Whine Country At the Strip

Whine Country AT THE STRIP

MARK CERNICKY

IT WAS TOO EARLY IN THE SEASON TO SAMPLE THE FRUIT of the vine, but my ears consumed an overabundance of intoxicating engine whine as we put this crop of 2004 liter-bikes through their paces at Infineon Raceway. With the racetrack report being handled by “Clutch” Canet, and “Alley-Catterson” marking out our street ride, I was left with the chore of squeezing out performance figures. After a full day of street riding and photo-op stops, we made our way back to Infineon and signed up for the weekly Wednesday Night Drags. Since the previous two weeks’ events were rained-out, an exceptionally large turnout of bracket racers showed up on this particularly warm evening. As much as we improved our reaction times taking part in inter-office grudge matches, we failed to improve upon the ETs we’d recorded at California Speedway the week prior.

Although we’d tested the Honda CBR1000RR and Suzuki GSX-R1000 for our April issue, and the Kawasaki ZX-10R for May, we again ran those three bikes along with the Yamaha YZF-R1 to get comparative numbers on the same day. In addition to recording quarter-mile times, we ran each bike through the full regimen of performance tests to obtain acceleration, top-gear roll-on and braking figures, then ran them all past the radar gun for top speeds.

With the most girth to motivate (3.05 pounds per horsepower), the Honda predictably finished fourth in the quartermile contest. Our silver-and-black testbike didn’t suffer from a dry-seize lurch during hard launch attempts like the redand-black one we tested two months ago; we suspect that bike’s hydraulically actuated clutch needed bleeding. This time around, the Honda gave us no trouble as it posted nearidentical times from its first pass to its last. We’d attribute this to flawless shift action combined with linear power delivery.

With the second-best power-to-weight ratio, the Yamaha (2.76 lbs. per bhp) was full of surprises, mainly its lack of low-end grunt, very uncharacteristic of an Open-classer. Things get better once the revs rise-and the front wheel follows suit! Intake growl heightens the sensation of power down low, while the mad rush of top-end acceleration is shocking, even when you’re expecting it. If you miss a shift on the Rl, it’s not the bike’s fault-we experienced nary a glitch from neither clutch nor cogs. You can’t miss the shift-light, either-it’s bright as day.

When push came to shove, the third-strongest Suzuki (2.92 lbs. per bhp) showed why it’s loved. Nice, thin levers and excellent clutch-engagement feel make the GSX-R sweet to launch. The tach is easy to read in a tuck, and the shift lever takes just a tick of the toe to snick into the next-taller gear. The mighty 1000’s power delivery is smooth and linear from low to high rpm, very predictable, like a good friend. King Kong Kawasaki (2.62 lbs. per pony) has the most power and the least weight to haul, and haul it does! Instruments are sparse, but easy enough to read. While others didn’t care for the LCD tachCanet joked that it should stand for “Low Contrast Display”-it didn’t bother me as much, though I wished the tiny shift-light were larger. Also, the Kawi’s levers felt a little funny to me, like the leverage ratio should be greater than it is. We initially experienced some clutch slippage, but after changing the friction plates and adding some free play, we had no further troubles. As on the roadrace track, we had an issue with the Kawi’s shift action at the dragstrip. Launching the wheelie-prone ZX-10R proved very challenging, as well. It took several attempts to get a clean run, what with missed shifts and time-sapping wheelstands. Also, because it’s the only bike in this test that’s not equipped with a steering damper, setting the Kawi’s front wheel down when traveling 140 mph-plus offered some “interesting” moments.

At the end of the day, just two-tenths of a second separated first from last, with the winning Kawasaki an infinitesimal one-hundredth of a second quicker than the second-placed Suzuki, and the third-placed Yamaha just five-hundredths behind that. It really couldn’t have been any closer. Only one question remains: Does Keith Code teach an antiwheelie school?

ADVANTAGE: KAWASAKI