Alanf's blog...

Time to do another catch-up, this time a few updates about what has been happening in August that hasn’t warranted a full length write-up.

I think the biggest bombshell for August was the news that Valentino Rossi has signed a one year contract to continue racing in MotoGP with Yamaha in 2006. After a summer of rumors and press leaks claiming that Rossi was going to make the jump to Formula One car racing with Ferrari, suddenly Rossi is solidified in MotoGP for another year. This is great news for Dorna and the FIM both of whom will have the greatest living motor sports personality in their series for another season. It is also great news for Yamaha who will have motorcycle racing world’s greatest rider with their brand name smeared across the side of his bike in 2006. In contrast, this is devastating news for the other riders who were either hoping to sneak in one more shot at a GP title in 2006 before retiring (Biaggi, Gibernau, Barros, Bayliss, Checa) or the youngsters who are hoping to get their big break (Melandri, Hayden, Hopkins, Elias, Pedrosa). Expect the news for the 12 months to again center around Vale.

Speaking of Formula One, immediately after announcing his MotoGP extension Rossi then spent two days testing the Ferrari F1 car. It appears that this is still a pretty serious interest for the Italian though obviously not for next year. Rumors have now shifted to a possible link between Rossi and Ferrari in 2007. Perhaps Rossi is hoping to get a gig with the Italian powerhouse in ‘07 either as a full time driver or a tester. If that happens it will be a birthday, Easter, and Christmas present for the prototype cage racing crowd as they have struggled with boring racing carried out by boring personalities for years. Rossi would make a splash in the F1 world like tossing a elephant into a kiddie pool. Whether he can be competitive a whole different story…he has only been a few seconds off the pace in testing but finding those last few ticks of the stop watch is the difference between a good driver and a race winner. Still, just imagine an Italian driver in an Italian car racing in Italy where F1 racing is tremendously popular…the only thing better would be having him race a Ducati in MotoGP…

Speaking of Italians, it seems as if yet another Italian motorcycle company is struggling. Over the past half decade we’ve had Ducati’s woes (before being bought by American company TPG), Moto Guzzi’s woes (before being bought by Aprilia), Laverda’s woes (before also being bought by Aprilia), Aprilia’s woes (after running out of money and then being bought by Piaggio), MV Agusta’s woes (after being rejected by Piaggio and bought by Proton) and Bimoto’s multiple woes (the latest being resolved after being purchased by a group including members of the Ducati family). Well, the latest Italian motorcycle company to take a dive is Benelli which has apparently shut down production of all their models. Benelli, one of the oldest of the Italian manufacturers, was out of business for a long time after going under in the ’60s but revived in the 1990s. Now it looks like they are again having money problems and unless they can pull out of their nose dive the awesome looking TNT naked bike and innovative Tornado Tre sport bike seem doomed. It is also unfortunate since Benelli is one of the few companies in the past couple of decades that has been willing to go head-to-head with the Japanese in World Superbike racing. Lets hope they somehow manage to resolve their financial crisis and that Benelli continue to make their interesting motorcycles.

One rescue that has already taken place is that of the AMA Supercross series which has found a new home with SpeedTV after being cut loose from ESPN2. This appears to be a move for the better since it seems that Speed is going to make Supercross their flagship motorcycle program as opposed to jamming it in between semi-pro volleyball matches and bass fishing. Supposedly this is a multi-year contract so hopefully this will keep Supercross’s TV status assured for the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen what will happen with AMA Motocross TV coverage which is currently being shown on OLN.

To continue with the TV thread, how about the three Hayden brothers (Tom, Nicky and Roger Lee) who have been making regular appearances on the boob tube. First, Nicky was on the Today show back in June. Then in August all three brothers were on Leno and this past weekend all three were showcased on NBC’s Jeep World of Adventure Sports TV show. With MotoGP growing in popularity world wide all of this TV exposure will hopefully help give the sport a shot in the arm here in the US. I think this is quite possible not only because the sport is incredibly exicting but also because I can’t imagine better spokes persons for the sport than the three Hayden brothers. All three are talented, all three are very professional and all three are just plain nice guys. Keep those cameras rollin’.

One sport that could use some more press is the AMA ‘05 Endurocross race which is scheduled for November 19th at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. This sport is the bastard child of an unholy union between Enduro racing and Supercross. Its a fiendishly difficult track that includes many of the challenges commonly found in an Enduro race but built into a tight track that can be assembled inside a sports arena. In the same way that Supercross has shrunk the size and quadrupled the popularity of motocross the AMA is hoping the same will happen with Endurocross which brings the excitement of technical trail riding into a more physically concentrated location. Seems very cool to me and I’d love to see it get more press.

Rossi’s 2006 plans isn’t the only MotoGP news this month. Another bomb that was dropped was KTM suddenly deciding to drop their support of the Team Roberts KTM/Proton project. KTM had been supplying engines to Team KR, as well as footing the bill for the top spec Michelin tires and covering the salary for rider Shane Byrne. Their abandonment of the project has left Kenny Roberts and this Team KR squad up the creek. For Brno last weekend they rolled out last year’s hand built V5 and brought in hired gun Jeremy McWilliams but teething problems with the motor ended their weekend early. It will be a miracle if they can scrap together the parts and funding to run the rest of the season. I had been forecasting that they would certainly be out of MotoGP by 2007 since KTM would be unlikely to build the 800cc motor necessary to meet the ‘07 rules but it looks like things are fizzling out even sooner. If anyone has $20 million or so to invest I think keeping Team KR in the MotoGP game would be a great investment…

With the 800cc rule solidified in MotoGP all the manufacturers are starting frantic development on motors to match the new format. Hot on heels of the press release of the displacement change came rumors that Honda is planning to built a V3 for the 2007 series. As with most bike rumors, only time will tell if that is true. If it is true expect Honda to go all out with a V-5 engined, RC211V based production superbike bike so that they can get some real sales benefit out of their investment in their MotoGP program. If a Hayden replica will be made just point me where to put down my deposit right now.

In lieu of buying a MotoGP based V5 sport bike then I wouldn’t mind picking up something from an auction of 130 classic bikes previously owned by Gilbert Tiger which will take place in Colorado Springs, CO on September 16th. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for 1960s era single cylinder bikes so the BSA and Ducati bikes in the collection look particularly nice. Still, I don’t think any of these will end up in my garage since I’m still struggling with the choices available for when I finally buy a new sport bike much less trying to get rid of something else to make room for a vintage bike…

My final August Odds and Ends item is the great news that money for a new motorcycle fatalities study has been tucked away in the 2005 transportation bill that was recently approved by the US Congress. Given that motorcyclists have been forced to use the ancient Hurt report which was done twenty five years ago as the basis for all discussions resolving around bike safety, a more modern examination of motorcycle accident statistics is long overdue. It will undoubtedly take many years to gather all the necessary data to get meaningful results but once this study is complete it promises to have far reaching impacts which will hopefully help with rider training, design of safety gear and a better focus of legislative action as it relates to motorcycles.

[image from the Team KR KTM/Proton web site.]

…comes mainly because of rain!

The recurring theme for the 2005 Iron Butt Rally has been water. The 1st leg bonus list was dominated by lighthouses from coast to coast, along with various other H20 related items like dams, hot springs and water falls. Prophetically, the riders that headed east encountered torrential rains both going and returning, meaning they undoubtedly had more water in the first third of the rally than they really wanted. Added to that was the dampening of their enthusiasm when the points were tallied and those long haul east coast visitors found themselves languishing outside the top ten while those that took the relatively conservative west coast loop earned almost double the points while riding a 1,000 miles or less that the east coasters.

The water theme continued in the second leg with the majority of the bonuses being various lakes from the southern edge of Canada to the southern states of the US. The riders only had two and a half days to get from Denver, CO to Portland, Maine so it would be difficult for riders to pick up many bonuses. Its a long way from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast and it seems all that much longer when you’ve spent the past five days churning out the miles on a motorcycle. Every convenience store along I-70 was probably sold out of caffeine drinks and sugary snacks last weekend! The goal set for these riders was to leave Denver at 9am on Friday, grind their way through weekend traffic on the east coast while trying to pick a route that maximized their possible points but minimized their running late and arrive in Portland at 9am on Monday morning. For every minute after 9am that they arrived they would lose points from their total. If they arrived after 11am, they were automatically disqualified. This is a nerve racking time for endurance riders but made all that much more difficult when the weather in the northeast was…yes, you guessed it, wet. If they weren’t soaked from rain, they probably were from sweat.

For those that made the Maine checkpoint, another list of bonuses was handed out and at 11am EDT Monday morning the Star Traxx web site showed the riders were again on the road. While we don’t yet know what the leg 3 bonuses look like, it is guaranteed it will again have a hydro-theme…if not because of the locations they will be visiting then because of the weather being brought into the central states by hurricane Katrina. If there are any bonuses located in the south, then it will only be the brash or fool-hearty who go after them. Southern Florida is without power and with roads that are still shut down from storm damage, New Orleans is flooded and Mississippi is reeling after being hammered by storms and record amounts of rain. The riders still in the rally that have GPS units appear to have split the storm…some hauling butt west to get into the mid-west before the storm blocked their path while others concentrated on the east coast, presumably hoping to head west behind the storm.

Information has been particularly slow to trickle out of Iron Butt central this year and data about the specifics of the bonuses are non-existent. I think most of the people following the rally were surprised to see that some crazy bonuses weren’t available in leg 2 with the stipulation that the Maine bonus could be skipped. This means that the big rally winning bonuses are in the leg 3 packet. Now the rally truly boils down to an endurance test…those that still have some shreds of energy tucked away in their body and can still collect their thoughts enough to ride hard for four more days are going to win. For the rest, its just a matter of dragging their tired bodies and tired bikes back to Denver with the hope they have enough points to qualify for a finishers award.

Among those that are going for the big finish is my buddy Jeff Earls. After the leg #2 points were tallied, Jeff was in second place 3,500 points behind Jim Owens and around 2,000 points ahead of third place Eric Jewell. So far he’s racked up 7.125 miles on his BMW R1150GS and even a direct ride from Maine to Colorado would put him in the neighborhood of 10,500 miles for the rally…impressive considering that is 11 days of riding, much of which was done in the rain. Even more impressive, Jeff has no plans to take the straight path back to Denver. Instead, he is off chasing one of the race winning bonuses. He should be one of the favorites if his bike holds together, his body can take another few days of punishment and his brain can deal with the sleep depravation just a little longer.

I’m heading down Friday morning for the finish and hope to have a final Iron Butt Rally report early next week. In the meantime, try not to buy any soda from the Denver area stores…there may be a rally rider that needs it come Friday morning.

[image from the Blackfly photo gallery web site.]

As I mentioned in my weekend race preview blog entry the big news for the MotoGP race weekend would probably center on Valentino Rossi. Well, I’m some what disappointed to say that I was correct…not because I dislike Rossi but because I always want to see a race series offer up exciting and competitive racing. Rossi’s four year MotoGP romp has become predictable…

The break over the past four weeks have given the racers and teams an opportunity to regroup after a a summer in which Rossi has crushed his opposition winning eight of the ten races coming into Brno. The R&D departments at the various teams and tire companies have been working overtime trying to match the Yamaha/Michelin pairing but the lack of new equipment at Brno was someone surprising. Honda has some tests scheduled immediately after the Czech Grand Prix to try out some new parts on their V5 but didn’t race with any major new parts in the race. Bridgestone did bring some new tires and it was obvious during qualifying that the Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki teams found definite improvement in the new rubber. Otherwise, the bikes were mainly unchanged from what was wheeled into the garages at the end of the previous race at Sachsenring, Germany.

