Tuesday, 1 October 2013

One year after retiring from MotoGP™, Australian hero Casey Stoner will return to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit to join fellow Aussie World Champions Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan for a lap of honour at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

There are only three riders who have been recognised with their own stretch of bitumen at the renowned Phillip Island track and it is fitting that all three will ride together in a once-in-a-lifetime display for fans at next month’s MotoGP™ event.
Stoner has completed hundreds of laps around the 4.445km circuit on race weekends but 2013 will be something different for the two-time World Champion.
"The 2012 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was a fairytale ending to my MotoGP™ career," he said. "It will be nice to take to the track with Mick and Wayne this year without the pressure of competing. I look forward to enjoying it and mixing with the fans that have supported me throughout my career."
Stoner has won the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix for the last six years in a row and in 115 MotoGP™ outings started on pole 39 times, set 29 fastest laps and took 69 podium finishes. He won 38 times; only Rossi, his great compatriot Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan stand above him on the all-time premier class winners’ list.
Stoner will be joined by Gardner and Doohan on 20 October, just moments before the start of the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in which a new King of Phillip Island will be crowned.

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Rumors of a three-cylinder replacement for Yamaha’s crossplane YZF-R1 started at Intermot last year with an inscrutable exhibit promising new motorcycles with a “crossplane” inline-triple. It was a tease, of course, making us wonder just what the Tuning Fork guys had in mind, and what, exactly, they meant by a “crossplane” triple. Except for a few Laverdas, aren’t they all?

We have it on good authority that when a new R1 comes—probably for ’14, as Yamaha hinted that more new models will be introduced in September—it almost certainly won’t have three-abreast seating. Whether it’s closer to Lorenzo’s daily driver or the current R1 remains to be seen.
And what of the triple? Here it is in the 2014 Yamaha FZ-09, a naked standard to replace the FZ1-derived FZ8. But not to replace the FZ1, which has been largely unchanged since moving into its second generation way back in 2006. Supposedly, the FZ1 will continue into the ’14 model year.

Yamaha has penned an entirely new “crossplane” engine for the FZ-09, featuring 120-degree crank phasing, a modern, compact cylinder head, ride-by-wire fuel injection, and 65 lb.-ft. of torque. Let’s hope this is the first of many new triples.

At the heart of the FZ-09 is an all-new, 847cc triple featuring, you guessed it, a crossplane crank. Actually, it’s just your usual 120-degree arrangement familiar to anyone who’s opened up a modern Triumph or fiddled with any of Kawasaki’s two-stroke triples. With a bore and stroke of 78mm and 59.1mm, respectively, the liquid-cooled mill is less oversquare than the R1 or current FZ1 powerplants. Comparing Yamaha’s new triple to the Triumph Speed Triple’s 1050cc engine shows just how long-stroke the Hinckley machine is, with a 1.11:1 bore/stroke ratio against the Yamaha’s 1.32:1. Triumph’s newer triples, in the Tiger 800 and Explorer/Trophy, both run 1.19:1 bore/stroke ratios. The only engines in the Triumph catalog with a more oversquare configuration are the Street Triple (1:42) and Daytona 675 (1:53:1). Redline is 11,000 rpm, which is conservative for a 59.1mm stroke. So, the new Yammie mill is right in the thick of things, design-wise.

New switch clusters debut on the FZ-09. A combined starter/kill-switch lives above a push-to-change Mode button and a hazard-light slider. Note the throttle cables; this is still a ride-by-wire bike.

A modest 11.5:1 compression ratio suggests “tuning for torque,” as does the omission of a horsepower spec for the U.S. models. (Yamaha Italy released information on the MT-09 before the American embargo expired, including a power rating of 115 CV, which converts to 113.4 bhp.) For us, Yamaha says only that the engine makes 65 lb.-ft. of torque at an unspecified speed. A cutaway on display at the press event reveals few groundbreaking technologies, just a compact, modern motorcycle engine with ride-by-wire electronics and three ride modes (but no TC). Yamaha has a new set of switch clusters for the FZ-09, and a pushbutton labeled Mode presumably switches among the three drive modes. In order to bolster midrange torque, Yamaha’s engineers fitted staggered-length intake trumpets inside the airbox. (They’re listed as “variable length” in the press materials, but they are of fixed dimension.) A single gear-driven counterbalancer resides just ahead of the crankshaft line, an important component to reduce vibration in a 120-degree triple.
It is, of course, liquid cooled, and makes use of a stacked transmission to reduce length. Cam drive via chain runs along the right side of the engine. Primary drive is on the opposite end of the crank via straight-cut gear to a conventional wet clutch sans slipper mechanism. It’s interesting to see a permanent-magnet alternator hung off the left side of the engine rather than tucked behind. That it stands out so much is probably more an indication of how compact the rest of the engine is.

