Friday 24th February 2017
Friday snippets of news: PH2
An exciting week for Suzuki, plus the winner of that Harley competition
We all suspected this bit of news, but this week it was confirmed that Michael Dunlop will be racing on a new Suzuki GSX-R1000 at the TT and North West with the Bennetts Suzuki squad. The cynical amongst you may think 'here we go again' as Dunlop swapped from his favoured BMW S1000RR to the Milwaukee Yamaha YZF-R1 in 2015 with somewhat, er, tricky consequences as he did less than one lap on the Yamaha before dragging his BMW out of his van and competing with that instead.
New slipper clutch and more power for GSX-S1000
However Hawk Racing, who ran Dunlop on his superbike BMW and is a family-owned team run by Steve and Stuart Hicken, are the guys behind the Bennetts Suzuki squad and that should mean he will stick with the Suzuki for the duration of the TT. Especially as it is, according to the team and Dunlop, a full-on factory supported effort with lots of back-up from Yoshimura.
"Obviously we've worked together a lot before. With the new bike coming it's been a bit different and we had to gather up exactly what was happening. We just needed to see what was going to be able to happen and to see where we were both going to be at this time. I know Steve and I know Stuart though, as people, and I know they can take a new bike and get it right. This is a good team and there's a good link with Yoshimura. It's going to be interesting this year. I've been helping the team build my own bikes and it'll be good to have a run around at Mallory for a shakedown before we go to Spain," said Dunlop.
And the winner is...
Suzuki also chose this week to announce an update to its GSX-S1000 models. For 2017 the firm's naked and half-faired bikes will gain a slipper clutch, a bit more power (now a claimed 150hp) and a few cosmetic styling changes. Interestingly, there is no mention of the throttle response, however it is fair to assume that the light switch throttle has been refined somewhat in the update. The Japanese never like to admit they have made a mistake...
And finally we have this assault on your senses. Remember a few weeks ago we mentioned the Harley Battle of the Kings custom competition? Well this is the winning entry from the UK and Ireland. Designed by Shaw's Harley and called 'Beach Bobber,' it will now be entered in the grand finale at the Milan Motorcycle Show in November to challenge for the European title.
