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/128334
, I IN rHE PADDOCK By MICHAEL Scon For Comparison's Sake alfw ay thro ugh the season , and som e interesting trends are emergi ng. Lon g- t ime readers wi ll kn ow that I' ve a lways r e g arded G r a nds Pri x as t he se nior se ries, eve n in the World Superbike glory days of Carl Fogarty, whe n all of Britain was facing the ot her way. I've even been classe d (inco rrec tly) as an e ne my of the Supe rbi kes. N eve r mind . Event s have proven me right, you might agree . So I hate to tram ple over old grou nd, but it's time to have another loo k at the re lations hip between World Superbike and MotoGP. and specifically at the riders who have crossed the gulf. Logic dictate d that those making the sw itch from Super bikes wou ld be bett e r eq uipped for MotoGP than riders in the tr aditio nal trai ning gro und, the 2S0c c class. Rath e r surp risingly, this doesn't H seem to be so. This year, the opposite is true. The guys making the 990cc running are, without exceptio n, ex-2S0cc riders. Like Vale ntino Rossi and Max Biaggi, bot h forme r 2S0cc World Champions. T he big names fro m Superbikes - Champions Co lin Edwards, Troy Bayliss and Neil ~ Hodgson, by contrast , are all having a bit of a struggle. Hodgson, to be fair, is a class rookie on a year-o ld bike. A lot more was expected of the ot her tw o . Many (myse lf included) tipped Edwards for the title this year, o nce he jumped off the Aprilia and onto a Hond a not a full factory bike , true, but a sate llite model of the same status as Biaggi's and Sete Gibern au's . But Edwards is rather at sea . His legendary co nsiste ncy means he is fifth in the cham pionsh ip, but being cons iste ntly fifth o r worse means that he is a long way sho rt of the leaders. Bayliss made a fair fist of his first seaso n last yea r. T his year, w ith the pace hott e r and the Ducati no t as close to the Japanese bikes as last year, he 's way off. Four race crashes in eight races show just ho w tough he 's finding it. None of t he m have been w hile he's been parti cularly nea r the fro nt - in Germany he wasn't even in the top 10. I'd be de lighte d if e ither, to p ride rs and top blokes both, pro ved me wrong in the upcomi ng round at Do nington Park . But I wouldn't put mo ney on it. Edwards ' st ruggle is particu larly revealing. He tested ve ry fast preseason. Things went wrong ra pidly, w he n Miche lin brought out its new, fat rear tire. From th at time on, he has suffered almost incurable chatter pro blems. Surprisingly, it turned out that he was still using a front they' ve had to face and solve the same pro blem s. Having do ne so , they've set new qualifying, race and lap records at every trac k so far, exce pt w he n the weather prevented it. What th is suggests is simply this: that Edwards , for all his gifts and welldeserved status, is not as adaptable a rider as his GP peers. Bayliss likewise stuc k with the old 17inch front tire long after eve ryone e lse had switched to the 16.5. Now he has The guys making the 990cc running are, without exception, ex-250cc riders. fork he 'd used on his World Superbike for tw o years, his personal prefe renc e. A few races in he finally aba ndoned this fancy to use t he same stuff as the more successful Hon da riders. By then he was already be hind in understanding how to get the best out of unfamiliar eq uipment. All the othe r Michelin riders (i.e.: almo st everybody) use the same tires , so also joined the program. Like Edwards, he's behind the game in learn ing how to use equipment th at has brought better pe rform ance to his rivals. Is it fair to suggest again a lack of adap tab ility? Ruben Xaus has had a few goo d runs, th ough not at the last couple of ro unds. Younge r and less e mbedded. perhaps he's more open-mi nded than the ot he r two. If so , th is will serve him we ll in his future career. The weakness of the 250cc class is its irrelevance. No longe r does it lead direct ly to bigger-brothe r 500c c two-strokes. They're extinct . But it seems there is so me strength the re that might have been so mewhat undervalued . The 250s are proper racing bikes , in that they are fully adjustable in all chassis aspects, in geari ng, and in all th e things t hat make t he differ ence between a full racing prototype MotoGP bike and a (not much slower) pro duction-b ased Supe rbike. T he 250s teac h a rider how to learn in a way that Superbikes can't . It' s a hard judgment on the aforementioned ex-World Superbike men, but a rea l comfort to the likes of Chaz Davies, curre ntly bar e ly visible (thoug h doing rather we ll) in the midfield of a rathe r do wn-at-heel 250cc class. The old rules still apply, it see ms; racing a 250cc GP bike is the best train ing for GP success . And the Supe rbi kes o r Supe rsport 600s are n't. eN IT At-WAYS THf. SAME, you WAIT FOR fliER & T~EN TWO COMe ALONG TOGETHER... www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • JULY 28,2004 107