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AMA-SX
webb<br />
spinner<br />
Two in the last two for Cooper Webb who has opened<br />
a few eyes with a startling opening to his Red Bull<br />
KTM career. Miles still to go in AMA Supercross (and<br />
with reigning champ Jason Anderson already on the<br />
injury list) and the ‘big shots’ still have to show their<br />
hand...but the series has a new challenger already<br />
Photo by KTM/Cudby
RALLY<br />
1,<br />
2,<br />
3...<br />
Toby Price’s second<br />
Dakar victory came<br />
against the odds and<br />
in defiance of injury<br />
but there was no<br />
surprise whatsoever<br />
that KTM ruled the<br />
toughest race in the<br />
world for the 18th<br />
time in a row and<br />
with their three<br />
factory riders in all<br />
the podium spots<br />
Photo by KTM/Marcin Kin
WorldSBK<br />
same speed<br />
different day
Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki. As<br />
WorldSBK finished the last of<br />
the 2019 pre-season tests on<br />
European soil the series still appears<br />
to be in the grip<br />
of the champions, even if Ducati<br />
are working hard and those<br />
Yamahas are getting quick and<br />
quicker. Now to Phillip Island...<br />
Photo by GeeBee Images
MXGP
Giving them<br />
a break<br />
Jeffrey Herlings’ broken right foot and (so far)<br />
lack of a tentative date of a return has flattened<br />
the blank pages a bit harder for 2019 MXGP. The<br />
Dutchman has given his rivals a headstart and a<br />
reprieve and whatever the outcome of his recovery<br />
the season now has a different narrative<br />
Photo by Ray Archer
Sx<br />
Oakland<br />
oakland-alameda county coliseum · Rnd 4 of 17 · jan<br />
450SX winner: Cooper Webb, KTM<br />
250SX winner: Adam Cianciarulo, Kawasaki
sx oakland<br />
uary 26<br />
new<br />
orange<br />
blur<br />
By Steve Matthes. Photos by James Lissimore
sx oakland
sx oakland
sx oakland
AMA<br />
BLOG<br />
another one cooking for baker<br />
Four rounds down in the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series and<br />
it’s shaping up to be one of the more unpredictable seasons in recent<br />
memory.<br />
We have our first two-time<br />
winner in the 450SX class and<br />
it’s…Cooper Webb?! Yeah, the<br />
Red Bull KTM rider led all the<br />
laps this past weekend in Oakland<br />
on his way to his second<br />
career win in as many weeks.<br />
We had Webb on the most recent<br />
Pulpmx Show and he gave<br />
us some great stuff. How he<br />
had to sort of apologize and explain<br />
himself to the other group<br />
of riders he trains with under<br />
Aldon Baker. Going to Baker’s<br />
program is a pre-requisite for<br />
most of the factory KTM/Husqvarna<br />
riders (if the other riders<br />
also approve) and Webb had<br />
butted heads with some of the<br />
others like Marvin Musquin and<br />
Jason Anderson. So that had to<br />
be interesting for sure.<br />
The other things he said was<br />
he wasn’t in the shape that he<br />
needed to be in when he joined<br />
and also he only practiced at<br />
75% during the week.<br />
Both things needed to be corrected<br />
with Baker early and<br />
Baker admitted to me that<br />
things started off a bit rough<br />
with Webb. But breaking it all<br />
down to the foundation was<br />
what Coop obviously needed to<br />
do and it’s paying off.<br />
And seriously, at this point:<br />
what more proof do we need<br />
that Baker’s program works?<br />
We have a rider that was a<br />
multi-time champion in the<br />
250 class, moved up to the 450<br />
class and although he got some<br />
podiums, there were more ‘off’<br />
nights than ‘on’. He’s got the<br />
ability, we all see his record<br />
but now he goes to a new team<br />
where he’s in a structured program<br />
with some other very fast<br />
riders and he blossoms. I’ve<br />
talked to many athletes that<br />
have gone and worked with<br />
Baker, it’s nothing special as<br />
far as workload or magic rocks,<br />
it’s just very structured, your<br />
blood levels and heart rates<br />
are monitored closely so that<br />
your body tells Baker (and you)<br />
how it feels. Cycling is a huge<br />
part of it both on and off road,<br />
and as Webb explained on the<br />
show, practice sessions are<br />
done at full-speed and simulate<br />
race conditions.<br />
There’s no secret sauce, no<br />
PED’s, nothing except intensity<br />
and a big workload. And some<br />
smart monitoring by Baker to<br />
make everything a challenge<br />
amongst the group. The easiest<br />
day of the program should<br />
be race day is something I’ve<br />
heard Baker preach over and<br />
over. Whatever KTM/Husqvarna<br />
is paying Baker - and I’m sure<br />
it’s a lot - it’s a hell of a deal.<br />
There are other part of the<br />
package for #2.<br />
“You can pinpoint one necessary<br />
thing that changed it<br />
(results), but I definitely think
By Steve Matthes<br />
this bike fits me a lot better. I<br />
can ride it more like my 250,”<br />
Webb told us. “To me, it’s<br />
definitely a lot easier to race,<br />
especially over main events<br />
when they get rough. Like I<br />
said all off-season it’s a lot of<br />
different changes, so it’s hard<br />
to pinpoint the one thing. But<br />
obviously the bike is a huge<br />
benefit for sure.”<br />
Webb is a smaller guy and the<br />
Yamaha 450 (even though the<br />
frame is the same as the 250<br />
machine) does seem to work<br />
for taller/bigger riders. You<br />
watch Webb’s KTM out there<br />
and it does look really tiny.<br />
The crew have lowered the<br />
bike to make it fit Cooper and<br />
he doesn’t look like he’s just<br />
hanging on anymore, it looks<br />
like he can put it anywhere he<br />
needs to right now.<br />
Baker’s critics (and there are<br />
some out there) point to the<br />
work he’s done with riders like<br />
Jake Weimer and Broc Tickle<br />
(before he was suspended for<br />
testing positive for a stimulant)<br />
and their results as saying that<br />
“Baker takes champions and<br />
turns them into champions”<br />
meaning he can’t make a Weimer<br />
or Tickle become a race<br />
winner, and that’s somewhat<br />
true. But in motocross talent<br />
to ride a dirt bike can’t be<br />
replicated or created. You can<br />
either steer a bike fast enough<br />
to win or you can’t. If you can<br />
do it then Baker’s training<br />
program will help you pull it<br />
all together, prioritize what’s<br />
important and what’s not and<br />
help you win a lot of races.<br />
Ryan Dungey was already a<br />
great rider when he joined<br />
Baker and he remarked a few<br />
times how Baker’s program<br />
was actually less than what<br />
he did before and how hiring<br />
Aldon helped him put all the<br />
questions he had about training<br />
to rest: Did I do enough?<br />
Should I do more? What’s the<br />
competition doing? He could<br />
be confident that he was doing<br />
the right things. All I know<br />
is you add the bike and the<br />
training program to an already<br />
talented rider and Baker can<br />
make the difference. We saw it<br />
with Ryan Villopoto and Dungey,<br />
we’re seeing it now.<br />
I don’t know where this Webb<br />
“thing” is going to go. He’s got<br />
two in a row, he’s got the red<br />
plate in what Webb admitted<br />
was a “building year”. Maybe<br />
this is it for him and he just<br />
has a nice year. Or maybe the<br />
kid goes on a run for the ages<br />
like, gasp, a young Jeremy<br />
McGrath in 1993. No matter<br />
what it is, it’s a great story and<br />
the hottest free agent in the<br />
sport when his contract is up<br />
might be Aldon Baker.
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sx oakland
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Products<br />
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Feature<br />
a<br />
Words by Andrea Wilson, Photos by James Lissimore/www.yamaha-racing.com<br />
different<br />
path<br />
COLT NICHOLS<br />
“...it took me a while to<br />
learn the ropes...”
Feature<br />
Supercross competition is fierce.<br />
Expectations are high and the road<br />
to get there is fraught. Colt Nichols<br />
knows all about that. The 24-year old<br />
from Oklahoma had to fight his way back<br />
from multiple injuries and found his way<br />
through an alternative route to one of the<br />
sport’s top 250 teams: Star Racing. He<br />
didn’t turn his back on his Supercross<br />
dream and now sits in the points lead<br />
four rounds into the 2019 250SX West<br />
season. Here’s his story.<br />
Nichols really isn’t your modern-day<br />
a-typical moto kid. He wasn’t home<br />
schooled, he wasn’t fast tracked into a<br />
factory ride from the factory-supported<br />
amateur feeder teams in the U.S. He<br />
did however, have a great support group<br />
around him in Oklahoma and an unwavering<br />
faith that he was going to be a<br />
professional Supercross racer.<br />
His dad competed at local level. “I started<br />
messing around when I was three<br />
years old,” he said. “That’s when my dad<br />
got me a bike. It was all through him. He<br />
used to race; I saw him doing it when I<br />
was just a little guy and I thought it was<br />
the coolest thing ever, and I wanted to<br />
be just like my dad. So he got me a bike,<br />
and the rest is history after that.”<br />
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention<br />
to the amateur motocross scene<br />
in the U.S. knows that like a lot of youth<br />
sports, the intensity level of competition<br />
continues to grow.<br />
“If I could say anything to young kids to try to help then<br />
it would probably be about that sacrifice it takes to be<br />
at the top level, and try to show up every single time as<br />
focused as possible to do the job at hand...”<br />
“Ever since I’ve been little this is everything<br />
I ever wanted to do,” he says. “I<br />
was regular kid. I played sports in high<br />
school, like most. I went all the way<br />
through to my senior year, then I did<br />
the online school thing. I loved playing<br />
sports and being involved with school<br />
activities and doing all that stuff, but I<br />
always knew I was meant to race dirt<br />
bikes.”<br />
That love for it started young. Like most<br />
racers, it was a family thing.<br />
“Amateur level is pretty competitive, especially<br />
when you start to get up closer<br />
to big bikes,” Nichols said. “Everybody is<br />
going really fast. All the kids are already<br />
training at that point. I was in the period<br />
where it was starting to become a reality<br />
for kids to get signed at a young age<br />
and to actually start making money. That<br />
was, I think, the initial push for me to try<br />
to get a little better quicker.”<br />
He landed a Team Green ride during his<br />
Mini days and his dad decided to seek<br />
out an expert, fellow Oklahoma racer<br />
– Robbie Reynard. That training was<br />
definitely important during his formative<br />
years but Nichols had some roadblocks<br />
ahead of him. Injuries slowed his forward<br />
progress and leading up to the transition<br />
from amateur to pro is not a good
colt nichols & reaching sx<br />
time to splutter. In spite of those injuries,<br />
Nichols wasn’t about to use that as an<br />
excuse as to why he was left out of a factory<br />
ride as soon as he became of age to<br />
turn Pro.<br />
“I didn’t have an awesome amateur career,<br />
by any means,” he said. “I won quite<br />
a few championships and things like that,<br />
but I was never the guy that was winning<br />
everything. So, it took me a while to get<br />
going and learn the ropes and figure it<br />
out on my own.”<br />
Nichols didn’t have a place in Supercross<br />
as he approached the age and timing to<br />
consider being professional but found a<br />
place to race. He contested the Arenacross<br />
series in 2014 through the Team<br />
Green program and when that season<br />
was done, he spent the summer racing<br />
in the Costa Rican MX1 series. He got his<br />
first Supercross opportunity the following<br />
year, representing a 250 team based<br />
in his home state – Crossland Racing<br />
Honda. He then got a ride with the Cycle<br />
Trader Yamaha team in 2016 and<br />
turned heads. He grabbed his first podium,<br />
made it through the campaign with<br />
a top-five finish in the championship,<br />
which ultimately helped land him a factory<br />
ride and his current Monster Energy<br />
Star Yamaha Racing team.<br />
The top drawer ticket didn’t mean it was<br />
all smooth sailing however. He had another<br />
rough patch – a broken femur in<br />
2017, a broken humorous in 2018, actually,<br />
twice the same year. Nichols kept a<br />
positive mindset.<br />
“That was a tough few years, really,” he<br />
said. “It was my first year being on the<br />
team [Star Racing] and I had an unfortunate<br />
injury, broke my femur before the
Feature
colt nichols & reaching sx<br />
West coast series and then got pushed to<br />
East coast and only made three rounds<br />
and ended up getting hurt again. I came<br />
in very underprepared. Almost an identical<br />
story of 2017 to 2018. Same thing - got<br />
hurt in the off-season. Was supposed to<br />
race West. Got pushed to East coast. <strong>On</strong>ly<br />
made three rounds and got hurt again.<br />
It was a tough little period there coming<br />
back from injury and kind of struggling<br />
whenever I felt like I should be obviously<br />
doing a lot better and at least competing.<br />
That was very tough.”<br />
That line between being a hero and hitting<br />
the dirt gets pretty razor thin, especially<br />
at the top level of the sport. It’s not easy<br />
to judge. “Hitting the ground is part of our<br />
sport, and that’s the part that sucks,” he<br />
said. “That’s why I have so much respect<br />
for a guy like Ryan Dungey or Chad Reed,<br />
guys that have been in the sport for a<br />
really long time and seem to always be<br />
healthy and show up every single weekend.”<br />
With experience comes wisdom. And it<br />
seems to have been the extra boost that<br />
Nichols needed. “You just have to be so<br />
focused and sacrifice so much to really do<br />
what you need to do,” he said. “There are<br />
times you want to go out and do this or<br />
that… even just being on your feet walking<br />
around the mall, and you know you’re<br />
going to ride the next day so you’re like,<br />
‘well, it’s probably not a good idea. Maybe<br />
I shouldn’t.’ Kind of save your legs for the<br />
next day. Just some little stuff like that.<br />
You just have to be so focused and understand<br />
that what you want is going to take<br />
all this sacrifice. I think that’s the hardest<br />
part for young kids to realize, and even for<br />
me. I hadn’t figured it out until recently. I<br />
wish I could have figured it out earlier.
Feature<br />
If I could say anything to young kids to<br />
try to help then it would probably be<br />
about that sacrifice it takes to be at the<br />
top level, and try to show up every single<br />
time as focused as possible to do the job<br />
at hand. And try to stay healthy!”<br />
Factory rides are few and far between,<br />
and talent is abundant. So abundant that<br />
the competition for the top saddles in the<br />
entry level Supercross 250SX class these<br />
days starts well before budding athletes<br />
turn Pro. The trend that started when<br />
Nichols was younger has now intensified.<br />
“To see how it’s evolved is kind of crazy,”<br />
Nichols opined. “Now there are some<br />
kids that are getting signed to professional<br />
deals, and they’re 14 years old.<br />
They’re still on minibikes. They haven’t<br />
even quite made it to big bikes yet. It’s<br />
rapidly, rapidly changing. Everybody always<br />
wants the ‘next great thing’. That’s<br />
in every sport, not just ours. It’s definitely<br />
changing pretty quick.”<br />
Like I said, if people wouldn’t have<br />
signed me when I was 13, I wouldn’t<br />
have known what to do with it. Even<br />
when I was 16, I didn’t know what to do<br />
with it. So it kind of took me a few years<br />
to find my stride and realize what was<br />
going on. The landscape is tough right<br />
now. But all you can do, if you love dirt<br />
bikes and you really enjoy this stuff, you<br />
go out and you try your hardest, even if<br />
you’re going to school or doing whatever.<br />
I’m a testament to that: you can actually<br />
still go get it done and sign with a<br />
factory team and live out your dream.”<br />
Looking ahead, will there be another<br />
opportunity for ‘another Colt Nichols’?<br />
Nichols definitely hasn’t seen the signs<br />
of a shift on the horizon and is quite<br />
honest about the fact that what worked<br />
for him might not necessarily work for<br />
everyone else.<br />
From Nichols’ experience he sees a few<br />
red flags. “In order to compete with<br />
those kids getting opportunities parents<br />
think they have to pull their kid out of<br />
school and homeschool them and travel<br />
the world and go to all these training<br />
facilities. That’s what they want. I just<br />
feel that’s asking for disaster. Then the<br />
parents are relying on the kid and it’s<br />
already giving him so much pressure at a<br />
young age. They’re already looked at like<br />
a make-it-or-break-it. They’re so young.<br />
I just think that’s tough. I think that’s<br />
unfair for the kids.”<br />
“I really wish there was a different way to<br />
go about the amateur racing scene and<br />
get it revised in some way.
