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/128353
, By SCOTT SCOO"ERMANIA ROUSSEAU Insight on Insite ike we editors do , we know that most Cycle News readers live and breathe the sport of motorcycle racing, and let me just say that you are our kind of folks! That be ing the case , not only are you loyal readers of our weekly rag, but you also log on to www.cyclene ws.co m for the latest up-to-the-minute info on your favorite sport. Love ya. And chances are that you take part in our weekly po ll surveys, known as Web Insite . To be ho nest , I can't eve n remem ber w hen we started this little gem of on line inte ractio n (and I'm the history guy on sta ff), but I can te ll you that I have always watche d the re sults inte ntly beca use the responses tell us a lot abo ut wha t you're th inking. See, I be lieve that Cycle News has always enjoyed a closer relationship with its readers than any other motorcycle publication , and the answe rs that yo u provide (well, we provide 'e m and you pick 'e m) give us a glimpse into your thoughts, hopes, stances on particula r issues, etc . Like the rest of the ed itors , I enjo y getting your points of view on the various issues that affect our sport, and Web Insite gives us all the chance to do just that . So, as this will probably be my last column of the yea r, I thought that I would take the time to skim back through the last 45 or so issues and remind you o f what you were thinking. L • Perhaps it 's best to start from the beginning, so in Issue # I of t his year, we asked you if, '~fte r a domina ting performance at Anaheim [I] on Saturd ay night, will Chad Reed run away with the rest of the AMA Supercross Series?" Of the I 73 I of you w ho responded in time for Issue # 2, the resu lt was a resounding 72.9 1 percent voting yes, wh ile 27.09 percent said no. Reed went o n to win 10 races to runnerup Kevin Windham's five wins. Yet Reed on ly won the title by nine points. Is that domination ? It cou ld be open for debate... • A week later, you weighed in on the Kevin Windham /David Vuillemin controversy at the Phoeni x Supercross, in Issue # 3, with 2810 of you re spon ding by an almost identical split - 77.26 percent to 22.70 percent - that the penalty doled out to Windham was too harsh . Windham 's points penalty was later reve rsed in an AMA appeal boa rd hearing. Good call. • Howeve r, the bulk of you missed on the Issue #4 question that asked how many races Valentino Ross i wou ld win on the Yamaha YZF-MI in his first season on the bike. Of the 1343 who respo nded , 55.4 7 percent said that "The Doctor" would pull in 4-7 wins, while 22.4 1 percent said that he would only manage two or three . T he crystal ball award w inners were the 13.03 percent who co rrectly said that Ros si wou ld land betw een eight and 12 w ins. (Rossi wo n nine times en route to another... yawn ... Mot oGP title .) You know wh o you are . Pat yourselves on the back. • With our thought s turn ing to Daytona and the co nstant deb ate that sw irls aro und the Dayto na 200, we chose Issue # I I to ask what sho uld be done to the Dayto na 200 to make it exciting again. O f 2066 respondents, 43.42 pe rce nt suggested that improve me nts be made to the trac k to reduce the risk of tire failures, while a rather hard-hearted 26.82 percent took the "just don't race there" op tion. Tallying in last place, 10.36 percent suggested tha t Superstoc k or Supers port should be the premium class fo r Dayto na only. Well, th is last grou p can take refuge with the majority, I suppose. The track and the class structure will be changed at the 2005 Daytona 200, when FX machines batt le it out on a rad ically revised track. We'll all have to wait and see how it turns out. • Y u also showe d that you could be o fair. In Issue # 12, we asked you if you thought that the NHRA shou ld make a rule change aimed at adjusting the performance of what appeared to be a runaway Screa min' Eagle Harley V-Rod Pro Stock bike . Of the 1383 resp onde nts, 47 .99 percent felt t hat the situ at ion shou ld be mo nitored longer befor e a decision was made , while 34.06 pe rcent we re in favor of adding we ight immed iate ly to offset the bike's huge displacement advantage . NH RA waited it out and then added we ight to the Harleys. Harley then wh ined about it publicly, but the te am went on to win