Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I wouldn't say do fIVe years in Supers. I've done it. My personal preference would be do a few years in 250, maybe one or two In Superblke to get the feel of some ho~r, and then come to MotoGP. I think It's difficult to come from a 250 direct to a grand prix bike. I think the guys like [Andrea] Dovizioso and [Dani] Pedrosa, Uorge] Lorenzo and [Casey] Stoner... they've got enough talent that they don't need the Superbike. Maybe they'll take a year or two to adapt, but they'll be fine. But a year or two in Superbike wouldn't be bad for 'em, anyway, to get used to spinning it up out of every comer, learn to deal with it. How do you stand with the future? I can't tell you everything that's in my contract, but Iwill say if I'm in the top fIVe, I'm here for sure next year. If I'm not, we'll see. That's what's written in the contract. But it's looking good. I ... like seven, nine, 10 kilometers. I was like: "How in the hell is that possible?" I wasn't understanding. It wasn't until I started braking a bit earlier and letting the brake off earlier that I got the Idea. Yeah, you adapt. You do what the bike will let you do. That's real momentum riding. Isn't that getting back to what you prefer? Superbikes were momentum bikes because they were just so big and heavy. You couldn't go in and stop 'em, because it'd kill everything. So you had to carry some momentum. But for me, this is even more like a 250. You have less weight again. For me, my biggest problem with Grand Prix is I spent too long in Superbikes. Superbikes are so heavy that over a period of time, you get accustomed to a certain amount of force in a corner, force on the front. You know that's the limit; if you go any more, it's going to go away. All of a sudden you corne here on a Grand Prix bike and you've got 30 percent more force on your body, but you're stiM in the old ways. You've done It so long. then you go in and realize, "I can go in so much deeper and carry more force in the front and the rear." Through testing. we developed a lot, and now I'm carrying more corner speed again. It seems, at least until recently, that the exSuperblke riden • yourself, Troy Bayliss, Nicky Hayden, Ruben Xaus • have had trouble adapting to MotoGp, while [Marco] Melandri, for example, found It easier. How would you advise a young rider aiming for MotoGP: to do five yean In Superblkes, or to corne through 25051 30 AUGUST 24,2005 • CYCLE NEWS And how many more years do you see yourself racing? My goal, when I began racing, was obviously to go GP at an earlier age... 500s. I thought then that 32, 33 was a limit. To begin with, I thought it was because you're getting a bit older and your reflexes are getting a bit slower. [Wayne] Rainey, [Mick] Doohan, some of the guys have had big crashes at that age. Then I realized it's not that. You spend so much time on the one certain bike that you get overconfident. That confidence factor comes in and you start playing around. You think that you own the machine, but the machine will bite your ass. But I think the bikes, with all the electronics they've added now, it's added at least a couple of years. I mean, you don't Edwards with get any of the snap highsides now 2-yeor-old like you used to. That alone in ~r cle. itself has added a couple of years to the life of a grand prix racer. Won't that be different again when the new 800s come? Yeah, but you know, we're still gonna go faster. If you ask me, that's not gonna do much. We can't use the horsepower we got. Once you hit fourth gear, then you have power, but in the first three gears it's all managed, taking away power, just to keep the thing on the ground. The electronics, the management and all the shit nowadays we have on the bikes, what we're doing now is paving the way. We're still in the beginning. But I think after 28, 30 years of whatever, dealing with this [makes throttle movement with his right hand], everything you have is in your right wrist. And then they take that out of your hands and put it into the electronics, where it's thinking for you and managing a bit of wheel spin and wheelie control and all that. It's really quite difficult to get away from this [makes throttle movement again] when you've been doing It for so long. To trust something else... It's not easy. But the younger I'JYS coming up are .,.,. to benefit Immensely. Who we're paYing the way for Is them. Those guys are going to I"t on it and go. Do you find the electronics a bit of a blIrrier between you and the blkel If you'd asked me this two years ago with the Aprilia, I'd have said definitely. That felt like something was not connected. Last year's Honda system was not nearly as advanced as the Yamaha system, if you ask me. It Is a flne line between who has control and to make sure the rider has enough control to understand what's happening, whereas if you wanted you could just dial all the dials up and have automatic whatever. But you still have to leave some to the rider. I guess a really advanced system, you wouldn't even feel It working. Exactly - Yamaha's Is like that. You can get away with some stuff with the Yamaha. At Le Mans In practice, I had a big tankslapper. If the Yamaha wasn't where It is now, I'd definitely have gone down the highway, big time. The electronics definitely helped out. Talking about developing riding habits, do you use the back brake? Just to settle the front. I don't use It going in, like under hard braking. If I get in way too deep and my eyes are bulging out of my head, I might grab a little, but that doesn't happen that often. Basically, as you're releasing the front brake you keep a bit of pressure on the rear, just to keep the front loaded. That's the only time I use it... and a little bit to stop wheelies, exiting the comer, just dabbing at it. Do you still blip the throttle on downshifts? Still do. Don't need to, it's just an old habit of driving the bike, boom boom. If you get In super hot, sometimes you don't bother. But it's just a habit. A lot of this stuff is just habit, old habit. Here's a question that always gets Interesting answers: On talent alone, who are the top fIVe riders you've been with on the track? Just raw natural talent? Valentino is definitely number one. [Noriyuki] Haga. I've got a lot of respect for Haga. Anthony Gobert's definitely on the list. Just can't control the talent, but the talent was good. Bayliss, without a doubt. And after that I would say... I rode with Eddie Lawson in 1992, 1993. He'd definitely be on the list. I'm surprised you don't put more current MotoGP riders there - like [Max] Blaggi or [Shlnya] Nakano. I know what raw natural talent is. To see it on the track, and you see some things people do and what they get away with, and you think, "Wow, how the f-k did you get away with that?" When you see that, the guy's definitely got something. Those are my picks, whatever order you want to put them in. GI

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