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/128373
MOTOGP BATTLE ONEHONDA V5. YAMAHA Riders come, and riders go - even Valentino Rossi and his band of hapless rivals. Rossi's famous crew chief Jerry Burgess is only half-joking when he describes Japanese engineers as regarding riders as "light bulbs. When one burns out, you screw in another." The riders get the glamor, but underlying the here-and-now fight, the battle between the factories has gone on for almost 50 years. Nowadays, it's mainly a Japanese civil war, with the odd insurgent. But it's no mob-handed scrap. It's Honda vs. the rest. Honda has always been the senior partner among the samurai warlords, ever since it first entered World Championship racing to develop its engineering and to prove itself to the world. That was at the Isle of Man TT in 1959. One year later, Suzuki first got Honda's permission before making its own TT debut. This deference was to become entrenched, and though soon afterward Yamaha fell out of bed with the tacit consortium of Japanese pioneers, even this act of independence was within the same framework. In terms of the top riders' championship, Honda took a long time to assert its position. Yamaha and Suzuki had control until I982, with Honda locked into an increasingly uncompetitive four-stroke loop. Then Freddie Spencer gave Honda its first two-stroke title, and since then Honda and Yamaha have swapped it back and forth, with Suzuki now and then getting a chance. That is until 1994, when Mick Doohan helped Honda take a virtual stranglehold. That's how it stayed, until Rossi jumped ship for 2004. The turncoat 32 I Preview Italian, plainly unwilling to be just a light bulb, planned one year to develop the Yamaha MI, then one to win the title in 2005 - Yamaha's 50th anniversary year. As we've seen, he spoiled that by winning the first time out. It was a double blow to Honda's corporate pride, which is in the custody of men with long race-department histories, men who have seen a lot of riders come and go. Current overall motor company president Takeo Fukui and present HRC managing director Satoru Horiike worked together on Honda's iIIstarred oval-piston four-stroke NRSOO back in the I980s. Not since the early '90s has Honda let Yamaha get away with winning more than once in a row. That makes 2005 a major battleground. Each is taking a different approach. In its second season without the best rider in the world, Honda has again resorted to engineering solutions. Its V-five has been the MotoGP standard-bearer since the beginning of the class. Test results have proved what HRC has always said - that there is more development left in an already dominant machine. And the light bulbs? As last year, HRC has strength in numbers and again chose experience over exuberance. Seasoned veteran Max Biaggi (197 GP starts) takes over from Alex Barros (241 starts) to head the six-strong ranks. HRC offiCially tips Biaggi to lead the development, but even before the season there were spats. At Australian tests, Sete Gibernau flounced off a day early, after HRC took his new chassis away and gave it to Biaggi instead. With these two experienced prima donnas, things can only get worse. And the backups? Nicky Hayden is ready to look for wins; Makoto Tamada has already found them. Marco Melandri is hungry enough, and Barros is also there. Plus there is the wild and willful Troy BayliSS. Seven riders set to steal points from one another. Yamaha, as always, has a lower-key effort: four bikes, two ridden by relative novices. It still holds the trump card, of course: The Rossinator. Having double World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards as his backup is a bonus, but almost-lifelong Ducati racer Ruben Xaus and ex-2S0 rookie Toni Elias are there to learn. Last year, Yamaha had a one-man army; this year, Rossi will have a close lieutenant. The probable result, all things remaining equal, is not hard to predict. APRIL 13, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS John Hopkins has shown in the oH season that the Suzuki could challenge for podiums this year. Hondas will win races, but the consistent Rossi will pile up wins and points for title number five. There's the potential for lots of things to go wrong, either way. There's the technical side, for one thing, and here Honda has upped the stakes. Even last year, the M I was the weaker bike - the best anybody else did on one in the championship was seventh. What can and what has Yamaha done to redress the balance? I spoke to project leader Masahiko Nakajima, a long-term worried face in the pits. Questions about motor development ran into the predictable blank wall when it came to detail - welcome to the increasingly paranoid secrecy of MotoGP. Nakajima gave a terse "no comment" when asked if Yamaha had changed the angle of the dangle on its asymmetrically timed "Long Bang" crankshaft. He was slightly more forthcoming in general terms. "Our target was to improve the engine performance, but without losing the rideability of the bike," Nakajima said. "We felt we already had a good balance between handling and agility, but to compete in MotoGP we still needed to improve some other areas, such as rear stability. That's why we built a new machine, and the first tests have told us that we are working in the right direction, even if we have lost a bit in other areas. It's a matter of finding the best possible compromise... The new MI is evolutionary but has an all-new motor, very compact. The chassis is also distinctly related to last year's. Rossi has the benefit now of last year's data and the ear of the factory engineers. But Nakajima says Yamaha will not just develop the bike solely for Rossi. "Yamaha follows and listens to the requests and needs of all four riders, although factory riders have priority on testing new parts," he said. "Valentino Rossi has always done a very good job of development, so we will continue to ask him to evaluate the new stuff. Colin [Edwards] will also test new things, and we will listen to his opinion as well." Time will tell. Edwards complained last year of being "the red-headed stepson" at Honda. Meanwhile, over at HRC, they have been polishing its jewel to make the RCV even more devastatingly effective. Electronics and internal engine modifications make the difference, and again details are secret - though HRC has revealed, rather tortuously, that the increase in power came as a side effect of other changes, intended to improve rideability. Early signs are that Honda is pretty much on the button. But there are doubts