2002 World Superbike rules will allow four-cylinder Superbikes to weigh a minimum of 349 pounds, down six pounds from the 2001 rules.

This new rule was delivered to quell the howling from the Kawasaki and Suzuki World Superbike contractors who felt that their bikes could not be competitive with the twin-cylinder machines from Ducati, Honda and Aprilia.

They can weigh 349 pounds, but will they?

Nearly anything is possible in racing if enough capital exists, and this is truly a situation where it will take bales of dollars and/or yen to get the bike's weight down six pounds.

The positive feature in all of this is that, in Kawasaki's case at least, it's been done before with a similar motorcycle as to what the Kawasaki team will use in 2002. There have been 320 pound Kawasaki Superbikes.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the World Endurance series raced under what were called TT-F-1 rules, which resulted--truly--in four-stroke GP motorcycles. Some were based on actual production models, like the Kawasaki ZX7RR, and some were not, like the magnificent Honda RVF750 (which was said to be based on the RC30 but, in actuality, shared very little with it). These were true no-expense-spared Superbikes which weighed an incredible (even by today's standards) 320 pounds dry, or less. In 1991, at the Suzuka Eight Hours, Wayne Gardner's and Michael Doohan's RVF was publicly weighed at 304 pounds. With lights. In 1991, mind you.

Thus, very light Superbikes can be made--if the factory is willing to spend the money.

In Kawasaki's case, back in the TT-F1 days, with only a hint of production rules to contend with, many of the heavy-stock- and/or stock-based components were given a serious heave-ho. Kawasaki hand-pounded and welded an aluminum frame for the TT-F1 bike from thin-wall sheet stock that was extremely light and very strong, but brittle. According to well- placed sources, in 1993 (the year Russell and Slight won the Suzuka Eight Hours for Kawasaki), one of the frames was dropped while being hand-carried to the track, and it broke.

While it is theoretically possible for Kawasaki or Suzuki to drop their Superbikes to 349 pounds, it would be expensive. For example, forks using carbon-fiber parts are available at $40,000-60,000 a set but can drop weight 2-3 pounds in one fell swoop.

Neither the Kawasaki nor Suzuki WSC teams have been known as spare-no-expense outfits.

It will be interesting to see if they are able to take advantage of a rule they themselves asked for.