colt nichols & reaching sx<br />
“My path is definitely not the one that<br />
is meant for everybody,” he said. “It was<br />
meant for me. I just got really lucky. A lot<br />
of kids wouldn’t have made it this far going<br />
down the path that I had to go.”<br />
picture for me. I did not want to stop. I<br />
felt like I was meant for this and I was<br />
going to do anything I could to achieve<br />
that.”<br />
In spite of the direction that sport has<br />
gone in the amateur motocross/supercross<br />
scene (and whether or not there’s<br />
a way to change it, or which path is the<br />
right one to get where you want to be)<br />
there’s still something that young racers<br />
can take away from Nichols’ case. “I<br />
always really believed in my ability and<br />
always believed I could get to the point<br />
I am now, which is being a points leader<br />
and winning races,” he says. “It was never<br />
an issue of belief. It was hard because<br />
you get up, then get knocked back down,<br />
then get up, and get knocked back down.<br />
I just tried to stay as positive as I possibly<br />
could. I knew that there was a bigger
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MXGP<br />
BLOG<br />
best (airbooted) foot forward.<br />
So, a re-write of this Blog was needed.<br />
Questions and thoughts about<br />
the potential of Jeffrey Herlings<br />
to get anywhere near his magnificent<br />
2018 campaign have<br />
now been scrubbed. MXGP was,<br />
of course, an open book as the<br />
Italian championship formally<br />
reignited the competitive year<br />
and the first ebbs of bench racing<br />
last weekend, but the World<br />
Champion’s broken foot means<br />
the tale of 2019 is now very<br />
much a blank page.<br />
What does Herlings’ latest ailment<br />
mean? First of all there is<br />
the severity of the injury. The<br />
Dutchman avoided damage<br />
to his ankle when he careered<br />
towards the side bank of mud at<br />
the Albaida circuit in southern<br />
Spain and trapped his right limb<br />
between the bike and terrain in<br />
the crash but it is a complicated<br />
area for fractures. In the case<br />
of MX2 Kemea Yamaha star<br />
Ben Watson the Brit broke the<br />
navicular bone in his left foot in<br />
Argentina for the second round<br />
of 2016 Grand Prix and missed<br />
the rest of the season.<br />
Noises from KTM are not of major<br />
distress, but this is of course<br />
a setback and the full extent of<br />
what Herlings will need to do in<br />
order to be able to walk and then<br />
consider a return to his 450 SX-F<br />
have yet to come to light.<br />
Secondly Herlings has been here<br />
before. A broken right hand two<br />
weeks before his MXGP debut in<br />
2017 (combined with a self-admitted<br />
questionable attitude to<br />
the premier class after another<br />
resolute MX2 title in ’16) meant<br />
the opening rounds of that<br />
championship were some of the<br />
hardest and most unerring of his<br />
career. Jeffrey righted his mind,<br />
kept patient with his hand and<br />
recovered to decimate the end<br />
of the ’17 calendar, and that fed<br />
right into his milestone 2018.<br />
So now it is a waiting game. But<br />
the news is a formal invitation<br />
for his rivals, in particular Tony<br />
Cairoli, to hit the beginning of<br />
2019 with relish and to stockpile<br />
points from the very first gatedrop.<br />
Herlings will return strong and<br />
should eventually reach the<br />
same ’18 pomp but this temporarily<br />
hobbling will have diminished<br />
his unbeatable status. If he<br />
can find fitness and banish the<br />
kind of insecurity that marked<br />
his 2015 MX2 year where a succession<br />
of injuries dented his<br />
prowess and arguably disturbed<br />
his focus then it will be the biggest<br />
fight of his career.<br />
There were times in 2018 where<br />
Herlings only had himself to<br />
beat. The fact that the mistakes<br />
and the crashes did not come<br />
only added to the image of the<br />
perfect season. The circulating<br />
and conquering #84 really was<br />
the sight of an athlete/team/<br />
motorcycle package at the top of<br />
the pile.<br />
Now, for the second time in a<br />
row the 24 year old is negotiating<br />
the pain, worry and anxiety<br />
of injury sustained on the practice<br />
track. Worryingly it means<br />
another term where Herlings is<br />
paying a visit to the hospital.
..<br />
By Adam Wheeler<br />
<strong>Off</strong> the top of my head I can list a<br />
dislocated shoulder, four broken<br />
collarbones, a broken femur, dislocated<br />
hip, mangled little finger<br />
and hand and now right foot:<br />
that’s some payment for all those<br />
record-breaking feat and a style<br />
and attacking-approach that leave<br />
many fans speechless. Never let it<br />
be said that Herlings had it easy.<br />
I just hope this latest episode of<br />
having to beat disappointment,<br />
realign goals and dig-out motivation<br />
does not take too much of a<br />
toll. He’s too damn good to fade<br />
into mid-pack obscurity.<br />
If this current period of recovery<br />
and rehab stretches on and the<br />
prospect of missing one Grand<br />
Prix becomes three or his race<br />
speed needs four rounds to return<br />
instead of two, then I believe Herlings<br />
still has targets to shoot for.<br />
The guy know how to construct<br />
a championship but he is also a<br />
competitive animal with a lust for<br />
victory that few else in the MXGP<br />
pack can match. At the very least<br />
2019 should represent the chance<br />
to set-up a potential piece of history<br />
if he can breach the magical<br />
record 101 win total in 2020 (and<br />
possibly beat Tony Cairoli to another<br />
landmark).<br />
For fans of other riders and the<br />
neutral observers of MXGP Herlings’<br />
misfortune is interesting<br />
news. Another orange rout would<br />
have undoubtedly affected the potential<br />
of the ‘show’ (as is the case<br />
with any dominant athlete) and it<br />
certainly brings other riders – who<br />
had their own struggles during<br />
Herlings’ annus mirabilis – immediately<br />
back into the frame for<br />
short term GP wins and long term<br />
for the state of the standings.<br />
***<br />
As OTOR gets going again for<br />
another year – our ninth and<br />
second as a ‘monthly’ – there will<br />
be a few changes coming up in<br />
2019. We should have a new ‘look’<br />
by the time of issue two at the<br />
end of February and the website<br />
will again be fully stocked with<br />
Blogs and some articles that you<br />
won’t always find in the magazine<br />
(especially post-races when there<br />
are some serious talking points<br />
debated by our expert contributors).<br />
We’ll be experimenting with Podcasting<br />
again in MXGP to have a<br />
second and hopefully more professional<br />
attempt at the booming<br />
medium that is grabbing more<br />
and more attention. The emphasis<br />
there will be on discussion and<br />
opinion and when we get insiders<br />
onto the show we’ll endeavour to<br />
ask the questions that the fans<br />
might want to hear. It will be another<br />
busy campaign of travelling,<br />
coverage and content right up<br />
until the final Supercross dates of<br />
2019. Whether you’re viewing this<br />
on your work computer, tablet or<br />
mobile phone thanks for dipping<br />
into OTOR again. Keep registered<br />
to get your email update for new<br />
issues and feel free to offer any<br />
feedback at info@ontrackoffroad.<br />
com
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scent<br />
10<br />
of the
Feature
tony cairoli & mxgp 2019<br />
In a recent entry on KTM’s official Blog<br />
page (www.ktm.blog.com) VP of offroad,<br />
Robert Jonas, said “never, ever<br />
underestimate Tony: that’s my opinion”.<br />
KTM know the nine times world champion<br />
sufficiently well by now. 2019 will<br />
represent the tenth season that Tony<br />
Cairoli and KTM have occupied the top<br />
of the premier class standings in Grand<br />
Prix and while names like Dungey, Roczen<br />
and Herlings have caused hearts to<br />
flutter in Mattighofen it is the #222 that<br />
has delivered results, prestige and been<br />
a major part of the company’s lift as the<br />
premium and leading manufacturer of<br />
dirtbikes.<br />
At Assen for the penultimate round of<br />
2018 and at the triumphant homecoming<br />
coronation for Herlings, Cairoli was<br />
full of plaudits for his younger teammate<br />
and admitted that he lacked the same<br />
speed all the way through the moto<br />
to effectively compete with his rival.<br />
The pair clashed on two occasions but<br />
largely existed in a tolerable and powerful<br />
vacuum of performance, results and<br />
pressure under the KTM awning. Cairoli<br />
routinely made the best starts and was<br />
in race-winning positions a number of<br />
times only to be foiled in the style that<br />
he himself had enacted on peers since<br />
he moved into the premier class in 2009.<br />
“The message is that I don’t start each year going<br />
for second or third place. I go to win, and that is<br />
always my goal. I do what is possible to push my<br />
limits. I always try to ride safe but if I am able to<br />
ride happy and comfortable then for sure the fans<br />
will see a really nice season...”<br />
The Sicilian will turn 34 in September,<br />
less than two weeks after Red Bull KTM<br />
teammate Jeffrey Herlings will toasts his<br />
25th birthday. He still has another two<br />
terms on his factory contract and has<br />
been a protégé, friend and collaborator<br />
with Claudio De Carli since his second<br />
grand prix year in 2004. His duel with<br />
Herlings in 2018 prevented the championship<br />
story from being horribly onesided<br />
even if it was the best (in terms of<br />
riding) and the worst (the first time he<br />
had really faced insurmountable opposition<br />
and dealt with at least two small<br />
niggly injuries) time of his career.<br />
In short 2018 was chastening and educational,<br />
and forced Cairoli to look a bit<br />
longer into the mirror if he wanted to<br />
better his 85 career GP wins (one more<br />
than Herlings) and nine titles.<br />
Last year was very much about the<br />
Cairoli-Herlings axis. Without the other<br />
then the 2018 contest could have been<br />
very bland indeed (for all his dominance<br />
Herlings had to keep plugging away until<br />
round 19 of 20 before he sealed the<br />
deal). It means that one of the biggest<br />
questions about the forthcoming 2019<br />
campaign revolves around TC222.
Feature<br />
Even before Herlings’ untimely broken<br />
foot there was debate about how (and if)<br />
Cairoli could raise his game to deal with<br />
his Dutch teammate’s intensity. Herlings<br />
beat him both from the front and coming<br />
through the pack in 2018, and there were<br />
few scenarios in which Cairoli was able<br />
to resist or put up much of a defence and<br />
even fewer once he wrenched his thumb<br />
at round eleven in Indonesia.<br />
MX2 world champion and Cairoli’s training<br />
partner Jorge Prado commented<br />
recently that: “he is getting stronger all<br />
the time in places where he struggled<br />
last year. We train together every day and<br />
we push each other.”<br />
At more or less the same time that Herlings<br />
was being ferried to the airport<br />
with a throbbing foot we had Tony on the<br />
phone from Sardinia. Cairoli has never<br />
been very revelatory about his methodology<br />
and the backbone of his spoils. I<br />
remember his wife, Jill Cox, telling me<br />
once that nobody really sees or understands<br />
how hard he works for his racing.<br />
There was some doubt as to whether<br />
Cairoli was keeping up this rate or was<br />
just getting smarter with age by largely<br />
abandoning his Belgian training regime<br />
in favour of the proximity of his Roman<br />
Malagrotta circuit but the level of his<br />
2018 Grand Prix outing would prove that<br />
he’s still very much at the top of the pile.<br />
That he is not kicking back as the final<br />
Firmaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<br />
years of world championship years loom<br />
into view.<br />
In our chat there were a few hints that<br />
he has looked around him, as well as<br />
internally, for how the Herlings threat<br />
can be nullified. Obviously he was unaware<br />
of the ‘head start’ that Herlings has<br />
provided to the MXGP field but there<br />
were crumbs of what Cairoli has altered<br />
for 2019 and how he is very much up to<br />
the task of pushing again in the face of<br />
adversity and sitting in the unusual situation<br />
of not being a clear-cut favourite.<br />
“<strong>On</strong>e improvement was just to feel a little<br />
bit more comfortable with riding and<br />
be able to use the power in a better way<br />
on all parts of the track,” he said of the<br />
analysis of the KTM 450 SX-F racebike.<br />
“We changed some small details of the<br />
character of the bike but nothing really<br />
big.”<br />
What about your personal programme?<br />
Was there a need to find an extra gear?<br />
Not too much. We kept the same sort<br />
of thing we did last year because it was<br />
working quite well through the season<br />
and until I got my thumb injury in Indonesia.<br />
I was happy with the programme<br />
so we decided to stick with it…except to<br />
try and be a bit more consistent with the<br />
race results.<br />
You said you needed to be stronger with<br />
your entire race speed. So was this an<br />
area for work?<br />
Yeah, of course. That’s really important<br />
and to have the bike set 100% how I<br />
like it. So we have been working on the<br />
setting and looking at every single thing<br />
with suspension and the handling and it<br />
has come out really well.<br />
So that wasn’t a physical or mental adjustment?<br />
It was just a physical thing and nothing<br />
really mental. I was happy at the<br />
half way point of last season. <strong>On</strong>ly a few<br />
small mistakes cost me points, as well as<br />
training days because of the injury.
tony cairoli & mxgp 2019<br />
Did you think about a new strategy to<br />
handle a strong opponent like Herlings?<br />
Like applying pressure or scrapping ontrack?<br />
No, not really. I will see how the season<br />
starts and how the first few races go and<br />
then it will be the time to think about a<br />
strategy. At the moment I will start to<br />
win and then we will see.<br />
Are you ‘up’ for another title duel and<br />
all it entails? What’s the message for<br />
Tony Cairoli and MXGP fans waiting for<br />
the season to begin?<br />
The message is that I don’t start each<br />
year going for second or third place. I<br />
go to win, and that is always my goal. I<br />
do what is possible to push my limits. I<br />
always try to ride safe but if I am able to<br />
ride happy and comfortable then for sure<br />
the fans will see a really nice season.
Watson working on weaknesses<br />
to make “difficult” next GP step<br />
Kemea Yamaha’s Ben Watson is one of a new<br />
wave of riders hoping for fresh Grand Prix<br />
milestones in 2019. The Brit is Yamaha’s main<br />
representative in MX2 after moving up from<br />
15th to 4th in the 2018 campaign; his first<br />
with the factory YZ250F. Having achieved his<br />
maiden rostrum finish in Russia and been one<br />
of the few athletes on Japanese machinery to<br />
trouble the hoards of KTM and Husqvarnamounted<br />
youngsters, Watson is being eyed for<br />
yet more silverware this year after his breakthrough<br />
term.<br />
Not only does the 21 year old (2019 and 2020<br />
still to go in the MX2 class before he ages-out)<br />
have to bear the expectation that comes with<br />
front-running pace and potential but now has<br />
to work on the task of converting his podium<br />
potential to race-winning pedigree.<br />
“From 2017 to ‘18 I made a really big step and<br />
I think it will be incredibly difficult to make the<br />
same kind of leap again,” he admitted. “So I<br />
haven’t changed too much with my training<br />
programme when it comes to the physical<br />
side and preparation but I have been working<br />
on my weaknesses; things that I saw were<br />
popping up as the races went on and were<br />
stopping me from being more at the front and<br />
being able to fight for something more than<br />
third place.”<br />
Watson is collaborating with renowned trainer<br />
Jacky Vimond for a second season and knows<br />
he needs to address his hesitancy to attack<br />
harder and faster in the opening laps of the<br />
motos. “Absolutely,” he concurred. “This was<br />
one of the main areas. And I have to get myself<br />
to the point where I can go balls-out on a<br />
watered track or a track I haven’t seen or ridden<br />
for a few hours. I don’t know exactly what<br />
was stopping me last year but it is something<br />
I’m working on: that feeling of being able to go<br />
flat-out right away coming more naturally.”<br />
The Englishman may have a sizeable job transitioning<br />
from the status of ‘most improved’<br />
to ‘most capable’ but his early acclimatisation<br />
to the 2019 YZ250F in the final rounds of the<br />
2018 GP year should mean his testing and<br />
technical work is locked-in. “I rode the bike for<br />
the last five-six rounds of the championship<br />
so I got to know it really well already,” he says.<br />
“We have the bike in a good place so the work<br />
has been more about my technique and how<br />
I feel with the Yamaha and how I can best use<br />
it.”<br />
The principal obstacle for Watson and peers<br />
like Thomas Kjer Olsen, Calvin Vlaanderen,<br />
Jed Beaton, Darian Sanayei, Henry Jacobi<br />
and teammate Jago Geerts is reigning world<br />
champion Jorge Prado. The Spaniard’s starting<br />
prowess and lightning speed in the formative<br />
stages of races will be tough to match.<br />
Watson knows eighteen year old Prado is the<br />
target but is adopting a more personal approach.<br />
“We haven’t really talked about tactics to beat<br />
just one rider,” he confesses. “At the moment<br />
it is still about what I can do and how I can<br />
give my best. I feel as I improve then this is<br />
something that will come.”<br />
“Prado is strong where I was weak in 2018:<br />
normally in the first few laps he has made the<br />
start and was disappearing away from me,” he<br />
says. “I need to get out of the gate and go with<br />
him and then it becomes about physical fitness<br />
and who is stronger in the mind.”<br />
Watson is in the second and final year of his<br />
Yamaha contract but is already rumoured to<br />
be in the manufacturer’s plans for 2020.
