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/127661
---- ------~ ~ ~~ - - .~ ,' IN E V W' Guy Cooper T R IE Do you ha ve to train d iff e rentl y now? Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not a big tra in er . I do ha ve th e exercis e equi p- . men t - the b icycles and all that stuff but I'll only d o it on th e rainy days when I can 't ge t out on a bike. Sin ce I got the rod taken out of my leg, I feel a whole lot better than I have for the past few years. The whole time I had the rod in my leg it bothered me because it was too long an d the end of it dug into my muscle. Even a few days after I had it remov ed , I felt better th an I ha d the whole yea r with it in. Now I'm able to do all the things I enjoy. How much of an advantage are you r motocross and supercross skil\s when you take to the trails? / Well, you can take the supercross skills and thr ow them right out the window. (Laughs) I th ink my motocross skills pay off in the long ru n because yo u do hammer out real intense motos. Supercross, on th e othe r hand, is all liming and total jum ping. You need yo u r timing very little in off-road. It's totally differen t. Speeds are much higher and yo u only have to ride over the stuff one time. Your motocross riding style has alwa ys been a b it different from those of the other top riders... Well, I'm still a lot different than the top off-roa d gu ys. My feet come off the pegs a whole lot more than everyone else 's. At one race, Rodney Smith said that he was afraid to follow me. You won your first ma jor off-roa d race a t t h e O ca l a Gran d Na ti onal Cross C o u n try . D id y o u expect to win so ea rly? I hoped to do good, but I didn't expect to win. I think the reason I did well is because we did man y laps. Near the end of the day I started to pretend it was just a big mo tocros s track. The re's gonna be a lot of chances for me to prove myself this year. There' s yo u, Ty Da vis, Fred Andrews and Rodn e y Sm ith . Are fo rme r moto crossers the new b reed of offroader? I don't think we're necessarily the new breed , bu t what we are doin g is brin ging p op u la r names into the sport. Ty Davis grew up riding in Hesperia (California) , which is grea t (for) off-road riding, b e fo re he even b eca m e a top motocrosser. Fred and I grew up riding in the trees, hill climbing and jus t playing. Rodney is the same way - he grew up trail riding in Northern Californ ia. All of us have the same thing in common . After we made names for ourselves in su percross and motocross, we still have the desire for saddle time. And what bett er way or place to ge t more saddle time than off-road racing ? How do you thi nk the established offroaders, such as Scott Summers or Ran dy Hawkins, are dealing with the current flood of fo rmer MXers ? So far, I have go tte n nothing but good response fro m tho se guys. Th ey know that I'm not in it for the money, bu t for the fun. Here's an example. When I wo n at Ocala, people see tha t there's a ton of people racing - it's a Grand National, a two-and-a-half-hour race - but after I won I go t $140. You don't race off-road to ge t rich, yo u ra ce off-r oad because you love to ride. In motocro ss, you're always racin g for the big number one . c0 And you ge t paid big for that number ~ one . At the Teca te End uro, we rode all :-::: day hop ing to win a trophy. But it' s the l-< hardest-earned trophy you'll eve r win. 0.. Have you fou nd that off-road racing is more p hysically or mentally demanding than mot ocro ss? Ooh. Hmm. Well , they're two en tirely -< 8 different th ings. It's like compa ri ng apples to oranges. We 're on motorcycles, and we're in dirt, bu t that's where the si milarities end. Motocros s is intense, from the time the gate drops to t he ti me th e checkered flag wa ves . That's maybe 30 or 40 minutes . In offroad - well let's look at the Teca te End u ro, for exa mple - that took us six hours. Tha t's a lot of riding. They' re just two totally d iffe rent types of riding. Both are fun, and I think both are necessary for me to enjoy life. I like the range of riding that I can play with. At home, you ob viously spen d a great deal of time rid ing a w id e variety of machines. Yeah, I have four-stroke DRs, RMXs and RMs. I can go ride in the trees, ther e's r ocks, th ere's sand, a nd th e re ' s m y motocross an d su percross tracks. I'd say I hav e everything, well, excep t for highspeed riding areas . I have never in O klahoma done as m uch high-speed riding as I have in the past few months. Are the h igh speeds ha rd to adjust to? Yes, they are. If I try to go tha t fast in Oklahoma, I'd cras h into a rain ditch or something. I never ge t go ing th at fast around here. I w as really gun shy a t first. At Oc ala , there were some fast straights, and Danny Ha mel an d Ty Davis were just p innin g it. Th ey were going at leas t 20 mph faster than me. I wasn't p repared to go tha t fast, but I'm starting to ge t used to it. A cross country is a long race, whe reas end uros are events in which yo u comp ete against the clock. Which do you prefer? Ooh. Well, sin ce I'm not doi ng too man y mo tocross races , I guess I'm gonna need these cross country races to get my race fix - th e wide-open speeds. But I d o enjoy th e en duros where you have a compu ter and a roll chart, racing aga ins t yo ur own wits. Before th e start of the season, you were exp ected to compete in a few select ed supercros s rou nds, in clu di ng Daytona, but thus far you haven't, Why? 1994 Price List* 90088 CR $7,625 900888P $9,750 Ducati traditionat a more affordable price Classic design with real world funccionality £-900 M-900 $8,600 $8,950 T triple-purpose Paris-Dakar winner he New sport cruising standard thoroughbred 888 LTD 916 $13,600 Racing heritage in street clothes ~·= D~ . $14,500 The ultimate in Style • Sophistication • Performance "Manufacturer's suggested retail prices (U.S. dollars) for 1994 Ducati models , excluding destination charges, taxes , license , registration, dealer charges and options. Prices subject to change. See dealer for availabil ity. DUCAr. · STYLE • SOP HIST ICATION • PERFORMANCE Please ride responsibly - don 't rideunder the influence ot drugs or alcohol. Always wear proper protecliveriding gear. e 1994 Cagiva North America, Inc.