What if?

Well the '50s and '60s bikes were for sure much slower than today's rides
and of course they were all 4-strokes, but they were also much much more
difficult to control not just than today's 4-strokes but also than the '80s
and '90s champions of Julian's list. Also, while all the riders in the
Roberts-Doohan period used to race their GPs on tracks, the guys in the
Duke-Ago era rode a lot on road circuits, where apart from the much higher
life risk, the tarmac conditions were much worst and the tires were very
far from nowadays, managing to have a good grip with those tires on that
road tarmac is a task much more difficult than anything more recent riders
had to deal with.
And the guts. It is still a factor nowadays, Katoh's tragic death reminded
it to us all. But can you compare it with the times in which some riders
died almost at any GP? For instance, in 1951, 6 of the top Italian bikers
died in about 3 months, including reigning 250s World Champion Dario
Ambrosini. And in the early '70s riders were still falling like flies in
trap road races like Opatja's. Roberts and his followers were also lucky
enough to arrive in the WC when things were finally changing for better in
terms of riders safety.

 

Nothing against KRSR, but I don't think you're giving Rossi enough
credit. In Faster, Burgess said that when he first started working with
Rossi that he knew Rossi had been well trained during his formidable
racing years. This seems to indicate that Rossi has a very good
understanding of how the bike works, how to make it better, and most
importantly, communicating with the engineers in a useful way.

After watching Faster this past weekend with my friend, we sort of came
to the conclusion that Rossi on talent alone isn't a second a lap faster
than everybody else. He just prepares half a second per lap better than
everybody else. That is, he's so professional and so well prepared that
he doesn't put himself at a disadvantage. We see the exact same thing
with Michael Schumacher in F1. As the infamous basketball coach Bobby
Knight puts it, "The will to win isn't as important as the will to
prepare to win." What sets the champions apart from the fast riders is
the will to prepare because everybody in the paddock has the will to
win.

 

Quite agree.
Rossi is as charismatic and popular as Barry Sheene was. He brings something
more to our favorite sport. If you go on any European GP you will see half
of the crowd with Rossi color . Every Honda dealer sell the Rossi cap or
T-shirt. As will do now Yamaha.
On the sport side it is always a quite stupid exercise trying to compare
different champion from different era but just look at his palmares and
remember he's only 24. For me only Roberts hit the top as he created the
modern era.

 

Is that to-stroke vs four-stroke thing really an issue at all? I mean, yes,
mr. "I'm the fastest" sqid going from one to the other would lock up the
rear on a big V-twin or go straight forward into his first turn on a small 2
stroke but tallented guys with so much "feel" should not have much of a
problem?
I found going from a Honda V-twin 996 to an Aprilia 250 quite easy. A few
laps and I was only consentrating on finding the maximum powerband. Even
doing a step in at an endurance race on a 600 a couple of years later never
bothered me at all. There were other issues with the behaviour that were
more troublesome than weight and power. Sure, to race at top level it takes
more but non the less.... Can't help thinking that the any guys failure in
trasition is just another bad excuse for not delivering.

/MBE

 

Aha! Just like 'Oilwood!

--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

 

When you look at results over the years, I don't think 2 stroke vs 4
stroke experience has much to do with it. Some riders have the ability
to adapt and some don't. Adaptation is required constantly as
technology evolves and the difference in the characteristics between 2
and 4 strokes is fairly minor by comparison. The ones who can do it;
we all know their names.

Roberts (SR) credits his mile dirt track experience for the change he
made in GP racing. Nobody in Europe steered with the throttle before
him, now everyone does. I don't know how long he did this, but toward
the end of his career he was teaching some of the European riders on
his ranch using 100 CC dirt bikes, how to slide the front wheel and
steer with the throttle. One needs very good tires for this in road
racing and when he first went to the GPs he had Goodyear in tow
willing to do the R&D build him whatever the hell he wanted. Goodyear
said, at the time, that he was the only rider in the business that
could immediately find the limit on anything they could come up with
and ride right on it all day.

Bill Smith