Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

bit different than what makes Freddie go around the track and what made my dad go around the track." Spencer said the focus is to make the machine better and, therefore, the rider's job easier. "The goal is, okay, the bike works, these are the characteristics of the bike, this is how you're riding, this is how we can make the bike better so you can go consistently faster and easier," Spencer said. "That, more than anything, has made the difference with Kurtis. Sometimes it's just pointing out what as a rider you can do to make the bike work better. And then he understands better, too, what the bike's doing, and so, okay, if we make this change, this is what it feels like, and then you just see the confidence improve." The first thing Roberts and Hayden noticed with Spencer was his approach. Spencer doesn't tell you what to do. He makes observations; he makes suggestions; he's deferential. "He has a lot of mutual respect with us, I believe," Roberts said. "It's funny because you're sitting there saying, 'I'm here; tell me whatever the hell; don't worry about it.' But he's real worried; he's always real political about it. He's real worried that he doesn't step on your toes or anything. So it's gotten to the point that you say, 'Hey, look, I want to hear whatever you have to say, and the way I'm doing it now is the way I do it, but show me now and teach me.'" For his part, Spencer said, "The bottom line is, the most important thing for me is they have to understand what we're trying to accomplish or what my goal is in ways that it will help them." Spencer says he has a belief, and it goes back to working with Erv Kanemoto, of cause and effect: "You need to fix one thing for something else to get better," he said. Spencer's talent was singular, a prodigy who won his first 500cc World Championship at 21 and his second, and the 1985 250cc World Championship, two years later. Could he channel his approach into others? "Freddie [Spencerl seemed like he always had the ability to understand whatever equipment he had, and 1 think that's what you need," said Kanemoto, Spencer's friend and crew chief from the glory days. "Freddie was really good at understanding something in a short time, like learning racetracks and how to ride something and using things to their maximum advantage. If you do understand that, it doesn't matter if it's a minibike or a Superbike, you'll be able to utilize the thing to its best advantage." What makes Spencer understand how a motorcycle works is that he did much of the development work on the first Michelin radial tires. "I had ... to understand bike characteristics on every part of the corner because I had to be so aware to give information of front grip on every angle," Spencer said. "Those four or five years in there that I really improved and made such big jumps is when I did so much testing and learned how the bike works and how to be efficient and where the best feel was." In 2000, Kanemoto watched Roberts ride at Laguna Seca and saw potential. Then nothing really developed, and he didn't really grow, "and you could see that the way he was abusing stuff, he would have a problem." Kanemoto says that a rider with Spencer's experience can spot flaws in technique that riders may not consider. "The most obvious thing is like a dirt tracker and the guys who want to open the throttle and get the thing spinning, and they don't understand the tire," he said. "I think him working with someone or looking at them, you need to understand. ObViously, he [Freddie) could tell them what they need to do." Roberts said that the gaps among the top riders is incremental, just a few key points done right or wrong are the difference between winning and losing. "All those guys, Freddie and my dad, those guys, because of what they've done, can pick it out easier," he said. "And they might even bring up something that you do or open your mind up to something to try. It just gets you to thinking a little more." "The important thing is I know it will make a difference, but they almost need to try things in a certain order," Spencer said. "If we're struggling with the thing to get grip, one thing I'll see is bike positioning that comes from bike changing direction or something the rider qm do, their technique, their style. And I know if you fix this, the grip will get better because you'll be in a better position to accelerate. I know a rider's goal is to get on the throttle as soon as possible." Braking was Roberts' first piece of the puzzle. Always a hard braker, he had to learn to trail-brake deep into the corner. "Trail-braking and Freddie's way of riding a motorcycle is different than the way my dad did," Roberts said. "Freddie's always ridden Hondas, and he's got a good idea of how the Hondas work. It took me a long time to be that trusting on the front end on the brakes. It still does. It's still not instinctive." "If we back this up, we talk about Kurtis is riding the RC-51 and we say, with the rear wheel, but 1 still wasn't using a lot of throttle." Roberts Senior said he was riding the Honda XR 100 