the title anyway, so it's water under the bridge . • A whopping 4668 of you chimed in on Issue # 14's Web Insite, wh ich asked whether Ricky Carmichael wou ld kee p on winning afte r he made his move to Team Suzuki in 2005 , whether he wou ld struggle before regaining form or whether he would succumb to the proverbial "Suzuki dark cloud ." You overwhelmingly voted in favo r of R.C. , with 51.67 percent saying that he will keep right on winning. Of the rest, the 25.62 percent of you who figured that he'll tank ran just ahead of the 22.7 1 percent who believe he'll need time to figure out his RMs before getti ng back to winning ways. • Even more of you - 530 I to be exact - came online a week late r, expres sing a desire to see James "Bubba" Stewart o n a factory KTM (3 1.20 perce nt) or move to Hond a (25.28 percent) in 2005. Those of you who wanted to see Stewart remain with Kawasaki (25.28 pe rce nt) are getting yo ur wish. • The re were 3444 resp ondents when word got out that there might be a U.S. round of MotoGP com ing to America in 2005 . In Issue #2 1, we asked whether you would like to see the race happen at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama or Mazda Raceway LagunaSeca in 01' Cali. By the slimmest of margins, 50.93 to 49.07 , you voted for Barber. It's gonna happen at Laguna. Likethat Rolling Sto nes song goes , you can't always get what you want ... • In Issue #22, the dirt track savvy amo ng you , I 142 of them anyway, suggested that one man does not make a team and that factory Harley rider Rich King wo uld wi n again afte r 13-t ime championship-w inning tune r Bill Wern er retired midseas on. Almost 60 percen t o f you said that, wit h 19.35 perce nt of you de claring that the factory tea m was finished for good and 12.61 perce nt of you suggesting t hat any win by the team would be sheer luck. Since Werner retired , King has yet to sta nd on top of the box again. • The 4186 who responded to our AMA Na tiona l MX scenarios in Issue #24 showed that they believe in miracles . Some 45 pe rce nt believed that both R.C. and Bubba would win eve ry moto in thei r respective classes, although o f those who expressed a preference for one or the other to pull it off, only 7.91 percent voted for Carm ichae l - the guy who had done it before - while 19.85 percent figured it was Bubb a' s turn. www.cyclenews.com We all know how that Congratulat ions, Mr. Pe rfect! went . • In Issue #27, we showed that we were morons, completely capable of asking dumb questions, when we asked you which of the "unde rdog brands" in MotoGP would win a race first. The only two that we left out were Honda and Yamaha, but we left in Ducati, which had already won a MotoGP in its debu t season . But 60.21 percent of 3096 of you said Ducati, so unlike us, your hindsight do es not req uire contact lenses. • Ditto for when we have simply given you too many choices, as we did on more than a few occasions. W hen the lett e r de signations for the possible responses go past "M," and you can remember them all, you should probably be the designated driver. And your three beer buddies who all voted for the same thing will be the majority on the poll question. • After suggesting in var ious poll responses that you didn't care much for World Superbike, there were 1835 of you who cared enough to vote that Regis Laconi wou ld win the 2004 title. Just ove r 43 percent of you were in Laconi's corner, with 39.78 perce nt casting lots with Chris Vermeulen. No riyuki Haga got I 1.55 percent of the vote . James Toseland? The guy who won the title? He got 5. 12 percent. Blimey! • O ut of 5274 re plies to our Issue #45 question, "If you had a vote for Cycle News Rider of the Year, who would it be?", 38.85 pe rcent of you tho ught that Ricky Carmichael sho uld be our Ride r of the Y ear, while 36.03 percent of you said that Valentino Rossi should get the title. Will one of the se two be the man, or will you be surp rised to learn that it is someone else? You'll know in a couple weeks... Right or wrong, pop ular or unpopular, high or low, Cycle News Web Insite allows you , our loyal readers , to we igh in and give us your read on the motorcycle racing scene. Even more valuably, it gives us a read on you, and that's why we do it. So, thanks . We appreciate the Insite insight. eN CYCLE NEWS • DECEMBER 8, 2004 9S