As he announced, Sylvain Guintoli has just opened his own video channel on Youtube.
The Superbike world champion, and currently MotoGP test rider for the Suzuki Ecstar team, took the time to share with you a very interesting first experience to find out what a production motorcycle was "worth", in this case the Suzuki GSX. -R1000R 2020, in the hands of one of the best professional riders in the world.
For a first attempt, it is truly a masterstroke and we are already awaiting, with the greatest impatience and without reservation, the number two opus of the most British of French pilots!
Ah, yes, just a quick question, since Sylvain Guintoli we read: “When will there be a video in our language? », because the translation that we are offering you below still took a certain amount of time, if not a certain amount of time… 🙂
Hello, I am Sylvain Guintoli, welcome to my Youtube channel.
I have been racing for over 25 years, was Superbike World Champion in 2014 and am currently a Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP test rider. So I'm still active in racing and I did four races last year in MotoGP, in Barcelona, Brno, Motegi and Silverstone, and I also raced in the Suzuka 8 Hours which is the final of the World Championship. 'Endurance.
See you later friends, see you later. Do not Cry.
Today we're going to take a completely stock production motorcycle and we're going to push it to its limits to see how fast it goes and we're also going to film a lap time on board for you to see.
Let's go!
Look at that, the sun is there too, we are very lucky!
Yeah, that's just what I wanted to do, have a little fun from home and ride my motorcycle on the winding road that's not too far from my house, for about half an hour. We're going to go to the track with the stock bike and the road tires to just see how fast we can go.
The Donington circuit is a good track to do this because I have known this circuit very well for many years. My first appearance there took place in 2001 with the 250cc.
I have a lot of experience of Donington, with a lot of Superbike bikes but also MotoGP, so I will be able to describe to you how this bike behaves, and what it feels like compared to a MotoGP, like the one with which I just did 300 laps at Sepang in 6 days.
I can't wait to get on the track and be able to open big! There is always a great atmosphere during Trackdays here. It's a little chilly but everyone is having fun, I just hope they have hot coffee for us! I like Donington because I have a lot of memories there: it's a circuit... where I met my wife when I came to race here, and that's why I moved to England later. The memories are strong here: I made two World Superbike podiums there but I also suffered a very, very bad injury in 2009. Yes, it was one of the worst injuries of my entire career but I I've recovered since and it builds your character. Yes, lots of memories, mostly good ones.
So today the circuit is very windy and the track temperature very low: we are probably around five or six degrees. This will be important in the first left turn, which is the third corner of the circuit and is called Craner. It's a turn you have to take carefully because it's fast and there's not much load on the front, and because you haven't been on the left in a while. So you have to go for it gently there and be really careful with your front tire. Other than that, I would say everything works well: these tires give me good feedback, which is good. Donington is a track that isn't very big, so with a powerful bike like this, probably around 200 horsepower, the power is quite big for this kind of circuit. The bike is often in a wheelie and it's good to feel the bike moving as if it were alive. As I said, we're taking it easy and the bike works very well on this track and I'm very satisfied. And what’s more, it’s the same color as my leather, so it’s perfect!
We are at the circuit but we came by road, so the tire pressures have been set for the road, but the most important thing you need to do when arriving at the circuit is to set your tire pressures. It depends on your riding, the temperature of the track and how you attack, but you really need to lower your pressure a lot. Here, when I did my first session, my rear pressure went up to 45 psi, and I sure as hell don't want that you lose a lot of grip and the tire doesn't work very well.
So when you finish your first run, go back in, look at your pressures, check them, and you should really put them around 1,65 bar in the back, and 2,2 in the front. This goes for these tires and it might be a little different with different tire manufacturers, but for the Bridgestone R11s that come standard with the bike, this is what you need.
The other thing you want to do on this specific motorcycle is tune your electronics. The power mode, which is there. On the road, we were in C; which is the lowest power you can get. So we move to A, which is the greatest power we can have. Then this is the Traction Control which, on this bike, goes from OFF to 10. On the road, you are in 10, especially in winter otherwise you slip too much. But for the track, I'm going to decrease it by turning this up to 1. So there won't be too much interference and the bike will be able to do a little more wheelies, which is more fun!
Chrono: 1'37.50
Well, that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed this tour as much as I did. Many thanks to Trackdays and Donington Park for hosting us today. Now let's go home and debrief.
So I was able to do more laps today, and we recorded the times with an app, which is a good way to remember all your times and save them to look at later. My best time was 1'37, which is a pretty good lap at Donington. The conditions were not perfect since we had 5 degrees on the track and it was quite windy. So I think on a nice day we could have gained two seconds. If we compare that to the times in Superbike last year, or the 1'27 / 1'28 during the MotoGP races, Dani Pedrosa has the record in 1'27 in 2006 before the MotoGP races at Silverstone, it's so about ten seconds slower, which is not huge, considering that we had a stock motorcycle and stock tires. It's really not much, considering we didn't make any modifications to the bike, didn't adjust the suspension, nothing!
So yes, I was definitely very surprised to be so close and we only adjusted the tire pressure, which makes a huge difference: when you go to a track it's very different from the pressures for the road . That's the only thing we did.
Looking at the data in the app, I can see that we are subjected to large forces, since I reached 1,5 G during my maximum braking and just over 1 G during acceleration, which corresponds to a very fast motorcycle of around 200 horsepower, with plenty of torque and good traction, so you can really feel the power.
So I think we motorcycle people are very lucky because a financial investment gives you a lot of bang for your buck. This is good news because if you put 20 into a car, and try to compare it with an F000 car on track, you can't compare it. There will be a minute difference on the clock, or maybe even more. So yes, we are very lucky, because you can take your motorbike and go to a circuit to improve your riding technique and set some decent lap times.
These are the last words for today: first and foremost, this has been a lot of fun. To be honest, I was expecting that the bike might not be out of place on a racetrack, but that wasn't the case at all. She was completely comfortable and the time showed, it was great to see that the bike was as happy on the track as I was on the road.
If you liked the video, please subscribe, like, share and feel free to leave your comments. See you soon !
