XRE-4
hasn't been left
behind by
what
their rivals
have been
working on both at
the racetrack
and in the dyno room.
Though it's certainly
more
potent
than
the
bike I rode
a
year
ago, and has
improved
handling, the XRE-2.3
still feels
slightly strangulated
at higher revs. which
in
turn impacts
on acceleration and
top
speed. But, Suzukj's engineers
hare
alread
shown
d|eir true
warth in dweloping such
a dominant superbike in
the GSX-R1000.
Don't
bet against them in
pulling
ofl a simi-
lar achievemert with the GSV-R.
HONDA RC?ITV:
TWO-TIME
LOs€RP
Rossi: eleven. Honda:
four - that
was the
score
for lYotoGP
2005, barring that
two-race cameo in the final
third of the
season
by the Capirossi/Ducati/Bridge-
stone
sideshow. And in a
year
when
their
former World
Champion reinforced
his
claim
to be the force that rnattered
in
winning races and World
Championships,
the Repsol
Honda factory
team of Max
Biaggi
and Niclv Hayden once
again had
to
play
second
fiddle in the
points
table to
their Team
Gresini satellite sister squad.
Even if, this time around, Telef6nica,/Movi-
star's
young pretendec
Marco
Melandri,
supplanted
Honda's
previous
best-of-the-
rest, Sete Gibernau, as
title runner-up.
But in losing
bike racing's most
presti-
gious
crovn in 2005 to its Yamaha
rivals
for the second
time in the MotoGP
era,
Honda had
even less consolation
than
when forfeiting the Riders
title first time
around,
in 2004. First, it
no longer o