A reasonably sized saddle proclaims Yamaha’s desire to make the FZ-09 feel really, really narrow. Seat height is listed as 32.1 inches, so the taper of the saddle will help shorter riders.

The FZ-09’s aluminum chassis is similarly compact, providing a wheelbase 0.8 inches shorter than the FZ8’s and less trail, too. At 414 pounds claimed curb weight (the 3.7-gallon tank full), the 09 undercuts the FZ8 by a whopping 53 lbs. Yamaha’s market research suggested a comfortable riding position was a high priority for potential customers, so the handgrips are 53mm higher and 40mm closer to the rider than on the already comfortable FZ8, and the footpegs are 26mm lower and 2mm more rearward. The swingarm mounts to the lower-aft frame section from the outside—the frame does not go around the swingarm pivot—making the bike very narrow. The pre-production machine we straddled felt remarkably light and lithe.
Part of that light feeling no doubt comes from the low, “mass centralized” exhaust system, which features connecting pipes between cylinders 1-2 and 2-3, an oxygen sensor, and stubby outlet behind the rider’s right heel. There are no EXUP-style valves in the system.

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  Styling cues from Yamaha’s supersports take the edge off the FZ-09’s bulky exhaust system.
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  Well, it isn’t pretty, but we’re willing to bet the FZ-09’s under-slung exhaust system is efficient and quiet.

  
  
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  Radial-mount, four-piston calipers grip 298mm discs. No ABS yet. Probably soon.

The rest of the FZ-09’s running gear is modern if not exactly leading-edge spec. Brakes are new differential-piston, four-pot radial-mount items up front and a single-piston caliper out back. Discs are 298mm and 245mm, respectively. ABS is not currently offered, though with ABS expected to be mandatory in the EU by 2016, it’s likely we’ll see an ABS version of the FZ-09 before too long. Adding ABS means wheel-speed sensors, so traction control becomes possible as well. Who knows, maybe cruise control on a naked while they’re at it?
Suspension is by a single, semi-laydown style shock with linkage and a 41mm inverted fork. Yamaha confirms that adjustments are limited to spring preload and rebound damping at both ends, and it appears the fork has damping components in the right leg only. (That’s how the FZ8 is currently configured.)
Best for last, though: Yamaha, continuing a trend started with the Star Bolt, has priced the FZ-09 aggressively. At just $7990, it’s $900 less than the FZ8 and $2800 under the FZ1, which will remain in the ’14 lineup. Let’s hope

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Friday, 13 September 2013

Marc Marquez set the pace in both practice sessions as Friday signaled the start of the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini weekend at Misano. The Repsol Honda Team rider narrowly edged out teammate Dani Pedrosa, while Valentino Rossi ended the day quicker than Jorge Lorenzo as both ran seamless transmission of the first time.

Already the championship leader heading to Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Marquez has started as he means to continue by locking out both sessions. The margin was narrow, though, with Pedrosa moving to within 33 thousandths at the end of the day having previously overcome problems as his bike suffered vibrations. In third place, Rossi was ahead of Lorenzo, but Misano marks a critical race for all at Yamaha Factory Racing as it finally puts its seamless transmission system into practice.

Standout performance of the day went to Aleix Espargaro, as the Catalan rider hauled his CRT-specification ART machine into the top five for Power Electronics Aspar. This remarkable effort, only half a second off the top spot, demoted GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista to sixth place ahead of Ignite Pramac Racing’s Michele Pirro and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso. Stefan Bradl was ninth for LCR Honda MotoGP, but suffered a Turn 6 crash during the afternoon session.

It was a tough day for Monster Yamaha Tech3, with Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith off the pace in both sessions. The former finished tenth, one second down on Marquez, while his teammate was 14th fastest and experience at crash on entry to the first corner, Variante del Parco. A total of six Italians are competing this weekend, including Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing), Danilo Petrucci (Came IodaRacing Project) and Claudio Corti (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) who ended proceedings in respective 11th, 13thand 15th positions.

Saturday’s third practice session gets underway at 9:55am local time (GMT +2).

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