Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

soccer and the Davis Cup of tennis. I think eve.ry country should try. It's only one week of the year. You WOD your last championship in 1976. You were second in 1977 and haven't been 100% physically fit the last two yean. Is there some thought kicking around that you still might be ~ble to gft that sixth championship aDd tie Joel? Of course, I would like to win a sixth title, but I am not so obsessed by it as people think. I would like to win, but not so much because Joel won six titles. Joel was a very great rider, but I don't think I have to compare my titles with Joel's titles. If we want to do that I can say Joel never won a Trans-Am title, and I have won four, and I have won a 250cc Grand Prix, and Joel never won a 500cc Grand Prix. So it doesn't bother me. I think the reason I wanted to do it was because I felt I had the potential of doing another title. In '77 Heikki deserved to win. He was better than I was, no question about it. In '78, I finished third but I had the injury. It's not c1ea'r that it was due 100% to the bike, but there was something definitely wrong ~ith the bike, it was not working right. I think in '78 I could have won the championship, being honest with myself without dreaming. I know it could have been that way, but it did not work. Again in '79, with all the problems I had I still put in the fast time in five of the 12 events although tbat's not my strongest point to do the fastest lap. "I'd like to see the industry put more effort into supporting riding areas and tracks within reasonable distance ofthe city. " I think we are about number three as far as total attendance at all races compared to soccer and bicycle races. Soccer is number one. So motOCTQSS is one of tbe three major sports. I think here the three top sports stick out more compared to all other sports than in Europe. Soccer is very strong, like American football is here. The press here only speaks about those three and very little about anything else. How importaDt are the Motocross. aDd Trophee des Nations in Europe? They are as big or bigger than a Grand Prix. National pride goes along with it. It is not a race where a ncler can make money because the expenses for the promoter are much bigger. It usually costs money to go to a race like that. I'm not saying that I don't like money, but I don't think that everything I do has to be directly paid for. In the long run if you have won 10 Motocross des Nations, it adds onto your market value. So indirectly you get something out of it on top of the satisfaction. It is the only event through the years where you can compare nations in our sport, and I think that's good. You have that "ip. So, I think I am not fooling myself by tbinking I could have won the championship last year. I think maybe it's a mistake to want to race one more season, but I miss tbe satisfaction of racing so much it's very difficult to give it up. That's why I want to do it one more time. To; win a championship, I think my chances are very little now because on top of being a year older I'm also on a new bike. The older you get, the more _ time you need to adapt to a new bike. A good rider can ride any bike pretty good, but between riding pretty good and winning a Grand Prix there is still a difference. You injured your shoulder just before the season started last year. Was it the shoulder that got you into the leading link suspension? No, we were already working on it over the winter. I used it a little quicker because of the shoulder. It gave me more comfort. The first one we made we finisbed a week before tbe first Grand Prix. I could not test it because I bad broken the ligaments of my shoulder two weeks before. I had to put my right hand on the handlebar. There was no way I could lift it up. I think I finished 10th in the first heat and fourth in the second heat. I had to let them go on the start because it was difficult and bumpy. I had a good start . but I was afraid I'd get bumped and falloff in the pack. So the fork really helped me. I do not think I could have raced with the conventional one. Who were you working with in developing the fork? Valentino Ribi is the designer. We used Ohlins parts and made a whole new shock because the weight is much more important on the front. And a big h3lldicap was weight, especially in r the beginning, but now we have one we finished a few weeks ago that is lighter. We used Ohlins' valving, but we made a completely different body and used air to save weight. The air shock is not as big a handicap on the front as it is on the back because tbe heat is not as big a problem. The shock has to do less work on the front than it does on the back. How did ~uzuki feel about you putting this on your bike? It's very difficult for the Japanese to get tbe feel rigbt away wbether they ·Iike a particular tbing, but I think as long as you don't make any mistakes in the long run, they like it. I was maybe taking some chances to use it at the beginning when it was so new because it could look like a mistake. I think looking back on it now that it honestly was not a mistake because tbe races that I ran in I could not have ridden with the other forks. It is one of the few things in the last 15 or 20 years that is really new. There is really a lot of potential. Isn't it a modernization of an old concept? Not at all. It's not the old Greeves thing. MOlt people believe that. It's understandable that they do because when you look at it it's very difficult unless you have played a lot with that sort of work to understand. Even some people in the industry, it took them some time to understand it even if you tell them on paper how it works. . One of the reasons people liked the old leading link was that there was no front end dive. The Ribi system appean to dive. You can adjust it for as little or as much front end dive as you want. You can adjust the anti·dive if you want it to work like telescopic forks or have no dive at all or just 20 or llO percent for dive. It will do whatever you want it to do. You can even have it raise on brak· ing. There are so many possibilities. You say it's now lighter than a telescopic fork? We are actually a pound lighter than a . works fork_ What about unsprung weight? It's also lighter. Unsprung weight was lighter from the beginning. Only the axle moves as fast as tbe wheel moves. On a teleScopic fork all of the parts move as fast as the wheel moves. It is also more stable. The front end doesn't feel heavy? No, not now. It did in the beginning. So now the front end turns like a telescopic. Except it turns a little better because it has better wheel contact. Will you continue to work on this? Yes. Is it patented? Ribi owns the patent. He had been playing with a very crude prototype. He rode a little bit himself also. He liked me at the races already a long time and we saw each other in Italy. I saw him playing with these things and I got interested. What do you think the chances are of this getting on a productiQn bike? At this point I would say if it has the same cost for manufacturing then it would have a fairly good chance to make it because Japanese companies really look for a product that is differ·. ent. "We have not made a 100% decis-ion (for me) to race aga-in. It's not official, but -it's pretty sure. " Wolsink was riding a reservoir front fork for a while. How did that work? Suzuki had requested Kayaba to build it for them to get better hydraulics, to keep the fork oil from foaming. I had already tested it. The idea is good, but the tuning had to be improved. How do you see bike developme~t~ ing over the next few yean? With the suspension they have about all the travel they can get. What about a change in c4assis design to lower seat height? They can't make them much lower be· cause they need the engine clearance. The engine is pretty much as low as it can go now. I think on the back there is a lot to be done with suspension. There hasn't been much change in peak power, but the power band is getting better. I hope the FIM is not going to do anything with weight limits. You're ll5. How old is Joel? Thirty-six. He was one of the few GP riden to ever win a championship at an early age. Did he peak early or what? I think the main thing is that he did not take so good care of his physical shape. He did not discipline himself. Joel had so much talent that he could get away with much more without much difficult training. Also, he was the kind who enjoyed riding, so it was. not like going to war. That attitude was an advantage to him because the other guys would have to be worrying all week and training, and he would just be rolling along, very relaxed. The riders were not training at that time like they are now. If he tried to do today what he did then, there is no way he could do it, even with his talent. He would probably have to train less than other guys, but he would still have to train 10 times more than he did. If Joel had really trained hard ... Maybe he would not have won. Maybe it that looseness that won for him. I'm sure. Did the two of your create the Cr08IIup craze in America? I was the fIrSt to really do it a lot. Joel would do long drift slides, but the crossup, that was me. How did you get into that? It just came up. It was fun to do. At one panicular race track in France there was a jump and a tum right after the jump_ In many places where you crossup you are not gaining time, you are losing time probably. but some places you, can gain time with it. I was starting to do it just to play, but then I started adapting it to certain areas of certain tracKs and it oecame an advantage in some places where you could get on the gas earlier. It just came up naturally. And then the photographen got hold of it and everybody in America had to do it. Right now you are a consummate stylist on-a> bike, but didn't 9 .-

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