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/128313
By MICHAEL IN rHE PADDOCK SCOTT The Bad Pop ut your finger in yo ur mo uth (I' m as sum ing it isn' t there P Dunlop so quickly, after only a couple of seasons in the top class. The increasing frequency, however, is But, of course, it was a blow to the team , indicative of a trend. The fear is that the already operating without John Hopkins, The jibe refers to Dunlop's similar expe - vaulting power outputs of the latest-genera- who broke both his ankles in some supe r- Now pul l your finge r out , riences during the last season in AMA tion four-stroke racers have taken that cru- cross silliness a couple of weeks before. applying press ure to the inside Superb ike racing and esp ec ially at Daytona, cial step beyond and that the tires have fall- Suzuki has a lot of catching up to do , after already ). Close your lips tight. of one chee k. whe re Ben Spies had one pop earlier in If I've explained myself clearly, you've just the year, and Jason DiSalvo later, during made a sound rather like a champagne cork postseason tire tests. These had to be cut coming out of the bottle. short for fear that yet another repe tition of all. en over the edge in trying to follow. This might so und alarmist, but doi ng some researc h recently, I had occasion to And one can only imagine what it must do to a rider. Tucked be hind the screen, thrott led pinned open and the front wheel Or that 's wh at the poor Bridgestone tire the crash that made Barry Sheene famous ask both Dunlop and Michelin engineers technicians in Malaysia would prefer you to would make the experience rather too about another aspect of tires, to do with Big builds toward 200 mph... and suddenly all think. Because it also sounds rather like one commonp lace for comfort. Bang fi ring intervals. Both said the same hell breaks loose , and you're flying through of the ir rear tires going "pop." running lighter and lighter as the speed But exploding rear t ires are no joking thing, in their various Brummy and French the air toward an impact guaranteed to put It happened to Makoto Tamada at the matter. It's bad enough when they start accents : that t hey didn't have too much time your life in peril. first Sepang test, then again to Kenny chunking and throwing tread - like Valentino to think abou t that right now. All the tec h- In short, something need s to be do ne to Roberts Jr. last week , at very high speed , and Rossi's Michelin at Brno in 2002 . Qu ite nology and engineering effort was taken up reassure MotoGP and the heavier but hard- with potentially ruinous consequences. He another thing when they disintegrate so vio- with the task of just trying to contain t he ly slower Superbikes that this isn't going to almost took Jeremy McWilliams with him in lently that crashing is inevitable. Especially a spectacular cartwheeling explosion of bits since this is the sort of thing that tends to and pieces, and for a while there we re fears happen at the very highest speeds. become a trend, for the safety and comfort new levels of horsepower. In one way, then , Ro berts ' Sepang blow - of all. In America, where Dunlop started the up was a comfort. At least it suggests that that he might have been seriously hurt . It could be that these explosive moments Mercifullynot , and he should be back for the were just hiccups - somet hing that the tire the prototype Suzuki is delivering some real next tests in Australia this week. engineers will be able to fix without too ho rsepower at last. Inasmuch as being able much difficulty. Let's hope so, for the sake of to blow up a tire is a reliable measure of the riders. power. It prompted one wag to congratulate Bridgestone for having caught up with explosive ball ro lling, there are already calls to stop racing at Dayto na. Will we have to make t he same sort of calls for Sepang, where heat more than speed did in the Bridgesto nes? What MUST 8l GETTI#G I/SEP TD MOrO GP ~:::::::.-~--.:; PA'-' M£AN THIS LA,e FEELS MORf about Mugello, the track with the highest speed s of all - where Ca piro ssi topped 206 mph? Tha t's at a point where the fron t wheel actually leaves the MORE I..ICE PAY'rOHA. road over a cres t before slamming dow n again, to com- mence hard braking for the first comer. Not a good place for your rear tire to suffer sudden collapse syndrom e. It' s unthinkable that these tracks should be banned . The only alternative is to slow t he bikes down somehow. Smaller engines would be a good start. Or perhaps they cou ld switch to d iesel instead of pe trol. Or some ot her such ghastly not ion. Allthe more reason to wish the tire engineers the ve ry bes t of luck in so lving the problem sharpish. Not only for the riders, t hen, but also for the fans, and the w hole of eN racing, as well. WWW.cucIEnew".cn m ryr, ~ N~WC . .. " Dr ... ., ')fV"\A 117