a a
Doni
Pedroro's
new Hondo.
aoanish l,totocP rookie
Dani
Pedrosa
)iac"a
tr,e start of the
latest rtaSe
of his
career
under dre shadow
of
Max Bia88i.
With Honda still awaiting
its
new
garage
fur-
nifirre, Pedrosa still
had the
thostly
outline
of last
year's
Max
BiagSi stickers
on the wall
behind him.
Honda was
suffering
the delayed eflects
of Biaggi elsewfiere
as wEll...
Honda's system
uses
the works team
to
develop
new hardware
and that de\reloP-
ment Iorms the
basis
of th€ following
year's
satellite team
bikes, so
theoretically Marco
Melandri should
now
be riding a bike
the
same as that
used
at the end of last
year
by Biaggi and
Nicky
Hayden.
Honda
tries to
improve it5 bike each
year - ditto
for its tire supplier
Michelin.
Back
in 2004 both
Honda and
Michelin
improved
its
products, but when
the
two
wer€ finally
put toSether they
didn't
work so well. Chatter
was the
result and
it
took all
year
to re5olve
the
problem.
Just
looking at the
times
from the
recent Catalunfa
test in SPain
and it
looks as though they
may have
a repeat
of the same
problem. The truth, as
always, is a
bit more
complicated. The
first
problem is that Catalunya
will actu-
ally only be
raced on
in the heat of the
summer, with
the test
taking
Place
with
track temperatuaes
much lower than
what
will actualt
be seen a! the
race. The se
"
I
f'1J
l.ri
{
a
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F-'
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