Hayden's reality part II and other odds and ends

So here's how the Soup interview went:

Q You bring up the 2007 season. How do you look at it? Is it the worst
year of your life?

A From the time I got on that new bike, or from my shoulder injury last
year at Portugal, and then the off-season, that put me behind coming
into the season, and bottom line is the bike was too small, I didn't
like it, I didn't feel comfortable on it.

Q The 212, I can't think of another motorcycle that would be less suited
to you.

A Yeah. I certainly didn't gel with that bike. From the time I sat on
it, it didn't feel right. When we pulled the blankets off it last year
at Valencia, I thought, "Are you kidding me?" And I sat on it, and I
thought, "No, this has got to be a joke. Is somebody trying to punk me,
like the TV show?"

And in the latest Cycle News, on the old and new 212:

"The use of pneumatic valves will have some other beneficial side
effects. The original Honda RC212V was designed to have a very high
center of gravity and it appears that this was done mainly to try to
help physically smaller riders like Dani Pedrosa use that high center of
gravity and the throttle and brakes to help pitch the bike into its
front springs or rear suspension to maximize grip under braking or
acceleration. It didn't quite work out, though, with the smaller riders
not liking the feel the bike gave them and the heavy riders having
extreme difficulty in stopping the front tire pushing away from them."

Are some of us still wondering who this bike was designed for?

In RRW at Philip Island Hayden also commented on the bike side of
Honda's "compact" concept:

But Hayden does think the 2008 bike will be bigger than the tiny 2007
model. "I don't think this whole mass centralization thing - going real
small and real tight - isn't going to happen next year, because the bike
runs too hot because the pipes are all inside," he said. "I guess mass
centralization looks good on paper but I don't think it's been the big
advantage they expected, so I think the bike's gonna be more normal size
next year."

Seems to have turned out to be the case, based on first looks later at
Valencia, in this photo actually making Pedrosa look his size again:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/enlar...ews&image=1563

More from Philip Island on who steers the ship in MotoGP from champ
Stoner:

"There are a couple riders in this championship who really make all the
decisions", said Stoner. "maybe the tire rule is to suit those certain
people." Like many others, Stoner believes that Rossi and Pedrosa have a
huge influence over Dorna, the commercial company that owns the rights
to MotoGP. The Spanish company needs Rossi because he's the sport's
biggest profile star and the form's managers are keen on Pedrosa because
he is Spain's biggest hope for a MotoGP title...

Most of the riders agree with Stoner's opinion that MotoGP is a
high-technology championship and thus shouldn't move to a single-tire
format... Stoner doesn't expect Dorna to listen to the opinions of the
MotoGP majority. "The people in charge know our opinions. It's going to
be decided without our opinion anyway", he said.


With the way it turned out, it seems Rossi means more to Dorna than
Pedrosa does. Or Honda is somewhat less pliable regarding Pedrosa's
wishes than Yamaha is to Rossi's. Which we already knew, of course.

In WSB all the Italians managed to work out a way to keep Biaggi in the
game, after he priced himself out of his Suzuki seat. Not much else
exciting there, with Neukirchner and Nieto replacing Max at Alstare,
aging ex-GP Checa replacing their best young star Toseland at Ten Kate.
His arrival along with that of Kiyonari is probably the only moderately
interesting news, that and the return to the US next year. And yet
there continue to be those, initially mostly in the UK but now
spreading, who tout how WSB is doing everything right and has made an
amazing comback riding on the back of their spec Pirellis. Alternate
reality at its best - continued nominal factory involvement, aging
has-been and never-were riders including increasingly more GP rejects, a
15-round 2008 schedule that includes only 3 races outside Europe,
assumedly 6 in Italy and the UK and none in Japan, and 2 still shown as
"TBA", but it's all okay because the racing is predictably close with
all on the same relatively crappy tires. So what are the attendance
figures and TV ratings compared to 6-8 years ago? With Checa signing for
the kind of money a top support class guy gets in the AMA, where's the
money?

Meanwhile in the AMA the 2008 seats continue to settle out, with Zemke
returning to Erion next to Hayes, no changes at Yamaha (except Ben
moving from SStock to SSport on the new R6) and Davies taking the Attack
Kawasaki seat next to Rapp. A bit too much stagnation for my taste, with
the worst news being 40-year-old Duhamel back on the Honda SB instead of
Hayes and DiSalvo back on the Yamaha SB instead of Hayes, Zemke, B-Boz,
almost anybody. The most notable trend seems to be the weeding out of
the Aussies, with Attard and Gobert losing their seats and no place for
Stauffer so far. With Hodgson joining Davies and Ellison, the thinking
seems to now be favoring British imports, and I'm not certain what that
says...

Mark N wrote:
> So here's how the Soup interview went:
>
> Q You bring up the 2007 season. How do you look at it? Is it the worst
> year of your life?
>
> A From the time I got on that new bike, or from my shoulder injury last
> year at Portugal, and then the off-season, that put me behind coming
> into the season, and bottom line is the bike was too small, I didn't
> like it, I didn't feel comfortable on it.
>
> Q The 212, I can't think of another motorcycle that would be less suited
> to you.
>
> A Yeah. I certainly didn't gel with that bike. From the time I sat on
> it, it didn't feel right. When we pulled the blankets off it last year
> at Valencia, I thought, "Are you kidding me?" And I sat on it, and I
> thought, "No, this has got to be a joke. Is somebody trying to punk me,
> like the TV show?"
>
> And in the latest Cycle News, on the old and new 212:
>
> "The use of pneumatic valves will have some other beneficial side
> effects. The original Honda RC212V was designed to have a very high
> center of gravity and it appears that this was done mainly to try to
> help physically smaller riders like Dani Pedrosa use that high center of
> gravity and the throttle and brakes to help pitch the bike into its
> front springs or rear suspension to maximize grip under braking or
> acceleration. It didn't quite work out, though, with the smaller riders
> not liking the feel the bike gave them and the heavy riders having
> extreme difficulty in stopping the front tire pushing away from them."
>
> Are some of us still wondering who this bike was designed for?

More from the Soup interview today:

Q Conspiracy theorists will say that the bike was developed for
Pedrosa with input from his friend, Mr. Puig. Your thoughts?

A Well, you know, that's a touchy subject. People have probably
already formed their opinion. I can see where people get that. I can't
really argue with that point. Honda has a lot of belief in him. But I
can say there's people at Honda who I feel are truly behind me. A lot
of people, I guess, on this side, don't understand the politics that
go into MotoGP. There's definitely a lot, with sponsors, passports,
teams, things that go a lot deeper than tires, than just the rider.
That's another thing that made this season kind of tough, was
definitely a lot of things like that. That's a touchy subject. I don't
want to just BS you all and dance around the question too much, but I
don't want to say anything, because I really think next year, the
input on next year's bike, they listened to me a bit more. And even
this year, because I'm the main test rider at Honda, so they've got to
listen to me some.


Hmm...

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