Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Miguel DuHamel in Am erica. At Muzzy' s, a nd at Ho nda, I had mostly Am er ican mechanics and tea m me mbers. It's just a differen t mind , you have to be willi ng to ge t into the right mindset to work with an y team. As long as an y team 's mind-set is to win, to work really hard to accomplish a goal, then I you 're in a good team . Th at, and the team working as a tea m are the most importa nt things. As long as eve ryone . is wo rki ng ha rd and not poin ting fingers at each other, things will go well. Let 's hear your reflections on ri d ing I the bike for the first time. That was at Daytona - the biggest fear that I had was there. As far as mechanically o ~ the chas sis goes, I could easily see getting lost in tryin g to get a chassis to work. That was my biggest fear . If the bike could not handle, then I could see a big problem. For m y entire career, I have wanted a bike that handled . Horsepower can come later, and that is never really a problem. I need a bike to handle so that I can ride to my full potential. Once I have that, we can move on to horsepower . Harley-Davidson and everyone else are aware of that, so it's no big deal. When I first started the bike and went through the first corner and it flicked good, that was my biggest relief right there. I was very relieved that we were not going to get lost in the chassis. You see teams like Team Roberts; they spend incredible amounts of money on chassis development and their riders -a re sayin g 'This is the worst bike I've ever ridden in my life: And I know part of that. In 1992, when I was in GPs, the Yamaha was the worst bike I had ever ridden. I' ve ridden unicycles and bicycles that had better characteristics than that bike. So then when I got on the Harley-Davidson... for them to take it from a bic ycle shop in Oregon that made the fram e, (and then) to get on the bike and to have it really steer good, really impressed me . The people who have the good fortune to ride this Harley-Davidson are really going to be surprised. Harley did a good job on th is bike. As I said, mechanically, everything wo rk s well; the electronic problems and th in gs like that - they . have to be expected. Those aren't big problems . They'll find it's not like wiring from England to the United States. It's one bike - how many w ires can there be? I know there are a lot of possibilities, but they'll find it , and everything is working. The results are here at Daytona. How many different versions of the VRIOOO have you ridden? How many exist? Basically, (it's) pretty much the same as the first time I rode it. As far as the chas- · sis goes, there have been slight modifications here and there that Steve made by himself. Those were very slight. As far as the engine goes, they know where they have to have it and where it has to be, and that's where they are concentrating their efforts . They have pulled a few more horsepower from it since the first time I rode the bike. Now it will wheelie, no problem, whereas the first time I rode it the bike was quite satisfied with the gravity of the earth. Here, with Daytona gearing, it will w heelie and the bike flies! They did an incredible job and I'm very happy with the job they have done so far. They will keep going from this point - they just ran out of time for Daytona. Would telemetry help develop the bike? Did it? Not really, never had it before. The two times I had it, it was...useless. We had it I I for the test and the reason we don't have it here is that the guys don 't have time. There isn't much lime for sleeping when it's 20 hou rs a day working, alread y. We worked hard enough for the fans so that we could be here. You rself, Thomas Stevens on the Suzuki and Da le Quarterley on his Kawas aki had a nice li ttl e d ice going during the AMAlCCS race at Daytona. Wh at conclusi ons did you come to after that? Thomas Stev ens' bike was much faster than Dale's bike, his 1993 Kawasaki. As far as Dale's bike goes, ou r bi ke was down on power from his. Becau se he is a big gu y and he takes a good amount of power, and he pushed a lot of wi nd, I could draft him a nd p ass him qui te slowly. But he could pass and get two or three bike len gths on me. But even so, tha t was a pr etty positive point. We can run with a 1993 bike . The problem is that everyone step ped it up quite a bit as far as machinery goes. Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda and Ducati... it' s really like stepping into a moving train right now . We need to gather ou rsel ves up an d gain some more momentum. We're also having a fuel-injection p roblem, having some problems finding the right curve. The engine to me feels like it's saying 'Feed me , feed me .', and this morning we found something - so I'm looking forward to going ou t in the p ra ctice th at ' s coming up. I d id a 57-fla t th is morning breaking in brake pads. I'm fairly confident we 'll be doing 56s later today, and perhaps get into the 55s or 54s with time. It's possible - I'm just trying to do the best job I can. Looking at the machine, the front tire is pattering quite a bit, scalloping you might call it. Now the word is that Harley has switched from Penske to Ohlins rear suspension. Are those two things related? I don't believe that we ' re switching to Ohlins. The Penske shock is d oing a very good job and we're ju st in the process of knowing th is shoc k. Some adjustments' make bigger changes than we thought and have sent us off track a few times. That's the only probl em with the Pensk e shock, just ge tting to know it. If they are going to go back to Ohlins in the rear, I don't think so. They were thinking of putting one on SO we could evalu ate to see where we're at with the Ohlins shock. The Penske is equal (to), if not better than, an Ohlins shock as far as materia ls and quality and as sembly g oes . I'm fa irly confid ent with the Penske shock - we're just ha ving some problems d ialing the s hock in . This mornin g w e had a problem because Steve mad e a little mistake and went the wrong wa y. We wanted less rebound, and got more rebound. It didn't work out well. We fixed that and now we're back to a set -up that's okay and we 'll just try to improve upon that. Do you feel as if you're under the microscope, everyone watching your every move? Not reall y, I'm really focused on what I'm doing and what we're tr ying to accomplish. I'm keeping the blinders up pr etty we ll and concerning myself with what we're doing as a tearn. The Ohlins shock thing and other rumors people come up and tell me, they really don't concern me . The one thing that does concern me is that they (Harley) do not lose their hunger to make the bike better, and I don't see that go ing away. Most of the negativity I heard or read came from when the bike was being tested . Testing is testing - we're not going to break any records, especiall y with the bike being brand new. I should say born, because each Harley is "born" in the shop. I think it is quite a big success for H-D to be here and to be doing as well as we are right now. What is Harley's plan? Is this a oneyear program, three-year program...? I'm not sure. Art Gompers could answer that question better than I. The way I understand it, at least, is that they are putting all their efforts into thi s year. One step at a time, one year at a time. They'll see the progress of this year and how well the team works and how everything went. I don 't see them stopping this year - unless we run into some major stumbling blocks - major stumbling blocks . I don't see that happening, and I don't think that the team will let that happen. They have poured their lives into this machine, and now it is out there. It's their baby, if you will. There is a lot of pride invol ved and I don 't think they will be so quick to drop the project. You'll be seeing the VR1000 for many years. What about you, do you have a multiyear deal with Harley? It's a one-year deal. We both wanted that. Where are they going to go internationally with this bike? Do you feel they'll ever race the World Superbike Championship? I'm trying to convince them to race the Eight Hours of Suzuka this year. Seriously, you can't be serious...? That's just completely my own opinion. I think it would be such an incredible media event - the air over at Suzuka is a complete circus . I'm basing my reasoning behind this, and the reason I'm mentioning it is because I feel we will be making so much progress, that we may even think of going there - especially now that it is superbike rules. Again, same thing; I don't think people would expect us to go there to win - just to have the bike there and race in the Eight Hours. That would really be quite an accomplishment for Harley. But I think I'm just daydreaming about that. I think they'd want to spend that time in the shop working on the bike. C\'

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