mxgp 2019<br />
Photo by Ray Archer
mxgp 2019<br />
Photos by KTM/S. Taglioni
Prado talks #1, being better in 2019,<br />
the KTM 250 SX-F and turning 18<br />
MX2 World Champion Jorge Prado<br />
reached the ripe age of eighteen two<br />
weeks ago but is already talking like a<br />
seasoned Grand Prix pro as he vies to<br />
become KTM’s third double title winner<br />
since the inception of the MX2 class in<br />
2004. Prado is working under the tutelage<br />
and guidance of Tony Cairoli, Claudio<br />
De Carli and his staff in the Red Bull<br />
KTM team for the second year in a row<br />
and for his third as an official KTM athlete.<br />
Even though his championship campaign<br />
involved impressive consistency<br />
(17 podiums and 12 wins), rapier starts<br />
and uncatchable speed in the opening<br />
laps of motos, Prado insists he is still ‘in<br />
progress’.<br />
“I’m working hard to improve and make<br />
the right steps. I’m training hard again<br />
and the big difference is this time I don’t<br />
have to handle an injury so I can be better<br />
prepared,” he says in reference to the<br />
elbow fracture that forced a two month<br />
hiatus from the KTM last winter. ‘2018<br />
was tough at the start and hopefully I<br />
can be more careful up until the start of<br />
the world championship.”<br />
“To be better in every way; that’s the<br />
job,” he added. “I can get faster and I<br />
can be stronger, especially physically.<br />
Then it is about working on the small<br />
things. I made mistakes last year…”<br />
Prado has only just become old enough<br />
to vote and hold a driver’s licence (“basically<br />
the day after I had the licence I<br />
started on the road from Rome to Sardinia!”)<br />
but is now charged with leading<br />
KTM’s effort in a category they have<br />
dominated and with the class-leading<br />
250 SX-F technology.<br />
“KTM are always looking for a better<br />
bike,” he commented on the development<br />
programme for 2019 and a task<br />
that Technical Co-Ordinator Dirk Gruebel<br />
admitted would be “difficult to make big<br />
steps”. “Last year it was already on a<br />
high level so to improve is tricky but the<br />
factory and the team are working hard,”<br />
Prado concurred. “I basically used the<br />
same suspension all through last season,<br />
and the power of the bike was good<br />
but there are small details to be able to<br />
improve more.”<br />
Prado lifted his FIM gold medal at the<br />
final round of 2018 in Imola. He admitted<br />
that the week after the Italian race and<br />
around the ’18 Motocross of Nations was<br />
“crazy” but the thoughts of 2019 swiftly<br />
enabled the fuss and distraction of realising<br />
a lifetime dream to subside.<br />
The rider from Galicia will not run<br />
the coveted #1 in 2019. Amazingly he<br />
doesn’t feel worthy of the plate. “I’m going<br />
to stick with the #61 because I think<br />
I don’t quite deserve the #1,” he candidly<br />
admitted. “I think the Big ‘1’ is for the<br />
very best in motocross and that’s not<br />
me; it’s for the guy in the next category,<br />
the highest category. <strong>On</strong>e day when, if, I<br />
can manage it in MXGP then I’ll change!<br />
I don’t have any official merchandise yet<br />
so it is not a big problem for me to have<br />
another number…but even so many people<br />
now know me with the 61.”
Photo by www.yamaha-racing.com<br />
Seewer adjusting to life<br />
as a Yamaha factory rider<br />
Jeremy Seewer was the MXGP Rookie of the<br />
Year in 2018 thanks to an 8th place finish<br />
in his maiden attempt at the premier class,<br />
and the former MX2 world championship<br />
runner-up is now contemplating the hardest<br />
season of his career on the works Monster<br />
Energy Yamaha next to Romain Febvre.<br />
While the 24 year old will be able to shift his<br />
knowledge of the YZ450F across from his<br />
Wilvo Yamaha set-up from 2018, the transfer<br />
to Michele Rinaldi’s factory set-up represents<br />
a third different team in three years<br />
for the Swiss who has previously spent his<br />
youth and entire career in Suzuki yellow.<br />
Seewer takes the saddle of the outgoing<br />
Jeremy Van Horebeek; the Belgian notched<br />
five years with the Italian crew. Van Horebeek<br />
was part of a small and special elite<br />
that achieved remarkable success with the<br />
team at the very first attempt: Josh Coppins,<br />
David Philippaerts, Van Horebeek and<br />
Febvre all finished their initial season as<br />
world champion, runner-up or as a solid title<br />
contender. Seewer will be aware of the trend.<br />
Although remaining part of Yamaha Motor<br />
Europe’s racing structure means relatively<br />
little upheaval (certainly compared to his<br />
protracted departure from the dissolved<br />
Suzuki team at the end of 2017 and the late<br />
confirmation with Wilvo) Seewer was able<br />
to exclusively explain that the change does<br />
require vast readjustment.
mxgp 2019<br />
It began with an official test and trip to Japan<br />
at the tail end of 2018.<br />
“It’s the same…but not the same,” he said.<br />
“What I really noticed coming back to a factory<br />
team is the level of experience. Wilvo<br />
was a great team and I cannot say a bad word<br />
about them but you could feel that it was very<br />
young and just starting. Now I’m back in a<br />
team where the mechanics have 20-30 years<br />
of experience and they know a lot about the<br />
bike as well. They try to help me in any direction<br />
to make it better; it’s like I was used to<br />
with Suzuki and Sylvain Geboers in the past.”<br />
“It is very positive but at the same time it is<br />
another team change so it means another mechanic<br />
and set of people,” he added.<br />
“For example, I have the same suspension but<br />
a different suspension guy so it is a bit like<br />
starting from zero. It will take a bit of time as<br />
usual but I got a really warm welcome, especially<br />
with the testing in Japan last year and<br />
Yamaha are really pushing at the moment.”<br />
Rumours surround the future of Yamaha’s factory<br />
team with Wilvo potentially bringing the<br />
operation closer to Yamaha Motor Europe’s<br />
Dutch base despite the squad boasting only<br />
two years of existence in the MXGP class (but<br />
they delivered Yamaha’s sole GP win since the<br />
second half of 2016 thanks to Shaun Simpson’s<br />
success in Indonesia in 2017). Wilvo will<br />
have the talents of Gautier Paulin and Arnaud<br />
Tonus this season but the direction of Yamaha’s<br />
MXGP effort beyond 2019 is still being<br />
organised around the table.
Jonass<br />
exercising<br />
patience for<br />
MXGP Husky<br />
debut<br />
2017 MX2 World Champion Pauls Jonass<br />
will have to wait in anticipation of his<br />
MXGP debut this year as he negotiates<br />
the rehabilitation process of ACL surgery<br />
to his right knee, performed last<br />
September.<br />
The 22 year old Latvian forms part of an<br />
all-new and young line-up for the factory<br />
Rockstar Energy Ice<strong>On</strong>e Husqvarna team<br />
alongside Arminas Jasikonis but has<br />
only just started to ride his new FC450.<br />
“Things have actually been quite complicated<br />
since the surgery and I didn’t<br />
expect that it would take so long and<br />
would be so difficult…but we are on the<br />
right way and I feel much better,” Jonass<br />
said recently.<br />
“ACL surgery means you need time to<br />
get strength and stability back in the<br />
knee and it’s a hard process,” he added.<br />
“At the last check-up with the doctor and<br />
physio they were really satisfied with<br />
how it’s going. In terms of strength I’m<br />
Photo by Ray Archer
doing well; I just need to work on co-ordination<br />
and stability and a have a little<br />
bit more time for the ligament.”<br />
Jonass is hoping to accelerate his biketime<br />
in February, which leaves little<br />
room for serious preparation ahead of<br />
the opening Grand Prix of nineteen in<br />
2019 at Neuquen in Argentina on March<br />
3rd. It is unknown whether Latvia’s sole<br />
motocross world champion will make<br />
the South American date or might have<br />
to consider round two in Great Britain or<br />
the next event in the Netherlands.<br />
crown ahead of the final date at Imola<br />
last September. “I don’t want to rush it.<br />
Since the start of the year I have been<br />
going flat-out with my physical training.<br />
I can cycle and I have been focussing on<br />
my physical condition. Hopefully I can be<br />
at the races as soon as possible. I don’t<br />
want to have any expectations at the<br />
moment because if it [a slated return]<br />
doesn’t happen for some reason then I’ll<br />
be really disappointed. I’m going weekby-week<br />
and hopefully in a month I’ll be<br />
back on the bike.”<br />
“It was a serious injury so if I start riding<br />
too soon and twist it then I’ll damage it<br />
again,” he explained of the ailment that<br />
caused him to relinquish his MX2
Simpson back at home with KTM and<br />
part of potent orange MXGP hoard<br />
Grand Prix winner Shaun Simpson will<br />
form part of an impressive line-up for<br />
the Austrian manufacturer in 2019 MXGP<br />
with riders like Max Anstie, Glenn Coldenhoff,<br />
Jordi Tixier, Ivo Monticelli and<br />
Max Nagl also running the 450 SX-F in<br />
the premier class. For the Scot (31 in<br />
March and soon to be a father for the<br />
first time) the chance to ride with new<br />
British team RFX KTM means a return to<br />
the machinery and circumstances (British<br />
Championship competition) with<br />
which the Scot claimed two national<br />
titles and two MXGP wins in 2014 and<br />
2015.<br />
The veteran is hoping his re-alliance with<br />
KTM and WP Suspension will also help<br />
banish some of the memories of two<br />
injury-hit seasons with Wilvo Yamaha. “I<br />
don’t know what it is with the KTM but it<br />
just seems to fit me, fit my style and the<br />
way I ride,” he said in between testing<br />
and riding sessions at the RedSand circuit<br />
last week. “I don’t know if the steel<br />
frame is a factor but I feel at home. I’ve<br />
been able to skip a few steps with set-up<br />
purely because I knew what I was running<br />
a couple of years ago so we started<br />
there. I know how the bike will react and<br />
it means I can get bike time done without<br />
stressing too much.”<br />
“The KTM hasn’t changed all that much<br />
from when I last rode it,” he adds. “It<br />
looks a bit different, aesthetically, and<br />
the engine has had a lot of work. As a<br />
standard package I would say it is pretty<br />
bloody good.”<br />
Simpson has thrived being back in orange<br />
and although he leads a freshman<br />
Grand Prix effort with RFX<br />
(the team will field two younger riders in<br />
EMX European competition) he is back<br />
in a familiar environment that once allowed<br />
his renowned consistency to draw<br />
the #24 up to fourth place in the world<br />
in 2015. “The team has a lot of ‘moving<br />
parts’. We are bringing funds in from a<br />
lot of different areas and there are a lot<br />
of people to keep happy but I know it’s<br />
all centred around me so it is not a big<br />
stress. I have the parts I want on the bike<br />
and now we just need to find that extra<br />
step with the engine.”<br />
Simpson won the 2015 Grands Prix of<br />
Belgium and Netherlands and the 2017<br />
round in Indonesia. He finished 7th and<br />
4th in MXGP in 2014 and 2015 and is<br />
looking to re-establish his credentials as<br />
a top five rider capable of surprising the<br />
GP elite. Being back on the SX-F is key to<br />
this potential.<br />
“I’m looking to turn a few heads and<br />
come out of the gate solid and strong<br />
but not get too excited,” he assessed.<br />
“I’m definitely in for the long haul this<br />
year and to make the races count. We’re<br />
going for consistency and good strong<br />
rides. In terms of comfort on the bike I<br />
feel that consistency will be my friend<br />
this year. Sometimes on the Yamaha I<br />
was riding a bit ‘on edge’ and it showed<br />
in the injuries I had; I had freak crashes<br />
and it was biting me badly.”<br />
Simpson is one of four British riders in<br />
MXGP for 2019.
Photo by Ray Archer<br />
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Words by Adam Wheeler, Photos by CormacGP/Repsol Honda/HRC
Feature<br />
There was a hustle and<br />
bustle about the gathering<br />
at the Repsol HQ<br />
‘complex’ located a mere<br />
wheel spark from the train<br />
lines running into Madrid’s<br />
Atocha station last week.<br />
For the first time since 2013<br />
the might of HRC presented<br />
a modified rider line-up to<br />
the largely native and swollen<br />
gaggle of media and guests.<br />
Not only was the sight of MotoGP<br />
World Champion Marc<br />
Marquez and the only rider<br />
aside from Casey Stoner to<br />
win the coveted title this decade,<br />
Jorge Lorenzo, appearing<br />
together for the first time in<br />
HRC colours enough of a draw<br />
but the Spanish petroleum<br />
giant was also celebrating a<br />
quarter of a century with their<br />
logo and distinctive look gracing<br />
the side of Honda’s premium<br />
race motorcycle. Add star<br />
names like Mick Doohan (the<br />
first #1 to be toasted as part<br />
of the HRC/Repsol alliance)<br />
and Alex Crivillé (Spain’s first<br />
premier class champion in<br />
1999) and this was the sizzling<br />
ticket of the MotoGP<br />
pre-season.<br />
Injury and novelty meant<br />
there was slightly more for<br />
media to get their teeth into<br />
aside from the tasty mini<br />
burgers that flew around on<br />
hospitality trays once the<br />
main ceremony (centralised<br />
on a bizarre video in which<br />
Marquez, Lorenzo, Doohan<br />
and Criville were spliced ontrack<br />
together) had finished.<br />
The 2019 RCV colours barely<br />
registered interest compared<br />
to the state of Marquez’s<br />
shoulder, Lorenzo’s surprising<br />
dirt track injury and how<br />
the wrecked duo would tackle<br />
the beginning of an imminent<br />
campaign where Honda would<br />
be precariously positioned<br />
for only two pre-season tests.<br />
Later, MotoGP splashed a<br />
spread of the Repsol Honda<br />
designs from over the years<br />
on their official Instagram account<br />
and it was surprising, if<br />
a little un-revelatory, just how<br />
little the look and style has<br />
varied. The orange, and dark<br />
blue Honda speed graphics<br />
along the seat were firmly in<br />
place. From the bikes’ position<br />
under the lights and on<br />
the stage it was even tough to<br />
tell the ’93’ and ‘99’ numbers<br />
apart.<br />
Not quite a new face then…<br />
but certainly welcoming
vIeWS FRoM The ‘19 RePSoL hondA LAunCh<br />
one; Madrid opened a different<br />
chapter for the team thanks to<br />
Lorenzo. Here are three themes<br />
we picked up from a brief visit<br />
to the Spanish capital<br />
1) don’t say ‘dream’<br />
“I don’t like it. We’ll see [if it<br />
is] by the end of the season…”<br />
with that throwaway comment<br />
Marc Marquez dispensed with<br />
the grating ‘dream team’ tag<br />
that had been immediately attached<br />
to the 2019 incarnation<br />
of the squad since Jorge Lorenzo’s<br />
shock announcement at<br />
Mugello last summer.<br />
The truth is that Marquez/<br />
Lorenzo/HRC is quite possibly<br />
the strongest unit assembled<br />
in the modern era of MotoGP;<br />
perhaps only the duo of Eddie<br />
Lawson and Wayne Rainey<br />
come close in the stats and<br />
A RADICAL SUGGESTION MIGHT BE THAT MARQUEZ HAS<br />
TO ALTER HIS PHILOSOPHY TO MOTOGP, THIS WILL REALLY<br />
SHIFT THE TILLER...<br />
pedigree stakes. And the bike?<br />
The third HRC rider – LCR<br />
Honda’s Cal Crutchlow – may<br />
routinely describe why the RCV<br />
is so hard to race but there is<br />
little doubt that the motorcycle<br />
improved in 2018 and was not<br />
quite the stubborn front-ended<br />
brute that made Marquez one<br />
of the ‘crashiest’ athletes in the<br />
pack in 2017.<br />
Marquez admitted that he’d<br />
endured one of the “most<br />
boring winters of my life”<br />
with 24-7 physio after his left<br />
shoulder operation. The Catalan<br />
had less to comment on<br />
2019 bike set-up with Lorenzo’s<br />
adjustment to his third<br />
crew and technology in three<br />
years a slightly hotter topic.<br />
“It’s still soon,” JL moderated.<br />
“At Jerez [the second<br />
and last winter test of 2018] it<br />
was 80% and I could go fast.<br />
I liked the bike from the first<br />
day; an agile bike that enters<br />
the turn well.” The 31 year old<br />
was quick to credit the environment<br />
he’d found also, “and<br />
I love the team because they<br />
have welcomed me with a lot<br />
of affection.”<br />
There are ultimately several<br />
reasons (and it might be a<br />
moot point) but ‘JL’ is no<br />
longer a Ducati rider due to a<br />
lack of belief from the Italian<br />
management in his capacity<br />
to deliver results. Lorenzo<br />
seemed to hint that the ‘love’<br />
was already in place with<br />
Honda.<br />
He was also aware of the opportunity<br />
he has been presented.<br />
The move to Ducati<br />
delivered a new challenge and<br />
a fat contract.<br />
Now he has another challenge<br />
and arguably one where the<br />
spotlight is a touch brighter.<br />
“Here is…‘another level’,” he<br />
remarked. “I’ve been in other<br />
teams with a lot of wins but<br />
this carries more expectation.<br />
<strong>On</strong> a technical level in<br />
Valencia there were a lot of<br />
people in the box, talking<br />
about the parts on the bike.<br />
All that experience will allow<br />
me to extract the potential of<br />
the bike. There is pressure but<br />
it is not the same as coming<br />
into GP and needing results<br />
as a 15-16 year old otherwise<br />
you go home. I just want to<br />
pay back the confidence they<br />
have shown me.”<br />
For once Marc Marquez had<br />
to - figuratively - stand a little<br />
