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/128241
S O th e die is cast. Valen tin o Rossi t o o k my ad vice . H e wi ll go to Yama ha . Go od j ob , too . Now we will see what he's reall y m ade of. He seem s to sh a re m y o pi nio n - a nd that of most othe r peopl e except his closest rival s - that his compon ent parts are of th e ki nd o f ma ter ial t h at coul d make th e off-so ng Yam aha p lay victory anthem s. T he whole affair remain s as fasci nating now that we kn ow th e answer as it was before. There rem ains m uc h to swallow its pri de. T he second involves deep matters of Japanese etiquette. T h i s is not always fully comprehensible to us rude round -eyes, but one th ing is clea r: There is a strict hierarchy, and the junior member thereof treat s his sen iors with ritualized re spect. T h e sam e rules app ly amo ng commercia l Biaggi left H o nda f or Y a m a ha i n 1999. Hon da had Mick Do ohan , and it was tired of Bia ggi 's criticism s and was happy to l et h im go. ( For the same reaso n, B i a g g i w ill n o t get newly vacant top slot at Ho nda in 2004 .) It is, of co u rse, possib le that HRC ti red of Ro s si ' s ever -i ncreas i ng enterp rises, an d in th e motorcycle ind ust ry Hon da is unquestio na bly top stature , and th e co ncomit ant co ncl u- of the pile. Th erefore, in the normal co urse of eve nts it wo uld be o ut of th e qu esti on fo r Yama ha to poach one of it s riders. rath er t h an t he bik e . It m ay be an sion that i t is th e r ide r w ho w in s arroga nt v iew , but y ou c an see t he attraction in letting Ro ssi go, turning up th e w i c k ( it still has 15 to be unravell ed and a num - p ercent le f t i n it s V -fiv e , it ber of serious questions th at says) and be a t in g him. A s n eed an sw erin g. Just two of HR C p r e s i d e n t K an a zaw a th em are enough to exe rci se said ea rl ie r t h i s yea r w he n th e m ind . aske d wha t th ey wou ld do if Th e fi rst is ju st why Hond a Ro ss i l eft : "We will buil d a pu t up with suc h an extended better b i k e . A nd destroy p eri o d of humilia t ion fr o m a him." rider. I ca nnot rem ember any Perhap s, how ever, all this t im e in the past w here it has speculation is m isguided and t olerat ed being put abo ut for overco m plica ted . Maybe we month s o n end, b ut I re c all have beco me too used t o o ne of i t s emp l o y e e s f re - win-at-a ll-costs racing m ad - qu en t l y telli ng m e: " Rid er s men an d too accustomed to a re like l ight b ulb s . Wh en soft -so ap fli m -fla m from th e one ' s fin ished, y o u screw in a r m ie s of publ i c re la ti o ns anoth er o ne." goons who no wadays heav il y Is Rossi that d ifferen t? outnumber rid ers and almost Canva ssing op ini on com es outnumber m echan ics in th e up w ith diffe r e nt answers . GP paddocks . Ma yb e HRC reall y does think It ' s just p o s s ibl e th at he is that m u ch better t h an nobody c a n re cog niz e t h e e veryb ody e l se t hat it wa s truth any m o re. prepa red to tole rate it s face If th is is so, t he n let' s t ry to st art again. bein g rubb e d i n t he brow n Let' s beli ev e that th e rea- stuff. th e mighty son for all thi s rea ll y i s as Hond a Rac in g Corp oration stated at th e long- awai ted wa s unable t o ex p res s itsel f offi cial confirmati on at Valen - Or mayb e on th is matter. Ma yb e its hands (o r at Ju st too rud e. If it were th e other wa y imagine that. There i s only o ne party that can push HRC around . Its own er - the Honda Motor Company . We are led to around, of co u rse, it would be fi ne ... sp ortsman rather than a t ypical psy - as whe n Honda snatched Eddie Law - least its tongue ) we re tied. If yo u c an cho path . T hat he actuall y races just son back in 1989. So why and how has it happen ed? There are two poss ible answers. Th e Italy featuring Ross i boosted sales of fi r st is that th e ground rul es hav e c hanged; an d the c ommerc ia l reali ti es ha ve fi n ally prev