After a frantic qualifying session, Sete Gibernau put his Honda on pole ahead of Nicky Hayden and a resurgent Loris Capirossi. Rossi was next, joined on row two by Melandri and Checa. In addition to the two Ducatis, the Bridgestones also carried Hopkins to the middle of the third row with Barros ahead and Edwards behind. Gibernau looked strong all through qualifying, meaning this may actually have been his best chance of winning a race, something he desperately needs after being repeatedly beaten earlier in the season by Rossi at Jerez, Le Mans, Catalunya and Sachsenring.

With everyone hoping that Gibernau would have what it took to run with Rossi, the racers gridded up for the race. At the start, both riders charged to the front and immediately started to pull a gap over the following pack of Melandri, Hayden, Capirossi and Barros. By lap two, it was clear that the race would be another titanic struggle between the two bitter rivals. With each lap, the two riders exchanged the lead and steadily pulled away from the battle for third. There Hayden, Melandri, Capirossi and Barros all fought in a tight pack. These intra-rider struggles slowed the pace which bunched up the group a little but it also allowed a hard charging Biaggi to join the fray.

Just like in the first races of the season as the race progressed Hayden started to drop back while Biaggi surged forward. Unlike early in the season, Melandri also started to fade and Capirossi charged forward. A the laps wound down the battle appeared to boil down to a Rossi/Gibernau duel with a rapidly closing Capirossi tantilizing close to his second podium of the year. At the beginning of the last lap, Rossi made his move on Gibernau and again went into the lead. The Italian was able to pull a small gap but not the kind of unassailable lead that he was able to open in the rain in Britain. Gibernau seemed to hold the gap at around one second and clearly had the intention of making a lunge for the win at the final chicane. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas on the final 1/3 of the last lap denying him an opportunity to challenge Rossi. The post-race story is that there was a failure with the fuel injection system on Sete’s RC211V. From a psychological point of view this bike failure is sure to have confused things inside the Spainard’s helmet. One one hand, he was yet again denied a win and a win is the only thing that can restore Gibernau’s confidence. On the other hand, the mechanical DNF gives his battered ego an excuse after again being smacked by Rossi so his confidence may not have gotten any lower. Gibernau’s misfortune gifted Capirossi with a second place resulting in Ducati’s best finish of the season. It also rescued Biaggi’s race taking him from a 10th place qualifying effort to the final spot on the rostrum. With Biaggi’s future role at Honda still in doubt his third place finish goes a long way towards keeping him on the company payroll.

Another rider whose performance at Brno probably helped his chances for 2006 was Brazilian Alex Barros, who fought with Capirossi for the second half of the race, whose eventual fourth place finish was his fifth top five of the year. Hayden held on for fifth but his drift backward after running third in the early stages probably didn’t impress him or the Honda bosses. Likewise, Melandri’s inability to return after the summer vacation to the form he showed over the first few races of the season means he continues to slip down the championship order - falling to third behind Biaggi in the title fight. At the end of the weekend Rossi has expanded his lead to 132 points. Biaggi is three points up on Melandri who has a three point gap over Edwards. Gibernau is in fifth, with Barros in sixth and Hayden in seventh, these three riders separated by only three points.

The Czech GP was the last race on European soil until the final race at Valencia in November. This marks the beginning of the “fly away” races with the first being three weeks from now in Japan, followed one week later by Sepang, Qatar a week after that, Phillip Island in mid-October and finally Turkey a week after that. These non-European races test the riders, the teams and the tire manufacturers as they have to ship everything they need to these remote locations. There are six more races spread over the next 10 weeks. That means a total of 150 points are left on the board given that a win pays 25. Rossi only needs to win one more race this season to tie up his 4th MotoGP championship and his 7th GP title.

Whether it is returning from the break between seasons, between teams or just a month off between races Valentino Rossi always seems to pick right back up where he left off…by winning!

[image from the Gizmag web site.]

There is a saying in the south to describe being extremely tired which goes ‘I’m just slap wore out". Now I have no idea where that came from or really even what it means but I can tell you that there are some people in Denver tonight that are slap wore out.

This evening was the first checkpoint in the ‘05 Iron Butt Rally. Unlike past Iron Butts, where the riders rode to the four corners of the country (and often a whole lot more) this year the first leg started and ended in Denver, CO. To make sure that the riders didn’t spend four days eating peeled grapes and soaking in the Doubletree’s hot tub, there is a minimum number of points required at the end of the rally (also in Denver, on Friday a week from today) with the assurance that there won’t be enough points available in the second and third legs to meet the requirement. Thus the riders left Denver on Monday and have spent the past four and a half days chasing bonuses that were scattered around the North American continent (and even a bogus bonus further afield than that!).

Over the course of today the exhausted riders have been trickling back into the Doubletree hotel parking lot. The zombies arrived tired, smelly, hungry and clutching tattered stacks of gas receipts. Waiting in the parking lots were friends and family all worried but still ready to help however necessary. (Check Bob Higdon’s daily report on the IBR web site for more on this.)

Before they could collapse and take a much deserved nap they had some important tasks to do. First they had to check in with the Iron Butt Association staff. This meant a half hour off going over their route and presenting all of the paperwork they had collected to back up their claims. Polaroid photos, gas receipts, signed affidavits and GPS tracks were all explained in excruciating detail…four days of riding condensed into 30 minutes and a half inch high stack of paper…Once checked in the riders then had to attend to their bikes. New tires needed to be fitted, fresh oil added, headlights cleaned and niggling little problems fixed. Some riders had a support network to lend a hand while others sat their exhausted bodies on a curb and broke out their tools. Bike’s attended to, the riders could finally stagger to their rooms and try to catch some shut eye. Then at 9pm the second leg bonuses were handed out and they started it all over again.

The first leg points standing were posted tonight and it looks like those that took the dramatic long rides to the east coast didn’t get much for their effort. Doug Chapman, whose star-traxx route looked so impressive on Tuesday actually ended up in 47th place. It was the guys that went west who racked up the big points while turning in lower odometer numbers and getting more rest in the process. Jim Owens leads the scorecard with 37,214 points, a stunning 50% more than Doug Chapman, while turning in nearly identical mileage. The riders that went to Oh Canada! cranked out over 5,000 miles but still came back with around 10,000 less points for visiting the News Brunswick light house than those that bagged lots of the west coast bonuses.

My buddy Jeff Earls currently lies third in the points with 33,090 from a 4,656 mile ride. Fantastic stuff, especially considering he had to deal with a flat tire in southern California this morning. He got to Denver around 3pm and had time for a five hour nap after check-in before the bonus packets were handed out. While he was sleeping, his friends John O’Keefe and Rob Scott were handling bike maintenance duties. He should start leg #2 well rested and with a R1150GS full of fresh fluids and a good rear tire. Go, Jeff, go!

[image from my photo collection.]

Normally, I would do my weekend race preview on Friday but with the Iron Butt Rally riders returning to Denver at the end of this week I thought I’ll pull the preview in one day so I can give another IBR update after watching some of the IBR riders return from the first leg.

There are two races this weekend and both have something in common. Both venues are defined by their terrain as both are built in rolling hills. Second, both are classic courses making them among the best visited by their respective series. Finally, in both cases the main news for the weekend focuses on the two championship leaders. In fact, if the headlines on Monday aren’t focused on the two title favorites, then you can bet the biggest news will in fact have something to do with them anyway! In this case, the two events are the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Czech Republic at the Autodromo Brno and the AMA Superbike Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.

The Grand Prix weekend at Brno should be the most interesting of the two as the MotoGP riders are returning to the final third of their season after a four week break. This means that injuries will have healed, which is especially important for John Hopkins, Makoto Tamada and Tony Elias, and the tired bodies are rested. The riders that have been struggling have had some time to find motivation, those that have been under the pressure of Rossi’s mind games have had a month off to rebuild their shattered confidence and the engineers back in the R&D labs will finally have a chance to try out their latest miracle fixes for whatever ails their non-winning machines. Going into the break, it was obvious that Rossi was in the cat bird seat as he currently holds a 120 point lead over Melandri after winning all but two of the races so far this season. With 25 points awarded per win Rossi only needs two more race wins from the remaining six in order to clinch his 5th premier championship title.

The battle for second place in the championship race couldn’t offer more of a contrast compared to the battle for the lead. While Rossi is running away out front there are six riders all within 15 points of each other in the fight for the runner up spot. Currently Melandri is at the front of the scrap but only by one point over his teammate Gibernau. Another spot and another point behind them is Edwards who is then trailed by a single point by Biaggi. When four riders are spread only a single point apart you know there will be some fireworks over the next few races. With Barros and Hayden tied for sixth a further 12 points behind Biaggi it really is anyone’s guess on how the final title points tally will look.

The last three races (Laguna, Donington and Sachsenring) have shown that Rossi is the only rider with any consistency what-so-ever. The riders that have tried to build some momentum, like Hayden, Edwards and Biaggi, have all struggled during at least one round. Hayden was the golden child at Laguna with his amazing win and was equally impressive taking the third step on the Sachsenring podium but then fell off in the rain at Donington in between those results. Edwards was 2nd and 4th in the US and UK but then slipped to 8th in Germany. Biaggi has a pair of fourth place finishes but also got bitten by the rain in Britain. The only other consistency has been with DNFs. Melandri fell twice in a row before bringing it home in seventh at the Sachsenring. Likewise, Checa and Bayliss have two falls each, though the Spaniard was fifth in the wet and Bayliss was 6th in the California sunshine. Gibernau is the only rider to show improvement, going from a Laguna 5th to a DNF to second. None of these guys have put together the kind of mid-season charge needed to beat Rossi on track and none have had the consistency to stay close in the points. The final rider news is the big fat question mark that will be hanging over Shane Byrne’s head given the recent melt down between KTM and Team Roberts. I think it will be a miracle if the TeamKR bike can even take to the track since the engine, rider and tires are all in doubt.

What is certain is that the 3.36 mile Brno circuit should, as it has done for nearly 20 years, provide some great racing. As I mentioned back in my Brno World Superbike race preview back in July the track is what all motorcycle race tracks should be: fast, challenging, safe and scenic. It is laid out on the hills outside Prague and the resulting elevation changes give the track a distinct character. Imagine Assen with its high speed turns and off-camber turns but laid out in the Czech hills rather than the plains of Holland. The track is filled with bumpy high speed sweeping down-hill turns which means that riders need to have near telepathic communication from their front tire. With the track being unusually wide this also means that those with confidence in their bike setup and with a bucket load of courage will have plenty of passing opportunities. Roughly half the track is taken in third gear or faster which means a bike will average over 100mph over the course of a lap and will top out over 180mph on at least two different sections of the track. This is a seriously cool track!