off stage-centre. Tetsuhiro Kuwata,<br />
HRC’s General Manager<br />
of Race Operations, underlined<br />
that the factory team “is<br />
always looking for excellence”<br />
and credited Lorenzo’s choice<br />
and arrival. “The fact that<br />
he accepted this challenge<br />
proves he is a champion with<br />
high hopes.”<br />
#93 was wearing his race<br />
leathers for just the second<br />
time (the previous day he’d<br />
done the official HRC photos<br />
in the same city) and seemed<br />
to favour his shoulder now<br />
and again during the forty<br />
minute affair. Marquez may<br />
be six-year veteran of the<br />
Repsol Honda formalities but<br />
this was the first time he was
Feature<br />
effectively sharing top billing<br />
since 2013. As ever, he knew<br />
the right words and genuinely<br />
seemed to appreciate his role<br />
in the 25 year story of the two<br />
powerhouse companies surrounding<br />
him.<br />
“It’s a privilege to be part of<br />
this family; to have seen those<br />
colours as a kid from the sofa.<br />
25 years go I was a baby and<br />
only just born!” he said. “I’m<br />
proud to be part of this story<br />
and next to these champions<br />
and add a few titles.”<br />
“I had an offer to be in MotoGP<br />
for 2012 but wanted<br />
to wait for Repsol Honda,”<br />
he then revealed of his 2013<br />
move and the start of an<br />
almost unbeatable union.<br />
“People ask me if I’ll leave and<br />
I say ‘why? I’m with the best<br />
team’.”<br />
Doohan claimed one of the<br />
key ingredients in HRC’s prowess<br />
was the synergy between<br />
the chess-piece movers. “The<br />
partnership between the two<br />
[Repsol & Honda] has been<br />
better than anyone else and<br />
that’s because they let everyone<br />
get on with what they<br />
need to do,” he explained.<br />
“They let the riders be the riders.<br />
I think the momentum is<br />
building.”<br />
It was exciting to see Lorenzo<br />
perched in his Honda Alpinestars<br />
leathers.<br />
There is something more edgy<br />
and potent about his inclusion<br />
in the team compared to<br />
the endless presence of Dani<br />
Pedrosa since 2006. Speaking<br />
briefly of his compatriot,<br />
Lorenzo said it felt “strange”<br />
to be taking Pedrosa’s place<br />
but “I think we understand his<br />
situation after years of sacrifice”.<br />
The Honda-Lorenzo<br />
combination could meander<br />
into the underwhelming stint<br />
that the rider’s hero – Max<br />
Biaggi – weathered for a single<br />
year in 2005...but it really<br />
doesn’t feel like that will happen.<br />
#99 could really give the<br />
squad and the championship<br />
a hard and fantastically unpredictable<br />
shake-up.<br />
2) (not) Just a<br />
flesh wound<br />
Lorenzo sported a sizeable<br />
cast less than twenty-four<br />
hours after scaphoid surgery,<br />
Marquez looked fit but stiff<br />
and even Doohan joked that<br />
he was struggling to breathe<br />
in his old race suit. “It’s not<br />
the best situation,” Team Manager<br />
Alberto Puig reflected on<br />
the general lack of bike fitness<br />
of his riders “but it’s much<br />
better if it happens now than<br />
in the middle of the season.<br />
We will take it as it is, and<br />
our priority is that the riders<br />
are fit on March 10 when the<br />
championship begins.”<br />
Puig confirmed that German<br />
Stefan Bradl will take on HRC<br />
testing orders (and no doubt<br />
waiting around for the Sepang<br />
showers to clear) in Lorenzo’s<br />
absence for the outing in<br />
Malaysia next week. “We will<br />
follow the body and the riders’<br />
condition,” Puig said. “[For]<br />
the bike, of course we have<br />
a process and it’s being developed.<br />
We will keep trying<br />
and Honda will keep doing the<br />
things they know they have to<br />
do.”<br />
Lorenzo talked of making<br />
the second test in Losail and<br />
being “90-95% at the Qatar<br />
race”. He also commented<br />
that the dirt track spill (“a very<br />
stupid crash”) was also partly<br />
caused by his weakened left<br />
wrist as a consequence of the<br />
injury from the massive ‘off’<br />
in Thailand last October. “You<br />
find situations that you cannot<br />
change,” he lamented of the<br />
damage to the scaphoid. “It’s<br />
a complicated bone and one<br />
of the worst you can break.<br />
Luckily in 2019 there are advanced<br />
procedures.” Exactly<br />
how much strength and feeling<br />
the Majorcan will recover<br />
will only be known once he’s<br />
back on the RCV. Doohan was<br />
keeping optimistic: “depending<br />
on how his wrist heals I<br />
imagine he should be challenging<br />
pretty much straight<br />
away for a podium, I should<br />
think…”
views from the ‘19 repsol honda launch<br />
Fitness and treatment were<br />
clearly themes buzzing around<br />
the riders’ heads. Marquez cited<br />
his goal for the season was “to<br />
avoid injury”; the comment<br />
providing some small insight as<br />
to the interruptive and serious<br />
nature of his shoulder problem.<br />
Short term he was in the same<br />
boat at Lorenzo. “My target is<br />
try to be 100% or as close as<br />
possible in Qatar GP,” he said.<br />
“The surgery has been more<br />
aggressive and more difficult<br />
than we expected. It was for<br />
four hours because it was more<br />
complicated than even the doctors<br />
expected. They said a minimum<br />
will be 3-4 months, but<br />
I’m working quite hard. We are<br />
already one month and a half<br />
[along] and the shoulder is going<br />
in a good way so this is the<br />
most important. How it will be<br />
in Sepang I don’t know. Every<br />
day I feel some improvement.”<br />
Underneath the optimistic<br />
comments there appeared to<br />
be concern (or maybe careful<br />
estimation) that Marc will have<br />
to feel his way into 2019. His<br />
typical approach of using Friday<br />
and Saturdays at Grand Prix to<br />
explore limits with the Michelins<br />
may have to be tempered so as<br />
to not risk wrenching the shoulder<br />
even more. A radical suggestion<br />
might be that Marquez<br />
has to alter his philosophy to<br />
MotoGP racing, and this will really<br />
shift the tiller.<br />
3) Setting the<br />
kindling<br />
Perhaps more than any other<br />
team, Repsol Honda will have<br />
the fans watching the body<br />
language and gestures in the pit<br />
box. It’s a consequence of two<br />
highly successful, demanding<br />
and elite athletes existing and<br />
striving in a small space and<br />
how the air will mix and occasionally<br />
bump off into thunderous<br />
storms in a teacup. Lorenzo<br />
has previous experience of<br />
the scenario having taken the<br />
plunge to enter Valentino Rossi’s<br />
Yamaha set-up in 2008 and<br />
fared very well.
Feature<br />
“This situation is quite similar to the<br />
one when I started in MotoGP in 2008<br />
because at that time Valentino was in<br />
the peak of his career,” he explained.<br />
“He didn’t win in 2006 and 2007 but<br />
he was fighting for the world title and<br />
he knew the bike a lot so it is more<br />
or less the same situation that I have<br />
now.”<br />
Marquez was always very complimentary<br />
about Dani Pedrosa but there<br />
was the feeling that he was aware his<br />
dynamism, youth and abundant and<br />
consistent speed gave him the advantage<br />
over #26. Lorenzo is a new<br />
kind of threat, one that is very close<br />
to home. “When Dani was in the box it<br />
was a completely different riding style<br />
and Honda had enough potential to<br />
have two different ways to improve the<br />
bike,” he reasoned on the subject of<br />
how Lorenzo’s renowned corner speed<br />
could change the equilibrium of the<br />
technical work. “But in the end when<br />
you are riding fast all riders are asking<br />
[for] the same and the most important<br />
thing is that me, Jorge, Cal, we have<br />
more-or-less the same problems on<br />
the same areas. So this is the way to<br />
work with all the team and try to improve<br />
for 2019.”<br />
Lorenzo has been critical of Marquez’s<br />
aggression (most pointedly at Aragon<br />
last summer) but he knows what he’s<br />
up against. “I’d say he is phenomenal,<br />
and I have a lot of things to learn from<br />
him. So I come into the team with a lot<br />
of happiness and proudness [sic] but<br />
also a lot of humility to little-by-little<br />
try and understand everything and try<br />
to get results. Let’s see how it goes.”
views from the ‘19 repsol honda launch<br />
There is a clear parallel to MXGP<br />
and the placement of Tony Cairoli<br />
and Jeffrey Herlings in Red<br />
Bull KTM. Although there is more<br />
of an age gap the Austrians and<br />
management still had to handle<br />
the two biggest champions<br />
in the sport. How the chemistry<br />
could work between Marquez and<br />
Lorenzo was a subject directed<br />
at Tetsuhiro Kuwata. “I have no<br />
doubt that we can manage both<br />
riders and the team,” the Japanese<br />
assured with a poker face.<br />
“Both riders are very professional<br />
riders and they know the expectations.<br />
We will try to improve the<br />
machine, the team, everything.<br />
This is a challenge and Honda<br />
likes a challenge so it is maybe<br />
tough but this makes us stronger<br />
than in the past.”<br />
Mick Doohan rarely faced an<br />
‘equal’ once his Honda carried<br />
Repsol branding but Crivillé was<br />
arguably his trickiest opponent.<br />
“I think it is healthy to have a<br />
strong teammate,” he opined.<br />
“Somebody of the calibre of Marc<br />
Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo are<br />
not really too worried about their<br />
teammate. Sure, they want to be<br />
in front but they have to beat everybody.<br />
I think if you start focussing<br />
on any competitor then you<br />
lose what the objective is, and<br />
that’s to win… You need to work<br />
on yourself [and] your team to get<br />
a step ahead of competition.”<br />
sure you stay on the front foot,”<br />
he added. “It will be interesting.”<br />
Marquez’s attempts to heal some<br />
of the rift with Valentino Rossi<br />
could indicate that he is a individual<br />
that does not like confrontation<br />
or ill-feeling. His long-established<br />
tight posse inside Repsol<br />
Honda has a ‘bigger brother’<br />
vibe and it would be hard work<br />
for Puig and HRC to have to deal<br />
with the kind of atmosphere that<br />
once saw Yamaha having to erect<br />
a wall between Rossi and Lorenzo<br />
(initially for tyre differences but<br />
the divide then remained). Lorenzo<br />
is famed for his perfectionism<br />
and preference for a small inner<br />
circle but is also no aggressor. He<br />
is more distant than antagonistic.<br />
This might just work. Unless<br />
those Repsol fairings start to bear<br />
a few scrapes. “[Marc’s] had five<br />
world titles in six seasons so he’s<br />
an amazing rider and I feel for<br />
his competitors,” teases Doohan.<br />
“Who is going to stop him? Lorenzo<br />
is of the calibre to do that but<br />
until we see them side-by-side –<br />
and that’s one of the great things<br />
about this year’s team – then<br />
there will be no more excuses.”<br />
Side-by-side indeed. The next<br />
nineteen rounds in nine months<br />
will divulge more.<br />
“When the guy beside you has<br />
access to the same machine and<br />
equipment it means you have to<br />
work a little bit harder to make
motogp<br />
BLOG<br />
Five head-to-heads to keep an eye<br />
The end of January, a new season looms large on the horizon - and with it,<br />
a variety of possible sub-plots that have already been in the making this<br />
winter. We cast an eye over potential battles and rivalries that promise to<br />
light up the 19-round calendar that lies ahead.<br />
A Marquez-Dovizioso repeat<br />
Noted, the vast majority of team<br />
presentations are littered with<br />
optimism. But Ducati’s opulent<br />
‘do’ at Philip Morris International<br />
HQ in Switzerland wasn’t<br />
just an opportunity to witness<br />
the tobacco giant’s bewildering<br />
new approach to marketing.<br />
There was a chance to listen in<br />
on Andrea Dovizioso’s thoughts<br />
on the year ahead. “I feel better<br />
than last year,” said the 32-year<br />
old. “[With] More confidence.”<br />
Looking ahead, it’s hard to<br />
disagree. In the season’s second<br />
half, he outscored a rampant<br />
Marc Marquez by 157 points to<br />
156. The Desmosedici’s base<br />
now works well everywhere. Gigi<br />
Dall’Igna’s unique innovations<br />
were in evidence at Jerez, with<br />
altered seat units and radical<br />
linkage system. New team-mate<br />
Danilo Petrucci is prepared to<br />
work according to the needs of<br />
Ducati’s lead rider.<br />
And for the first time since<br />
2014, Marquez enters the season<br />
facing physical uncertainty.<br />
A healing left shoulder could<br />
yet disrupt an approach so<br />
dependent on total aggression.<br />
Dovizioso has enjoyed two years<br />
challenging. Now 2019 offers<br />
a best chance at claiming the<br />
overall crown.<br />
Battle for superiority in HRC’s<br />
‘Dream Team’<br />
A ‘dream team’ operating within<br />
Repsol colours is no new thing.<br />
Marquez has labelled his own<br />
band of dedicated disciples just<br />
that as he powered a way to five<br />
of the past six championships.<br />
But Jorge Lorenzo’s arrival has<br />
strengthened the belief that<br />
internal friction could complicate<br />
the reigning champion’s<br />
approach. Beyond the fact that<br />
the grid’s two most talented riders,<br />
with a combined 138 race<br />
wins and 267 podiums between<br />
them, operate from the same<br />
garage, there comes a matter of<br />
personality. Marquez and Lorenzo<br />
have had their moments<br />
in the past. Two of Lorenzo’s<br />
most recent public outbursts<br />
came after innocuous incidents<br />
(Misano, 2016 and Aragon ’17).<br />
And the Majorcan’s demanding<br />
presence can rub some up the<br />
wrong way. When did we last<br />
see the considered figure of<br />
Dovizioso throwing the pettiest<br />
of barbs across the garage,<br />
for example? This hasn’t been<br />
billed as a potential Senna-<br />
Prost rivalry without reason.<br />
Yamaha to get it right?<br />
History has a habit of repeating<br />
itself. To which anyone overseeing<br />
Yamaha’s recent fortunes<br />
could attest. There was a whiff<br />
of déjà vu last November. At a<br />
post-season outing at Jerez the<br />
tune called by factory runners<br />
Maverick Viñales and Valentino
on<br />
More than Europe’s<br />
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By Neil Morrison<br />
Rossi wasn’t entirely harmonious.<br />
<strong>On</strong> Yamaha’s updated<br />
engine, aimed at ironing out the<br />
failures of its predecessor, the<br />
Catalan delivered a resounding<br />
verdict: “this bike can win the<br />
title.” Rossi, on the other hand,<br />
aired caution. “At the moment<br />
it’s a fourth place bike … if<br />
someone ahead retires!” Fundamentally,<br />
they are in agreement<br />
as to where is most in need of<br />
improvement. Both, for example,<br />
agreed on the engine direction<br />
needed for next year. Yet it’s<br />
whether Viñales can maintain<br />
this recent momentum, making<br />
his voice heard over his more<br />
experienced companion, and ignore<br />
Rossi’s attempts at disrupting<br />
his flow that represents the<br />
biggest challenge of his career<br />
to date. If Yamaha finally gets it<br />
right, sparks will fly.<br />
The fight for ducati’s second<br />
seat<br />
The only factory rider on the<br />
grid not in possession of a twoyear<br />
deal, Petrucci knows he<br />
must make good on previous<br />
promise if he wishes to maintain<br />
his current status.<br />
Knowing Pramac’s Jack Miller<br />
and Francesco Bagnaia have<br />
eyes on the seat for 2020,<br />
speculation regarding his position<br />
will be rife should he begin<br />
the year quietly. He acknowledged<br />
as much recently: “Jack<br />
and Pecco want my bike, it’s not<br />
a secret!” Miller’s aim will be<br />
much the same: prove himself<br />
a consistent podium contender.<br />
Equipped with Ducati’s GP19,<br />
he’ll likely have the machinery<br />
to do it. “I believe if we can<br />
do a really good job next year<br />
we should be in line for a factory<br />
seat somewhere,” said the<br />
Australian last November. “Here<br />
at Ducati. If not, we’ll see where<br />
the cards fall.” Then add Bagnaia<br />
into the equation, just 0.1s<br />
off Miller’s best time in only his<br />
second MotoGP test. This has<br />
the potential to escalate.<br />
Bagnaia, Mir to lead the battle<br />
of the rookies<br />
Were it not for the wealth, the<br />
fame and the fact their days consist<br />
of riding the world’s fastest<br />
motorcycles, you’d almost feel<br />
sympathy for a rookie entering<br />
the MotoGP fold.<br />
Marquez raised the expectations<br />
bar considerably in 2013 by winning<br />
the title first time out. Four<br />
years on and Johann Zarco went<br />
as far as leading the first lap of<br />
the first race. So to Bagnaia, Mir,<br />
Oliveira and Quartararo: no pressure.<br />
Granted, the premier class<br />
is closer than it’s ever been. But<br />
for Bagnaia to be so competitive<br />
at his two tests to date (0.6s off<br />
Viñales at Valencia, 0.4s back at<br />
Jerez) indicates he will be challenging<br />
for top sixes before too<br />
long.<br />
Yet with contemporaries as<br />
strong as these, winning the<br />
coveted ‘Rookie of the Year’ title<br />
will be no easy thing. Not least<br />
as Joan Mir has appeared so at<br />
home on Suzuki’s ever-improving<br />
MotoGP machine from the<br />
start (he passed through Jerez’s<br />
fearsome double right T11-12<br />
with elbow down on the first<br />
morning of November’s test).<br />
Team manager Davide Brivio<br />
expects Mir’s progress to be on<br />
a par with Alex Rins’ debut year<br />
in 2017. If, so he’ll be alongside<br />
Bagnaia on the fringes of the top<br />
six.
