One high profile rider who has successfully made the move from Supersport to Superbike is Karl Harris and he of course is fully behind Supersport as the feeder class to BSB largely due to the technical similarities of the 600s and the Superbikes, but he did concede that the riding style is different and takes time to adjust to. I think Supersport myself because the Supersport bike is more of a mini Superbike. Probably not as dramatic as that but the stuff you can change on it, where as a Superstock bike is pretty much bog standard. For me I would say Supersport it is definitely a good class to come from, said Harris, In Supersport the riding style is different as you need to carry more corner speed, on the Superbike it is totally different more like stop the thing and get it out there as quick as possible. I've adapted to it now but last year I struggled a little bit some things were not right. Sport is a very strong class now as it has been for a few years it is very, very tough.
So we seem to have agreed that the riding style is shared between Superstock and Superbike, but it is the technical side of things that brings Supersport in line with Superbike. Rider feed back and knowledge of what his bike is doing and how to counteract that is paramount to setting up a bike. If a rider can't give feed back then it is going to make things very difficult unless you have a very talented mechanic to hand. The Supersport machines have more variables that can be adjusted unlike the Superstock bikes, which as the name says, are Stock standard machines.
To get some technical input I spoke to Mark Hanna Rizla Suzuki's Chassis Technician and who has been a race mechanic for twenty years. Mark said, I think Supersport is the stepping stone to Superbike class. I think you will learn a lot more as you are allowed to run the full electronics package that we run on our Superbikes. There is full telemetry on the suspension and after market ignition systems for fuelling. You can also tune your engine on a 600 and use after market clutches like we do. Superstock bikes are road bikes with power commander race pipes - a road bike really.
