Electronic Countermeasure

ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURE

Aftermarket traction-control solution

What should you do if your favorite flavor of late-model supersport doesn’t offer traction control as a factory feature? The clever folks at Bazzaz (www.bazzaz.net) have an answer: Z-Fi TC. The $949.95 electronic module incorporates race-developed traction-control, quickshift and fuel-injection-mapping capabilities in a single, compact unit that patches into the stock wiring harness via OEM-style connectors.

Bazzaz fitted our 2011 Suzuki GSX-R1000 testbike with Z-Fi TC and its included Quick Shift switch and shift rod. We also opted for the handlebar-mounted TC Adjust & Map Select Switch ($129.95), a very useful accessory equipped with an indexed rotary dial that allows TC override and 10 steps of traction-controlsensitivity adjustment on-the-fly. The map switch lets the rider toggle between a pair of fuel curves, TC maps and shift-delay settings, all of which can be configured by propeller-capped tuners to individual gears. That is a lot of flexibility, but luckily, the Z-Fi Mapper software that we installed on our laptop PC proved easy to grasp and use when plugged into the Z-Fi TC unit via a USB cable.

Skinned with Metzeier Racetec K3 Interacts and retaining its stock fuel map, our Gixxer //was fairly matched with thefactory-TC-

equipped Electronic Warfare combatants. To streamline the process, we I/ stayed with the baseline TC map that I/ A ships with the Bazzaz unit and utilized z the sensitivity dial to tweak the effect. The Bazzaz system—available for most late-model sportbikes—doesn’t employ wheel-speed sensors but instead relies on engine-rpm rate of change to determine if the rear wheel is spinning and ignition cut is warranted.

/ The system proved less intrusive than the OEM offerings represented in this group yet highly effective, as evidenced by the VBox data comparing Associate Editor Mark Cernicky’s best lap time of 1:54.23 with TC enabled and 1:54.85 without TC. The former time was second-quickest of all the bikes, while the system on/off time disparity of .62 second was greater than that of any other bike. Also favorable for the Bazzaz

system was an 87.3-mph average speed in Turn 3 with TC vs. 84.9 mph without, while Turn 12 data showed 59.1 mph vs. 58.3 mph.

After returning to the pits following his non-TC timed laps with boot scuffs on the gas tank, Cernicky is a baptized Bazzaz believer. He’d been launched out of the saddle and nearly highsided when he attempted to match the throttle application used during his previous TC-enabled laps.

Rounding out performance testing, the big GSX-R made 159.5 horsepower at 11,670 rpm and 77.4 foot-pounds of torque at 10,100 rpm. Robust midrange and superb clutch feel allowed a more relaxed holeshot at the dragstrip than the other inline-Four liter bikes we tested. A gnarly crosswind that was neither fun to deal with nor conducive to quick times on the day I gathered comparative times is reflected in the Gixxer’s 9.98-second, 145.33mph pass and “sluggish” 3.0-second 0-60 mph acceleration and 176-mph top speed.

While the $13,599 MSRP of the GSX-R1000 plus the cost of the Bazzaz electronics exceeds the list price of the OE-TC-equipped Kawasaki ZX-10R, the bonus of a slick quickshifter and the system’s ability to remap fuel delivery for an aftermarket exhaust add up to what I call a viable electronic countermeasure. -Don Canet