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/128340
By MICHAEL IN rHE PADDOCK SCOTT The Naysayer n the week before the run-up to the British Grand Prix, I wondered in this column about why the former Superbike Champions seemed to be having trouble getting with the increased pace of this year's new powerup, speed-up MotoGP Championship. Was it, I mused , because their time at high-level World Superbike racing meant they'd missed out on learning the particuthe lar adaptability to machines, the subtleties of race -bike adjustments? Would their time have been better spe nt, as was that of Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi, Lori s Capirossi, et ai, on 2S0s? I wrote at the time that I'd be delighted if Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss could prove me wrong, and they promptly did so - more or less. Edwards had his best race of the year at Donington , show ing real class for a fine second . Bayliss was fifth, almost his best of the year. After the race , Edwards said: "To all the naysayers, f· · · you ." I learned only after the summer break, via a mutual friend, that he was actually talking to me . This did not spoil my enjoyment of his good result . I sincerely hope there will be many more. Nor did it make me anyth ing but disappointed when he fell back into his tire -chatter problems and finished seventh at the next round, at Brno. Likewise Bayliss, who was never anywhere in that race, and eventually fell off on spilled oil. Last year this latte r-day Kevin Schwantz was disputing the lead with Rossi at the same track . Whe re it all went wrong for me was the vehemence of the res ponse . As if I was a torturer. The hate mail was bad eno ugh - it was the accusations of treachery to all mot orcycling that really made me wonder. Do yo u have to be paranoid to wo rk in World Superbike racing? Why the inferiority complex? To be sure, there were some counterarguments to my 2S0cc theory. I am happy to reprise a couple of them. The strongest is that although today 's MotoGP fast men all did spend some 2SOcc time, they then spent more important time on SOOS, where they learned the same lessons as Superbike racers - nameIy, how to deal with a surp lus of horsepower. Fair point. I'll buy that. Another concerns the adjusta bility of a I 2S0, a thoroughbred racer, compared with a production-based Superbike. Irrelevant, say my critics, at least in the case of the Honda V-fIVe. The dominant MotoGP bike doesn't even have an adjustable steering-hea d angle, let alone swlngarrn-pivot position. You run it the way it comes from HRC. Well, this is not so clear-cut. All the other Grand Prix bikes are multi- make Superbike riders inferior. But it does rob them of a certain experience, and give them something extra to learn when they get to MotoG P. It's all nonsense anyway. There is no right and no wrong "training gro und" for MotoGP. These things change with the fashions. What remains the same is that World Cham pions are those riders with not only a respectable plicity. Riders had to be creative to find advantages in short heat races , and they had to learn to adapt instantly to the everchanging surface . So for a while, everybody took up flattracking - even such an incongruous novice as Alex Criville was seen to don the steel shoe, as though his juvenile years on a trials bike had been wasted, and only now would he see the light. Valentino Rossi finally put the lid on - that, coming up through mini-moto racing and go-karts where he obviously learned the same lessons, ab o ut understanding variables and adapting to surfacechanges , etc ., faster than the other guys did. But it will not escape your notice that there are many thousands of U.S. dirttrackers who never made any impact on GP racing at all. In the same way, (for some reason) none of today 's stars or wannabes are rushing off to do endless " The hate mail was bad enough it was the accusations of treachery to all motorcycling that r eally made me wonder." adjustable, some in ways you might never even think of (such as chassis-stiffness ratios). And even the st ick-in-the -mud Honda has a huge range of cho ices in terms of gearing, suspension settings and most especially tire choice . Let's be clear here: The truth is that MotoGP bikes have many more setting possibilities than Superbikes. This is not an opinion, nor in any way meant to be an insult - just a matter of fact. This doesn't amount of ability but who add boundless , overflow ing determination and application - no matter what kind of bikes they were riding when they developed these att ributes. It wasn't that lo ng ago, after all, that essential training for the top class, which at the time happened to be 500s, was U.S. dirt -tracking, an ostensibly simple sport (they only turn left) made hugely subtle and sophisticated by its very sirn- www.cyclenews.com miru -rnoto tra ining in the w inter. The training doesn 't matter. The talent does. No matter what kind of motorcycle you use to develop it. eN CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 8, 2004 9S