Tools enable us to make the things we need. For years, senior Swedish and German master machinists were essential to some of our highest technologies, but there weren’t nearly enough of them. Their knowledge was therefore “canned” into the software that today controls CNC machining.
Everything on a current AMA Pro American SuperBike is a tool for going fast, but traditional compromises still bite. Close the throttle on a 1000cc inline-Four as you approach a corner and engine braking pulls hard on the rear tire. Let the slipper clutch handle it? Shim-and-spring tuning makes it right for one gear. In the other gears, the back of the bike hops or slides out—just as it did on the last of the MV Agusta four-strokes in GP racing. Sure, the rider can tough it out by carefully holding the clutch in during corner entry. Or, as they did with late-1970’s Superbikes, you can set the idle way up. But doesn’t the rider have more important tasks?
Electronic SuperBike: Richard Stanboli’s decade of experience with MoTeC engine management has helped push our Suzuki GSX-R1000s—one a former Cycle World testbike, the other bought at a dealership in Hollywood—toward the front of the pack after just three race weekends.
Aha! The latest Suzuki GSX-R1000 has a throttle positioner, whose original job was idle control during warm-up. With the MoTeC controller on the Team Cycle World Attack Performance Yoshimura Suzuki AMA Pro American SuperBike, crew chief Richard Stanboli wrote a program that used that positioner to crack the throttle enough to save rider Eric Bostrom from all that engine-braking nonsense. This set him free to concentrate on corner-insertion speed, line and throttle-up.
Suzukis since the TL1000 V-Twin have had the Suzuki Dual Throttle Valve System. The rider controls an upstream throttle while the computer controls a second throttle that smoothes snap response. With the MoTeC controller, Stanboli could change the program to alter intake velocity in the midrange, finding several extra horsepower.
Now think about corner exit: If we tune for maximum power, we create torque spikes and dips that can break traction. The old way was to detune, giving up power. But with his laptop open and Bostrom describing what the bike is doing, Stanboli can make a few keystrokes that knock the sharp edges off those spikes. This doesn’t detune the engine; it just makes its power delivery smooth enough that Bostrom has confidence to use more of it. It shows up on the watch: The lap times improve.
When seven-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin first went racing, none of this existed. When the going got tough, he trained harder, pushed closer to the crumbly edge. Later, in partnership with electronics whiz Ammar Bazzaz, he looked at computer data and saw ways to make his lap times quicker without asking more of his concentration. They used the new tools in creative ways to eliminate unnecessary distractions. These tools are now available to anyone—like Richard Stanboli—who learns their use.
Team Cycle World Attack Performance Yoshimura Suzuki gathered for a group photo at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. From left to right: Matt Hickson, Richard Stanboli, Eric Bostrom, Dan Schwartz, Don Baynes, Jim “JJ” Matter, Todd Fenton, Manny Hauswirth, Matthew Miles and Raquel Houghton. Bostrom finished seventh in the AMA Pro American SuperBike class at the famous California racetrack.