ail ed. Yam ah a on e of the b ig H' s hatchbacks ve ry d esp eratel y ne ed s a winn in g rid er , sign ificantly in dee d . He m ay just be and i t i s p r epared t o b e r u de to Hond a to g et o ne . Th i s is a m aj o r br each of et iquette. Or, it all happen ed with Hond a' s co nnivance. A s happened when Max believ e th at a single ad c am pai gn in another light bulb, bu t if he's shifting that mu ch product, then maybe th e company big boss es firmly told HRC 'LO K/Nil O In an upcoming issue of Cycle News NOVEMBER 19 , 2 003 ' cu e for the fun of it, and all the money is j ust a bonus and th e ad ul ati o n j ust a nu isance. And that he w ill sim p ly enj oy th e challenge, eve n if it turns out that (as pre d icted by Yam ah a ride rs like Bia g gi and A lex Barros ) he doesn 't have a c ha nce in he ll of winn ing ra c es, let alone titles, on t he M I . For sure , it's going to be a lot of fun wat ching him try. Albany Arenacross O pener Italian World Supermoto .a";IlII B 88 ci a... tha t Ross i is first and foremost a I e n e vv s 30 YEARS AGO... NOVEM BER 2 7, 1973 A Honda streetbike ill~ sat astr ide a fuel pump d ur i n g th e g a so li n e shortage fo r th e co ver of Issue #46. Th e govern m en t forced a 15 gallon wee k ly limit on gas oline for each person, and w e a t Cti th ought it would be smart to point out how much more m ileage you could ge t out of 15 g allons o n a motorcycle than in a ca r... Th e Bay Area Racing Federation (or B .A .R.F . for short) held a motocross race in Dixon , Califomia, with Danny Tu rne r topping both th e 125 and 250cc Ex pert cl asses... In ou r Ne w Produ cts section , we rev iew ed the Hop Rod . The Hop Rod was a " h igh p erform ance pogo stick." It may have sold a few extra units just becau se of the woman we had p ogo ing for p ho tos. We also had a stuffed orangutan fro m the San Diego Zoo in the products page. Our suggestion was to do with it what the zoo does - "take one of the cri tters out of th e area wher e th ey'r e disa ppeari ng, pu t it beh ind a m oat, and let tou rists th ro w bread and bu rgers to it." !l1H q 20 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 3D, 1983 An arrival annou ncement for t he 1 984 Yamahas w as placed on the cover of Issue #46, in cl u di ng th e "u ltra- zoorny" FJ IIOO, whi ch was supposed t o be r eally f ast. Th e FJI IOO had a little brother, too , the FJ600, which look ed mu ch li ke th e 11 0 0 ... Federa l j udge A. Wallace Tashima denied an environm entalist lawsuit seeking to pre vent the Ba rstow t o Vegas desert race wi th barely a week to spa re befo re the scheduled start of the race ... T e am O nt a r io wo n the WERA /ND Nati on al Champions h ip E nd urance Ro ad Racing fina le at Road Atlanta, alt hough Team Hammer wo n the c ha m p ionshi p .. . Chu ck Guy and Jerry Greer successfully com pleted a road trip from L.A. to New York City using a total of 15 gallons of gas, averaging over 195 mpg in the ir streamliner motorcycle... Jim Holley (Yam) won the 250cc Pro clas s at the Ascot Nig ht MX Final. 10 YEARS AGO•.• NOVEMBER 2 4, 19 9 3 A whole sle w of dua l -sport machines sat o n t he cover of Issue #46 , our special Dua l- Sport Issue... The main story of the specia l issue was on Backroads A dventures' ride through th e Canadian Rockies . The c o ol est thing was , you c ould literally ride for hours through the Rocki es and never see another soul. A t many points . the ride rs were more than 70 miles from the neares t town... We also tested the Ka wasaki KLX650-C I , and although it was a litt le too st reet -oriented for our tas te , It was quite capable both on and off the ro ad ... Do ug Dubach (Yam) smoked bot h m otos on h is way to his first wi n at the Vet W orld Championships at Perris Raceway • in his first tr y . Th e 30yea r-o ld to ppe d Johnny O'Mara (Ha n) and Jeff Ward (Ka w) ... Sco tt Summers (Hon) won the Hare Scrambles Series fi na le in Wickenburg, Arizona , cl inching th e titl e along the way.