As much as I enjoy reading motorcycle.com's articles usually, I have to be honest in saying it's more than a little bit strange that you would do a test of what are essentially 4 race bikes without actually doing any times at the track... I mean... it's completely counter-intuitive to what any normal magazine would do.
I don't even understand how you could possibly judge whether a bike's engine or transmission or etc. is actually "the best" without seeing if it actually makes a substantial difference in measured times at the track. Seat of the pants is one thing but if that's all your going for then "fun factor" is all that's important really.
I don't care one bit which bike wins, it just seems like you guys wasted a lot of time without any track times to show for it.
Hmmmm
This has been a controversial subject among magazines and manufacturers for years. What seems simple isn't, but since you asked nicely...
First off, we tested on the track because pinning a literbike on the street for more than two gears can get you thrown in jail. And because there's no safe way to explore aggressive lean angles or ultimate braking performance, etc. Testing nearly any limit of a literbike's performance on the street is either silly or dangerous or both. I hope you can understand how you can learn much more about a bike's performance capabilities on a track than you can on the street.
That said, I'd love to include lap times whenever we go to the track. But that creates many other issues.
- Our crew is made up of fairly quick riders. Of the less than 10% of sportbike riders who take their bikes to the track (and presumably many of those are among the most talented street riders in their circle), we belong in the fastest group. However, we're not active racers, so we generally go quicker at the end of the day after we've learned the nuances of the track than at the beginning, meaning that comparing lap times can be unfair for the first bike to go out on timed sessions.
- "Ah, so then you should hire a pro racer," you might say. Well, if you've been around us for awhile, you know we run a lean operation, and finding the budget to bring in a pro can be difficult. Another problem I've had when I've hired a racer is that they often feel most comfortable on the brand of bike they race, perhaps skewing things to a particular OEM. Don't even think about bringing a rider with any sort of serious OEM support.
- And then there's tires. We had three diff tires on our stock bikes, and lap times are affected greatly by incremental differences in grip.
- "So, get Michelin (or whoever) to give you tires like they generously did in your Supersport Shootout so they've got equal footing," one might think. There are a couple of problems with that. First, manufacturers develop their bike (and their steering and handling qualities) on a tire specially developed for the bike. A tire's construction, profile and outside diameter vary greatly between brands, so a new set of rubber might transform a sweet-handling bike into a real handful - or many other similar negative effects.
- And then there's the pole lap. To be fair, the tires have to be in identical conditions before the timed lap. You also have to ensure the rider won't be going quicker because he just finished a quick lap and knew he could go quicker by braking later or taking a diff apex or whatever.
But, most importantly, you need to make sure you have an empty racetrack in front of the rider. If you've been to a trackday, you already know that getting a perfectly clean lap with dozens of others riding around is next to impossible (especially for a pro-level rider). Believe, I've tried.
OEMs who have been at these sessions during trackdays have also noticed that getting clean, precise laps logged while others are on the track is nearly impossible, so they strongly recommend that any magazine that wants to log lap times, they should rent a track for their own private sessions. Have you ever priced literbike-worthy racetracks lately? They ain't cheap - and don't forget the insurance, track personnel and mandatory ambulance...
"I don't even understand how you could possibly judge whether a bike's engine or transmission or etc. is actually "the best" without seeing if it actually makes a substantial difference in measured times at the track."
There are many ways to evaluate an engine or tranny without taking lap times.
Maybe when the economy turns around and money is flowing, we'll again rent our own track. Until then, I hope you learned several things about these bikes that you didn't know before you read our shootout!
