Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW 500cc World Champion Michael Doohan we lose out in other areas. The Honda's quite a ctifficult bike to ride. We're planning some work on the chassis and the suspension. There's not much progress, is there? I don't mean just Honda - they're ahead. It's everybody. The other people don't see'm to be catching up From 1985 to 1990, there were big jumps. Every year there was something new. But since 1991... we're still running a '91 chassis. A motorcycle is a motorcycle - fourcylinder 500s with a six-speed gearbox weighing 130 kg, (286 pounds) and that's it. We need to change the formula a bit or things aren't really going to improve that much. There'll have to be a big jump to make something different. That's what I'd like to see, now the manufacturers have the design rules in their hands. Take the weight back off it, and see if that doesn't help. The configuration we have at the moment, everybody's pretty much at the end of this avenue. At least this year we're seeing close racing again. You see the other guys out there - what's actually happened, in your opinion? It's closer in qualifying than in the racing. I think it's just more experience, and there are some young guys too. The tire feel is prelly good now, and they've made the bikes more ridable. That's why I'm thinking about the other engine for a jump forward, instead of making them easier to ride. That'll show the true colors of the other guys. There are still only a couple of guys who can keep the bike going to the full for 45 minutes in a race, whereas in qualifying for a lap or two it's been the closest I can remember. Who has impressed you this year? Apart from Criville, obviously. Ummmm - (long pause). Honestly, I think Kenny Roberts Jr., really. In a race situation. (Jean-Michel) Bayle's impressed me in qualifying, but qualifying doesn't impress me that much anyway. Sunday's the race, and Kenny hasn't really done much in qualifying, but in the race he's the one sitting there slogging it out lap after lap. To me, first year in - I think the guy's got quite a good future. You can tell he's pushing the bike out there. The Yamaha must be pretty good too, for these rookies to go like they do. That's what I'm saying about the Honda, about our motor being the strong point. I don't think the Yamaha motor's too bad at all, but the chassis side of it's quite good. If you have a look at Luca (Cadalora), his results on the Yamaha and the Honda have been about the same. The problem's mainly Luca, not the bike. (Norifumi) Abe's gone pretty well sometimes, and Bayle's done some tremendous stuff in qualifying. But in the race it's Kenny's pit board you see come out with yours, and that's impressed me. Have there been times in the year when you've seen how the Yamaha goes, arid wished you'd been on it regretted that the whole deal fell through? Yeah. (Laughs) Especially when you see them all up there in qualifying. You came dose to signing for Yamaha for this season, and also apparently for next year. What's the story there? Last year was Rainey and Kenny. We were talking figures and so on, and they couldn't come up with what the package was here (with Honda). It was financially better, mechanically better, politically better - the politics of what was happening down there weren't all that secure. Again, this year. In black and white, on the financial side of things, it was better here. So - I'll ask you the question. If you can change the magazine you write for for less money, are you going to do it? Th'at's fair. But if a lot of other people wanted ~e to - like people wanted to see you do it on something different... Well, yeah. But at the end of the day you've gotta be happy. I've got to be happy. I couldn't see... why go somewhere else on a gamble? I don't want it to corne across that it was just financial, but I don't want to take a step backwards just to prove to somebody else '"Hey, look how good I am." 1£ people think that it's only the motorcycle, they should come and ride a Honda. I'm here to be proved all wrong, but I don't need to go somewhere else to prove the status I've achieved. I've got no qualms with the negotiations we've had, but things basically broke down in the past. And this year, in black and white ... Honda actually shocked me with how much they wanted to keep me. And at the end of the day you've got to measure up - this is what we've got, and we don't 'really know what they've got. In the end, it looks better what I've got here. So in the end it was a clear decision. Easy to make. Yeah. It was Kenny (Roberts) who was talking with me all this year. It wasn't only financial. The contract... the legality side of it just didn't add up with me. I'm no lawyer, but when r received one, it was like - wow - there's a lot of things that are pretty weird in here. I felt that if they wanted me down there, perhaps we could do what we do her,e. Which is basically write our own contract. .. not only in our favor. It's a mutual agreement. But that was very one-sided, and I couldn't for the life of me see why I'd want to be involved in something like that. Kenny understood my position, and it was starting to drag out. Honda saw me at Paul Ricard. I honestly didn't think that they were going to come to the party with the financial figure. So I threw them a figure, then we had another meeting in Assen. And Shinozaki (of HRC) flew back to Japan the next day to see if everything was okay. And he flew back the following weekend to Germany, and said - here's the contract. Then Alex also signed within 10 minutes. Which surprised me a bit. He was obviously waiting to see what you'd do. I think at the back of his mind he was hoping I'd be leaving. But I'm happy how it worked out. I can't see that now in -my career Wayne or Kenny would come chasing me again, because there are people corning through who perhaps have more potential for the long term than I have - other than just having a big-name rider. So, without putting myself out of the shopping market, it'd probably be better for me to stay where I'm at. How's your leg been since the operation last year? Is there any more that needs to be done to it? It still bothers me a bit. Not so much when I'm ricting, but more in daily life. Mainly in standing up for a long time. And in the shoes I wear. I can't wear shoes like that because it bruises my foot. (Pointing at my tough-guy Timberlands. Doohan is wearing top-grade aircushioned and contoured running shoes.) I'll have surgery when I stop rac-' ing to help the foot relax. It's four years since that accident, and time has healed it a lot. It's not in a bad state. But when I stop racing, I'll need a bit more. How about your training? In the past I've done a lot of training on exercise bicycles and gym work. This year I've done quite a lot of bicycling road ricting. I think it's helped keep the motivation up, to push myself - broken the routine. Because every day I do something, and it gets a bit mundane, so cycling has helped. At least you can tum around and ride the other way down the road? Yeah, and you get a bit of a view. I don't want tq show up to ride the bike next year without preparing myself off the bike, because I know what it takes, and I want to be able to keep pushing myself. This year I found it harder, especially at the beginning, to push myself as hard as at the start of the other seasons to achieve that fitness leveL I was quite fit at the beginning of the year, but not as fit as at the start of the previous seasons. It wasn't until June or July that I really started training. So I was fj tter in the middle of the season this year, because the motivation picked up as the season progressed. By Barcelona (where the title was decided) I was pushing pretty hard, and in the past few weeks I've turned it off a bit. Obviously, I don't know how I'll go next year, l;lUt I'm confident I'll have the motivation to push myself. What are your plans for the off-season? We're having a bit of a party with a live band and so on the weekend after Eastern Creek. Then I'm off to Japan to race at Sugo, back to Australia for a three.day fishing trip up north; then I go to America to see the doctors and some people. Then I'm back in Europe for some sponsor things, and the FIM prize giving. You're going to show up this time? (No fan of black-tie celebrations, he famously didn't make the 1995 presentation in Las Vegas, and was disputing a hefty FIM fine.) (Laughs) All my intentions were to go last year. I'll show up this year. I don't know if I'll go the full ctistance (more laughter). Did you have to pay the fine for that? There's still some garbage going on. It's unbelievable. I think they misunderstood where I actually was. I was in some islands, 70 krn (45 miles) offshore, with the boat broken down. They've come back with some weather maps of an area about 700 krn (430 miles) from where I was. They seem to think I was within paddling ctistance of the airport. Now we know what picture they have in their minds, hopefully we can clear things up. Then I'm back to Australia, on a boat again for New Year's and so on. Then we start testing. Only in January? We've done all that before - testing in November and December, and basically 'no one wants to be there, and you don't get a lot done. (N I

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