minibikes improperly. "The way me and Kenny [Junior) ride the minibikes or motocross bikes or road race bikes is the same, and Kurtis was just a notch off," Roberts the elder said. "I said to him at the end of last year, 'You ought to be able to keeping up with us now. You should make a step somehow.''' Watching him ride, Roberts Sr. said, "'Kurtis you can't do that, you're not going to be fast enough.' He worked on it, worked on it, then one day he woke up and went, 'God, you know, I'm doing this wrong.' So whether it was Freddie, and I'm sure Freddie's deal had a lot to do with it, he's still finding the position of what he needs to build. It's not done yet. It's the start of it." Hayden watched Roberts ride in Daytona and came away with a newfound respect. "I'd have to say, I was impressed with Kurtis," he said. "I didn't actually get to watch the race, but 1 was over on the infield watching some. I've got to admit he was riding good. I think a lot of it is maybe it's going to help him a lot not having me there just for some reason." Roberts didn't want to put too much pressure on himself at Daytona. "This just starts the season," he said prior to the 200. "I don't want to get wrapped up in winning Daytona because there's a lot of luck involved but a lot of skill involved also. But there is still luck involved, and there is at every race. But just to come here and win because you want to win and throwaway a championship is not a good thing in my book." Spencer says that Kurtis has a great attitude. "He's a smart kid, and he picks it up quick. He really did. From the standpoint that it makes sense, he goes out and tries it, and all the riders kind of approach it differently. Some may need more laps than others. Kurtis has a great attitude. One of the things I think Kurtis did a great job on was in the 200 when he ran off in the chicane. He had a problem getting the front wheel in; he just stayed focused and methodically made it back up to the front. " "Before 1 got here I said he's a different kid than he was two months ago," Roberts Sr. said. "And I think Freddie's schooling, the way they approached that deal clicked, and he moved it another point, moved it another point, moved it another point. His clock's turning a different way. All of a sudden it's turning the right way. He's really just scratching the surface because he needs to be the fastest guy every time he gets on that bike. But he's just now scratched the surface to start that to happen." eN specifically with that bike, a lot of the steering problems he was having and the struggle is the bike, midcorner and the balance of the bike and the way he's trying to accelerate, and he lost some races in not being able to pick up the throttle," Spencer said, adding that he thought it would be an adjustment. "I knew he'd struggle with it, and you could see at Daytona that it works." A happy throttle hand is what destroyed Roberts' rear tire at Daytona last year and caused numerous other problems. It's a common mistake among young riders, especially those with dirt track backgrounds, including Nicky Hayden. "That's one of the things I try to work on, smooth and trying to get traction," Hayden said. "I don't have it mastered by no means yet. I have a long ways to go." Hayden and Spencer share a particular talent, being able to compensate for changes in tires, machine, temperature and track conditions. "If we break it down, what the guys who win races do is they can run the fastest laps, lap after lap," Spencer said. "What does it take to be able to do that? One of the things is judging your speed and being able to adjust as tires go away, being able to change your lines." Roberts claims he wasn't any harder on the throttle than Hayden, but the telemetry says otherwise. Darin Marshall, HRC's data acquisition specialist, overlaid Robert's throttle action from Daytona 2002 and this year. In 2002 the graph would show Roberts whacking the throttle wide open out of the corners, then plateauing, the ink line drawing a mesa. This year the application is more gradual. "The pattern last year was more abrupt," Marshall said, adding that Hayden initially had the same problem. "This year is a lot more rolling on, a lot less aggressive. It's pretty consistent though all the hard accelerating corners." Spencer explained the number of factors that go into acceleration, "bike balance and where the weight is and position and where you begin to accelerate consistently. Let's say a specific corner, you get in one time, and you're going in and the weight's forward and one time the weight's more back. When you're getting ready to accelerate, it's going to be difficult to be consistent when you load the bike, when you accelerate, and a lot of it's feel." "Now I can ride the bike more consistent when the setup's bad because it's not so dependent on setup," Roberts said. "The problem 1 had was that I could do whatever the hell I wanted to for seven or eight laps, but when I melted the tires off, I couldn't get the thing to turn, and I'd turn it cue I u n e _ s • MARCH 26, 2003 41

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