MOTOGP<br />
BLOG<br />
the year of the rookie...<br />
More than Europe’s<br />
largest MC store<br />
There are always reasons to look forward to a new MotoGP season but<br />
2019 looks like being more interesting than ever.<br />
There is plenty to pique our<br />
interest but the thing that probably<br />
excites me most is seeing<br />
just how good the crop of rookies<br />
coming into the class this<br />
year can be. Recent years have<br />
been pretty remarkable: 2017<br />
had Johann Zarco, Alex Rins,<br />
and Jonas Folger; 2015 had Maverick<br />
Viñales and Jack Miller;<br />
2013 had Marc Márquez, Andrea<br />
Iannone, and Bradley Smith. But<br />
the 2019 rookies promise to be<br />
phenomenal.<br />
Between them, Francesco (or<br />
‘Pecco’) Bagnaia, Joan Mir,<br />
Miguel Oliveira, and Fabio Quartararo<br />
have a grand total of 34<br />
Grand Prix victories, 81 podiums,<br />
and two Grand Prix titles.<br />
Of the three, only Quartararo<br />
doesn’t have double-digit wins<br />
in the junior classes, and all<br />
four are extremely highly rated<br />
among team managers and<br />
engineers. So who are they, and<br />
what can we expect of them?<br />
A product of Valentino Rossi’s<br />
VR46 Riders Academy, Pecco<br />
Bagnaia was the most hotly pursued<br />
of the newcomers. There<br />
were MotoGP team managers<br />
trying to sign him in 2017, and<br />
when Jonas Folger withdrew for<br />
the 2018 season, Hervé Poncharal<br />
had brief talks with the<br />
Italian about replacing him. But<br />
it was Ducati who locked Bagnaia<br />
up first, when they signed<br />
him to a MotoGP contract for<br />
2019 just before their 2018<br />
launch.<br />
Why the rush? It was clear that<br />
the Italian was special in his<br />
final year in Moto3. Racing a Mahindra,<br />
he won two races and got<br />
four more podiums, vastly outperforming<br />
the bike’s potential.<br />
Though he failed to get a win in<br />
his first year in Moto2, he more<br />
than made up for it by claiming<br />
eight races and the title in 2018.<br />
The 22-year-old adapted quickly<br />
to the Pramac Ducati GP18 at<br />
the Valencia and Jerez tests,<br />
ending a third of a second off<br />
the lead at Jerez, and a tenth off<br />
his teammate Jack Miller on the<br />
GP19. Bagnaia is the favourite<br />
to win Rookie of the Year, and is<br />
already in the frame for the second<br />
factory Ducati ride if Danilo<br />
Petrucci can’t hang on to it.<br />
Joan Mir is Spain’s counterpoint<br />
to Pecco Bagnaia. Mir’s<br />
rise through the ranks has been<br />
even more meteoric than the<br />
Italian, coming within a whisker<br />
of equalling Valentino Rossi’s<br />
record for a single season in the<br />
lowest class on his way to the<br />
2017 Moto3 title. His lone year<br />
in Moto2 netted him four podiums,<br />
though more had been expected.<br />
The disarray in the Marc<br />
VDS team, the aftermath of the<br />
rift between team manager and<br />
team owner, was a constant<br />
distraction. But speak to people<br />
who have worked with him, and<br />
they will remark on his intelligence,<br />
his focus, the speed and<br />
willingness with which he learns.<br />
Both Honda and Suzuki vied<br />
for his signature, but the seat<br />
alongside Alex Rins is probably<br />
the better option for him.
By David Emmett<br />
At 24, Miguel Oliveira is the old<br />
man of the bunch. After being<br />
shuffled from team to team, he<br />
immediately made an impact<br />
once he signed up with Aki Ajo.<br />
He came close to snatching<br />
the 2015 Moto3 title from the<br />
grasp of Danny Kent, and after<br />
he moved up to Moto2, was the<br />
only rider to consistently take<br />
the fight to Bagnaia. The intelligence<br />
he is universally praised<br />
for is exemplified by the fact<br />
that he has managed to study<br />
to be a dentist at the same time<br />
as competing professionally in<br />
Grand Prix. His perseverance<br />
with the KTM Moto2 machine<br />
earned him a seat with the<br />
KTM’s new satellite team partner<br />
Tech3. Unfortunately for<br />
Oliveira, the KTM RC16 MotoGP<br />
bike is still a long way from<br />
being competitive. Luckily for<br />
KTM, Oliveira’s intelligence and<br />
thorough approach is exactly<br />
what is needed to help make<br />
the bike better.<br />
Fabio Quartararo is the youngest<br />
of the bunch, still just 19<br />
years of age. The young Frenchman<br />
– though he might as well<br />
be Spanish, having spent most<br />
of his childhood there – is either<br />
an enigma, or a salutary lesson<br />
in getting too much, too young.<br />
He was so good in the FIM<br />
CEV Moto3 championship that<br />
Dorna made a new rule allowing<br />
the winner of the Junior World<br />
Championship to race in Grand<br />
Prix, even if they are below the<br />
minimum age of 16. But after<br />
a few strong results early on,<br />
injury cut his first season short,<br />
and lingered into his second<br />
campaign in the class with<br />
an ill-fated move to the Leopard<br />
team. A difficult first year<br />
in Moto2 with Pons saw him<br />
switch to Speed Up for 2018, his<br />
second year, and show flashes<br />
of the brilliance that originally<br />
earned early passage into the<br />
GP paddock in 2015.<br />
With careful mentoring and in<br />
the right environment, Quartararo<br />
could be the surprise<br />
package of 2019. In the Sepang<br />
Racing Team, under the tutelage<br />
of Wilco Zeelenberg and rider<br />
coach Torleif Hartelman, he<br />
should find just that.
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Products<br />
norton<br />
There is a tangible sense of excitement and<br />
anticipation building around the resurrection of<br />
this brand and the output coming from the small<br />
British factory floors but Norton’s clothing range is<br />
already established and stores can be found in the<br />
UK, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Netherlands<br />
and Belgium.<br />
The garments are appealing, well-designed and<br />
well-made. And there’s loads of choice. We own<br />
a jacket and a couple of t-shirts and can vouch<br />
for the quality. It’s a good time to make the most<br />
of early 2019 sales so have a look at the website<br />
(the stores themselves are usually decked-out with<br />
some tricky motorcycles and cool interiors, well<br />
worth a visit).
www.nortonclothing.com
MOTOGP<br />
BLOG<br />
that Generational thanG...<br />
More than Euro<br />
largest MC stor<br />
Leading up to the 2019 season a bright light is illuminating the subject of<br />
age in MotoGP following the addition of new faces.<br />
The Moto2 and Moto3 classes<br />
have become a breeding ground<br />
for the future and this year we<br />
are witnessing several rookies<br />
diving into the deep end much<br />
like Marc Marquez, Valentino<br />
Rossi, Maverick Vinales and Casey<br />
Stoner once did. This chapter<br />
has long since marked the<br />
true beginning of a motorcycle<br />
racers career and the pinnacle<br />
of a young man’s dream (I use<br />
‘young man’ as we are yet to<br />
be blessed with a female in the<br />
MotoGP category). Yes, times<br />
a-changing in the premier class<br />
and the force of a fresh generation<br />
is pushing on.<br />
Nurturing budding talent has<br />
become one of the most crucial<br />
elements within motor racing.<br />
Why? Better to build rather<br />
than buy. There is a much better<br />
chance of snaring the next<br />
potential champion at a younger<br />
age and a longer contract (that<br />
will still be cheaper for teams<br />
and brands) and this is the philosophy<br />
in many sports, perhaps<br />
at it’s most cutthroat in football.<br />
The time and investment in talent<br />
has a limit though and can<br />
be precarious. For every current<br />
MotoGP rider there are several<br />
lower class riders who are<br />
preparing themselves for that<br />
very same job and role. Their<br />
duty every time they get on<br />
their motorbike is to find a way<br />
to stand out and be the best. It<br />
is a constant rotation between<br />
being great or someone will<br />
be greater. Unfortunately that<br />
doesn’t end if you finally reach<br />
the next step as there is still that<br />
sizeable pool open for teams to<br />
examine at any time. In the past<br />
we have witnessed fresh boyish<br />
faces standing amongst the<br />
men. Anywhere between five to<br />
ten years older than themselves,<br />
each year having gained experience<br />
and knowledge to add to<br />
their sporting ‘package’. They<br />
have gained a position to play<br />
with the big boys but now they<br />
have to defend it against victors,<br />
champions and overall natural<br />
flair. And again maybe start to<br />
look over their shoulders. Some<br />
rookies strike gold and fit in<br />
naturally like Marc Marquez and<br />
Casey Stoner. Others have a<br />
more challenging journey ahead.<br />
Scott Redding was twenty-one<br />
at the time when he took the<br />
leap and joined forces with GO<br />
& FUN Gresini Racing. A five<br />
year career in MotoGP saw him<br />
jumping between four different<br />
crews but was unable to extend<br />
his stay in Grand Prix at the<br />
end of 2018. The Valencia GP<br />
marked his last hoorah in the<br />
elite category but a new chapter<br />
for Andrea Iannone who would<br />
fill his old boots.<br />
After a positive partnership with<br />
Ducati, Iannone was left to find<br />
his feet in 2017. Team Suzuki<br />
Ecstar would prove to be his<br />
saviour but he only showed his<br />
mettle in 2018. Iannone was<br />
unable to achieve consistent<br />
results despite his immeasurable<br />
talent and was replaced<br />
by a young man eight years<br />
his junior. Joan Mir was picked<br />
to substitute someone with<br />
six years experience in the top<br />
category and prior partnerships
pe’s<br />
e<br />
By Sienna Wedes<br />
with top teams. For Redding, lack<br />
of results was his achilles heel and<br />
Iannone, purely age and attitude.<br />
Team Suzuki Ecstar started making<br />
gambles in 2015, joining forces<br />
with twenty year old Maverick<br />
Vinales. This theme persevered<br />
through to 2016 with twenty two<br />
year old Alex Rins and still to this<br />
day with Mir. They have openly<br />
focused not only on their evolution<br />
in the modern era but on utilising<br />
the youthful cohort to gamble on<br />
the next generation. Their positive<br />
energy around younger talent is<br />
proving to be a successful methodology<br />
over time.<br />
Closely following at the ripe age<br />
of twenty, Australian Jack Miller<br />
bravely leapfrogged Moto2 straight<br />
into MotoGP. Three different teams<br />
in three years and race performances<br />
that have not matched his<br />
qualifying results naturally ring<br />
alarm bells. Each little hiccup is<br />
slowly feeding the shark infested<br />
waters and those ready to take<br />
a bite at his saddle. A complex<br />
never-ending cycle in the MotoGP<br />
world. 2019 is a pivotal year in<br />
proving Miller’s worth after inheriting<br />
ex-teammate Danilo Petrucci’s<br />
works Desmosedici.<br />
Nineteen year old Fabio Quartararo<br />
will be partnering twenty four year<br />
old Franco Morbidelli in the new<br />
Petronas Sepang Racing Team.<br />
Although there are other factors<br />
riders like Dani Pedrosa (33 years<br />
old), Alvaro Bautista (34 years<br />
old) and Bradley Smith (28 years<br />
old) did not fit the ‘age’ bill for<br />
the new project. It simply became<br />
one of the priorities for the Malaysians.<br />
As of 2019, four riders aged<br />
twenty-four and under have replaced<br />
four riders aged twenty-six<br />
and above. The new generation is<br />
slowly making its way through the<br />
crowd, similar to that of the 2006<br />
season where various renowned<br />
athletes were moved aside: Max<br />
Biaggi (34 years old), Troy Bayliss<br />
(36 years old), Alex Barros (35<br />
years old) and Franco Battaini (33<br />
years old). Incoming were Pedrosa<br />
(20 years old), Chris Vermeulen<br />
(23 years old), Casey Stoner (20<br />
years old) and Randy de Puniet<br />
(25 years old). Decisions made by<br />
teams can be made abruptly and<br />
without emotion.<br />
Over the years the average age<br />
has decreased. Between 2018 and<br />
2019 the median has dissolved<br />
from twenty eight to twenty six<br />
years of age with the influx of<br />
fresh blood. Valentino Rossi was<br />
only twenty-three when he entered<br />
the MotoGP class as the newbie.<br />
The nine times World Champion<br />
himself has clearly shown faith in<br />
youth by creating the VR46 Academy.<br />
This year’s academy graduate<br />
Francesco Bagnaia (22 years<br />
old) is one of the recent additions<br />
to the top class and follows Morbidelli<br />
as a Moto2 World Champion<br />
to scale the final rung.<br />
The singular most important thing<br />
for the veterans is their experience.<br />
Not a trait to be taken lightly<br />
whether in a race scenario or a<br />
multi-million euro piece of equipment/development<br />
programme.<br />
For the fresh faces the pressure is<br />
immense and careers end purely<br />
because that is the way the life<br />
cycle goes. There are so many<br />
eager souls trying to prove themselves<br />
that essentially no one is<br />
really safe but there’s a little bit of<br />
intoxicating madness in knowing<br />
that there is a door that is always<br />
open.
Products<br />
ktm<br />
KTM Adventure bike riders might want to<br />
move quickly to confirm one of just 150<br />
places on the 2019 KTM Adventure Rally in<br />
Bosnia this June and the chance to experience<br />
a high-class and unforgettable ‘sortie’.<br />
The trip (for riders of all abilities and with<br />
640, 690, 790, 950, 990, 1050, 1090, 1190 &<br />
1290 Adventures) takes place from June 17-<br />
20 and sets off from the Bosnian ski village<br />
of Bjelasnica. It is the third edition that KTM<br />
are running of this type of event and where<br />
special guests will join the troupe. The excursion<br />
costs 745 euros and the price includes<br />
three days of guided riding, GPS aided, fuel,<br />
a set of off-road tyres, lunch, dinner, evening<br />
entertainment and other goodies like KTM<br />
products and workshops to improve riding.<br />
There will also be technical support and a<br />
media service.<br />
www.ktm-adventure-rally.com<br />
KTM whet the appetite by emphatically<br />
describing the route as: ‘amazing winding<br />
tarmac roads, endless dirt tracks and challenging<br />
trails amidst impressive scenery of<br />
beautiful mountains, deep canyons, high<br />
plains, ice cold mountain lakes and crystalclear<br />
rivers.’<br />
Travel to and from the meeting point for the<br />
Rally is down to the rider but KTM will be<br />
opening an exclusive and closed Facebook<br />
group for riders to share their plans and<br />
routes. It’s a convenient and appealing option<br />
for a gaggle of buddies looking for a simple<br />
but effective adventure rally experience.<br />
Put a reminder in your calendar/agenda for<br />
the end of February when the online registration<br />
period opens. Click on any of the images<br />
to see and then bookmark the website.