The AMA boys double header at VIR, in contrast to the MotoGP race, marks the penultimate round of their series with only a double header at Rd Atlanta in one week remaining. Also unlike the MotoGP series, the points battle in the superbike championship is far from decided. Thanks to two DNFs (one a mechanical failure and the second being taken out in someelse’s crash) Mat Mladin has a narrow nine point lead over his Yoshimura teammate Ben Spies despite having put on a commanding performance so far this season with eight wins. Also unlike MotoGP, the contest for the second place is more spread out with the recently resurgent Eric Bostrom trailing Spies by 54 points and Aaron Yates a further 18 points behind Bostrom. This means that Spies has enough of a cushion that he can afford to go for the broke at VIR in an effort to beat Mladin.

It is consistency that has kept Spies in the fight, especially over the last three races where he’s had a 4th, a 2nd and a 3rd, but he needs some wins in these final races to really have a shot at the #1 plate. Mladin had a second at Laguna and a first at Mid-Ohio before being torpedoed by Yates in the second Mid-Ohio race and so is still the favorite coming into this weekend…only a fool would bet against him. The fight for third doesn’t look good for Yates as it is Eboz that has earned the most points over the last three races with two wins and one third. Yates was on the podium at Laguna but then he threw his Suzuki into the dirt in both Mid-Ohio rounds which allowed his Ducati mounted rival to jump ahead of him in the title hunt. The stats would indicate that Eboz is on a roll and has the upper hand in the fight for third.

The stage upon which this end of season drama will take place is a beautiful 17 turn, 2.25 mile laid out on the the hills near Danville, VA. The venue is a classic road race circuit, unlike the NASCAR oval infields which fill out a third of the schedule, and thus one of the better events on the calendar. It is made even better because, like the Suzuki Cycle Fest that I attended last weekend, it is being promoted by RPM. They understand how to make an event successful by providing a variety of things to do above and beyond the racing. In this case, those attending the VIR event will not only have the opportunity to watch the AMA races but we also see a go kart event comprising teams made up of AMA racers, moto-journalists and fans. If the racing doesn’t do it for you SpeedTV will have a huge display area, there will be screening of the movie Faster, a motorcycle stunt demonstration team will be performing, there will be live music in the evenings and a vendor area for those interested in shopping for motorcycle gear. This is a seriously cool event!

Not a bad weekend of entertainment, whether you’re watching a great GP race at Brno on TV or if you’re lucky enough to be attending the AMA superbike weekend in Virginia.

[image from the Autodromo Brno web page.]

“Ah, push it - push it good
Ah, push it - push it real good
Ah, push it - push it good
Ah, push it - p-push it real good”
– Salt-N-Pepa

As I mentioned on Monday the Iron Butt Rally participants shoved off for their eleven day torture test at 10am on Monday morning. I’m writing this at around 10pm on Tuesday night, a mere 36 hours into the event, and already interesting things are happening. Now, I’m not a long distance rider and make no claims to being one. I’ve been known to cross one of these big, wide western states for a weekend trip and the thought of riding to, say, Yellowstone or Zion National Park doesn’t particularly have me quaking in my combat touring boots but I’m very aware that I have neither the endurance or desire to push myself like the Iron Butt riders. Last night I went to bed with visions of my morning walking around the Doubletree parking lot and then woke up this morning refreshed and ready for work. So imagine my surprise…nay…my complete disbelief when I checked the Star Traxx GPS tracking system web site for thirteen of the the Iron Butt riders and found that one of them was already south of Atlanta, GA! As if that wasn’t amazing enough, two others were outside Seattle, two just approaching Atlanta, one was in San Diego and two others damned near to Toronto. To me a weekend ride is to Wyoming or Utah. To these guys, its the opposite coast!

Now whether or not you are a motorcyclist take a moment to let that sink in. Someone got on a motorcycle Monday morning and then casually rode somewhere on the order of 1500 miles in 24 hours. That is an average of around 62 miles per hour for an entire day. I’m willing to bet Doug Chapman, the rider that reached that astounding distance in so short at time, took at least a short nap in there so that speed average is actually a bit faster. Not impressed yet? Well Bob Higdon, one of the sadistic maniacs behind all this craziness, wrote in his nightly rally update that the weather in eastern Kansas last night consisted of hard rain and hail. Okay, lets say you’re still tapping your finger and waiting for something that will really awe you…After turning in that 24 hour blitz across the country the FJR continued on. When I checked at 4:00pm this afternoon, 30 hours after the start, he was in Miami and now, 36 hours in, he is slogging his way down the parking lot that is the Florida Oversea’s Highway and is almost to Key West. That’s over 2000 miles in 36 hours. Come on, even the chronically blase’ have to awestruck by that kind of performance!

Doug isn’t alone in racking up some big mileage numbers in such a short time span. The Star Traxx web sites show that two riders chose to head north to New Brunswick, Canada. As of right now, they are pushing 2000 miles and are nearing their destination. Those that headed west, rather than east, have a different challenge ahead of them. Where the east coast only had a few possible bonus locations each worth a lot of points the west coast had lots of smaller bonuses sprinkled from Washington state to southern California. Additionally, there is an added restriction that these are “day time only” bonuses which means large chunks of time each day can’t be used for accruing the much needed points. Those that chose to go west have to ride like hell during the day and then use the night for rest and positioning themselves for another points grabbing run the next day. This means some big mileage numbers may yet be turned in by these riders but probably nothing on par with those who started chasing the morning sun on Monday.

This first leg, like a well played game of chess, means that the first decisions may well end up determining the final outcome for the riders. Those that chose to chase the big points on the east coast must make it back to Denver by Friday or be disqualified for missing the mandatory check point. If they have to turn back before reaching the bonus location, they can’t collect many other points on their way back to Denver in order to make up for their failure and may well be out of the running for the overall win. If, on the other hand, they grab the big bonus and get back to Denver they’ll be exhausted but probably ahead in the points tally. Those on the west coast have to carefully construct a route that maximizes their points while still finding the time to rest up. Their best bet is to get back to Denver with enough points to still be in the game but hopefully more rested than those returning from the east. Then they can make a big push in the second or final leg to try to win.

Then, as if all that strategy isn’t confusing enough, they have to wait and see what Friday’s second leg bonus packet looks like. The Florida Keys and New Brunswick bonuses may be back but with altered points values. Or, even more challenging, there may be bonuses in far flung places like Baja Mexico, northern Canada or Alaska that can be attempted while forfeiting the Maine checkpoint on August 29th. Will Doug Chapman find himself early next week once again swimming through a Kansas rain storm en route to the Florida Keys?

As of the first reports there is no update yet on my buddy Jeff Earls. When I spoke to him Monday morning he had his game plan and seemed confident in his decision. Since he, along with almost 80 other entrants, don’t have GPS tracking systems there is no way yet to know where he is located right now. Jeff is a shrew rally rider: this is his third Iron Butt, so he now ranks among the vets in the event. He was set for a top seven place in 2003 when his BMW’s final drive failed and he has been a regular in the Utah 1066 for five or so years. I’m confident he is doing what he needs to do in order to be a contender. I’ll be heading back to the Doubletree on Friday so I’ll give an update then if nothing about him shows up in Higdon’s reports for the rest of the week. For now, he’s just one of the many unknowns.

In fact, it is so easy to be excited by the highly visible progress that Doug Chapman has made that we may forget that any one of the 77 riders not being tracked at Star-Traxx could be doing even better. Perhaps someone has been busy sucking up bonuses in the southwest and is ahead in points. Maybe the Minnesota Team Strange gang are bettering their fantastic 2003 effort and have even mileage on their odometers than anything we can see online. What if someone took the sucker bet of a Panama Canal run and is right now closing in on Honduras. Who knows what further wonder these riders will bestow on us as the rally unfolds. One thing that is already clear is that all of these riders are pushing hard from the very start. Pushing *real* good.

[image from my photo collection.]

As I mentioned in my Friday evening blog posting, this past Saturday I rode up to Copper Mountain for the first day of the weekend long Suzuki Cycle Fest. I headed up with just two things in mind: To participate in the Suzuki GSXR 20th Anniversary event and to watch some Supermoto racing. I’m happy to say that I was successful on both accounts!

I got up early on Saturday so that I could do some work on my old GSXR 1100’s hydraulic clutch system. I didn’t have the parts needed to repair it properly but some judicious application of teflon tape and RTV, along with some re-torqueing of all the bolts and thorough bleeding, managed to get some pressure back into the clutch lever. I checked the weather before leaving the house and found that rain storms were expected in the mountains in the afternoon. With some spare tools and brake fluid to deal with possible roadside repairs thrown into the tail trunk with my rain suit I headed west into the mountains. The GSXR is still a hoot to ride especially with a properly functioning clutch but the suspension that I fully rebuilt recently is set up horribly. It somehow manages to pogo and bottom (too soft?) while transmitting each little bump straight into the bars (too hard?). Back to the drawing board…

It started to rain just before I reached Copper Mountain but once I arrived I found the first thunder claps had already occurred. First, the GSXR events were already in full swing. Unbeknownst to me, a free lunch was available for GSXR owners as well as the customary swag: T-shirt, pins, stickers, posters, etc. I also got to spend some time talking with ex-Suzuki GP star Kevin Schwantz, mainly hearing how dedicated he has become to bicycling and how enthusiastic he is about the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki school. I opted to skip the dyno shootout and the parade lap through the Copper Mountain village as I figured I’d have enough trouble getting home on the GSXR clutch *without* any added abuse!

The bit of news that rained on my day was hearing that Yamaha rider Doug Henry had started the day as the fastest rider but then crashed in practice and was sent to the hospital. During the early laps of practice, Suzuki rider Travis Pastrana was making a triple jump out of a section of two small kickers with a low table top in between. Henry successfully followed up with his own triples through that section but then came up short on one attempt and cased the bike on the final kicker. He got thrown over the front and then his YZ450 threw a pile driver onto his chest. The result: a broken pelvis, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Ouch! Doug’s weekend was done.

This is, of course, proof that the proverbial lightening of supermoto bad luck can in fact strike twice. Last year’s supermoto races at Copper Mountain started out great for Henry but then turned sour when his bike had a mechanical failure while he was leading the second race. As a result of the DNF, he handed the lead in the title chase over to his then-teammate Jeff Ward and was never a factor in the 2004 championship battle again. Well, Doug came into Colorado leading the ‘05 AMA Supermoto title chase and left with *four* DNFs (this weekend was a double header and each day had two Supermoto races) and with Ward once again in the points lead. If the physical injuries are an “ouch” then the quadruple goose eggs in the score column is the mega-ouch.

As for my view on the racing it mirrors my view of supermoto overall. First, it is spectacular stuff…moreso even than supercross, motocross or road racing. In fact, the only other motorsports that I find so immediately breathtaking are trials competition and mile long flat track races. Watching riders pitch a bike sideways on pavement and surf it to the apex of a corner is just astounding. Throw in some jumps, a wide flat-track style corner and some high speed paved sections and you get a lot of “Wow!” in a very small space.

