Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

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Use the subscription orderform elsewherein this issue of Cycle News, or send your order including payment (che money , ck, order, charge to VISA or Maste rcard) payable in U.S. funds, to: Cycle News, Inc. Attn: Circulation P.O. Box 498 Long Beach, CA 90801-0498 Phone (310) 427-7433 TOLL-FREE SUBSCRIPTION HORINE (800) 831-2220 24 hr. FAX order line r:;;; (310) 427-6685 l:! (chargeorders only, please) ing my bike and eve ryo ne else. I learn ed a lot abou t myself becau se you reach a point with brute force .that yo u can't force no more . You ca n o n ly tig hten something so tight, the n it snaps. So you stop learning. That's your wall of learning . So, actua lly, I learned how to ride a little bit using the rear brake. I'd alw ays heard peop le used the rear brake and I thou ght, Man, you' re crazy, you're stu pi d . W ha t are you doing? And I wo uldn't use it in every corner. Im med iately whe n yo u use the rear brake you ge t hard -head ed an d say, I'm going to use .it every corner. I'm going to stomp it, too. You 've go t to be subtle with it." In the race, Smit h fou nd himself near the front of the field for the first time all year, co ntesting fourth, a long wit h Muzzy Kawasaki 's Ti ger Sohwa a nd Van ce & H in e s Ya m ah a ' s Coli n Edwards II. He beat them to the flag and came to an importan t realization in the race: "Tha t's the way I've got to ride it," he said. _ Again at Mid-O hio he qua lified ninth and was runni ng fourth w hen he cr ashed, a victim of his own bad li re choice. But thi ngs were picking up and at Braine rd he fi nally le d the r a ce, thou gh jus t briefly. He was first slowed by a h ole in h is ex ha ust pipe, th en a front wh eel weigh t ca me off wh ile he w as leading . For the second race in a row he did n't finish . Th e nex t race he wo uldn' t start . That was at Sears Point , and he was still banged up fro m' crashing th e 600 ear lier in the day. The fina l race would be a t Ro ad Atlanta, someth ing of a home track, where h e again qualified ninth, and finished sixth in the race. He finished the season eigh th overall. Th en the phone starte d ringi ng . Honda and Yamaha and Kawasaki and Ducati called and he was somewhat surprised. "I think I know how to ride as good as anybody. But I didn't know wh at they thought," Sm ith said. He wanted to join the Ferr acci team, but told h is m anager Tom Sheehy to make the best dea l possi ble if that didn't happen. The n he wen t elk huntin g up in the mountains . When he came down he was a member of the Ferracci team and when he go t to Daytona for a test he reinforced his belief that he'd made the right choice. "I didn't know tha t -Ferracci was tha t laid back," Smith said. "Every team tha t I've been on, excep t for when I fir s t started racing, I do n't know why, but I felt ki nd o f like on edge. And every team that I rode for, I guess that I had to prove myself. But I do n't know if it was the team or if it was me, you know, tha t caused tha t, because I have adjus ted my personal se lf. But I don 't feel th at any more. " Hi s first impres si on of th e Du cati was that it had a lot of poten tial and that he need ed to learn to ride it differ entl y than he had the Honda. "I gu ess I rode it like Mike Smith rid es, which means I push it pretty hard so met imes and yo u have to back off and try to flow wit h it. "I like it to be balanced so I can slide both wheels. I like to be ab le to go in and tu rn in hard on the brakes. I like to ride on the edge and to ride on the ed ge it needs to be balanced. Not front-heavy or rea r-heavy, jus t ev en . I don't. min d m uscling it, I can m uscle it to make it run quicker . If you can go up to the cor ner, and it's balan ce and go, sna p, an d 'almost jerk the han dl ebars out. of it and it'll lay over on its side, steady, an d just be bu rning rubber. . "The Honda was hard, the front end d idn' t have a lot of feedback in it until we got working on the geomet ry. This one h ere, ' t works pre tt y good, b u t we've go t a lot of wo rk to do to get it to where it's evened up . It's not right yet. Once we get it balanced it' s going to be goo d b e cau se of the way i t m a k es power : I' ll be ab le to see the p owe r delivery a lot be tter," Smith sa id . Ultimately, Smith said the key will be finding the sub tleties. "The su b tleties is the edge. It's the edge of the s harp kitchen knife when you' re cleaning it. You don't wan t to find it too quick," he said . A tw o -d a y test at D ayton a is n't enough to fin d th e edge and he:s not going to pu sh it. "Th is is the way I' m going to do it and this is the way I want to do it and that is to do it slo wly . Ge t my fee t on the ground nice and solid and then , because I know I've got th e energy, slide it and push." Bu t t ha t same tw o-d a y tes t was enough to instill a great deal of confi dence. Can you win the Daytona 200? he is asked. " I've got some of the be s t cha nces th at we ' ve ever ha d . I' d say we've go t a real goo d chance of going to Day tona an d winning ." The confidence comes from "jus t the way it happens slowly and it happens definitely, it doesn't hap.pen by cha nce. And we may no t wi n the Dayton a 200 and if we do, th a I' s good, a n d if we do n' t hey, that's fine, too. Of cou rse, you wa nt to win Daytona - you wa nt to wi n all of them . Daytona 's good, but what we wan t is to get the mo st ou t of wha t we've gal. If I can do that and don 't win, thE I can' t help it. As lon g as I can get m the most out of what we've gal. If I step back and look at it, if I get the most out of what's ava ilab le then I'm going to do goo d ." 1:X

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