Suzuki starts World Superbike testing

From Team Suzuki Alstare

Team Suzuki Alstare has begun preparations for the 2009 World Superbike season with a three-day test in Phillip Island, Australia, which ended on Friday.

Over three days, held in mostly good conditions, riders Yukio Kagayama and Max Neukirchner started to work with the all-new 2009 GSX-R1000 Suzuki at the demanding Australian circuit and understand the new bike.

At the end of the three days, the two riders had completed over 420 laps and had given a lot of valuable feedback to the team. Kagayama managed to lap faster than his time earlier this year and Neukirchner was also on the pace.

"As the bike is new, there is much work to do - as you can imagine," Kagayama said. "I managed to do a short shakedown test in Japan before the bikes were sent to Phillip Island, so these tests were my second time on the bike.

"My first impression of the new bike is that it handles better than last year's bike, but we shall have to see if that is still the case once we develop it further. Of course, we tested many things these past three days and have done a lot of work with the chassis, suspension and different links. We tried different geometries and different swingarm lengths - all the normal stuff."

Before the test, a team of Alstare's mechanics had spent the best part of two weeks in Japan building the bikes before they were shipped to Phillip Island for the test.

"I think that this bike handles better than my bike of last year and its chassis feels good," Neukirchner said. "We did a lot of work, starting with the chassis, suspension, different swingarms and links and generally I tried to get to know the bike and how it works.

"On the second day I had a crash on the fast left-hander before Lukey Heights. The front tire had done 10 laps and the rear was new and I just lost the front end, but luckily all I did to myself was bruise my right elbow."

The bikes will now be sent to Kyalami circuit, South Africa, for the first official test for the 2009 season on Dec. 10-12.