Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/103448
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE VOL. 48 ISSUE 44 DECEMBER 13, 2011 P161 Cathcart calls the Ducati Supermono one of his favorite racing motorcycles of all time. It worked perfectly. With his extensive travel experience Cathcart made contacts with motorcycle journals in countries far and wide and quickly began having his stories published around the world. Editors happily found that readers couldn't get enough of Cathcart's reports and by the mid-1980s he became the most in demand writer in motorcycling. The thing that Cathcart excelled at nearly as much as his writing and drive to get the big story was his abilities as a racer. Cathcart was no poser. He was and is the real deal on the racetrack and his racing credentials, which include world titles, back that up. His riding skills earned him the rarest of opportunities to test the world's best race bikes, including GP machinery. I knew Cathcart was fast, but stood slack-jawed when he showed up at an AHRMA meet at Putnam Park Road Course in the early 1990s and won the Sound of Singles race by a half lap. The point being that fans know, from his racing credentials, that Cathcart is a fast rider who can push a bike to its limits, but more importantly Cathcart feels, is that he has the experience to report to readers the progress, or the lack thereof, engineers have made in successive models. The first GP bike Cathcart tested was the 1983 Suzuki RGV500 factory bike. Heron Suzuki ran the team out of England and its manager Garry Taylor was familiar with Cathcart's tests in Classic Bike. Cathcart tested every generation of GP motor- 160-161 Archives.indd 161 cycles for nearly 20 years, until the makers suddenly decided three years ago to discontinue the practice. Regardless, Cathcart still has a full plate testing the various manufacturers World Superbike machines. Of all the motorcycles Cathcart has tested over the years, one that immediately comes to mind is Honda's legendary RC166, the six-cylinder 250cc Grand Prix machine of the mid-1960s. The one motorcycle that put Cathcart's journalistic access to the test was Eddie Lawson's 1989 Honda NSR500. That year's NSR handled terribly - confirmed as much by Lawson - so much so that the steering dampener had to be so tight that the handlebars would barely move. Cathcart wrote of the machine's handling shortcomings. When 1990 rolled around some engineers at HRC didn't want Cathcart to test the new bike in retribution, but then HRC head Youichi Oguma did a brave thing and stuck up for Cathcart. "We met for lunch and after coffee Oguma-san said he told his engineers that 'Alan-san must ride this bike, because he wrote truth,'" referring to the '89 test. "That was a very nice thing for him to do and I'm happy he insisted I be allowed to test again." As a racer Cathcart feels he hit his peak quite late, around age 50. He said not only was it because he was a smarter rider, but the bikes he raced at the time were so good they improved his abilities. He specifically cites the Ducati Supermoto, the Over Yamaha TRX and Ferracci Ducati Superbike as machines that helped him earn a lot of wins in the '90s and made him a better rider. Cathcart continues to review motorcycles, interview the leaders of the industry and has a finger on the pulse of what motorcycles are in the pipeline. Yes, Sir Alan has the dream job so many of us would love to have, and that's part of the joy of reading his work. Through his words we too can get a glimpse into what it's like to ride the world's best motorcycles. CN 12/9/11 3:21 PM