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Donington BSB test gives ex-MotoGP rider a “bit of a shock”
Sylvain Guintoli says it was a “bit of a shock” to get back on a BSB bike at the Donington Park test.
Sylvain Guintoli had a “bit of a shock” returning to a BSB bike at the Donington Park test.
Guintioli is not a complete stranger to BSB, having ridden in the championship in 2017 with Suzuki, but it’s been almost 10 years since he competed in the British Championship or ridden a bike built to adhere to the series’ specific set of technical regulations.
The Frenchman, though, was called up to the BMW-supported 8Ten Racing team for this week’s Donington BSB test (3–4 April) to replace Davey Todd who is out through injuries he picked up at the Daytona 200.
“Bit of a shock to get back on the BSB bike – different spec, obviously, to World Superbike, to World Endurance, and it felt nice, it felt good,” Sylvain Guintoli said, speaking to Crash.net after the third session of the opening day in Donington.
“It’s just such a different way of riding with the rear sliding and basically just the right wrist to control it, just control it with the throttle, with no traction control.
“A good day for us: three solid sessions, we sort of worked on the geometry but also on the electronics and so on, trying to help the team, 8Ten Racing, to get a better understanding of the BSB package, give them some extra feedback and hopefully it can help them from the start of the season.”
Not only had Guintolli been a long time off a BSB bike, but he was in Donington only one day after finishing the pre-event test for the 24 Heures Motos.
“Big difference,” he said, speaking about the difference between the endurance bike and the BSB M1000 RR.
“The endurance-spec bike, so obviously Bridgestone tyres, that’s the big difference, and then it’s a completely different electronics package.
“With the endurance bike, we have TC [traction control], anti-wheelie, different way of mapping the engine for the torque delivery but also for the engine brake. A big difference.
“You have to try and adapt and the DNA of the bike is still similar, so there’s still some bits that you can take from the different projects that you can try to make it all a little bit better.”
Guintoli added that he’d been able to try Peter Hickman’s setup during the first day.
“I know Peter [Hickman] quite well from the past,” he said.
“Peter had a little technical problem so he couldn’t do the last session.
“I tried his setup, we tried different things and talked about it, so trying to help the whole project.
“Obviously, Peter’s got other targets as well with the roads, but getting an understanding of the package is always positive.”
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Sylvain Guintoli says it was a “bit of a shock” to get back on a BSB bike at the Donington Park test.
Sylvain Guintoli had a “bit of a shock” returning to a BSB bike at the Donington Park test.
Guintioli is not a complete stranger to BSB, having ridden in the championship in 2017 with Suzuki, but it’s been almost 10 years since he competed in the British Championship or ridden a bike built to adhere to the series’ specific set of technical regulations.
The Frenchman, though, was called up to the BMW-supported 8Ten Racing team for this week’s Donington BSB test (3–4 April) to replace Davey Todd who is out through injuries he picked up at the Daytona 200.
“Bit of a shock to get back on the BSB bike – different spec, obviously, to World Superbike, to World Endurance, and it felt nice, it felt good,” Sylvain Guintoli said, speaking to Crash.net after the third session of the opening day in Donington.
“It’s just such a different way of riding with the rear sliding and basically just the right wrist to control it, just control it with the throttle, with no traction control.
“A good day for us: three solid sessions, we sort of worked on the geometry but also on the electronics and so on, trying to help the team, 8Ten Racing, to get a better understanding of the BSB package, give them some extra feedback and hopefully it can help them from the start of the season.”
Not only had Guintolli been a long time off a BSB bike, but he was in Donington only one day after finishing the pre-event test for the 24 Heures Motos.
“Big difference,” he said, speaking about the difference between the endurance bike and the BSB M1000 RR.
“The endurance-spec bike, so obviously Bridgestone tyres, that’s the big difference, and then it’s a completely different electronics package.
“With the endurance bike, we have TC [traction control], anti-wheelie, different way of mapping the engine for the torque delivery but also for the engine brake. A big difference.
“You have to try and adapt and the DNA of the bike is still similar, so there’s still some bits that you can take from the different projects that you can try to make it all a little bit better.”
Guintoli added that he’d been able to try Peter Hickman’s setup during the first day.
“I know Peter [Hickman] quite well from the past,” he said.
“Peter had a little technical problem so he couldn’t do the last session.
“I tried his setup, we tried different things and talked about it, so trying to help the whole project.
“Obviously, Peter’s got other targets as well with the roads, but getting an understanding of the package is always positive.”
Sylvain Guintoli had a “bit of a shock” returning to a BSB bike at the Donington Park test.
Guintioli is not a complete stranger to BSB, having ridden in the championship in 2017 with Suzuki, but it’s been almost 10 years since he competed in the British Championship or ridden a bike built to adhere to the series’ specific set of technical regulations.
The Frenchman, though, was called up to the BMW-supported 8Ten Racing team for this week’s Donington BSB test (3–4 April) to replace Davey Todd who is out through injuries he picked up at the Daytona 200.
“Bit of a shock to get back on the BSB bike – different spec, obviously, to World Superbike, to World Endurance, and it felt nice, it felt good,” Sylvain Guintoli said, speaking to Crash.net after the third session of the opening day in Donington.
“It’s just such a different way of riding with the rear sliding and basically just the right wrist to control it, just control it with the throttle, with no traction control.
“A good day for us: three solid sessions, we sort of worked on the geometry but also on the electronics and so on, trying to help the team, 8Ten Racing, to get a better understanding of the BSB package, give them some extra feedback and hopefully it can help them from the start of the season.”
Not only had Guintolli been a long time off a BSB bike, but he was in Donington only one day after finishing the pre-event test for the 24 Heures Motos.
“Big difference,” he said, speaking about the difference between the endurance bike and the BSB M1000 RR.
“The endurance-spec bike, so obviously Bridgestone tyres, that’s the big difference, and then it’s a completely different electronics package.
“With the endurance bike, we have TC [traction control], anti-wheelie, different way of mapping the engine for the torque delivery but also for the engine brake. A big difference.
“You have to try and adapt and the DNA of the bike is still similar, so there’s still some bits that you can take from the different projects that you can try to make it all a little bit better.”
Guintoli added that he’d been able to try Peter Hickman’s setup during the first day.
“I know Peter [Hickman] quite well from the past,” he said.
“Peter had a little technical problem so he couldn’t do the last session.
“I tried his setup, we tried different things and talked about it, so trying to help the whole project.
“Obviously, Peter’s got other targets as well with the roads, but getting an understanding of the package is always positive.”
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