JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison left the Cartagena BSB test pretty happy with what he had achieved in Spain but says that he needs to fine tune the amount of corner-exit grip he has and balance that with the amount of wheelie it gives.
Ellison ended the four days fourth-equal on the unofficial timesheets, tied with Michael Laverty and only a tenth behind team-mate Leon Haslam on a 1’33.7, and says that a lot of work has been done to eliminate differing parts and setups, so he can now go to Guadix and tweak.
"We did arrive here with a big list of things to test and we didn't waste it, but we didn't really utilise the first day because we had a bad feeling with the bike and since then it has been an improvement every time we went out so I am really happy with it. The limiting factor I am having at the minute is getting the bike to drive out of the corners without wheelie and then when we calm that down it starts spinning so it is about that fine balance of driving out of the corner and keep the front wheel down,” said Ellison.
“We have been looking at geometry, swingarm pivots and that is what is so great about this new bike as we didn't have those options last year. For example the swingarm pivot we have three or four different options and that was one of the things that made my improvement in the final session which was good.
"We have found some improvements in the bike today where the track conditions have gone downhill, but the lap time has come up so we obviously have found something. We are going to keep the bike as it is now as we move to Guadix, there are a few things that we have found that really worked and a few things that didn’t,” added Ellison.
“We found a good direction that worked with the rear shock and we also found out which way we were at the limit, so that is good for the season. Now if we get to the part of the season when we think 'let's try that', we at least have some good information to work from and discount things too.”