Feature<br />
Words by Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer<br />
The Draw<br />
Talking with Ryan Quickfall<br />
about creativity, bikes,<br />
inspiration and surviving<br />
as an artist in 2019
Feature<br />
Fans of flat track or cool biker<br />
brands or publications like Sideburn<br />
will instantly recognise the<br />
distinctive art and illustrations of Ryan<br />
Quickfall AKA ‘Ryan <strong>Road</strong>kill’. The 35<br />
year old from Newcastle upon Tyne in<br />
the UK has carved a niche for appealing<br />
and quirky Pop Art that has attracted<br />
growing interest inside the motorcycle<br />
industry. His work can be found on the<br />
side of flat track fuel tanks, wall prints,<br />
event posters, helmets, garments for<br />
people like Roland Sands and Deus Ex<br />
Machina and even brick walls in London’s<br />
trendy Shoreditch district.<br />
Operating out of his studio in England’s<br />
northeast Quickfall services clients and<br />
interest on a worldwide scale. His website<br />
www.ryanroadkill.com contains a<br />
decent spread of his output (as well as<br />
What’s a typical day’s workload? And is<br />
it always about bikes?<br />
It’s split between commercial and personal<br />
artwork. With the commercial side<br />
the client will come to me with the project<br />
and their wishes drive the look and<br />
aesthetic of the piece. The personal side<br />
is still driven by motorcycles, the culture<br />
and everything built around that but I’m<br />
much freer with what I do. For example<br />
it might be less about the motorcycle<br />
and more about the characters. I think<br />
I will continue to work with brands on a<br />
commercial level but then also split it<br />
down the middle with my artwork. They<br />
both inform each other. But you can get<br />
bogged down with client work every day<br />
so it’s good to have a bit of freedom because<br />
it can inspire and motivate you for<br />
the other stuff.<br />
“You need to be a businessman and also be businessminded<br />
as well as be creative, and normally I don’t think<br />
those two necessarily go hand-in-hand. You also have to<br />
find time to have new ideas, keep moving forward...”<br />
almost 17k followers on Instagram) and<br />
how and why he has become so popular:<br />
the art veers between gothicky cartoon<br />
extreme to desirable race-based sketches<br />
and illustrations.<br />
Wanting to know more about how bikes<br />
steer and energise his work and mind,<br />
we decided to deprive Ryan of his pencils<br />
and tablet for a good thirty minutes…<br />
Why a motorcycle?<br />
I don’t necessarily know how I landed in<br />
the motorcycle scene but motorcycles<br />
have been part of my life since I was a<br />
kid. I got my bike licence as soon as I<br />
could and I’ve been riding a long time<br />
now. I think anyone who is a motorcyclist<br />
will understand that it tends to inform<br />
so much else of what you do and your<br />
life around you. For me it informed my<br />
creativity. I think my first ‘in’ to the scene<br />
was working with Gary Inman from Sideburn<br />
magazine. He reached out to me<br />
around six years ago when he was asked<br />
to put together a book about artists in
yan roadkill & bike art<br />
the motorcycle industry. He asked me<br />
to send some work over for that and it<br />
snowballed from there I guess.<br />
As the workload increased did you find<br />
it conversely ate into the riding time?<br />
I love to ride but, you’re right, work commitments<br />
and deadlines eat into that. I<br />
like riding flat track, as well as the community<br />
and the whole scene in the UK<br />
that has built up around it. There is a really<br />
strong scene here but I don’t get on<br />
track as often as I’d like. There is also the<br />
risk of injury…it’s a double-edged sword<br />
I guess. With bikes you are conscious of<br />
drawing similar things every day but, like<br />
I said, the personal illustration work can<br />
mean a bit of an escape and it doesn’t<br />
have to depict a motorcycle.<br />
How would you characterise your style?<br />
When I look back at old portfolios from<br />
when I was at college then I guess the<br />
roots and the base of where I am now<br />
started back then. The work is so random,<br />
but you start out trying new things<br />
and by looking at other people’s work.<br />
The best way to develop your own style<br />
is to look at other people’s work and<br />
through the process of replicating pieces<br />
then you discover parts that you like<br />
and you’d change. If you do that for long<br />
enough then you build up your own style.<br />
That strong black line work I have now is<br />
very heavily influenced from things like<br />
Pop Art and from reading comics when<br />
I was a kid. I mean, the easiest way to<br />
make a mark on paper is to get a black<br />
pen or pen and ink! And then be bold. I<br />
think it subconsciously makes me put a<br />
frame on my work…but consciously I try<br />
to build it into everything. After a while<br />
your style becomes recognisable.
Feature<br />
It is essential you have your<br />
own ‘mark’? The way to do<br />
things?<br />
The content can change but<br />
the way you progress…I think<br />
it is better to have a solid<br />
and recognisable style. Always<br />
have that stamp that<br />
you want to put on your work.<br />
You want people to know<br />
that a piece comes from you,<br />
even if it is something completely<br />
random. I get a lot of<br />
emails people from people<br />
and young illustrators asking<br />
me ‘what should I do?’ and<br />
‘how did you start?’ and the<br />
answer is that you have to<br />
produce the work. You have<br />
to keep at it and keep working.<br />
Before you know it then<br />
you’ll have your own style.<br />
You might not consciously<br />
pick up something but if you<br />
constantly plug away then it<br />
will come.<br />
Where does the creativity<br />
come from? What makes you<br />
pick up that pencil?<br />
Just being involved with<br />
motorcycles generally helps<br />
and having friends with<br />
bikes. I share a studio with<br />
a lad called Tom who is in<br />
the same industry and we<br />
talk about bikes, races we<br />
might be going to or friends<br />
who are building bikes. Being<br />
around the right people,<br />
creative people like fabricators<br />
and photographers, is<br />
a big help. Of course I read<br />
magazines and I just think
yan roadkill & bike art<br />
motorcycle culture is widespread<br />
and it’s contagious. <strong>On</strong>ce you are<br />
hooked then it informs everything<br />
around you. Being around bikes is<br />
enough for me, I find.<br />
Is it sometimes tricky to depict<br />
bike racing on paper? It always<br />
has to be moving and be dynamic…<br />
Yeah, if I have a race event poster<br />
to do then I know I’ll have to portray<br />
a sense of excitement through<br />
the illustration. I have to show<br />
speed and bar-to-bar. If you look<br />
at old comics then similar scenes<br />
have these drawings that are really<br />
over-emphasised and you have<br />
to show that bike dropping into a<br />
corner or sideways if it is for something<br />
like flat track. A lot of the<br />
time it has to look over-exaggerated<br />
and chaotic.<br />
Are Briefs from clients usually very<br />
tight or do you get a free rein?<br />
It is probably 50-50. People do<br />
come with specific Briefs but it<br />
does depend. If you are doing a<br />
broad spread of designs for an<br />
apparel range for a company then<br />
they might come with a very loose<br />
mood-or-idea board and will say<br />
what they like while asking me to<br />
put my twist on it. The other end<br />
of the spectrum are clients that<br />
are very particular about what they<br />
want and those generally are a lot<br />
harder to work on because the client<br />
has an idea in their head and<br />
it’s your job to flesh that idea out<br />
and visualise what they want to express.<br />
You have to try your best to<br />
pull that idea out. The jobs where<br />
the client says ‘just do your thing’<br />
become more frequent the more<br />
well known you and your work<br />
become. They know what you are<br />
going to produce. It’s ideal.
Feature<br />
“My painting and personal work<br />
tend not to have much in the way of<br />
deadlines, so that’s all by-hand and<br />
I’ll sketch an idea, apply it to a canvas<br />
and then paint it. Timescales and tools<br />
determine how you’ll do a job...”<br />
What about the assistance of<br />
the digital age and has something<br />
like Instagram been<br />
invaluable for ‘spreading the<br />
word’?<br />
It feels like you never really<br />
know what will happen…but<br />
I feel like I have been able<br />
to make a career from Instagram,<br />
and I don’t know where<br />
I would be if I didn’t have that!<br />
It was a huge launchpad for<br />
me and as frustrating as it<br />
is these days - and as much<br />
as I’d like to give it up - I<br />
don’t think you can. It’s different<br />
now than what it was<br />
five years ago. How? It’s more<br />
saturated and you have to try<br />
harder to standout. I have to<br />
give Instagram its credit because<br />
for artists it is an amazing<br />
platform. It has probably<br />
never been easier for an artist<br />
to sell his or her work because<br />
it is in front of people<br />
straightaway. If you can build<br />
up a good following then you<br />
can sell product. Having said<br />
that you shouldn’t rely solely<br />
on Instagram because there<br />
are other ways of promoting<br />
yourself. As part of a bigger<br />
spectrum of promotion it’s a<br />
great tool.<br />
Is there one job or artwork<br />
that sticks out in your mind?<br />
A big challenge that turned<br />
out to be immensely rewarding<br />
was a piece of wall art I<br />
did outside of a shop in London,<br />
Shoreditch, called Rebels<br />
Alliance. They basically gave<br />
me the whole wall space to<br />
work on in an area that is popular<br />
for street art. I was a little<br />
bit apprehensive but I knew<br />
this kind of opportunity would<br />
not come along every day. It<br />
coincided with a show of my<br />
work inside the shop. The wall<br />
was massive. We projected<br />
the image on and stopped<br />
cars parking in the way and<br />
I knocked the line-work in<br />
quickly one night and then<br />
the next morning I started on<br />
it. It was in quite a prominent<br />
place and I was spraying and<br />
concentrating on the wall<br />
but I’d turn around and see<br />
a hundred people behind me<br />
all with their phones out! That<br />
was a real career highlight.<br />
It was there for a year and a<br />
half and I know the guys in the<br />
shop down there were touching<br />
up the painting if someone<br />
had tagged on it. It was up for<br />
a good while and I’m planning<br />
on doing another one soon<br />
actually, which is quite cool. It<br />
was a project that was completely<br />
different for me at the<br />
time.<br />
A milestone moment…?<br />
I never, ever think ‘I’ve made<br />
it…’ if you do then I believe<br />
you’ll fail quite quickly. I know<br />
I cannot sit still and I want<br />
to move my career in different<br />
directions. I know I can<br />
always do better and push the<br />
illustration harder. I’m always<br />
critical of my work and think I<br />
could have done better. I think<br />
that’s common for most creative<br />
people. I was impressed<br />
when Roland Sands first got<br />
in touch and wanted me to put<br />
ten designs together for their<br />
clothing range. I can’t remember<br />
the year…but I do remember<br />
‘that’s pretty cool’.
yan roadkill & bike art<br />
What’s your production process?<br />
Is it ink and paper or<br />
tablet based?<br />
I definitely use computers<br />
and a Wacom tablet to speed<br />
up the process. Magazine<br />
work can have a very short<br />
turnaround time. It’s not my<br />
preferred method but if I need<br />
to get something done in a<br />
couple of days then I’ll whack<br />
out a design on the tablet and<br />
digitally produce it from start<br />
to finish. The way I do like to<br />
work - and I do this 70% of<br />
the time - is to pencil-out a<br />
sketch for a client, get the goahead,<br />
refine the sketch and<br />
tweak some bits. I’ll then take<br />
it to a Light Box and brush the<br />
blackwork in ink. I’ll ink it by<br />
hand and then scan it. I’ll then<br />
digitally colour it from that<br />
point on. Digital comes into<br />
the process all the time purely<br />
because a lot of the stuff I do<br />
gets screen printed, so to set<br />
the layers up is much easier.<br />
If the opportunity arose where<br />
I can do an illustration by
Feature<br />
hand from start to finish then<br />
that’s my preferred course. My<br />
painting and personal work<br />
tend not to have much in the<br />
way of deadlines, so that’s<br />
all by-hand and I’ll sketch an<br />
idea, apply it to a canvas and<br />
then paint it. Timescales and<br />
tools for the jobs determine<br />
how you’ll do a job.<br />
What’s the best canvas…?<br />
Bikes themselves? Helmets?<br />
With bikes there are obviously<br />
more shades and contours<br />
to think about and I have<br />
two-three bikes to paint this<br />
year so we’ll see how it goes.<br />
They are flat trackers so it<br />
essentially means the tank<br />
and a section of the seat unit<br />
whereas a road bike or something<br />
with a fairing is a much<br />
bigger canvas to work with.<br />
Each job has it’s own bonuses<br />
and sticking points. I’d love to<br />
paint a road bike actually because<br />
a flat track bike means<br />
you have to think carefully<br />
about what will be displayed<br />
and how people and cameras<br />
will see it when its going into<br />
a corner. Riders will cover a<br />
lot of the tank anyway. The<br />
process of painting them is<br />
not radically different for me.<br />
I’ve done helmets in the past<br />
and there’s quite a lot of surface<br />
area. If you took a shell<br />
and spread it on the table<br />
then it would be pretty big.<br />
Again, only so much of it gets<br />
seen from different angles.<br />
Another thing I’ve started to<br />
do is buy big oil cans, squash<br />
them flat and then paint<br />
them. Again it’s still the same<br />
process as painting a bike<br />
and I’d use the same enamel<br />
and spray paint.<br />
How is life as an artist and<br />
one predominantly based in<br />
the motorcycle industry in<br />
2019?<br />
You cannot be just an artist:<br />
unless you have a really good<br />
agent that takes care of the<br />
whole commercial side. You<br />
need to be a businessman<br />
and also be business-minded<br />
as well as be creative, and<br />
normally I don’t think those<br />
two necessarily go hand-inhand.<br />
You have to try and<br />
market yourself, handle sales,<br />
email requests and clients.<br />
And also find time to have<br />
new ideas that keep you<br />
moving forward. There is<br />
always someone else biting<br />
at your heels. I’m sure that is<br />
the same for many different<br />
career paths. I’m really lucky<br />
that I have an agent in London<br />
– for just over a year now<br />
- that brings commercial illustration<br />
jobs. They help pull in<br />
work that is not just motorcycle<br />
related and it is nice to<br />
have it as a top-up.<br />
It’s nice to know someone is<br />
out there finding commissions<br />
and believing in you.<br />
It is also very satisfying to<br />
put your work out there and<br />
have people contacting you<br />
directly to buy it: you’ve created<br />
it, produced it, marketed<br />
it, packed it and sold it. That<br />
hands-on process from start<br />
to finish is really rewarding.
RyAn RoAdKILL & BIKe ART<br />
rYan roaDkill<br />
at a sketCh<br />
What bikes in the garage?<br />
At the moment I have a<br />
Survivor Customs Rotax<br />
flat track Thunderbike.<br />
Which I race in the DTRA<br />
championship; I say ‘race’<br />
but it’s more pottering<br />
around!<br />
A couple of your favourite<br />
racers and why…<br />
I used to really like Loris<br />
Capirossi. He was great to<br />
watch and a bit of a character.<br />
For me most riders<br />
who are competitive on<br />
track are absolutely worthy<br />
of support. To stand out<br />
and get behind them they<br />
don’t have to be winning<br />
championships, but to<br />
be characters on and off<br />
track. To name a few more<br />
I would say Mick Doohan,<br />
Colin Edwards, obviously<br />
Valentino Rossi and Kenny<br />
Roberts. Also a real good<br />
guy from here and now<br />
racing in the USA is Oliver<br />
Brindley!!<br />
A Bucket List racing event?<br />
Peoria TT or any of the big<br />
fast AFT Mile tracks.
Products
leatt<br />
www.leatt.com<br />
Leatt do not know how to slow down with<br />
their ideas and evolution for motorcycle<br />
safety products and the addition of the ‘Z<br />
Frame Knee Brace’ to their line of protection<br />
for the notoriously tricky and vulnerable<br />
joint raises an eyebrow or two. The Z-Frame<br />
emphasises a closer feel to the bike and has<br />
hyper-extension limitations of 5, 10, 15 and<br />
20 degree help to limit ACL damage. There<br />
is a slim rugged gear hinge (and the whole<br />
composite chassis is CE certified so will<br />
cope with the knocks and abuse a track will<br />
throw at it) and a specific aim to blend function<br />
and performance.<br />
The Z Frame sits confidently next to the ‘X’<br />
and ‘C’ models in the brace range as Leatt<br />
stretch their minds and R&D data when it<br />
comes to the best structures to assist knee<br />
injury and suit the needs of the rider, whether<br />
budding Pro motocrosser or occasional<br />
Enduro dabbler. The choice of model will<br />
really come down to fit and design preference.<br />
With their pedigree in life-saving neck<br />
protection then it is a brand you can trust.<br />
Expect to pay 300 euros or 270 pounds for<br />
the Z Frame pair.
