
E M
SUPERCHARGERS
They're not a new invention.
T TYPES OF BLOWER
The first types of mechanical air compressors were created to blow air into blast furnaces – notably by the Roots Blower Company of Connersville, Indiana – but shortly after the internal combustion engine was created, imaginative folk were finding ways to create more power for their cars and motorcycles, and Roots-type blowers soon found their way into workshops and race garages. The large industrial superchargers were soon supplemented by smaller versions, with cabin blowers built for aircraft use often finding their way on to record-breaking bikes. Essentially, there are three types of supercharger: Roots, screw and centrifugal. The Roots style have two or three shafts with interlocking lobes that draw in ambient air and force it through the body of the supercharger, increasing its pressure as it goes. The screw type are pretty much the same, only with a screw-type form along their length, which improves the efficiency. Centrifugal superchargers are rather different, in that they have a turbochargerstyle compressor housing and wheel that is driven by mechanical process rather than by the exhaust gases. Incidentally, more boost doesn’t necessarily equate to more horsepower. More power comes from a greater airflow, which comes from good design. A poorly designed forced induction kit could be giving 20psi of boost that results in less power than a well-designed kit that makes a ‘mere’ 12psi of boost. There’s been more than one example of a home-made turbocharger kit that makes less power with 15psi of forced induction than the standard bike…
he supercharged Kawasaki Z H2 is the latest of the company’s forced induction models to come to the market and, while it was only relatively recently that Kawasaki launched their supercharged sportsbike when the H2 was launched in 2015, the supercharger is actually a tuning device that has been around for nearly as long as the concept of motorcycles has existed. Kawasaki actually demonstrated a supercharged inline four-litre capacity engine at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013, claiming at that time that it was ‘the first supercharger designed by a motorcycle manufacturer’. Wrongly, because it seems that not only is nothing ever new in the world of motorcycling, but Kawasaki had already used a supercharged four-cylinder powerplant in a jet ski. Besides, not only were there several supercharged scooters built shortly after the start of the 21st century, there are numerus accounts of other manufacturers having built, and raced, supercharged bikes in the past, perhaps most successfully by BMW. In fact, it was thanks to the success of the supercharged BMWs when they were being raced in Grand Prix (with Georg Meier being the first non Brit to win a TT in 1939 on his 500cc supercharged BMW Type 255) that led to the FIM deciding to ban forced induction in all racing classes when racing resumed after the Second World War. That, in itself, was something of a pity, as various other manufacturers had supercharged bikes not only in the planning stakes, but also as race-ready machinery, such as the Gilera Rondine that had already set a 173.68mph land speed record in 1937 at the hands of Piero Taruffi, riding on a public road, the A4 Brescia-Bergamo autoroute in Italy! While superchargers were banned from road racing, that wasn’t the case in the top speed, sprint and drag racing arenas. In fact, the fastest accelerating motorcycles on the planet are still powered by supercharged engines, using some rather old tech that is kept in the loop by regulations and tradition. To put it into perspective, a modern Top Fuel motorcycle, using mechanical fuel injection, screw-type supercharger and nitro-methane fuel, makes something in the region of 1200bhp, covers the quarter mile in around 5.8 seconds with a terminal speed in excess MAY 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 31
FEATURE
M9 9 RR If fast road riding and trackdays are your thing, Metzeler’s new M9 RR needs to be on your radar.
WORDS: DANGEROUS IMAGES: METZELER
METZELER M9 RR
W
hen it comes to road tyres, Metzeler know a thing or two about producing a corker. Since 2013 they’ve claimed 58 international road race wins, including 16 at the Isle of Man TT, with lessons learned directly influencing the compounds, profiles and make-up of their street products, such as 2020’s new M9 RR. This is the fifth generation of the acclaimed, fast road M-series range (M1, M3, M5, M7, M9) with the message being, on its launch around the Spanish Ronda mountain range and much-loved Ascari race circuit, that the product had made big leaps over its predecessor’s dry grip, wet handling, durability and stability levels. So how did they do it? The answer’s a pretty long one, so you might want to pull up a chair, but in essence everything about the M9 RR is box fresh, including the introduction of a dual compound front and rear (the M7 RR had a dual-rear), and a full silica makeup on the soft shoulders that aids warm-up times and improves wet grip. Predictably, the tread design is new too, and is said to improve wear, disperse more water and offer a five per cent greater footprint when pitched against the M7 RR. For added stability and support, the tyre walls have been kitted with 25 per cent stronger cords and a six per cent tougher textile, and for a great contact patch the profiles of the M9 RRs have also had a bit of tweaking. The front tyre is taller, aiding agility and meaning the rider has a larger footprint at lean, with the same kind of thinking applied to the broader rear (just like you’ll find on the brand’s Racetec products). Add
SIZES AND PRICES… The M9 RRs on the market right now and will typically cost you around £240 for a 120 front/180 rear combo. For more information check out www.metzeler.com
Fronts: 110/70/17 120/70/17
R Rears:
140/70/17 150/60/17 160/60/17 180/55/17 180/60/17 190/50/17 190/55/17 200/55/17 2
ENDOFPREVI EW
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