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/128245
Valentino Rossi's Honda RC211 V 'MPlVTH£ l ast y ea r about too sn atchy an d brusque a pickup getting back on the gas in lower gears, or th e st eps in the powerband higher up that in troduced me to the fear of fly ing at 14 0 mph, all resolved, Inde ed , Kanaum i & Co . w ent well beyond app lying st ic k ing plaster and improved the Honda's overall performance still more in the ba rgain, extracting half of the 30 -percen t poten tia l fo r further im provem ent HR C b o s se s h ad declared t he RC2 1 I V to have i n it at the end of it s titl e -winn ing deb ut season one year ago. Th is m ean s that, after m ak in g it two in a row in the same dominant style by winning 15 out of 16 races in 2003 (nine for Valentino, four for ex Suzuk i refugee Sete G ib ern au , and two for ex -Yamaha lead rider Max Biaggi; the latter two both switched to the Honda camp for 2003 , with pr edictable suc c ess ) . the RC21 1V st ill has room to de liv er another 15 per ce nt ext ra pe rform ance, say s Ka nau mi -san . Guess Val entino m ight have his wor k cut o ut for him as a Yamaha r id er nex t seaso n, try in g to bea t a bik e that ha s scor ed an inc redi ble 29 vict ories in th e 3 2 ra ces it has sta rte d in it s lifet im e! That impression was even stronge r after rid ing the RC2 11V just tw o days after a busy day at Val en ci a sp ent samp ling not only the M 1 Yamaha Biaggi left behind wh en he d efected t o Ho nda in 2003 , but a lso the still less c o m p et it i ve Kawasaki ZX -RR and th e Du cati D esmosedici , the one By ALA N C ATH CA RT PHOTOS BY K EL E DGE AND F RA N CES C M O NTER O • • , e all experience th ings that WW' reall y stand out as l an dm ark s in our lifetime, th ings that, if experienced once before, we look forwa rd for ages to repeating. Riding the Rep sol -sponsored RC211 V Ho nd a V5 on which Va le ntino Ro ssi su cc essfu ll y defen ded his MotoGP World crown in 2003 at B arc el o n a ' s C at a lu ny a GP c ircuit, j ust a couple of days after he signed off hi s career as a factor y Hond a rider wi th a convi ncing win at Val enci a on the very same bike, was , f or me, o ne o f th os e ex pe r iences one of the most satisfy ing and at th e same t im e rath er fru st rating ex periences of my life as a motorc ycl e test jo urnalist: sat isfying , be c a u se th e t h r i ll o f riding th e u ltima t e ra c er , whi ch I' d rev eled in do ing for the first time a .yea r ago (I had sampled it at Suzuk a and experienced a knee-high , fifth-gear. 140-mph power wh eelie for the fi rst time en route to acclaiming the Honda as the best bike of any kind I'd ever tested) got better still when I rode its successor in Spain ; frustrating. because Honda only fir ed up a sing le bike of the six present to allow the tw o dozen journalists pre sent at Catalunya to sample the V5 in turn , mean ing we were restric ted to j ust three laps each , so it was not a true te st , j u st a tantaliz ing taste of two-wheeled nirvana. From my lim it ed saddle t ime on the RC211 V, I can te ll yo u that further development of th e machine by pro ject lead er Sh ogo Kanaumi and hi s t eam of HRC engineers, using a typi ca lly pragmati c , rat io n al approach , a.k .a. the Ho nda Way, has resulted in a bike that is now literally beyond criticism. with th e few minor niggles I had 56 J ANUARY 7,2004' cue I e n e vv s EST bik e that did beat the Honda this year . Com pare d to the ot hers - ev en th e Italian spee d k in g o f t he MotoGP class - the H o n d a is , like the m , ex t rem el y po w er fu l and fast ; yet the fact that it feels so co m pletely refined i n p rac tical t e rm s i s what makes it so darned effective, a bike you feel has been developed without losing sight o f that all -important ingredient of being user -f riendly for th e rider - forgiving , even . and cer tainl y m ore rida ble than any o f its rivals. That's no doubt the reason tha t m en with such widely differ ing rid ing st y l es as Sete, Max and Val ent in o wer e all ab le to w in ra c es o n it th is season . and MotoGP neophyt es such as Nicky Hayden and Makoto Tam ada c o ul d make such a p o s it i v e impres sion by fin ishing on th e ro s trum in their deb ut season aboard th e V5 Honda. Rather than b ri stl ing wi t h exo t ic electroni c technology, some of w hi ch sometimes see ms t o b e th e re ju st because it can be , th e Hond a i s a bike y o u fe el has be en d ev el op ed according to innovative and far -sight- ed but essentially mechanical prin ci ples. The RC211 V feels to have been desig ned and developed as a very sophisticated motorcycle , not as a rolling comput er laboratory or a sm all -sc ale. two-wheeled fraction of a Formu la On e raci ng ca r. HRC engi neers appear never to have lost sigh t of the fact that they're cha rge d w ith producing a motorcycle t ha t is both pragmatic and practica l in its performan ce delivery. wh ich p rod u ce s unhe ard - o f po wer and a we so m e spe ed yet d o e s so in a w a y that allows a skilled rider t o m aster it as a matter of course , p rec isely bec aus e the re are no surp rises w ith it . I can honestly say th at t h is is th e most contro llab le and forgivin g 2 00- bhpplus m ot orcycl e I' ve yet had th e pri vi lege of rid ing, wi th the legendary l i n e ar resp o n se betwee n throttle hand and rea r t i r e a ll pr e se nt and c o rrec t - in sp ades. J us t li ke a ye a r ago at Suzuka , set t li ng m y sel f a board th e quit e broad Ro ssi h ot seat in th e Ca ta lunya p it lane - afte r the tea m of HRC m echa nics had fi red up the engi ne in second gear wit h a rear-wheel tro lley starter and it had settled to it s 1800-rpm idle speed (700 rpm slowe r than a yea r ago ) - had me thank ing the Ro ssi family genes that mad e him so tall and lan k y , so that the riding position of his bikes is so spa c ious - rangy, even - for a 6 -footer like myself. It's perfectl y tailored for th e taller ri der. so your kn ees tu ck tightl y int o the sid e of th e bike. allowing yo u to feel a part of it w ith ou t a lot of body weight on your arms , in turn making it rela tivel y easy to fli ck from side to side in esses or a c hicane . It do es feel longer than the other bikes, wh ile still sli m and ag ile : a perfect pa ckag e for the 2 40 -b hp t hresho ld of t he MotoGP worl d . Th e handleba rs a re slig htly m o r e dropp ed than on th e o t he r MotoGP bikes I'd been riding - proba bly a r efl ect ion of Valentino 's 125/2 50cc racing heritage, though