BLOG<br />
when it comes to the crunch...<br />
“What’s the difference between short circuit racers and road racers?”<br />
It’s a question I’ve often been<br />
asked and long wondered myself.<br />
A couple of weekends ago<br />
I got a rare opportunity to make<br />
a direct comparison, albeit on<br />
artificial turf, rather than asphalt,<br />
in a charity soccer match between<br />
the two sets of riders at<br />
the Crusaders’ football ground<br />
in Belfast. Football skills aside, if<br />
the difference between the two<br />
sets of riders was purely mental,<br />
maybe this alternative sporting<br />
challenge would provide a good<br />
gauge.<br />
The traditional ‘<strong>Road</strong> Racers’<br />
versus ‘Circuit Racers’ match<br />
is played annually in aid of the<br />
Children’s Cancer Unit at the<br />
Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast,<br />
but this year it held extra significance<br />
following the death of one<br />
of the fixture’s regular players<br />
William Dunlop, whose family<br />
would share the proceeds.<br />
When leading British Superbike<br />
rider Glenn Irwin (star man for<br />
the Circuit Racers) sent a tweet<br />
out appealing for extra players,<br />
I thought, “well, I have done a<br />
couple of track days!” and dug<br />
out my football boots. I figured<br />
it would be a nice, friendly<br />
kickabout – a sociable off-season<br />
gathering and a good chance for<br />
a catch-up with some of the riders<br />
I will be working with in the<br />
BSB paddock and Isle of Man TT<br />
in 2019.<br />
What I didn’t expect was a brutal<br />
grudge match, a clash of racing<br />
cultures and an agricultural<br />
approach to the beautiful game<br />
that had me limping all the way<br />
back to George Best City Airport.<br />
I should have known better, of<br />
course. Every motorcycle racer I<br />
have ever met boasts an almost<br />
psychopathic determination to<br />
win at absolutely everything they<br />
do. When they come together,<br />
the big question is: who wants to<br />
win the most?<br />
The warning signs were there<br />
from as early as the pre-match<br />
pleasantries. The two teams<br />
formed a long line to great the<br />
crowd and then crossed in single<br />
file, each player shaking hands<br />
with each one of his opponents.<br />
I smiled and nodded with each<br />
handshake, offering a “How’s it<br />
going?” or a “Good luck” – and<br />
was met unilaterally by the cold<br />
stare of antipathetic abandon<br />
that only a man prepared to<br />
tackle the Tandragee 100 in iffy<br />
conditions on a 250cc two-stroke<br />
could muster.<br />
The other thing that struck me<br />
was the physical stature of the<br />
<strong>Road</strong> Racers compared to my<br />
teammates: much thicker set<br />
than the Circuit Racers – still<br />
athletic, but heavier, broader.<br />
No need to lose those two extra<br />
kilos of muscle when you need to<br />
hold a Superbike steady for six<br />
laps around the bumpy roads of<br />
Enniskillen. No need for the diet<br />
protein shakes that were present<br />
in the Circuit Racers’ changing<br />
room – worth a good 0.2 seconds<br />
around the Silverstone National<br />
Circuit - nor the moisturisers<br />
or the hair gel (okay, I admit,<br />
the moisturiser was mine) for the<br />
cameras. <strong>Road</strong> racers aren’t in<br />
the sport to look cool.
By Matthew Roberts<br />
They’re not in it for the fame or<br />
the fortune. They are literally in it<br />
to win it.<br />
As a result, their look is a little<br />
unkempt, a little wild. But that<br />
was nothing compared to their<br />
tackling.<br />
The first yellow card was flashed<br />
within two minutes of the first<br />
whistle, following a late lunge by<br />
young, up-and-coming Irish roads<br />
man Darryl Anderson on factory<br />
Honda BSB star Andrew Irwin,<br />
brother to Glenn. It is difficult to<br />
get a yellow card so quickly in a<br />
professional football match, let<br />
alone a ‘friendly’, but Andrew<br />
- one of the most notoriously<br />
aggressive riders on the British<br />
Superbike grid – had found<br />
himself on the end of the kind of<br />
move that saw him wipe three<br />
riders out in turn one at Snetterton<br />
last season.<br />
Moments later came my first<br />
touch of the ball, a little loose for<br />
my liking on the hard, unforgiving<br />
artificial surface, and James Kelly<br />
– a former Tandragee lap record<br />
holder and keen Gaelic football<br />
player - was onto me.<br />
Within seconds Paul Robinson – a<br />
gnarly little 125cc legend of the<br />
Ulster Grand Prix and North West<br />
200 - came piling in too. An elbow<br />
in the ribs, a boot around the<br />
top of the shin and the ball was<br />
gone – I still don’t know where, it<br />
didn’t seem to matter. I hunched<br />
over in front of the grandstand to<br />
catch my breath, and could sense<br />
the partisan <strong>Road</strong> Racer majority<br />
in a crowd of hundreds baying for<br />
the blood of this particular penpushing<br />
imposter of an Englishman.<br />
Moments later Keith Gillespie, the<br />
former Manchester United winger<br />
and Northern Irish national team<br />
legend, appearing as honorary<br />
captain for the Circuit Racers,<br />
was brutally sawed down in full<br />
flight by Dean Campbell, a race<br />
winner at the Cookstown 100 and<br />
- fittingly - a carpenter by trade.<br />
Gillespie was livid. He’d opened<br />
up a deep gash on his knee<br />
sustained the previous weekend<br />
in another ostensibly ‘friendly’<br />
international competition shown<br />
live on Sky Sports (the one that<br />
saw Ireland’s Jason McAteer sent<br />
off for kicking England’s Michael<br />
Owen up the arse).<br />
Campbell doesn’t give a shit<br />
about football, or Keith Gillespie’s<br />
reputation, or indeed Keith<br />
Gillespie’s knee. But he clearly<br />
gives a massive shit about winning.<br />
But thanks to the guile of<br />
Gillespie, combined with the<br />
calculated runs of Chrissy Rouse<br />
- a nimble British Superstock<br />
race winner with a maths degree<br />
- and the dextrous Nikki Coates<br />
up front, the Circuit Racers edged<br />
into a 2-0 lead. Aided by the<br />
willing runs of Glenn Irwin, an<br />
elaborate tactician from the wide<br />
left position, and the technically<br />
adept Superstock rider Jordan<br />
Gilbert in midfield, it seemed the<br />
incisive approach of the Circuit<br />
Racers was going to be too much<br />
for the <strong>Road</strong> Racers to cope with.<br />
However, as we emerged from the<br />
dressing rooms for the second<br />
half, a stiff westerly wind turned<br />
the rain sideways off the Irish<br />
sea, and into the faces of the Circuit<br />
Racers. The track technicians<br />
seemed to drop a cylinder whilst<br />
the <strong>Road</strong> Racers found some<br />
extra revs and ripped the throttle<br />
that little bit harder.
BLOG<br />
With the wind at their backs and<br />
an indomitable spirit within, they<br />
pumped relentless long balls<br />
over the top of a disjointed, dispirited<br />
and defeated Circuit Racers’<br />
defence, gaining endless joy<br />
from the willing forward runs of<br />
Davey Todd, the ‘Star of Tomorrow’<br />
at last year’s TT.<br />
So, is that all that makes them<br />
different?<br />
Probably not. But in the words of<br />
William Dunlop’s brother Michael,<br />
they are certainly prepared<br />
to go “that wee bit extra.”<br />
Barrel-chested BSB stalwart<br />
Shaun Winfield’s industrious attempts<br />
to punt the ball back into<br />
the wind from centre-half grew<br />
more and more futile as the gaps<br />
appeared around him and the<br />
pacey Todd took full advantage,<br />
setting up a flurry of late goals<br />
for Robinson and, ultimately, a<br />
winner from Kelly. The deflated<br />
Circuit Racers, it seemed, simply<br />
didn’t have the body fat percentage<br />
to weather the storm.<br />
With such a narrow winning<br />
margin in a match when footballing<br />
ability had precious little to<br />
do with the outcome, it is fair to<br />
say that the <strong>Road</strong> Racers had the<br />
mental edge on the day.<br />
Photo by Steve english
Photo: R. Schedl<br />
Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations!<br />
The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.<br />
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2019 Worldsbk test
SBK<br />
BLOG<br />
joininG the fast lane...<br />
More than Europe’s<br />
largest MC store<br />
I am writing this from the departures lounge of Seville Airport in the middle<br />
of a whirlwind of work and travel.<br />
After a very relaxed period over<br />
Christmas time, including a<br />
sneaky wee holiday with Clan<br />
GeeBee, 2019 has burst into<br />
life and I am currently bouncing<br />
around southern Europe in<br />
between photoshoots.<br />
It’s pre-season time when everyone<br />
in the WorldSBK paddock<br />
has a mad panic to get the final<br />
winter tests completed, bikes and<br />
engines prepared, fairings painted<br />
in new liveries; riders have<br />
new leathers and helmet designs<br />
to sort, all before the first week<br />
in February when everything gets<br />
put in crates and gets sent, lock<br />
stock and barrel, to Australia for<br />
the first round. We are just less<br />
than a month away from the first<br />
race of the season and no one<br />
seems fully prepared, least of all<br />
me.<br />
I think I have written about this<br />
before but each year it never<br />
changes. I get finished up in<br />
November with the last jobs and<br />
purposefully take time away from<br />
work to recharge the batteries,<br />
mooch about the house and<br />
generally relax with my family.<br />
The new season seems so far<br />
away in the future: it must be like<br />
coming onto that back straight at<br />
Buriram. It stretches so far in the<br />
distance you can’t even imagine<br />
there is a corner at the end of it.<br />
Then, BOOM, a hairpin arrives,<br />
or in this case a bunch of photoshoots<br />
all stacked up on top of<br />
each other.<br />
I started last Monday in Jerez<br />
and have been shooting everyday,<br />
via Seville and onto Portimao.<br />
I am now on my way to<br />
Sardinia for what is a new venture<br />
for me, a three day shoot<br />
with a manufacturer and their<br />
world championship motocross<br />
teams. Whist it’s been mega busy<br />
over the last days it has been<br />
really productive and, along with<br />
Jamie Morris, we have achieved<br />
a hell of a lot.<br />
Back to the WorldSBK tests, it<br />
was pretty much the whole SBK<br />
field on track, with the exception<br />
of the new HRC Honda team.<br />
Unfortunately the team hasn’t<br />
been able to get all the paperwork<br />
in place to register a European<br />
base. WorldSBK rules don’t<br />
allow teams to test out of their<br />
home continent, in this case<br />
Asia, so the Honda squad wasn’t<br />
able to test at Jerez or Portimao.<br />
It was a real shame not to have<br />
them there and I can only feel<br />
they will start the campaign on<br />
the back foot. The first we will<br />
see them will be in a few weeks<br />
at a two outing at Phillip Island,<br />
days before the first race weekend.<br />
It was good to see the new BMW<br />
team on track under the management<br />
of Shaun Muir Racing.<br />
Tom Sykes arrived really relaxed<br />
and looking forward to the test.<br />
I had hoped to catch them at<br />
their first shakedown at Almeria<br />
in December but the team were<br />
trying to stay under the radar as<br />
it was very much that, a shakedown.<br />
Added to that, Mrs Gee-<br />
Bee wanted to keep me ON the<br />
radar at home.
By Graeme Brown<br />
Not everything had been ready<br />
for a full spec race machine in<br />
Almeria so it was a case of setting<br />
up riding positions, mechanics<br />
getting used to spannering the<br />
bikes and so on.<br />
Now with everything prepared<br />
the bike looked pretty trick when<br />
it rolled out of pitlane on Tuesday<br />
morning at Jerez. <strong>On</strong>e thing<br />
I noticed however, was that they<br />
were running Nissin brakes. Nissin<br />
were only present in the paddock<br />
in recent years with the Ten Kate<br />
Hondas. Everyone else ran Brembo.<br />
Sykes apparently was really<br />
reluctant to use the Nissin product<br />
and was insisting on having<br />
Brembos. However, the deal was<br />
done long before Sykes put pen to<br />
paper and Nissin have gone all-in<br />
with BMW and SMR having their<br />
Racing Service on hand at both<br />
the Jerez and Portimao tests.<br />
There were other little noticeable<br />
changes up and down the paddock.<br />
The Barni Racing team,<br />
which is widely seen as an offshoot<br />
of the Ducati factory team<br />
and have taken Michael Ruben<br />
Rinaldi under their wing, are running<br />
Showa suspension. Showa<br />
have been a very big part of the<br />
success at Kawasaki over recent<br />
years and I was really interested to<br />
see their product on the Ducati. I<br />
couldn’t nail anyone down to find<br />
out the exact reason. Could it be<br />
that Ducati want to run it on their<br />
satellite team to get a handle on<br />
the performance of the Kawasaki?<br />
The current rules make it possible<br />
for anyone to buy the same equipment<br />
as the factory teams so it<br />
would make sense to see what the<br />
competition is using.<br />
In personnel terms it was interesting<br />
to spot Phil Marron in the Puccetti<br />
garage working as crew chief<br />
to Toprak Razgatlioglu. Phil has<br />
been a long term crew chief and<br />
friend of Eugene Laverty. I wonder<br />
how the relationship will develop<br />
but the Turk was pretty quick at<br />
both tests.<br />
Jonathan Rea continues to be<br />
top of the pile, setting the fastest<br />
times in both Jerez and Portimao,<br />
and he is resolutely determined<br />
to stay there. I had to visit him at<br />
home in Northern Ireland a couple<br />
of weeks ago.<br />
As I was coming off the ferry from<br />
Scotland he messaged me to say<br />
he was at the gym but to come<br />
up and by the time I get there he<br />
should be finished. When I arrived<br />
he was just starting the final exercise,<br />
pushing a sled with metal<br />
runners, laden with weights, up<br />
and down the car park in 10, 20<br />
and 30 metre shuttles, for the following<br />
20 minutes. By the end he<br />
looked drained. He has been doing<br />
that most days since December in<br />
order to stay fit and strong.<br />
<strong>On</strong>e man who has been hot on his<br />
heels at the tests is Alex Lowes.<br />
Alex and his brother Sam have<br />
pitched up at Valencia circuit and<br />
been training there since the start<br />
of the year. They have their own<br />
pit box and each day have been<br />
doing gym sessions, finished off<br />
by repeated efforts running up<br />
and down the hill along the back<br />
straight. Anyone who has been<br />
there knows how steep that is.<br />
We all follow our heros on social<br />
media and we see pictures of<br />
them riding motocross or supermoto,<br />
trials riding in the mountains<br />
or pedaling a push bike in<br />
some sunny location. What we<br />
don’t see is the hard graft of turning<br />
themselves inside out on a
SBK<br />
BLOG<br />
daily basis to reach peak fitness<br />
and hopefully gain an advantage<br />
over their rivals. We spoke about<br />
it amongst the soft media types<br />
in Portimao and agreed that top<br />
level professional athletes have<br />
something special that the rest<br />
of us don’t have. It’s not just the<br />
given talent they have for their<br />
chosen sport but it’s an ability to<br />
hurt themselves, endure physical<br />
pain, to make themselves stronger<br />
and fitter.<br />
Then there is the downside of<br />
motorcycle racing that we don’t<br />
see. I did a photoshoot with<br />
Supersport rider Jules Cluzel in<br />
Portimao. He is currently walking<br />
with the aid of a crutch after<br />
surgery on his ankle to break it<br />
and reset it. It turns out he broke<br />
it in a crash three years ago and<br />
it never set properly. He has been<br />
in constant pain ever since, all<br />
day, every day, and yet he still<br />
manages to race a motorbike and<br />
win at the highest level. It got too<br />
much for him last year and after<br />
his crash in Qatar he decided<br />
it was time to get it properly<br />
repaired, as much for his long<br />
term quality of life as well as his<br />
performance.<br />
Like most I guess, I never knew<br />
any of that and I was stunned.<br />
What a herculean effort to keep<br />
racing at that level and it is just<br />
another example of that little<br />
extra piece of the jigsaw that<br />
these guys have that makes them<br />
amongst the best.<br />
I am not going to complain about<br />
being cold or wet ever again,<br />
doing one of the best jobs in the<br />
world. I even feel a little bit embarrassed<br />
at this point to moan<br />
that I am a bit tired!
