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/128326
By MICHAEL IN 'FHE PADDOCK SCOTT Two Steps Back, One Step Forward. cing can be kind to headl ine writers. Every so o ften, bu t not too ofte n, it gives the m an opportunity to pull out an old avori te . This time, the favor cam e from those attractive and popular r e d bikes : " D uca t i Go Bac k to the Future." It happened the day after the French Gp, third race in the marque's second GP season. A season that has started a grea t deal less happily for the Bologna brigade than the first. Their first Desmosedici [last season1 made the rostrum at Suzuka in its first race, qualified o n the front row for the second, and took pole and seco nd grid posit ions at the third. It also won a race in its debut season. The 2004 Desmosedici has gained power and engineering over the winter, with engine and chassis both "upgraded." What it has not gained is any competitive edge. Both its riders , Capirossi and Bayliss, have been struggling, especially the latter, while a pair of ex-SBK class rookies Hodgson and Xaus have often as not been quicker than the factory men , riding their 2003 Desmosedici cast-offs. At Le Mans, team manager Livia Suppa revea led their e mergency plans. The day after the race, Capirossi and Bayliss wou ld be testing 2003 and 2004 Desmosed icis back to back. Rather than borrowing the d'Antin bikes of Hodgson and Xaus, they had two old machines specially built for the test. This was pur ely to gain information by the com parison. It was not, he insisted, with any view of switching back to last year's bikes. Well, we 'll have to see about that. If the old proves faster than the new, and this is distinctly possible, the n the riders and also the ir sponsor Marlboro will e xert considerable pressu re on Ducati to do just that . The facto ry might see it as a costly loss of face. But it can take comfort fro m some high-level precedents. In fact, all the factories can reca ll pulling old bikes out o f mot hballs after a "new improvement" turned ou t to be the other thing. One of the most notable such occurrences came from Yamaha. It was in R 1993, when it made a major step forward in chassis design, building its stiffest-ever frame and swingarm, attached to massively rigid front forks. This was in line with current thinking, that (as with racing cars) a stiff chassis gives engineers the scope for more accura te suspension tuning and ultimately better handling. Th is assumption was w ro ng, and Yamaha taught itself and motorcycling an important lesson. Since that time, a new holy grail emerged ... controlled flexibility . That took time, however. Back in 1993, defe nding triple World Cham pion Wayne Rainey was in se rious trouble, with a bike that chattered like crazy every time he leaned it ove r. Being Rainey, he still won the od d race . The epiphany came when the factory team sw allowed their pride . canned the clever new chassis and borrowed one of the ROC privateer frames, built under license to the pattern of the 1990 factory chassis, and significantly more flexible. Rainey wo n the next race and went on to regain the end o f the season . Hond a did it too, back in 1984, the year it introduced the V4 NSRSO That bike O. was notoriously too clever for its ow n good , an d halfway through the year Honda rushed the o ld three-cylinder NS500 to the German GP overnig ht. midway through practice. Fast Fredd ie started winning again, but it was too late to preve nt Eddie Lawson taking the title. Barry Sheene was another, ditching facto ry chassis both for his Yamaha and his en d- o f-career Suzuki, co mmissioni ng Harris Pe rformance to be nd some tu bes for him the old-fashioned way. Likewise (way back) even Mike Hailwoo d , when he was a factory Honda rider in the '60s. After famously th rowing Hond a's rear suspens ion unit into the Suzuka lake during tests, he commissioned a British chassis, made from the then-famou s Reyno lds 53 1 tu bing. Neithe r of these cases bore much fruit. Maybe the biggest back-to-the-future exe rcise of all was inspired by Honda's famous NR500 four-stroke of the '80s. As a race r, it was disastro us. As a har binger of future trends. it was way ahead of its time . The monocoque chassis may not have been the way to go, but it also had upsidedown front forks and smaller 16-inch wheels. It took racing convention years to catch up. which means that all the interve ning bikes we re throwbacks. So there sho uld be no shame fo r Ducati, if it does decide to go the mot hballs route and race last year's bike instead of the new. impro ved versio n. The re is afte r all an even more recent preceden t, from earlier this season, and from another Ducat i ride r. Frankie Chili was so disillusioned with his 999 Superbike Ducat i and its handling woes that he canned it. went to his local dealer, and bought a 998 instead . And won the race at Misano. eN points lead fro m rival Kevin Schwantz before su rffering a carreer -e nd ing crash before the www.cuciEnews.com CYCLE NE WS . JlINF? ?OO.d QQ