Additionally, the AMA has done a fantastic job of getting factories involved. In just three years, the event has grown from a few small vans and some 10x10 canopies to full factory semi-trucks, hospitality areas and teams of mechanics. Having this kind of professional presence gives the series instant credibility both with sponsors and fans. It also helps that so many different manufacturers are jumping in: KTM, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Husqvarna and Husaberg all had at least some presence in the Copper Mountain pits. This is amplified even more because RPM does such a phenomenal job with their events. At Copper Mountain there was not only the racing and the Suzuki event but also the Red Bull Freestyle Motocross demonstrations, stunt riding show, trials exhibition, demo rides from multiple manufacturers and an ATV test ride area. Nice!

Finally, the AMA series already has a great depth of talent, including big name riders like Doug Henry, Jeff Ward and Travis Pastrana. Most of the riders are older and have a lengthy history of success in other forms of AMA pro racing. This means the series has instance fan appeal while waiting for new riders to grow into stars specific to this form of motorcycle racing. To give the series even more credibility and an international flavor, there has been an effort by either the teams or the AMA to bring in some talented European riders like Jurgen Kunzel, David Baffeleuf, Alex Thiebault, Troy Herfoss, Ivan Lazzarini and Massimiliano Gazzarata. All of these riders are top notch and all bring more to the weekend’s program than just an unusual name. They bring the prestige of international riders coming to compete in a US series.

As a side note there were two women riders who were attempting to qualify for the races at Copper Mountain but unfortunately neither turned fast enough laps in qualifying to make the mains. Hopefully both will keep trying because getting some fast ladies mixing it up in Supermoto will go a long ways towards breaking the gender barrier in motorcycle racing. Anything that can bring greater diversity, both in terms of gender and race, to the motorcycle racing community is definitely a good thing.

My only complaint with the AMA Supermoto race series is that it seems to to have very little actual dicing. I don’t know if this is because of the style of tracks used in the US, the varying quality of the riders or just the reluctance of Supermoto guys to mix it up but the races are often too processional. Every Supermoto race thusfar held at Copper Mountain has basically been a romp by the eventual winner. The last ingredient in the Supermoto recipe has to be finding a way to prevent these run away wins and develop track designs and rules that result in tight racing. Watching someone like Ward back a bike into a fast corner is very cool but it would be exponentially cooler if he backed that bike in underneath another rider on every other lap while involved in a battle for the lead.

To Sum up the weekend’s racing: The old guys were sticking it to the young guys. The international riders were running near the front. But in all classes the winners inevitably ran away with the win. Forty four year old Jeff Ward went four for four in the Supermoto class, each of those wins being by a substantial margin after initially battling with guys nearly half his age. In the Supermoto Lites, Yamaha’s Mark Burkhart went two for two, both times leading Kawasaki mounted riders Joel Albrecht and Brandon Currie across the finish line. The Unlimited class was another sweep with 18 year old Australian Troy Herfoss putting his Husqvarna atop the podium in both races. Just as Henry had a disastrous weekend at Copper Mountain, so did Unlimited points leader David Baffeleuf. He crashed his KTM on the rain dampened track Saturday and injured his knee. He missed the restart of the first race and then couldn’t ride on Sunday, giving him a double DNF. Worse yet, his accident was caused by a run-in with his KTM teammate…things were probably pretty stormy in that pit Saturday evening!

Travis Pastrana never fails to grab attention wherever he goes. In this case, he was continually improving all weekend and was the fastest person in the dirt during the Supermoto races. Unfortunately, as is Pastrana’s MO, he was a little to fast which resulted in a crash on Sunday while running near the front. I guess I can’t really call him inconsistent anymore, since he is pretty consistent in his ability to crash motorcycles. Travis will always remain an enigma!

Perhaps a more interesting story is the comparison of the old guys versus the youngsters. The four Supermoto podiums were topped by old man Ward but his young teammate Chris Fillmore was second twice and third once in the four races. Also upholding the honor of the class rookies was Cassidy Anderson who came in second behind Ward in the first moto. Italian Massimiliano Gazzarata too the second place spot in the last race of the weekend. Seasoned rider (and KTM team boss) Kurt Nicoll once again put in an iron man performance with two third place finishes in Supermoto. Jurgen Kunzel filled out the final podium spot with a third in the second moto on Sunday. In this class, the old guys clearly still hold the high ground though a couple of guys half their age are steadily improving.

After a day of watching great racing, dodging rain showers and enjoying an overload of Suzuki GSXRs I headed back home. Like the rainbow breaking through a cloudy sky, the GSXR got all the way back home without a single clutch problem. Now, if only the crappy suspension action would mysteriously clear up!

[image from my photo collection.]

Back in January I did a blog entry announcing that the 2005 Iron Butt Rally would start and stop in Denver this year. Well, the time is now upon us.

This past weekend a small army of Iron Butt contestants, staff and volunteers descended upon the Doubletree Hotel Denver. Just before 10:00 in the morning on Monday, August 22, 90 endurance riders will be given their rally packets and, after a short time of frantic map reading and bonus point calculations, will hit the road. For the next 11 days, the riders will ride a minimum of approximately 1,000 miles per day. In the past, their route has taken them to the four corners of the US and often times into places like Alaska, remote regions of Canada and even into Mexico. This year the rally route will be somewhat different as it starts in Denver, has a checkpoint back at the start line 4 1/2 days later (Friday August 26 between 7 and 9pm), then another checkpoint 2 1/2 days later in Maine (Monday August 29 between 9 and 11am) and finally returns to Denver four days after that (Friday September 2 between 8 and 10am).

What is all this about? Well, the rally itself was first started in the mid-80s and is only held every two years. Riders with prior experience in other Iron Butt events or with demonstrable endurance riding experience may apply. The 90 or so riders who will actually take part in the event are chosen roughly 18 months before the start of the rally by random ballot selection. (A few riders are approved directly by the IBA staff but the vast majority go the ballot route). After a year and a half of preparation, everyone travels to the start location to begin the rally.

At the start of the rally, the Iron Butt Association staff of rally masters (aka, the Rally Bastards) of Bob Higdon, Mike Kneebone and Lisa Landry pass out the route packets. These folders not only contain the details of required checkpoints but, more importantly, also contain the initial list of bonuses (additional bonus listings may be given out throughout the rally). The most basic requirements for the rally is simply to start on time, hit all the required checkpoints within the two hour window they are available and make it to the finish within its 2 hour window. Accomplishing this, while sustaining the grueling physical strains imposed by eleven straight days of endurance riding, will earn the rider a Iron Butt Rally (IBR) finishers medal. However, the bonuses are what really change the Iron Butt from merely being a test of stamina to being a strategic game of survival. The bonuses are various locations that can be visited by the riders which earn bonus points above and beyond those awarded for hitting the checkpoints on time. Some of these are small and easy, others are nearly impossible but very rewarding. It is up to the rider to make the necessary decisions about what bonuses are achievable without missing the checkpoints. The more bonuses a rider can snag the greater their points tally. At the end of the rally, the rider with the most points wins. Sounds simple in theory but in practice it is fiendishly difficult especially when paired with the toll already exacted by riding such long distances over so many consecutive days.

“What?!?! Are these guys insane?” I can hear you thinking. Well, on that particular topic I am neutral. Like the Isle of Man, top speed runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats or motorcycle Endurance roadracing, organized long distance rallies are undoubtedly dangerous. Then again, riding a bicycle at 50 miles per hour in a measly pair of spandex bike shorts for hours at a time is dangerous as well (just witness all the crashes in this year’s Tour de France). Ultimately, some people will always find ways to push themselves to the limit. It isn’t any one’s job to baby sit riders, so long as the consequences of their actions are no worse than those that any other vehicle can impose. As for the riders themselves, I don’t think they are reckless thrill seekers. There is a quantifiable difference between people that take calculated risks and those who are downright stupid. All the riders in the Iron Butt know exactly what they are up against and they spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for it including skills training, bike preparation and self assessment. All that said, I think there are three basic categories of riders that compete in the Iron Butt Rally.

First, there are those just out for a finisher’s trophy. Many of these riders are on “odd” machines…small displacement bikes, vintage motorcycles, bikes of questionable build quality, etc…and are going to do the minimum mileage possible while still hitting all the checkpoints. In the end, they will have the satisfaction of knowing they completed the Iron Butt Rally and will probably have the tales of a lifetime for having done so on something everyone thought couldn’t possibly survive such a harsh trip. Surely these people are pushing the boundaries by simply being in the rally but they are the most conservative of those involved even if their choice of bikes would sometimes indicate a questionable level of mental stability.

The second group are those that are going to push themselves a little harder by going after some bonuses but realistically know they aren’t going to win the rally. Some of these riders are just practicing for future rallies or are just out for the satisfaction of knowing they will have pushed themselves to their personal limits. All of these riders are somewhere on the “‘unusual” end of the spectrum of motorcyclists but hardly suicidal in nature.

Finally, there are the big dogs. Riders like 2003 winner Paul Taylor who went after a seemingly absurd bonus in Prudoe Bay, Alaska but still made the required checkpoints. The pool of potential winners are pretty easy to spot. First of all, they have specialized bikes with auxiliary gas tanks, enough wattage in their head lights to turn a deer into venison jerky, more navigational aids than the space shuttle and more accessories on their bike than a typical Harley has shiny chrome bits. Many of these riders have long lists of sponsors who help defray the costs of these bike modifications and nearly all of them have prior history at competing in the IBR. As for these guys, a year or two in serious therapy should probably go along with a winner’s trophy!

Me, I’ll be watching longtime ‘net acquaintance Jeff Earls who will be competing again this year. Jeff had a DNF last year after 7773 miles. In 2001, he finished 16th with a total of 11,241 miles. In 1999, his first IBR, he finished in 24th with 10,906 miles. That is two “gold medal” finishes in three starts. Not bad! If you’re so inclined, you can follow the daily reports which will be posted on the IBR web site by Bob Higdon and watch Jeff’s progress throughout the rally.

[image from Martial Mason’s motorcycle photos web page.]

This coming weekend is the 3rd annual Suzuki Cyclefest at Copper Mountain. This event was started in 1993 by Colorado’s Race Promotion Management, aka RPM, and features a wide variety of attractions including demo rides, a market place, trails riding demonstrations by Geoff Aaron, two rounds of the AMA Supermoto series and organized rides in the Colorado mountains. Something for everyone!

For me, there are only two attractions. First, Suzuki is using CycleFest as one of the stops on their GSXR 20th Anniversary Tour. As a result, GSXR owners get free entry into the event, preferred parking, a free T-shirt and various other perks. I’d intended to ride my old ex-Team Hammer ‘88 GSXR1100 to the event but have been having problems with the hydraulic clutch getting air into the slave cylinder. I ordered clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder rebuild parts from Colorado Powersports two weeks ago but this week found that they ordered the wrong parts. They ordered a brake master cylinder kit instead of the parts to fix the clutch slave cylinder. (Since I had to re-order anyway to get the correct parts I went ahead and ordered a stainless steel line to replace the 17 year old stock line as well). At this point I’ll either ride the GSXR and just plan on bleeding the clutch numerous times or I’ll have to ride the Beemer. We’ll see how much of the GSXR 20th Anniversary celebration I get to enjoy.