2019 Worldsbk test
Drinking<br />
at Last<br />
Chance<br />
saloon?<br />
He’s experienced and has excelled<br />
at so many levels of racing but this<br />
winter Eugene Laverty was staring at a<br />
career ‘wall’. The popular 32 year old<br />
now dislodged a brick to grasp a plum<br />
opportunity in WorldSBK with a Ducati<br />
V4 R. Can the Irishman finally match the<br />
talent with the results once more?<br />
Words & Photos by Steve English
Feature<br />
The butterfly effect is defined by how small<br />
events have widespread implications. It<br />
could be debated that a particular conclusion<br />
will be reached no matter the circumstances,<br />
but in motorcycle racing those small details can<br />
have massive repercussions on a rider’s fortunes.<br />
Eugene Laverty almost found how destructive the<br />
choices, moves and minor issues can actually be.<br />
At the end of the 2018 season the Irishman was<br />
facing the prospect of a year on the sidelines, but<br />
instead one call answered all his prayers, in the<br />
form of a Ducati V4 R.<br />
With the GoEleven squad switching to the<br />
Italian machine, Laverty finds himself in<br />
a seat with race winning potential once<br />
again.<br />
“Riders always know that they can be left<br />
without a ride,” assessed Laverty. “I don’t<br />
have a big enough ego not to feel vulnerable<br />
to that, and I realised pretty quickly<br />
that there was a chance that there<br />
wouldn’t be many seats available. Since<br />
I started winning races in World Supersport<br />
in 2009 I’ve always had options
drinking in the last chance saloon?<br />
any risk of being on the sofa for a year. This<br />
year things were different because options<br />
just kept dwindling. When I got injured in<br />
Thailand it was probably the worst time<br />
that it could have happened. We started the<br />
year really strong and then after the injury<br />
I had to rebuild, but that was when it was<br />
contract time for riders and that hurt my<br />
options. I can’t complain though. I’m back<br />
in WorldSBK for 2019, riding again. We’ve<br />
seen that in the end some riders went to<br />
BSB, and some were left without a seat.”<br />
With employment prospects shrinking in<br />
the WorldSBK paddock, the rider market<br />
was flooded. For Laverty it seemed that<br />
staying at Shaun Muir Racing was his primary<br />
route; but with the team switching to<br />
BMW and the German manufacturer bringing<br />
with them a hefty sponsorship budget<br />
having a German on the bike was always<br />
likely. With Markus Reiterberger in place,<br />
Laverty was suddenly in a shootout for<br />
other bike.<br />
on the table. This winter was very different<br />
for me. Looking back to 2013 - when<br />
I was pushed out of Aprilia - there was<br />
some uncertainty about where I’d ride,<br />
but I had options on the table.”<br />
“At that stage of my career I was winning<br />
races and did the double at the final<br />
round of the year in Jerez. I had choices.<br />
Should I go to MotoGP and be a midfield<br />
runner, or should I try and win races<br />
on the Suzuki in WorldSBK? That was<br />
a choice for me and there wasn’t really<br />
Going up against Tom Sykes left him on the<br />
outside looking in. The former WorldSBK<br />
champion may have been outclassed by<br />
Jonathan Rea in their four years as teammates,<br />
but six Superpole’s in 2018 certainly<br />
showed that he still has the speed.<br />
“This year rides were disappearing,” commented<br />
Laverty. “Kawasaki signed Leon<br />
from BSB and Kiyonari came in at Honda,<br />
so that was two seats filled and with Ten<br />
Kate pulling out, suddenly that was another<br />
two rides gone. It was a tough period. At<br />
one time, things were looking good for me<br />
to stay with my current team, SMR.”<br />
“Then when that fell through it was a case<br />
of thinking, ‘what’s going on here?’
Feature<br />
Everything was looking on course to stay<br />
with SMR during the summer but once<br />
things start getting delayed it becomes<br />
less secure for you. I still thought everything<br />
looked like it was going to go<br />
ahead but at the last minute things<br />
changed.”<br />
“That’s why as riders you have to understand;<br />
you’re just a number. You can’t<br />
take any offence from it. I understand<br />
that Tom is a world champion. He’s been<br />
winning races in recent years. So they<br />
chose him. That’s all there was to it. But<br />
I’m thankful I ended up getting something<br />
because the only problem for me<br />
with what happened was how late in the<br />
day it was. That’s all it was, and it left<br />
me in a difficult position.”<br />
Out of that adversity Laverty has been<br />
able to find himself on a bike that should<br />
be a contender. The brand new Ducati V4<br />
R is a MotoGP-derived machine. His experience<br />
of their Grand Prix motorcycle<br />
also gives Laverty plenty of confidence<br />
that the WorldSBK version shares more<br />
than a factory workshop and genesis; it<br />
shares the same gene pool.<br />
it tough for the rest of us to fight with<br />
them. Braking is really strong with this<br />
bike and we know that Chaz was always<br />
able to brake better than the Kawasaki,<br />
so those are the two key areas this bike<br />
could be very strong in.”<br />
Now it will be up to the 13 times WorldS-<br />
BK race winner to prove that he still has<br />
the ability, desire and confidence to fight<br />
at the front. His return to the productionbased<br />
championship has been below<br />
expectations with two podiums as scant<br />
reward. He knows that now is the time to<br />
deliver. With Jonathan Rea having dominated<br />
for four years, Laverty is realistic<br />
about how difficult it will be to beat him.<br />
Confidence is a fickle thing. It takes a<br />
long time to come and only an instant<br />
to drop away. It’s often said that a rider<br />
needs to believe they’re the best to be<br />
the best. For Laverty however, he knows<br />
that to beat the best - and Rea is statistically<br />
the greatest rider in WorldSBK<br />
history - he knows that first Rea has to<br />
realise he’s in for a fight.<br />
“This bike has some major strengths. The two biggest<br />
factors are how linear the engine is. It feels more like<br />
the MotoGP engine I used a few years ago...”<br />
“This bike has some major strengths.<br />
The two biggest factors are how linear<br />
the engine is. It feels more like the MotoGP<br />
engine I used a few years ago, and<br />
that really helps whenever you’re using<br />
fixed gearbox ratios and you’re running<br />
at minimum RPM in a corner. I’ve got<br />
an engine that pulls right through the<br />
reins. I think Kawasaki have had that<br />
over the last few years, and that’s made<br />
“I think that for everyone in this championship<br />
to beat Johnny at the minute,<br />
you’ve got to have a better bike than<br />
he has. He’s had four years with the<br />
same bike and the same team, he’s on<br />
the crest of a wave. He’s not starting a<br />
new season; he’s continuing what he’s<br />
done for four seasons. I think that with<br />
this Ducati we may well have a bike to<br />
do that though. We need to get the bike
drinking in the last chance saloon?<br />
working well and then get on top of the<br />
Kawasaki. If we can do that right from<br />
the start then the championship is wide<br />
open.”<br />
“Confidence is a strange thing, and when<br />
I went to MotoGP I lost some of mine. I<br />
listened to too much of the bullshit about<br />
what people around me were telling me. I<br />
almost started believing that maybe there<br />
is something special with those riders.<br />
That was a mistake and I should have<br />
focused on myself because that would get<br />
into my head a little bit, and that’s not<br />
good for anybody.”<br />
“Since coming back to WorldSBK and getting<br />
on a good bike I’ve had my confidence<br />
come back. At my first WorldSBK test I<br />
could compare my data on the Aprilia to<br />
2013, I could see from the first test how<br />
badly I was braking compared to the past.<br />
I needed to get my finger out again and<br />
work at regaining strength in my riding<br />
style. I want to get back to winning races.<br />
I’m a better rider now than I was in 2013<br />
when I was winning. It’s about the bike,<br />
the team and everything around you.<br />
There were some things that I was doing<br />
well but there was nothing I was doing<br />
better than what I do now. I’ve improved<br />
in every area. So it was a matter of getting<br />
the rest of the pieces of the puzzle.<br />
“When I was with Aprilia it was their full<br />
factory team. Everything was in place, and<br />
they gave me a chance to bloom. I need to<br />
get that going again. I know that this could<br />
be the last chance saloon. I’ve signed a<br />
one-year contract here at GoEleven. I think<br />
a lot of riders are in a similar position, so<br />
it’s important for me to hit the ground running,<br />
get those results and put myself in<br />
the shop window to get back to a factory<br />
team.”
Feature
drinking in the last chance saloon?<br />
Deadlines spur activity in every walk of<br />
life and Laverty is sure to find that in<br />
2019 his deadline will have moved up.<br />
He doesn’t want to be caught on the<br />
backfoot again in the next turn of the<br />
rider swaparound. Going to GoEleven is a<br />
move that certainly has risks attached.<br />
The team - who ran Roman Ramos in<br />
recent years - have to prove themselves<br />
as capable of being front-runners and<br />
Laverty needs to prove to the paddock<br />
that he’s still the rider he was five years<br />
ago. Whilst his data tells him that he’s<br />
moved forward as a rider, it’s possible<br />
that WorldSBK has also moved on since<br />
then. The first race of the 2019 season<br />
will be the fifth anniversary of Laverty’s<br />
last win in the class. A lot has changed<br />
for the Irishman since then but now he<br />
finally has the bike underneath him again<br />
to prove that he’s still contender. It’s put<br />
up or shut up time, and being the sole<br />
focus of his team for this pivotal season<br />
is something that he’s embracing.<br />
the data I want to see. We’re working on<br />
our own thing though, and if I request<br />
their data I can get it.”<br />
“I’ve ridden with so many top riders as<br />
teammates: Melandri, Biaggi, Guintoli, so<br />
I know what to look for in data. There’s<br />
no point in looking at a screen full of colourful<br />
lines and not knowing what you’re<br />
seeing. It can be deceiving because<br />
sometimes you can look at it and see a<br />
rider doing the corner better, but now<br />
with my experience I know to almost tell<br />
the engineers, ‘no, ignore that. He’s doing<br />
that, but he won’t be able to do that<br />
after six laps...’ So now I know what to<br />
look for and that makes a big difference.”<br />
“It’s been good to be a single rider in a<br />
team. I’ve never had that before, but with<br />
a brand new bike it’s good for everyone<br />
in the team to be focusing their attention<br />
in the middle of the garage. Some might<br />
feel more pressure as a single rider but<br />
I don’t because I only focus on myself.<br />
I’ve never really looked outside of that.<br />
It puts all the emphasis on me. Sometimes<br />
- especially in testing - a teammate<br />
can pull a lap out of his ass; the old data<br />
comes out in the overlay and is trying to<br />
tell you to do different things. So I quite<br />
like it that I’m able to do my own thing.”<br />
“The data that I have is from the factory<br />
guys, a MotoGP podium guy like Bautista<br />
and Chaz who’s won a lot of races, that’s
Products<br />
ducati<br />
Ducati and Italian watchmakers Locman have<br />
teamed up for a second run of timepieces.<br />
The combination has produced a collection for<br />
2019 that ‘consists of four models, each with<br />
a different mechanism, with prices ranging<br />
from 299 euros to 598: the quartz Solo Tempo<br />
(Time <strong>On</strong>ly), the quartz twin-gauge Chronograph<br />
(with 24-hour time and chrono minutes),<br />
the three-gauge Chronograph (with continuous<br />
watch seconds, chrono hours and chrono<br />
minutes) and the Meccanico Automatico Solo<br />
Tempo (Mechanical Self-Winding Time <strong>On</strong>ly).’<br />
The cases are made of stainless steel with the<br />
distinctive Ducati shield as part of the design.<br />
The look of the face is taken from ‘Ducati instrumentation<br />
and racing’ while the straps vary<br />
from soft silicone or natural padded leather.<br />
Locman might not be a well-known brand outside<br />
of Italy (and thus the units might be tougher<br />
to track down internationally) but the style of<br />
these products is actually pretty good: elegant<br />
and simple without any of the over-the-top and<br />
often gaudy appearances of similar bike related<br />
watches (such as the Tissot MotoGP lines or<br />
even other models in Ducati’s own portfolio).
www.locman.it
TEST<br />
pack<br />
the<br />
half<br />
BMW’s jugular<br />
shot for the<br />
Middleweight<br />
Adventure<br />
crown: f850gs<br />
Words by Roland Brown, Photos by Mark Manning
It looks as though 2019 will be the year<br />
of the middleweight adventure bike.<br />
KTM’s 790 Adventure and Yamaha’s<br />
equally eagerly awaited Ténéré 700 were<br />
stars of last autumn’s shows. Largecapacity<br />
adventure bikes are great, the<br />
thinking goes, but who needs all that<br />
horsepower, size and expense when a<br />
middleweight can provide exciting performance<br />
and comparable sophistication for<br />
much less money?<br />
Those two newcomers might be highlighting<br />
the trend, but in some ways<br />
they’ll already be playing catch-up.<br />
BMW’s F850GS, very much from the<br />
same market sector, has been in showrooms<br />
for several months already. The<br />
F850GS was launched midway through<br />
last year, comprehensively updating the<br />
F800GS that had been an adventure<br />
class mainstay for over a decade.<br />
At the heart of the update is a new parallel<br />
twin engine, with capacity increased<br />
from 798 to 853cc, increasing maximum<br />
output by ten per cent to 94bhp. The bottom-end<br />
is redesigned with a new firing<br />
order, and there are twin balancer shafts to<br />
kill vibration. (Continuing BMW’s confusing<br />
tradition, there’s also a new F750GS model,<br />
replacing the F700, with identical 853cc<br />
capacity and lower, 76bhp output.)<br />
In styling terms the F850GS has a beaky<br />
look that brings it visually closer to the<br />
R1200GS boxer. Its steel frame and other<br />
chassis parts are new; the fuel tank is<br />
conventionally located rather than at the<br />
rear. The drive chain is now on the left and<br />
the exhaust on the right, partly to facilitate<br />
manoeuvring the bike off-road. (Most riders<br />
push from the left, where the hot exhaust<br />
was.)<br />
The extra capacity gives the GS some welcome<br />
extra acceleration, and it’s impressively<br />
flexible as well as quick. It’s strong at<br />
higher revs too, and feels smooth, especially<br />
as the top three gears are slightly taller.
mw f850gs
But inevitably it can’t match the R1200GS<br />
for low-rev grunt, and doesn’t have the big<br />
boxer’s distinctive character either.<br />
It is however impressively economical, averaging<br />
close to 60mpg to give a range of 170-<br />
plus miles from the 15-litre tank. (There’s<br />
also an F850GS ‘Adventure’, with 23-litre<br />
tank plus hand-guards and taller, adjustable<br />
screen.) Whether the fairly thin and not outstandingly<br />
comfortable seat encourages such<br />
mileage without a break is another matter.<br />
Disappointingly, the F850GS doesn’t approach<br />
the Adventure model’s level of wind<br />
protection, largely due to its low, narrow<br />
screen, which does little apart from generating<br />
some noisy turbulence. A taller option<br />
is available, and there are also higher and<br />
lower options for the seat, which also can’t<br />
be adjusted, and at 860mm is typically<br />
adventure-bike tall as standard.<br />
With that standard seat the F850GS is respectably<br />
roomy and it handles well on road,<br />
feeling reasonably light and agile despite<br />
weighing 229kg with fuel, and having a 21-<br />
inch front wheel.<br />
The wide handlebar gives plenty of leverage<br />
to get the bike flicking through bends, steering<br />
is accurate and there’s plenty of stopping<br />
power from the Brembo front brake calipers.<br />
Suspension is well controlled despite giving<br />
very generous travel; there’s also a semiactive<br />
option that links with riding mode.<br />
As standard the modes are simply <strong>Road</strong><br />
and softer Rain. Paying extra for the Pro<br />
upgrade adds Dynamic, with sharper throttle<br />
response, plus off-road-friendly Enduro<br />
and Enduro Pro (which disables rear ABS to<br />
allow skids). The options are good to have,<br />
though the engine’s rider-friendly character<br />
means that even the sharper throttle response<br />
is very manageable.<br />
You couldn’t describe the F-bike as compact<br />
or particularly light, but it’s respectably<br />
manoeuvrable, and usefully less heavy and<br />
more agile than the R1200GS.
mw f850gs
“Whether off-road or on, the F850GS is<br />
a sensibly updated parallel twin that is<br />
quick, versatile and capable of tackling<br />
everything that a larger-capacity<br />
adventure bike can do. It also has the<br />
benefit of relatively low price ....”
mw f850gs
That helps make it plenty of fun off-road,<br />
where the fairly high handlebar, slim seat<br />
and serrated footpegs all come in useful<br />
when you’re standing up.<br />
Whether off-road or on, the F850GS is a<br />
sensibly updated parallel twin that is quick,<br />
versatile and capable of tackling everything<br />
that a larger-capacity adventure bike can do.<br />
It also has the benefit of relatively low price<br />
(£9875 in the UK), at least in its basic specification.<br />
Not that most buyers will choose the base<br />
model. Many will pay extra for the F850GS<br />
Sport (£10,755), which includes heated grips,<br />
quick-shifter and cornering ABS. And plenty<br />
of bikes will be kitted out with options including<br />
Dynamic ESA semi-active suspension,<br />
cruise control, keyless ignition and<br />
centre-stand.<br />
<strong>On</strong>e reason for the current rise of mid-capacity<br />
adventure bikes is that this latest breed<br />
can incorporate those electronic and other<br />
features, which large-capacity models have<br />
had for years. Perhaps the main drawback,<br />
in the case of the F850GS, is that doing so<br />
brings its price close to the basic cost of<br />
the mighty R1200GS, with its extra dollop of<br />
power and character (and, yes, weight).<br />
Most riders looking for a GS will doubtless<br />
fall for the familiar charm of the huge-selling<br />
boxer, but BMW’s comprehensively uprated<br />
parallel twin is well worthy of consideration.<br />
As one of the advance guard of adventure<br />
super-middleweights, it has set the bar<br />
temptingly high. Those new arrivals from<br />
KTM and Yamaha are going to have to be<br />
mighty good to beat it.
mw f850gs
ack page<br />
Oakland SX<br />
By James Lissimore
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