What is Superbike Racing?

[NarendZORCE]

Source: Wikipedia



Superbike Racing

Superbike racing is a category of motorcycle racing that employs modified production motorcycles. Many countries such as the Australia, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States operate national superbike championships, and a World Superbike (WSB) championship has run since 1988.

The Superbike category is highly popular with manufacturers. Because the race bikes are built from production road bikes, the marketing value of a Superbike victory is significant.

Pre-2004 regulations can be briefly summarised as follows:

Production Motorcycles - defined as 150 models of the entered machine, with 75 available for inspection by 31 January in the year of entry and the remainder by 30 June [1]

Capacity - which depended on the number of cylinders. 2cylinders up to 1000cc, 3cylinders up to 900cc, and 4cylinders up to 750cc

In 2002 the FIM started discussions on a new series of regulations that would allow wider manufacturer support. The first change was consistent capacity--1000cc for all entrant machines irrespective of the number of cylinders. This was a 'standard' production engine size sold worldwide, allowing manufacturers to absorb racing costs into production- machine development, and market these developments. However, as this would result in an unfair power advantage for four-cylinder machines, air-restrictors were introduced - one restrictor plate per intake port, with sizes of 50mm for twins and 32.5mm for fours

The second regulation change was the use of a "control" or "spec" tyre, to be supplied to all competitors. The bid process was won by Pirelli, who supply between five and seven different compounds per race. Though top and cornering speeds have fallen, the racing has become closer and safer.

The third change was increased mimimum weight for all machines, with 165 kg (363.8 lb) pre-race, and 163.5 kg (360.5 lb) post race.


Full details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbike_racing

Links:
http://www.worldsbk.com/
http://www.amasuperbike.com/
http://www.aus-superbikes.com.au/
http://www.britishsuperbike.com/
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/
http://www.fim.ch/en/default.asp?item=26
http://www.use-photos.com/Superbike/
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[Rory Phoulorie]

This year's racing has been good now that all the teams basically run some sort of traction control.

Last year's domination by Ducati for most of the season was because they were running a full blown out MotoGP modified traction control system on their WSBK machines. Suzuki also had a form of traction control in 2006 but it was not as sophisticated as Ducati's own. It was only towards the late part of the 2006 season did the Honda teams jointly develop a traction control system which was supplied by Pi Research. This system did not have support from Honda.