The second thing on my list for the weekend is to watch the AMA Supermoto race on Saturday. I have plans for Sunday so I’ll only be able to watch half of the weekend’s double header. The track at Copper Mountain is the shortest of the tracks on the Supermoto calendar (surprise, surprise, another rinky dink track in Colorado) but it appears they have lengthened the dirt section this year so RPM is clearly making an effort to improve that shortcoming. Now they just need to make the paved back straight a little longer so that the guys with a roadrace background have a chance to show their stuff with some really fast sections…

No matter what the track looks like the racing looks like it will be good. For one thing, the AMA has added a new class this year. In addition to the Supermoto and Supermoto Unlimited classes, there is also a Supermoto Lite class for 250cc four strokes. Given that this weekend is a double header and that the Supermoto class races twice each day there will be a total of *eight* races spread over the two days. That is the best race value of the year! Add in the big names racing in the series like Doug Henry, Jeff Ward, Jurgen Kunzel, David Baffeleuf, Alex Thiebault and Thierry van den Bosch. The rest of the field, while not as well known, is also packed with talent. Returning from last season are: Mark Burkhart, Chris Fillmore, Ben Carlson, Leonardo Bagnis, Alex Thiebault, Kurt Nicoll and Micky Dymond. Even the new comers add excitement with European stars and talented new comers like Andrea Bartolini, Massimiliano Gazzarata and Troy Herfoss joining the seriers. Perhaps the biggest change for this year’s Copper Mountain event will addition of two female riders with Michelle DiSalvo racing Supermoto and Erin Normoyle racing Superrmoto Lite . That is guaranteed to increase the popularity of the event!

There are still a few things that need to be improved with CycleFest. For one, the demo rides fill up first thing in the morning so if you get to Copper Mountain after 8am you aren’t taking a demo bike for a ride. Second, the market place area has been a little short on quality vendors for the past two years. The first year I got a chance to meet Malcom Smith since he had a booth for MSR but otherwise the vendor area has mainly been booths selling sunglasses and metal polishes. Hopefully, as the event gains popularity it will also draw a wider variety vendors for the market place.

Even if the event is still in its growing stage, having a chance to ride into the mountains on a weekend and watch some racing makes it a “must see” event. I’m looking forward to being there this coming Saturday and hopefully I’ll be there on my old GSXR!

[image from my photo collection.]

It has been awhile since I did a product spotlight blog posting. I’ve once again had the opportunity to deal with one company in particular and have once again been impressed so this seems like as good a time as any to do another posting. In this case, the company in question is Jesse Luggage.

When I bought my R1150GS in 2001 I decided to forego the stock BMW bags and look for something better. Based on talks with friends, various web postings and some magazine articles I decided that Al Jesse was making the best luggage for the big adventure touring bikes. I bought a set of his Odyssey saddle bags, a rear compartment and a 45 liter top box. Once I received them I found they were easy to install, were very rugged and had roughly twice the storage space of the Beemer bags. I particularly liked the rear storage compartment, since it gave me a secure place to store little things like a security cable, a spare quart of oil and some bungee cords.

As I’ve mentioned before, my product spotlights generally focus on companies because of their service as much as for their product. Here is where Al Jesse really blows the competition out of the water.

About a month after I installed the Jesse bags I rode in a particularly hard rain storm and noticed a little bit of water in one of the saddle bags. I called Jesse Luggage and ended up talking with Mr. Jesse himself. He explained that he had changed vendors for the rubber gaskets that seal the cam locks and that some of the first Odyssey bags went out with the earlier version. Since my bags may have gone out with the earlier model he decided to ship me the new model of the gaskets…for free. The new parts showed up and, once I installed them on all the bags, haven’t had a single leak since. At the same time I bought the optional lid racks and installed those as well. They are a great addition to the luggage both because they offer additional tie down spots and because they work as great carry handles.

About six months later, I had a problem were one of the pins on one of the hinges on the right saddle bag worked its way out. I once again called Jesse Luggage and again ended up talking directly with Al. He said that he’d found that the hinge design contained a pins which were pressed in place and that they were prone to working loose over time. He had come up with a new design which uses rivets rather than the press fit pins. He popped one of the new hinges in the mail to me…again for free. It installed easily with some stainless steel rivets that were supplied with the kit and for the past three years has worked great.

Fast forward another two years to last summer. Once again I had one of the hinges, this time on the left saddle bag, have a pin work its way out. Same issue, same story. I called, spoke directly to Al and again had a new hinge show up without my having spent a dime.

Then this summer I had one of the mushroom nuts, used to latch the saddle bags onto the luggage rack, back off while riding on rough dirt roads. I picked up the phone and decided to try another approach for a change. Instead of even mentioning that something had happened to my saddle bags I just ordered one of their cam lock kits. In addition to making an excellent product, Jesse also has a full list of spare parts that you can order individually. After a quick phone call and a couple of days wait, the cam lock showed up and only took about 5 minutes to install. Had I just asked I wouldn’t have been surprised to find the mushroom nut show up for free but I felt this was my fault since I’d noticed the nut was loose earlier but hadn’t made an effort to fix it back up.

So one thing that has been drilled into my head over the past four years is that Al Jesse definitely stands behind his product. Most products come with a warranty and most companies will stand behind that. Maybe its for six months, maybe its a year or maybe even longer. But Mr. Jesse takes a different approach. He seems to understand that the best way to improve his product and the best way to earn loyal customers is working with them to fix their problems. Now I’m sure that Jesse doesn’t always give away repair parts for free but in this case he decided that some of his original components weren’t as reliable as he’d like. In addition to making constant efforts to improve his product, he went one step further by upgrading his customers when they hit problems. That is a level of commitment that can’t be touched by any other company.

The Jesse bags are a great product but the real reason I encourage people to consider Al Jesse’s product is because of the way he will support his products after he’s sold them. If you need bags, give ‘em a try.

[image from Jesse Luggage web page.]

Back in May, my “Odds and Ends blog entry” was lead off with the news that ESPN had decided to drop their coverage of the AMA Supercross series. OLN was quick to pick up the TV contract for the 2005 Motocross series but it was unclear about whether they would also be showing this coming Supercross season. Well, now the answer is clear as SpeedTV today announced that they have signed a five year contract to televise the AMA Supercross races.

With Supercross popularity continuing to rise, thanks mainly tothe personalities of riders like Ricky Carmichael and Bubba Stewart, it is fantastic to see such a commitment from Speed. It is also interesting to see that the AMA is now marketing the television rights to the Motocross and Supercross series separately. This highlights the issue recently mentioned on Motorcycle Daily about how Supercross as far outstripped Motocross in prestige. This is further illustrated by the recent press releases explaining how riders like Chad Reed and Bubba Stewart are skipping motocross races in order to be ready for the upcoming Supercross season or the news that factory star David Vuillemin has signed a Supercross only contract with Team BooKoo for the 2006 season.

Now it really isn’t all that surprising that Speed would be interested in picking up the TV rights for Supercross. First of all, they have been airing the thirteen episode TV show “The Reality of Speed” which chronicles the lives of the five riders on the Samsung Wireless Sprint team throughout the 2005 Supercross season. Good stuff and a much better use of their air time than some of their other crap like Texas Hardtails and NASCAR Nation.

Speed has also been watching as viewer ratings for their motorcycle coverage of MotoGP have risen this summer. It is hard to quantify exactly what their stats are but it does appear that the numbers for MotoGP are equal to, if not higher than, some of their bread-n-butter car racing programming. While the NASCAR-centric programming directors may not be interested in motorcycle racing I’m sure the accountants are quickly becoming big fans. Speed already has the rights to MotoGP (and its support classes of 125GP and 250GP), World Superbike (and World Supersport), AMA Superbike (Supersport, Superstock and Formula Xtreme), AMA Arenacross, FIM Motocross and FIM Enduro. Quite an impressive line-up of two wheeled racing (’course, they have also reduced Two Wheeled Tuesday to a half-hour, added Biker Build Off and the aforementioned Texas Hardtails so things are all wine and roses).

I’m excited that Supercross not only has a home again but also that it is a more appropriate home than it had previously with ESPN. Now my concern is the impact on their current motorcycle programing because of Speed’s commitment to to show the entire Supercross series 250 races with next day coverage and same week coverage for the 125s. (Hopefully, they will have more appropriate names by this winter!). With some of the roadracing support classes like World Supersport and 125GP currently being televised as much as a month after the race, it will suck if those get superceded with the new SX races. This may even be part of their plan given the wording in Speed’s press release that says “THQ World Supercross GP/THQ AMA Supercross Series will be positioned as the premier motorcycle property on SPEED Channel". (Sounds like Speed has placed their vote on whether Ricky Carmichael or Valentino Rossi is the greatest of all time!)

Oh well, at least what was once on the way to becoming NASCAR-TV is now becoming Motorcycle-TV. That’s a change I can deal with!

[image from THQ World Supercross web page.]

History books are filled with things that were once hot and yet now they’re not. Items or people or places or events which had their day in the sun and have since faded into obscurity. The Rubik’s Cube, the Edsel, Asbury Park New Jersey, New Kids on the Block and deep fried twinkies have all seen their star ascend and then set.

Well, there was a time when one of the biggest races in the world, even bigger than the Japanese round of the Grand Prix series, was the Suzuka 8 hours endurance race. This was an event where once a year the other Japanese factories would come to Honda’s test track and try to play David to Soichiro’s Goliath. When I was younger and first getting interested in motorcycle racing the entry list for the Suzuka 8 hours read like a who’s who of the racing world. Even if the riders didn’t like the track or didn’t like superbikes, they were contractually obligated to attend because of the prestige associated with the event. Think of the biggest names in motorcycle roadracing for the past three decades, then read over the list of people who have raced and won the Suzuka 8 Hours. The lists line up pretty well: Cooley, Crosby, Aldana, Baldwin, Merkel, Gardner, Magee, Rainey, Lawson, Doohan, Beattie, Slight, Russell, Polen, Edwards, Haga, Itoh, Ukawa, Okada, Barros, Kato and Rossi have all lofted the Suzuka trophy.

However, over the past three years, the event has lost much of its former glory. The reasons for this are many but the biggest issue has been the increasingly dangerous nature of the track as the speeds of the bikes has increased over the years. This was highlighted by the tragic death of Honda’s MotoGP star Daijiro Katoh during a GP race in 2003 and further reinforced when Japanese rider Keisuke Sato died back in June of this year after a crash at the track. Even more recently Katsuaki Fujiwara crashed while practicing for this years’ 8 Hours and broke some vertebrae. Some improvements have been made to the track since Katoh’s accident but the list of recent serious injuries show that its still got a long way to go before its ready for another international race and may be even longer before the factories are willing to risk their top level riders just to win the historic race.

The second issue which has dampened enthusiasm for the Suzuka 8 Hours event is the sheer dominance by Honda. The first eight hour endurance race at Suzuka was held in 1978 and won by Americans Wes Cooley and Mike Baldwin aboard a Suzuki. In the 27 years since then, Honda has won 19 races including a unbroken sweep from 1996 through last year. In contrast, Yamaha is the second most successful manufacturer with four wins, Suzuki has brought home two more since ‘78 for a total of three and Kawasaki has a single win. Clearly it has become very difficult for the factories to keep finding the motivation to come back to Suzuka each summer for another thrashing from Honda.

