IN
THE
WIND
P26
HAYDEN TALKS RC213V-RS
A
fter a disappointing 2014
season plagued with in-
jury and an underpowered Mo-
toGP production racer, Nicky
Hayden was looking forward
to a new start in 2015 aboard
Honda's new production racer—
the RC213V-RS. Hayden finally
got that start on the final day of
testing in Valencia, Spain. The
former World Champion ended
the day 13th and 1.2 seconds off
of leader Marc Marquez on the
2014 prototype Honda.
"Actually the gap to the front
is not unbelievably far," Hayden
said. "But there is just a lot
of guys in there, so the posi-
tion looks bad. I enjoyed riding
this bike more. Sure, the top
speed's better, [and] we hope it
can still get better because we
closed the gap, but it's still 11
mph down. So that's still a pretty
big number that's only going to
get bigger at bigger tracks. But
I'm glad we did get to test here.
Thanks to HRC for bringing us at
least one bike."
Last year's expectations of the
production Honda were optimis-
tic but fell short when it turned
out to be down on top speed
compared to the prototypes.
Honda's latest iteration with the
pneumatic valves is much more
like what people expected from
the production racer.
"You know this bike would've
been great this year, but looks
like a lot of guys have improved
already," Hayden said. "Hope-
fully they got some information
and can improve even more in
Malaysia."
As far as adjusting to the new
bike, Hayden said it was easy
because it was very similar to the
production Honda he had been
riding all year.
"The ride position, it's very
similar to the bike I had, just
some more power," Hayden
said.
Hayden went on to explain
what the pneumatic-valved pro-
duction Honda's power was like.
"It wanted to wheelie a little bit
further down the straight away,
but it's not an aggressive engine.
It's a Honda and it's got more
power. I was a little worried af-
ter riding this production bike all
year it might feel like, oh god, in-
credible to try and control it. But
the power is pretty smooth. The
thing I like is that it has a wider
power. So it's actually in some
ways easier to control."
Andrea Wilson
Nicky Hayden got his turn on the
Honda's new production racer —the
RC213V-RS—on the final day of
testing at Valencia.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
