INTERVIEW
COLIN EDWARDS
P96
MY BEST BIKE
WSBK: 2002
HONDA VTR SP-2
"Seriously, I never touched
it in '02. The SP-1 (the bike
Edwards used to win his first
world championship) was a
turd. I didn't like that bike. It
was stiff, chattered and spun
up everywhere. I kept telling
the Honda guys, 'I'm watching
Bayliss and his bike is twisting
and turning and that f**ker's
going away from me, and I'm
just going…' (Colin makes the
hand motion for spinning up
sideways.)
"So Honda – the boss at
Honda told me this story – they
bought a Ducati. They bought
one, tested it and it was exactly
50 percent weaker. Chassis,
flex… exactly 50 percent
weaker. Then they got to look
at Bayliss' bike, where it was
braced and stuff. And they
thought, 'Okay, we'll go 40
percent weaker because he's
probably gained 10 percent
on these couple things.' And
I tested it in Sugo, Japan in
2001. I think Bayliss and I
finished 12th and 13th that year.
But we went out there on the
Monday and tested the '02
bike, and we went exactly a
second faster, lap after lap after
lap. And it was like, 'Holy s**t.
Bring on 2002. Let's get it.'"
The 2002 Honda SP-2 and Edwards
embarked on a remarkable run of
form to take the WSBK title.