The final thing that seems to have affected the stature of the 8 Hours race is the declining popularity of endurance racing as a whole. Since 1980, the Suzuka race has been part of the FIM World Endurance Championship. There was a time when Suzuka, along with other rounds of the international endurance race series like the 24 hours Bol d’Or at LeMans, the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the Imola 200, were huge events followed world wide. As those events have lost much of their international flare, so has Suzuka. Just as the major factories no longer field fully supported bikes to the teams racing the FIM Endurance series, they also no longer put forth that effort at the 8 Hours.

Unfortunately, this year’s 28th “Coca Cola” Suzuka 8 Hour Endurance (the third round of the 2005 FIM World Endurance Championship) appears to have continued this tradition of decline. However, what the race is lacking in formal factory participation it makes up for with privateer and factory supported teams. This year eighty teams lined up for the Lemans style start all hoping to have a shot at the huge purse that always accompanies the race. However, not content to demolish their competitions formal teams, Honda also played the 800 lb gorilla against the privateers with two semi-factory teams and another few well funded not-quite-privateer teams taking the grid. In fact, there were a total of 34 Hondas in the field compared to 19 Suzukis, 16 Yamahas, 7 Kawasakis and various other teams running a BMW, a Ducati, an Aprilia and couple of exotics from Over and Asahina.

The favorites going into the event were the two SevenStars Honda teams: #7 with riders Tohru Ukawa and Ryuichi Kiyonari and #11 with World Superbike stars Chris Vermeulen and Katsuaki Fujiwara. In this case, Honda would get great press material if either team won. A win by the #7 team would put Tohru Ukawa on top of the all time Suzuka winners list as he is currently tied with Wayne Gardner at four. Additionally, a win by the #7 team would add Honda’s rising star Kiyonari’s name to the list of riders who have won the 8 Hours. If, on the other hand, #11 were to take the checkered flag it would be a triumph for Honda’s international superbike efforts with Vermeulen as their Superbike star and Fujiwara one of their Supersport stars.

The race was flagged off in nice weather and a nice battle developed up front between Kiyonari on the SevenStars #7 bike, ex-GP ace Shinichi Ito on another Honda and the Yoshimura Suzuki of WSBK ace Yukio Kagayama. By the first pit stop, roughly an hour into the race, SevenStars #7 had already started to pull out a lead. This continued in the second hour but in the middle of the third stint it started to rain and the wet stuff kept up for two straight hours. It was during this window that SevenStars really sealed the deal. Their wet tire strategy proved superior to the other teams and their ability to stay on two wheels really made the difference as bike after bike crashed. At the mid-point of the race, they already had a full lap advantage over their nearest rivals. In the closing hours, the SevenStars #11 bike made a surge forward and at the end of the eight hour race it was the two SevenStars bikes in first and second.

This marked the historic fifth race win for Tohru Ukawa and was SevenStars was the pointy end of a Honda weapon which dominated by not only filling out the entire podium but bringing home Big Red bikes in the top six positions. In the end, the Ukawa/Kiyonari teaming turned 204 laps to win three laps ahead of Vermeulen/Fujiwara on the second Seven Stars entry. The Team HARC-Pro Honda with ex-GP rider Haruchika Aoki and Takeshi Yasuda came in third, four laps down on the winners. It may have been the Honda cup when it comes to brand diversity but endurance racing, especially world caliber endurance racing with so many ex-GP, World Superbike and Japanese national champs in the mix, is exciting stuff nonetheless. The amount of strategy that goes into endurance racing rivals that of a grandmaster chess match and watching riders race hard in the dark or wet is always thrilling.

But the sad thing is that no one, outside a few PR agencies and inside some race team transporters, really cares. While his Suzuka results help define a veteran rider like Tohru Ukawa, it will be a minor footnote in the career of a rising star like Kiyonari or Vermeulen. However, there may yet be hope on the horizon. As the saying goes “A rising tide lifts all boats” and the increasing popularity of motorcycle racing worldwide may yet restore some of the glory that once shined upon the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race.

[image from the FIM World Endurance Championship web site.]

As I mentioned in my my Odds and Ends posting for the month of May the much anticipated show down between the “Big Four” (Carmichael, Stewart, Reed and Windham) that never really materialized in the Supercross season was delayed until the Motocross season. Well, with that season nearly over, it seems that the news is just a re-run of the SX story: Ricky Carmichael is truly the best there is.

Chad Reed struggled (he’s a better SX than MX rider anyway) and Kevin Windham couldn’t quite make the leap necessary to run with RC. But the big news, just like in SX, has been Bubba Stewart. Unfortunately that news is also the same as was told last winter. Stewart is amazingly talented and very fast but crashes have ruined his season. In fact, Stewart ended his Supercross season early because of a crash and then picked back up in the Motocross series with two crashes in the first moto at Hangtown. He then pulled out of the second moto (depending on who you believe the reason for the early retirement being either crash related injuries, dizziness from the heat or being tired from lack of physical conditioning.) A 12th overall finish due to 6-30 finishes was a less spectacular splash that everyone was expecting from the rising star diving into his rookie year in the 250 class.

Sadly, the following seven rounds haven’t really been much better for the Kawasaki rider. Another crash at Mt. Morris while still managing 2-2 finishes. The mystery that is Bubba grew even bigger at Southwick where he pulled out of the first moto feeling light-headed and failed to start the second. Was this a health problem? A bike problem? A political battle with Kawasaki? Lots of questions but no answers. Budds Creek offered another chapter to the saga with Stewart bouncing back to card 2-3 moto finishes for third overall. He also had a coming together with RC in practice that kept the rumor mills churning. This was mirrored at Redbud where he again got 2-3 results but this time had a run-in with Windham in the second moto. This mid-season string of podium finishes looked good but the streak came to an end at Unadilla where JBS made a mistake over a jump while dicing for the lead and landed on Carmichael. He was carted off with a possible head injury and thus missed the second moto. This injury kept him out of the following races at Thunder Valley and Washougal as well, though strangely enough he was rumored to have ridden and crashed while practicing pre-race at Thunder Valley. His return was scheduled to be this past weekend at Spring Creek but a pre-race practice crash at Glen Helen put him yet again on the injured list.

As of round 9 of the 12 race series, he has some pretty interesting statistics in his rookie 250 MX season: 6 podiums (four seconds, two thirds) in seven race finishes (the aforementioned podiums plus the 6th in the first moto at Hangtown). He either pulled out or crashed out of three motos and then didn’t start eight motos. Finally, he had fairly high profile run-ins with both Carmichael and Windham though none of them appear to be clear-cut cases of dirty riding. Going into next week’s race at Broome-Tioga, Stewart currently sits eleventh in points a staggering 326 points behind championship leader Ricky Carmichael.

What’s it all mean? Well, there is no doubt that Bubba has been at a great disadvantage all season long to be riding the Kawasaki KX250 two-stroke against the big four strokes that all his competitors are running. It is worth noting that his teammate, the hard riding Michael Byrne, is also riding the KX and his best finish of the season is fifth. (Bryne finished fifth in the second moto at Washougal and his best overall finish has been sixth, which he did on three occasions: Hangtown, Unadilla and Washougal). Stewart’s six podium finishes look good in comparison. Less flattering for Bubba is the fact that Bryne’s consistent riding have him eighth in the title fight versus Bubba’s eleventh. Staying on the bike clearly pays dividends given the AMA points structure.

This is really the crux of the matter. Why is Bubba crashing so much. The theories are numerous: First, that he’s just a “win it or bin it” type rider. This line of reasoning would certainly seem to have been validated based on the recent Supercross season. Bubba was clearly the fastest rider every time he was on the bike and after Orlando seemed to acknowledge that he could afford to slow down and still win. (Then again, he crashed two races later at the Silverdome while leading, handing the win to Reed). Regardless of how fast he is, he finished his inaugural Supercross season in tenth place, 238 points behind eventual winner Carmichael and appears to be doing the same in Motocross.

Another idea is that Stewart doesn’t have the physical endurance to run the more strenuous motocross races, especially with a two moto format, and is just tiring out. I don’t know what Stewart’s physical conditioning routine is but it is obvious that Ricky Carmichael has set the bar pretty high in this regard over the past few seasons. I doubt anyone trains harder than RC. Since most of Stewart’s crashes have occurred in the first moto, and often early in the first moto, there really isn’t enough data to draw any conclusion on this. However, to beat RC straight up will require a rider of incredible stamina…only time will tell if Stewart is training to this level or not.

For another angle, one can always consider the “injury begets injury” idea. Stewart started the season with an injured thumb after a practice crash at the Supercross final in Vegas. He then had two crashes at Hangtown followed by another at round two at Mt. Morris. Not the best way to start the season. It is quite possible…perhaps even likely…that the Hangtown crashes were caused by the injured thumb. Perhaps the Morris crash was caused by lingering effects of getting slammed at Hangtown. These could then have cascaded throughout the season. If so, Kawasaki may be wise to scratch the rest of the MX season and focus on having a healthy rider for the first race on the ‘06 Supercross calendar. Then again, avoiding (or coping with) injury is part of the playing field. Carmichael, Reed and Windham have all had crashes this year but have won despite them. Its a theory but its not an excuse.

Finally, there is always the bike question: As if there isn’t enough mystery in the Team Green camp these days the question of when the new 450 four stroke will debut has still not been answered. At the beginning of the season it seemed a sure thing that it would break cover before the end of the season but time is quickly running out. If Bubba is having to over-ride the KX then there are only a few options. One, see if someone can get into the kid’s head and explain that a top 10 finish on an inferior bike is better than consistently crashing out while trying to run up front. Two, keep him off the bike until the four stroke is ready for prime-time. Three, release the four stroke early and take the lumps that come with developing a new race bike squarely in the public eye. Even if the new bike causes crashes while its being developed, its no different that what’s already happening on the two-smoke.

Perhaps only seeing Stewart ride the 450 will truly answer the question of whether he can run with RC or not. It is also the only way to tell if the incredibily talented James “Bubba” Stewart’s entire career will be defined by the all-or-nothing “win it or bin it” philosophy or if, like Carmichael in the ’90s, Stewart can mature beyond that to become a dominant force in both Supercross and Motocross.

[image from Martin Mosley’s photo gallery web site.]

There isn’t any racing among the major series this weekend, though our local MRA club is racing at Pueblo Motorsports Park. With the MotoGP squad going on their traditional mid-summer break, this seems like a good time to reflect on one of the riders that I haven’t mentioned much this year. The person most deserving of some press despite what the raw statistics would indicate is Suzuki rider John Hopkins.

From what I can tell, John is the hardest working guy in MotoGP racing. Since he entered the MotoGP paddock in 2002 he has been saddled with an underachieving bike. In 2002, Hopkins dove right into the Grand Prix world turning fast laps and turning heads despite being on a two-stroke Yamaha at the dawn of the four stroke era. Over the course of the season he had four top ten finishes, including a best place finish of seventh at Assen, which was a very respectable showing for a GP rookie. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for riding the bike despite being outclassed by the new 990cc four strokes also lead to crashes. Despite some top ten finishes at the end of the season he was only ranked 15th in the championship.

