Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes spent the opening MCE British Superbike free practice sessions eliminating setup extremes on the new R1 which is still essentially a stock bike with some Ohlins suspension and spec-ECU.
The Australian was second quickest in the opening session but then went to the other end of the setup scale to see how that would affect times. Brookes was still sixth and 0.604s off the pace, but will change engines overnight to ones with a higher level of development.
“This morning I put in a fairly acceptable time quite easily. Last year’s bike doesn’t compare, everything is totally different so we can’t refer to the old data. So whatever we are using to see where we are at is the data we are producing,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.
“To know where the bike needs to be, we have to try extreme right and left setups, and then work out where the bike is at its best. This morning was closer to where it needs to be, whcih was extreme right, and this afternoon was extreme left.
“Tomorrow, we will use those boundaries to narrow down where we need to be. For the greater good, you have to make a sacrifice so second practice could almost be called the sacrifice ride. I had to ride in the way in a way that may not have worked, but we know now a direction to improve.”
