Cycle News

Cycle News 2022 Issue 37 September 13

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 13, 2022 P123 after yet another double-crash weekend at Misano, he is only too pleased to escape back to KTM. Pol, a former Moto2 World Champion, took a single top- three at the end of his first year, and one more at the start of 2022, before a frightful season of pain, disappointment, and a battle to get into the points at all. They shared Marc Marquez as a teammate, and even now after three years of injury the contrast could not be greater. Marc has missed eight out of 14 2022 races but is still the top-scoring Honda rider. Joan Mir is that latest to venture onto the razor's edge, signing up as Marc's teammate for next year. Is he rescuing his career after being dumped by the departing Suzuki, or will he, too, fall victim to the curse of the poisoned chalice? The 25-year-old Spaniard was an immaculate Moto3 Champion in 2017, a Moto2 podium regular in 2018, then straight into Mo- toGP, where he won the title in his second year. His reputation is equally im- maculate, if slightly tarnished by crashes this season. Mir is known for a calm and intelligent approach, and a tire-saving tech- nique that sees him stronger in the later stages of a race. Improvements to the Honda are increasingly urgent, and there were some surprises at the two days of tests after the Misano GP. One was that Marc Marquez was present, after an operation and 100 days away, and going pretty well. Placed 13th overall and top Honda rider. The other was not that a 2023 bike turned up, as had been rumored (Repsol's Espargaro ran basically the bike on which he started the year with a solitary strong third at Qatar), but that two obvious changes were very much out of character. Not only had the determinedly independent-minded HRC produced some aerodynamics that closely echoed Aprilia. More surprising still was an aluminum swingarm replacing the usual carbon-fiber unit—and reportedly (according to German-language website Speedweek) made for Honda by Kalex, the German chassis outfit that supplies al- most the entire Moto2 grid. For HRC to be seeking new solutions is not surprising, after their dire 2022 season. But for them to be buying technology from outside is almost unprec- edented. In any case, the troublesome RC213V should be at least on the way back to full strength. Marquez will be in the same con- dition even sooner. His on-track return might even happen at next weekend's Aragon GP. But whatever Honda man- ages, Mir is joining a team still digging itself out of a hole. Will the progress and Marc's return help turn things around for the new boy? Mir's strength has been smooth riding on the inline- four Suzuki. The Honda, like the other fast-but-clumsy V4s, means he will have to revise his style completely, and ride to the bike's strengths rather than his own, something even Rossi found difficult when he made the same move to Ducati. Furthermore, during Marc's triumphant tenure, the Honda has become increasingly a one- rider bike. The chance didn't come about, but Mir might spend the next two years regretting that he didn't get to move to Yamaha. He might have proved the only rider other than Quartararo able to win races on the Suzuki-like M1. CN Is he rescuing his career after being dumped by the departing Suzuki, or will he, too, fall victim to the curse of the poisoned chalice?

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