That display of hard riding then earned him a two year contract with the Suzuki factory to ride their GSV-R MotoGP bike. While getting a factory ride was a step forward the bike was, like Hopkin’s old 500cc two stroke Yamaha, not up to the task of running with the super fast Hondas, Yamahas and Ducatis. Hopper responding by over riding that bike for two straight seasons. He again had some outstanding rides including a 2003 season best of seventh at Jerez and sixth at Estoril in 2004 but also had a rather long list of DNFs thanks to both the bike crapping out and him throwing Suzuki down the track. When his Suzuki contract came to an end his standings in the title chase were a lowly 17th in ‘03 and 16th in ‘04. For 2005, he resigned with Suzuki and has another season of ups and downs…his best result this year has been another seventh, this time in China but he has also had three DNFs. He currently sits 15th in the 2005 championship.

Based on results alone, it may be hard for someone to understand why I’m so impressed with the 22 year old. By way of illustration of why, I’d like to recount his last two races of this season. First, the Donington Park from back in July. At this race, the sky opened up and flooded the track. Of the 21 riders to start the race only 11 finished and of those John was the final rider across the line. The reason for his last place result was that like 10 others, he crashed during the race. But after his crash, he was the only rider to drag his dirty bike out of the gravel trap, ride it back to the pits for repairs and then rejoin the race. In a race series that is often filled with prima donnas the fact that Hopkins was willing to got back out and keep riding means he deserves every one of the five points that eleventh place finish earned him. Having the work ethic to get back on a crashed bike and race, even when its cold, rainy and miserable is good for the rider, good for the team and is good for the sponsors. If you aren’t standing on the top of the podium then every lap you turn on a race track is a valuable lap in the hopes it makes you a little bit faster the next time out.

My second example of Hopkins’ dedication is that he followed up his Donington Park performance by riding at the Sachsenring after a qualifying crash that was so vicious he had to be helped on and off the bike. The crash dealt out a broken foot, sprained ligaments in his hand, bruised ribs and just a general beating all over his body. Despite having an excellent excuse to call it a day and prep for this chance to drive a Formula One car at Silverstone he instead got on the bike and was actually riding hard in the race before a second trip to low earth orbit sent him back to the medical center. Now I’m not saying it was necessarily smart for him to race after that first accident but it says a lot about his character that he tried.

Now I know that character alone doesn’t win championships. However, I think that Hopkins has always tried to make up for what the bike lacked by riding over the limit. This has often cost him race results but he deserves a lot of credit for his drive and enthusiasm. Its that sort of effort that allows us race fans to ponder what things would be like if he were on a bike capable of running at the front rather than sticking his neck out lap after lap for a 10th place result.

One final observation to back up this view of John Hopkins…I’ve been watching a lot of my old video tapes lately and have thus had a chance to watch races from late 90s through the present. One thing that has been painfully clear is that everyone that has ridden for Suzuki for the last decade has faced the same issues. Even going back to the glory days of Kevin Schwantz in the late eighties and early nineties, the Suzuki GP bikes have never been as good as the Hondas and Yamahas. What Schwantz did to win against Lawson, Rainey, Doohan, et al was to ride over the limit lap after lap. As a result, his wins were memorable and his crashes spectacular. His 1993 world championship was perhaps the most deserved of any rider, if only because of the physical abuse he took to earn it…just two years later he retired from GP racing. The same story is true of Kenny Roberts Juniors 2000 500cc championship, though unlike Schwantz most of KRJr’s amazing get-offs happened after his title rather than before. Roberts rode convincingly en route to his 500GP crown but his title defense the next year was a disaster, highlight mainly by brutal crashes. In the years since that crash filled 2001 season he has steadily reduced the number of crashes but his race results have suffered as well.

I think everyone that rides for Suzuki’s GP team becomes a familiar face in the gravel traps of the worlds’ race tracks. As a rider you can either dial it back to save your skin (like Roberts Junior seems to have done this season) or you can try to over compensate for the machine’s failings in the hopes that your efforts are eventually rewarded with either a championship or a ride on a better bike. Lets hope that Hopkins gets a better ride in 2006 so we can see what he can really do…I’m not sure he can survive another year on the Suzuki.

[image from the John Hopkins web site.]

Back In December of last year I did a blog entry about how young Nicky Wmbauer had gotten a gig racing for Moto 1 on a Suzuki GSXR 600 in the World Superstock 600 Championship. I did a followup post in April after the first race at Valencia but haven’t had a chance to give an update since then…now is the time.

So this past weekend Nicky was racing at the Brand’s Hatch circuit. As I mentioned in my preview for the WSBK races at the UK circuit, it is a very tricky track. Fast in places but technical in others. The elevation changes mean getting a good suspension setup is difficult and it is all that much harder on the Superstock 600 bikes like Wimbauer rides since they don’t have the high dollar forks and shocks like the superbikes. Despite these challenges, Nicky scored his best finish of the season…but before I get to the details of that let me give a quick review of what has happened over the first five races of the year.

As I mentioned after the Valencia race, the ex-Colorado based rider scored an excellent eighth place finish at the first race of the season. The second race of the season was at the Monza circuit but didn’t go so well as he was collected in a turn one pile-up. Despite the crash, he returned to the pits to get the bike fixed up and then returned to the track for the track time. While his 23rd place finish doesn’t sound like much, the fact that he had the work ethic to use the rest of race as a learning opportunity speaks volumes about him. Next up was the Silverstone round where he was doing double duty not only racing the Superstock 600 race but also riding as a wild card in the European GSXR-750 cup race. He carded a pair of thirteenth place finishes in the two races. He bettered that by one with a twelfth place finish at the next round in Misano, Italy. The final round before Brands Hatch race was the the complex Brno circuit in the Czech Republic. Wimbauer found the going a bit tougher but still brought home a fourteenth place result.

Prior to Brands Hatch, Nicky seemed to struggle with qualifying. However, this weakness highlighted one of his strengths which is his ability to be aggressive on the track in the heat of battle. In most of these races, he was starting outside the top 15 but has earned finishes inside that range in every race. Clearly he shines when it comes to the actual racing. I think its ultimately easier for a rider to learn how to turn in single fast laps in qualifying than it is to get the skills that come naturally when dicing with other riders. Its good to see that the Suzuki rider is already getting that critical experience. Another thing that impresses me about Wimbauer is his history of getting faster with each lap on the track. If his team’s press releases are to be believed, Nicky is regularly faster on the final laps of a race that he is in the earlier laps. As long as the limit to his speed is his lack of track knowledge, then the chances of him being able to close the gap to the front runners in the class are very good. Finally, the fact that the 17 year old could jump on an unfamiliar bike of larger displacement on an unfamiliar track and still earn a top 15 finish would also indicate that he has not reached the limits of his talent yet.

Alright, so with all this talk out of the way I think that the race at Brands Hatch is the right time to check back in with with Nicky’s Superstock season. First and foremost, Nicky finally put in a top ten qualifying effort allowing him to start the race from the second row in seventh place. Things improved even more once the green flag flew because Nicky was able to run with a group of riders who were all fighting for a top five result. When the checkered flag flew, Wimbauer crossed the line in an fantastic sixth place, 14 seconds down on the winner but racing in a tight pack with the fourth and fifth place finishers. He also turned in the 4th fastest lap of the race while closing the gap on the front runners after being slowed dicing with another rider in the early laps. Impressive stuff.

The final bit of news is that he is now up to 10th place in the championship battle. While he is 109 points behind the leader, he is only 7 points down on sixth place. A top five finish will be tough but isn’t completely beyond his reach. Hopefully his performances for the remainder of the season will continue to improve and that some team manager is ready to move him a rung up the ladder for next season by putting him on a Supersport or Superbike.

[image from the Nicky Wimbauer web site.]

I recently did a blog posting about how the adventure touring bikes were the most fun bikes around. Well, there was one bit of information I left out in that posting…that this category of bikes are just plain meant to be dirty all the time.

Now I have some co-workers (I won’t name names but one of them has the initials Jeff) who have incredibly clean bikes. These are bikes that are obviously well cared for, regularly maintained and ridden with care…and for the Harleys and sport bike in the work parking lot that is entirely appropriate. But I must say that there is just something downright wrong about a bike with dual sport tires and hand guards being shiny. Just as the Harleys sprout chrome everywhere and the superbikes morph into carbon fiber beasts, the over-sized dual sport bikes just look right when covered in grim. I think that, when parked, normal people should by instinct give them a wide berth to avoid soiling their clean clothes and a protective patina of mud should constantly shield the paint from sun and rain. Fortunately, my buddy Todd Unpronounceable feels the same way…

As I mentioned in my Swiss Army knife posting about the adventure touring bikes, Todd has been looking for a new bike to replace his much abused DR650. This past week he got serious and on Tuesday he brought home a shiny new 2005 KTM 950 Adventure (in orange, natch!). He immediate set about doing two very important tasks: First was removing all the silly legalize stickers that warn that riding motorcycles may be dangerous and that reading the owners manual before touching the bike is mandatory. This job took him about 1/2 an hour and by that time I arrived to help with job #2…covering the bike in mud, dirt and rocks.

To this end, we met up at his house after work and in a constant drizzling rain we headed northwest to Rocky Mountain National Park. Once inside the park, we headed up the Fall River Road. This nine mile long road is a one-way dirt road that climbs from 3000 foot in elevation to an eventual end at 11,796 ft. There are short sections with nearly a 16% grade and the road has numerous switchbacks as it climbs up the Fall River canyon.

One thing I discovered immediately is that the dirt that makes up the road bed is a fine, silty sand. Presumably this is because the rocks that make up the Rocky Mountains break down into some sort of silica but I’m not a geologist so don’t really know the details. What I do know is that when this fine silt gets wet it becomes slick. Slicker than snot, to use an old southern saying. Riding a 700 lb pound bike on this slimy surface becomes an exercise in throttle control. It took about 30 minutes to cover the nine miles up Fall River Road and I could have ridden past a herd of pink elephants without ever noticing them. 110% of my concentration was on staying out of the ruts in the road and managing the traction available while still trying to keep forward momentum going up the switchbacks. Since I was only wearing a T-shirt under my Aerostich, I was getting chilled from the combination of rain and elevation but at least the Beemer’s heated grips kept my fingers from freezing.

Once we got to the top, we looked at the mud covered bikes with a sense of satisfaction. We then donned all the warm gear I normally keep in the Jesse bags (and should have put on *before* the ride) and headed back down. We stopped in Estes Park for some bad mexican food which is when we discovered that my Aerostich is much more water resistant that Todd’s…he was soaked.

After a meal talking about motorcycle trips of the past and those we hoped to do in the future, he headed back home to Pinewood Springs while I made the 40 mile ride back to Nederland in the dark. I was cold, I was wet, I was smiling and today my filthy bike looks great out in the parking lot at work…

[image from my photo collection.]

