Innholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2017 i Sport Rider

Kawasaki got it wrong… The 2017 Ninja 1000 is not a sporttourer. It’s so much more than that. After traveling for two days from Los Angeles to Monterey, California, and experiencing equal doses of urban warfare, tight canyons, highspeed mountain sweepers, wine country roads, and some necessary highway running, I found the bike excels at almost everything. Despite a superb 1,043cc powerplant supplying perfectly fueled torque combined with topshelf racetrackinfused electronics and a solid supporting cast of suspension, brakes, and allday ergos, a lot of people might have overlooked this Ninja. The first glance reveals lean, aggressive bodywork inspired by the Ninja ZX10R along with an updated threeposition doublebubble windscreen that is 15mm taller than before. New, compact dual LED headlamps offer increased light projection, and other touches include smaller…

LIMITED-EDITION ALPINESTARS 99CAMO SUPERTECH R BOOT Alpinestars has been at it this year designing a line of replica boots for several of its MotoGP racers, this time for three-time MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. The boots were first debuted at the Catalunya Grand Prix and feature “99 Camo” colorway along with all the top-notch features the Supertech R already has to offer. The 99CAMO is available only in select sizes. $499.95 alpinestars.com ARAI CORSAIR-X VIÑALES-2 Maverick Viñales has been hot stuff in the 2017 MotoGP World Championship so far— enough that we bet his signature Arai Corsair-X is already selling by the pallet-full to fans worldwide. The paint scheme is identical to that of the helmet Viñales used in preseason testing, and being a Corsair-X it comes with quality features…

It’s been a while since there was this much excitement brewing in the literbike supersport class. Both Honda and Suzuki have finally released their latest-generation 1,000cc machines, Honda with the newest iteration of its CBR1000RR, and Suzuki with its long-awaited revamp of the venerable GSX-R1000. Associate Editor Michael Gilbert covered his initial riding experience on the Honda back in the April/May issue (“Forever in Total Control”) while yours truly sampled the standard GSX-R1000 at the Circuit of The Americas in the June/July issue (“Beautifully Balanced Part Two”). With both the Honda and Suzuki undergoing major changes, it only made sense to gather the rest of the “Big Four” Japanese makes together. Yamaha’s awesome YZF-R1 needs no introduction, with its combination of new-generation crossplane-crank engine, superb chassis, and class-leading electronics package…

Turn eight at Willow Springs Raceway is intimidating. One of those corners that some twisted human being created just to torment every racer who ever visited the place. A fast right-hander taken at as close to full throttle as your brain will allow, it’ll chew you up and spit you out into the California desert. No mercy. Zero. On any bike it’s scary, and on BMW’s S10000RR, it’s downright terrifying. I’m about three seconds from pitching the BMW in, and I can already feel the butterflies. We’ve brought the BMW here along with the 2017 Aprilia RSV4 RR. Updated with new electronics, revised engine components, and bigger brakes, this is a refined version of a platform we’ve already grown to love. Proper competition for the BMW. We tried to bring…

Chasing someone who is faster than you are can be an easy way to improve your riding and lap times. The technique can act as motivation to push your own limits, which will help achieve goals that you may not be able to do on your own, but there are obviously right and wrong ways of practicing it. Do it correctly, and the rewards are quicker lap times and a boost in confidence. Do it wrong, and you might end up crashing, only to set yourself back. There are three common mistakes made following faster riders, with the first notoriously being target-fixating on the faster rider instead of watching him in your peripheral vision. Concentrating on the rider instead of where you’re going is a recipe for disaster. Then there’s…

When Dunlop informed us it was introducing its new Q3+ sport tire as the next-generation replacement for the excellent Q3, the expected claims of improved performance accompanied the introduction. In fact, Dunlop says that test rider (and former AMA Superbike contender) Rich Conicelli was a full second quicker on the new Q3+ over the Q3 using a 2013 Suzuki GSX-R1000 at Roebling Road Raceway in Georgia. But in the same breath, Dunlop also was proud of the fact that the Q3+ offers up to 30 percent more mileage than the Q3. Wait…more mileage? Yep. Dunlop has found that sportbike riders want good tire life almost as much as they want ultimate grip and handling. Let’s face it: The majority of us have to ride some distance to get to our…

BUTTONWILLOW RACEWAY PARK, CA Turn 2 Segment Time HONDA: 9.959 SEC. KAWASAKI: 9.921 SEC. SUZUKI: 9.946 SEC. YAMAHA: 9.856 SEC. Esses Segment Time HONDA: 5.991 SEC. KAWASAKI: 6.053 SEC. SUZUKI: 5.995 SEC. YAMAHA: 5.903 SEC. Turn 5 Segment Time HONDA: 6.517 SEC. KAWASAKI: 6.517 SEC. SUZUKI: 6.526 SEC. YAMAHA: 6.401 SEC. Turn 6 Apex Speed HONDA: 62.1 mph KAWASAKI: 60.3 mph SUZUKI: 61.4 mph YAMAHA: 60.0 mph With Michael sidelined by a crash at a MotoAmerica race, we enlisted World Endurance and two-time AMA champion Jason Pridmore for lap-time duties at Buttonwillow. Per our usual regimen, we used our AiM Solo GPS lap timer to log Pridmore’s laps on all four bikes, recording segment times in addition to speed and acceleration data. The track map includes each bike’s times and…

WILLOW SPRINGS, CA Turns 3–5 Segment Time APRILIA: 22.288 SEC. BMW: 22.646 SEC. Turn 2 Segment Time APRILIA: 14.491 SEC. BMW: 14.594 SEC. Turn 1 Segment Time APRILIA: 7.034 SEC. BMW: 7.002 SEC. Turn 8–9 Segment Time APRILIA: 18.001 SEC. BMW: 18.148 SEC. Turn 8 Apex Speed APRILIA: 134.5 MPH BMW: 132.6 MPH Turn 9 Apex Speed APRILIA: 114.3 MPH BMW: 112.8 MPH Just as we did for our last literbike test in 2016, we strapped our AiM Solo GPS lap timer to the Aprilia and BMW for Michael’s hot laps at Willow Springs. In addition to recording lap times and segment times, the Solo tracks GPS data, including speed and lateral/longitudinal acceleration, revealing more details of each bike’s on-track performance and its strengths and weaknesses. The track map attached…