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/128208
30 YEARS AGO... APRIL 17, 1973 I t's just a couple\of days now before we know what ~appens to Ducati when it's on a level playing field. Either way, the answer will be fascinating. And the question won't go away. MotoGP will be one We tested the firstever Japanese trials bike, the Honda TL125, in Issue #14, and the cover featured our test rider pulling a standing-on·the·seat wheelie aboard the machine. We found the machine, released less than a year after the company's first two-stroke motocrosser, to be extremely agile and capable... We also rode the Bultaco 175 Alpina, which was touted as a middleground between a trials bike and an enduro machine. We found the bike to be tons of fun but couldn't figure out how to compete aboard it. .. Ray Topham (Cl) won the combined Expert class at the Corona April Fool's Grand Prix on his 250.., Debbie Lawler outdid her old dis· tance-jumping record of 75 feet by jumping 76 feet and clearing 11 Gremlins in the process. The teenage former fashjon model was starting her nationwide tour in Phoenix, Arizona, at the event. proving ground; World Superbikes are also becoming more so to the dominant Italians. Dukes are still the class act in World Superbike - especially that hugely fast 999 that took Neil Hodgson and Ruben Xaus into the distance in Australia (and didn't Neil do well under pressure). But Suzuki is showing the way for 1000cc fours, having taken a leap forward while Yamaha and Kawasaki slumber. And for a newborn, the bike has got some legs. It would be interesting to compare Suzuki's World Superbike and British Superbike prowess (and other GSXRIOOO wins) with its behind-thegame efforts in MotoGP. But that's a side issue. The question is Ducati, whose consummate skill in building a superlative racing Superbike is beyond question. Even when heavily favored by the rules and with the class becoming a Ducati Cup, the racing department never slackened. They pushed the game forward even while racing mainly against themselves. There is every evidence that the same ability translated directly into its MotoGP machine. The rules did it no favors, but its experience stood it in good stead. Ducati kicked its V-twin into a V-four, retained the same chassis technology (steel tubes rather than aluminum, but very vestigial) and came out of the box to set record lap and top speed times at the first meeting with the opposition at the Catalunya tests. Ducati's Superbike rivals - both national and international - are used to licking their wounds. The MotoGP mob not so. Yamaha and Honda both reacted by pouring gentle scorn on such trivial aspects of performance as top speed and lap times. Heavens above. That's not racing! Just wait... Well, we didn't have to wait very long, and now the first real race is just days away. Let's just say Ducati wins it. That, too, will be perforce dealt with glibly. "Suzuka is always different. Not typical. Anyway, it's just one race." 20 YEARS AGO... APRIL 20, 1983 But if Ducati carries on winning a few more, then the excuses will start to look very thin. All wild speculation, of course. Things don't happen like that. Brandnew bikes always have teething troubles. Loris Capirossi lacks the depth of Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi and maybe some others. Troy Bayliss is new to most of the circuits. Fairytale world for them to take over. But why I said earlier that Ducati's Suzuka result wouldn't really matter is that it has already put the wind up everybody else, just with what it has achieved so far. Maybe Yamaha and Honda can rely on some racing hiccups to help them defend their territory, but only for a while. In the long term, they're going to have to do something a little bit more proactive. Like make new and better bikes. There are already some paddock doubters as to whether this will ever be possible. They point to the Japanese system, compared with the Italian. Ducati has fewer people in its race department than Honda by perhaps a factor of five or more. But what it does have is a clear figurehead - Claudio Domenicale - and an In an upcoming Issue ", Cycle tIBws 124 APRIL 9, 2003' c u e I e n eVIl's equally clear chain of command through the engineers and team managers and so on. At every stage, there is somebody who has to stand up and take responsibility. And make decisions. The Japanese do things very differently. Honda's V-five and Yamaha's M 1 are each on their second project leader (or is it third), while anyone who has worked with a Japanese manufacturer knows how hard it can be to get quick decisions or to find people who have the authority to take responsibility. Instead, projects are run by committee, with endless meetings and a glacial response time. Obviously, this clashes with the more pragmatic Western way of doing things, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad system. All the Japanese manufacturers have gone through spells of being able to make it work very well indeed. It's just that, right now, applied to the business of making racing motorcycles, Ducati's way seems to be working rather better. We shall see. ,?oth very soon, and over the months and years to come. I wouldn't miss it for the world. eN Suzuka MotoGP Opener Fontana AMA SBK Pontiac SUpercross UtaII WORCS "The Little Profes· sor" David Bailey wore an open-face helmet and whipped his Honda across the cover of Issue #14 next to the headline "David Bailey, Classroom to class act." Bailey said that he has learned nothing from his teammate Bob Hannah but always to try, and he thought it was funny that he was a factory superstar and his father was still almost as famous as he was... Bob Hannah continued his rule over the motocross world at the AMA/Wrangler Super Series MX National at Saddleback, winning both 250cc motos. Rick Johnson (Yam) finished second, while David Bailey (Han) got third. Brae Glover (Yam) and Kent Howerton (Kaw) went 1·2 in the 500cc class, while Johnny O'Mara (Han) and Jeff Ward (Kaw) split mota wins in the 125cc class, with O'Mara getting the overall. 10 YEARS AGO... APRIL 14, 1993 Riders of the AMA National Championship Road Race Series race through Laguna Seca's corkscrew on the cover of Issue #14. Inside we previewed the AMA's upcoming appearance at the track ... Jeremy McGrath (Hon) beat Damon Bradshaw's previous record of five 250cc Supercross wins in a season by a rookie, winning his sixth race of the year in Charlotte, round 10 of the series. The race was in front of a sellout crowd of 24,612 fans at Memorial Stadium, and Jeff Emig (Yam) and Jeff Stanton (Hon) rounded out the podium. Doug Henry (Hon) won the 125cc main ahead of TIm Ferry (Yam) and Chad Pederson (Yam) ... Czech Jan Hrehor (Yam) topped the Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. GNCC/Hare Scrambles. Scott Plessinger (KTM) and Rodney Smith (Suz) rounded out the top three... Donny Schmit (Yam) won the Spanish 250cc MX GP with a 2-21 score. Greg Albertyn (Han) was second with a 1-4-2 score, while Trampas Parker (KTM) was third with a 6-1-3 score.