- Joined
- Feb 4, 2014
- Messages
- 146
- Location
- Sweden
So, this weekend we got the first taste of the Panigale PRO Superbike on track. And it was "interesting" to say the least...
I had really high hopes for this bike. Just rolling it around the workshop, and loading it into the transporter, you can really feel that it's different from all the other bikes I have raced. If feels extremely light and nible, and it feels really small in size. Being, well.. not short but... Should we say "below average height", this is actually the first bike that I am able to reach the ground with both feet on.
This weekend was a noice emission test at a track just 200km from home. Due to harder noice pollution regulations over here, there are extremely hard regulations regarding the noice our bikes can generate on track. To give us riders and teams a chance to adapt, they are oranising a number of "noice emission test days" at all the tracks. They are free, but extremely limited tracktime since there are only 2 bikes allowed in track at the same time, spaced half a lap apart. But pretty good for a first outing on a brand new bike. There was no time to work on settings, so we used the base settings recommended, and saw this as a good opportunity just to iron out all of the small issues of a new bike.
So what was the first impressions of the Pani?
We'll start with the positive.
The bike is extremely light and agile. Flicking it from side to side is really effortless, and it turns really well even though we didn't work on the settings at all. The enine is really powerful, actually more than I thought it would be. It pulls really good from the bottom, but really comes alive a lot at the top end. Almost like an in-line four actually. The seat is pretty close to the handlebars, which is perfect for me, and I can rest the back of my ass on the rear end of the seat without moving around too much or stretching my arms out to much. I had some problems with that on previous bikes, so we had to modify the seat a bit on those.
And the negatives?
Well, there was some issues with the ergonomics. Position of the footpegs, shift lever, and brake lever. But that is relatively simple to solve. We just have to manufacture some small parts, and a new bracket for the left/shift side. This is all straight forward on a new bike.
But the throttle.. My god the throttle... It is horrible... There is a huge ammount of free play, both laterally and vertically. It feels loose and rattles around. And there is a really "long" turn from 0-100% thottle. There is also A LOT of free play in the turn of the throttle (from 0-1% throttle).
The "ride-by-wire" also gives the thottle a horrible feel to it, and quite hard to make the smooth throttle opening out of the turns.
The ignition/tuning also makes the throttle response very on/off, and in combination with the horrible feel of the throttle, its really bad. Its extremely hard to be smooth with the throttle when you start applying some throttle going into the corners... But this will be sorted out by tuning the ECU, no doubt...
The different engine characteristics will take some getting used to when jumping on this bike after racing in-line fours for 12 years. There was a number of times when I thought to myslef, "Damn, it's not pulling anymore" and then looked down at the dash that was just going crazy and blinking red all over the place, and realizing that I was on the revlimiter... Its really hard to go just by ear, so maybe we'll get a bigger shiftlight until I get used to it... LOL.
So, there are a couple of small issues to iron out, and I have to adapt and adjust my riding a bit, but this bike really has an awesome potential. It's gonna be a hard, but fun season...
I had really high hopes for this bike. Just rolling it around the workshop, and loading it into the transporter, you can really feel that it's different from all the other bikes I have raced. If feels extremely light and nible, and it feels really small in size. Being, well.. not short but... Should we say "below average height", this is actually the first bike that I am able to reach the ground with both feet on.
This weekend was a noice emission test at a track just 200km from home. Due to harder noice pollution regulations over here, there are extremely hard regulations regarding the noice our bikes can generate on track. To give us riders and teams a chance to adapt, they are oranising a number of "noice emission test days" at all the tracks. They are free, but extremely limited tracktime since there are only 2 bikes allowed in track at the same time, spaced half a lap apart. But pretty good for a first outing on a brand new bike. There was no time to work on settings, so we used the base settings recommended, and saw this as a good opportunity just to iron out all of the small issues of a new bike.
So what was the first impressions of the Pani?
We'll start with the positive.
The bike is extremely light and agile. Flicking it from side to side is really effortless, and it turns really well even though we didn't work on the settings at all. The enine is really powerful, actually more than I thought it would be. It pulls really good from the bottom, but really comes alive a lot at the top end. Almost like an in-line four actually. The seat is pretty close to the handlebars, which is perfect for me, and I can rest the back of my ass on the rear end of the seat without moving around too much or stretching my arms out to much. I had some problems with that on previous bikes, so we had to modify the seat a bit on those.
And the negatives?
Well, there was some issues with the ergonomics. Position of the footpegs, shift lever, and brake lever. But that is relatively simple to solve. We just have to manufacture some small parts, and a new bracket for the left/shift side. This is all straight forward on a new bike.
But the throttle.. My god the throttle... It is horrible... There is a huge ammount of free play, both laterally and vertically. It feels loose and rattles around. And there is a really "long" turn from 0-100% thottle. There is also A LOT of free play in the turn of the throttle (from 0-1% throttle).
The "ride-by-wire" also gives the thottle a horrible feel to it, and quite hard to make the smooth throttle opening out of the turns.
The ignition/tuning also makes the throttle response very on/off, and in combination with the horrible feel of the throttle, its really bad. Its extremely hard to be smooth with the throttle when you start applying some throttle going into the corners... But this will be sorted out by tuning the ECU, no doubt...
The different engine characteristics will take some getting used to when jumping on this bike after racing in-line fours for 12 years. There was a number of times when I thought to myslef, "Damn, it's not pulling anymore" and then looked down at the dash that was just going crazy and blinking red all over the place, and realizing that I was on the revlimiter... Its really hard to go just by ear, so maybe we'll get a bigger shiftlight until I get used to it... LOL.
So, there are a couple of small issues to iron out, and I have to adapt and adjust my riding a bit, but this bike really has an awesome potential. It's gonna be a hard, but fun season...
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