World Superbikes' Max Biaggi's Suzuki GSX-R1000 K7 explained

Before riding (and crashing!) Max Biaggi’s Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 K7 World Superbikes machine, MCN’s World Superbike reporter Michael Guy spoke to Max Biaggi’s crew chief, Giacomo Guidotti, about the bike.

Here’s what Giacomo Guidotti had to say:

MCN: How has the bike been set – up to suit Max Biaggi?

Giacomo Guidotti: “When Max arrived we gave him the best set up we had and gave him the benefit of our experience with this type of bike. He’d come from a different championship where he’d been used to working with MotoGP bikes and in a different way.

“To begin with he wanted things that were out of reach for a Superbike but we soon started to communicate in a very good way, this lead to a good understanding and gave Max a lot of confidence.”

MCN: What’s changed?

Giacomo Guidotti: “He didn’t like the bike up until mid season before then he was working against it, but at Misano we made the switch from Mitsubishi to Magneti Marelli and this improved his feeling on the bike.

“Compared to the first part of the season we didn’t make so many big changes as we did in the first part of the year.

MCN: Why didn’t you win the title?

Giacomo Guidotti: “We missed out on a few points during the season, I don’t know the exact number but it has to be around 50.  From the teams point of view I think the season has been a big success.

“It was a very hard challenge to win with a new bike and new rider but we’ve had a 100 per cent reliable bike and we’ve won races, compared to last season the only thing we’ve lacked is race set up.

Read this week’s MCN, available from Wednesday, October 17, 2007 to see how Michael Guy and Senior Road Tester Trevor Franklin got on with James Toseland’s Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and Noriyuki Haga’s Yamaha R1