KTM has, perhaps, been the motorcycle success story of this decade. Like Triumph in the 90s, the little Austrian company has grown from a small niche market company to one of the major players in the European bike market. Their product line has exploded from a purely competition dirt focus to a line-up that includes motorcycles for dual sport, adventure touring, supermoto, MX/SX, trail riding, and may soon add a sport bike. With last month’s announcement of a 25% stock purchase by Polaris, KTM may now have the capital to grow even more. This may mean they finally get their awesome 990 SuperDuke homologated in the US and may also guarantee production of their RC8 Venom sport bike. Expect the 990cc version of their engine to show up in their other bikes like the Adventure and Supermoto, should they get it cleared through the US DOT with the SuperDuke. But I generally talk about road racing, to let me take a moment to focus on their recent accomplishments in that arena:

KTM entered the 125GP road racing class in 2003 using a bike designed by noted two stroke expert Harald Bartol. (Bartol’s involvement was key as he had previous success with Grand Prix engine design at both Yamaha and Derbi.) At the time, the plan was clear: To built a 125 bike and get a few years of experience in the Grand Prix world before unleashing a big four stroke GP bike on the MotoGP class. The rationale apparently being that this would break them out of their reputation as a two-stroke dirt bike company and pave the way for competing for street bike sales against established companies like Ducati, BMW, Triumph and the “Big Four” Japanese manufacturers….sort of like win on Sunday, sell on Monday but instead being compete successfully in a new field of racing and gain immediate street cred in that arena.

By their second year in the 125 GP Championship, KTM had scored their first victories with Casey Stoner and scored a top-10 finish. This year they announced an increased effort with a three rider team and so far they have been challenging for the title since the first races. For this year KTM also announced that its plans had changed: they would no longer be running a team in the MotoGP series (cost being sighted as the factor in that decision) but that they would instead be building a 250cc two stroke for the 250GP class. Additionally, just before the start of the 2005 season, it was announced that Kenny Roberts would be running the KTM V-four engine had been building for MotoGP in his Proton chassis and would be running KTM’s traditional orange colors. Clearly, KTM was still going to make a splash in the Grand Prix world.

The introduction of KTM’s new 250cc Grand Prix bike was delayed until the soggy Donington round of the MotoGP championship this past July. Given that the bike had only been tested once prior to the race and the fact that this would be a learning season for KTM in this class (just as the 2003 season had been in the 125 class) it would be fair to have expected a less then stellar debut. Unfortunately no one told that to rider Ant West, once pegged by none other than the legendary Michael Doohan as a future GP champ, who proceeded to run an astounding race to earn an eventual second place finish. The rain is always an equalizer and it not only took out a bunch of front runners due to crashes but also played to the strengths of wet weather specialist West. Still, a second place finish on the bike’s first outing was fantastic not matter what the contributing factors might have been. Perhaps even more encouraging is that West followed that up with a 10th place finish in the dry at the next round at the Sachsenring in Germany. It seems that the 250, like the company’s 125s, has made the leap from drawing board to competitive racer in a very short time.

In the premier class the KR Proton/KTM collaboration has been less successful. Going up against Honda, et al, has always been a David versus Goliath story for Kenny Roberts but the switch to four stroke bikes has caused the costs of development to sky rocket. While KTM’s motor appears to be good, both parties lack the funds necessary to further develop it. It remains to be seen what this means for 2006 or, worse yet, for 2007 when all the engines are restricted to 800cc. I would love to see KTM in MotoGP but given the struggles of much bigger companies like Suzuki and Kawasaki, I don’t think they’ll really take the plunge. Likewise, Team KR doesn’t have the funding to build an entirely new engine on their own. I’m afraid the MotoGP partnership has a pretty bleak future.

Outside of their newfound roadracing success, KTM has continued to find victory in their traditional avenues of off-road racing. This past winter they earned their fifth straight Dakar victory, capping off a year in which they won 17 world titles including World MX2, World Euduro2, World Euduro1 and World Supermoto S1. KTM even had a strong showing in the US Motocross and Supercross events which are more prestigious than the World MX and SX series.

It seems Team Orange is really on the move. BMW, Triumph, Ducati, Aprilia and all the other European manufacturers better keep a close eye over their shoulders. KTM is coming for them and is coming strong.

[image from the webBikeWorld web site.]

Back in May I did my write up of the Silverstone round of the World Superbike Series by comparing various riders with some famous Winston Churchill quotes. I’ve decided to do something similar for this past weekend’s Brands Hatch round but using J.R.R. Tolkien quotes as the jumping off point.

“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken: The crownless again shall be king.” - Troy Corser - Alright, so this quote has more to do with the season as a whole than the specific race at Brands Hatch but there is no doubt that Corser personifies the reforged sword. Corser was “The Man” aboard the factory Ducati in the late 90s but then went into the dark years when he signed a four year contract with Fogarty to help develop the Petronas. Now, springing forth from the shadows, the Aussie is again shining brightly. At Brands he fought tooth and nail (and probably needlessly) with Haga in both races. The Yamaha Japanese ace is well back in the points and thus isn’t a threat for the championship but the veteran Suzuki man went for the wins anyway. He looked the faster rider displaying his trademark smoothness while holding enough in reserve to make a last lap pass in both races. The rope-a-dope tactic worked in race one but an uncharacteristic mistake after his masterful pass in race two put him back to second (and nearly into the gravel). The 1-2 finishes extended his points lead in the title fight to an incredible 110. Look for the 1996 champ to be re-crowned at Assen in three weeks.

“All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.” - Noriyuki Haga - So Haga is not taking home championship treasure this season…he is currently fifth in the title hunt and a staggering 177 points down on Corser. However, he has glittered blindingly strong the past two race weekends. The Yamaha team seemed lost for the first half of the season but apparently found their way at Brno. Whatever the equipment change, Noriyuki looked like the “Nitro Nori” of old at Brands. He was on the edge every lap, either a sign of his confidence on the bike or a clear indication that all the R1’s demons haven’t yet been exorcised, with the rear lighting up at each corner exit. This looks like the Haga of 2000 who rode (and at times crashed) his Yamaha into every fan’s consciousness. Haga seemed determined to lead and most of his laps where about a half second faster than nearly everyone else on the track (the exception being the calm, cool and collected Corser). Despite being passed for the lead in both races, and basically being handed the race two win after Troy out-braked himself) Haga looked like the World Superbike superstar he has been for nearly a decade. At one time, Haga was the most popular motorcycle racer in England and his showing this past weekend will have put him on track to regain that title.

“Little by little, one travels far.” - Chris Walker - If Yamaha went from mid-pack to leading races in just one quick Czech weekend, the Kawasaki squad has chipped away at it all season. They started off squarely mid-pack, then moved up among the front runners at Valencia, then faded a bit and have now come on strong again since Brno. How much of this can be credited to the bike and how much to Chris’ riding is debatable but Brands certainly gave some credence to the rider portion of that equation. Walker seemed to be grabbing the ferocious Kwacker by the scruff of the neck and physically forcing it to his will. Perhaps his dual fourth place finishes should earn him a rodeo belt buckle because he rode the ZX like it was an angry bull. Rarely would I say that just missing the podium two times in a row qualifies as a brilliant weekend but Walker did an amazing job to show so well in front of his home crowd. Perhaps he should be given a shot at the evil handling Ducati MotoGP bike (instead of Checa) since it would obviously suit his riding style…

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” - Chris Vermeulen - The Ten Kate Honda rider has sat second in points for most of the year but a poor qualifying session had him starting both races in eighth. His forth place finish in race one was an excellent job of damage control but was really enhanced by his third in race two. It is debatable whether the Aussie would have had the speed of Haga/Corser in the second race but he was definitely faster than everyone else once he worked his way through the pack. His 4-3 finishes allowed him to keep a faint glimmer of hope alive in the championship race. He may well have to focus on defending against third place Laconi now as much as chase first place Corser…

“It needs more to make a king than a piece of elvish glass, or a rabble such as this.” - Regis Laconi - Ducati continues to pin its hopes on the Frenchman Laconi but it seems that no matter how hard he rides, and he rides very hard, it doesn’t seem that the bike can quite give him what he needs. After his wins at Silverstone and Misano, it looked like Ducati had turned a corner but at Brands they seemed to have taken a step back. Regis’ 3-4 finishes may not seem like a sign of impending doom but watching how hard Laconi had to push just to stay on the tail of the Haga/Corser battle shows that the big v-twin doesn’t have the acceleration, especially off the side of the tire, that the Suzuki and Yamaha could deliver. Ducati’s Superbike weapon has evolved from a bike renowned for its mid-range grunt to a high speed, high rpm rocketship that does best when it can stretch its legs. Fortunately, the flowing Assen circuit may play back into the Duc’s strong points.

“His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.” - Karl Muggeridge - Karl had a mixed weekend, at least on paper, with a sixth in the first event and a crash in the second. However, for a Superbike rookie the sixth was a great finish and the fact that he ran with the front runners for a while in both races shows he’s taken another step forward, perhaps his biggest since his 4-6 finishes at Monza earlier this season. Muggas is proving that Ten Kate was right putting the historically crash prone Aussie on their superbike this year.

“It’s like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now.” - James Toseland - Sadly, Toseland only has a little time to wait until he has to relinquish his 2004 superbike crown. Despite some strong rides at Silverstone, Misano and Brno, the Brit’s hopes for a repeat title have definitely diminished. The final blow was having his bike quit in race one leaving him to make a long, sad walk back to the pits. Even in race two, he started strong but then faded back as one by one the other front runners passed him and pulled away. Last season, Toseland constantly showed his optimistic attitude and worked harder and harder to take the title over his star teammate. I hope this season’s misfortunes don’t dampen to much of that spirit as he’s a much better rider than his sixth place in the championship shows.

“The burned hand teaches best.” - Andrew Pitt - For the first races of this season, the best performing Yamaha wasn’t Haga or Abe or Nieto or Cardoso or Gimbert but was instead the quiet Aussie Andrew Pitt. However, the hallmark of his rides was that he would qualify strong, blitz off the line into the leading pack and then hold up the other riders as they slowly worked their way past. When Pitt wasn’t going in reverse, he was tossing the R1 into the gravel. Well, it seems that all this trauma has been a good teacher as Pitt carded 7-6 results at Brands. The one thing he still has to learn would appear to be controlled aggressiveness as Laconi and Walker looked much more assertive in their race two battle with Vermeulen and Toseland than did Pitt. In fact, Pitt looked content to follow for most of the race. Nonetheless, to see Pitt actually make a pass on someone else, as he did to Toseland, shows that he’s still improving.

“Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.” - Lorenzo Lanzi - One rider that deserves more press than he’s gotten thus far is Ducati’s chosen son Lanzi. He started the season on the privateer SC Caracchi Ducati and was finishing mid-pack. Over the past three or four race weekends he has continually improved and has scored six straight top tens, including a pair of eighths this weekend. Don’t be surprised if Lanzi travels a new road aboard a factory Ducati next season. In the meantime, he has definitely proven himself to be the best privateer in the series this year.

“Courage is found in unlikely places.” - Yukio Kagayama - Okay, so maybe it isn’t unlikely that the gritty Japanese rider would show courage, after all he came back from a horrible injury last year to win races in the British Superbike Series. Kagayama definitely showed the lion’s share of bravery at Brands riding to double ninth place finishes after a monster high-side in practice on Friday. The crash broke some ribs, generally battered the Suzuki rider and may have earned him enough air time to qualify him for a pilots’ license. Despite the painful injuries, Yukio did Superpole on Saturday and, after having his rib cage bound to restrict movement, went on to race in both events on Sunday. Gritty indeed!

“It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” - Frankie Chili - Chili definitely had to give something up at Brands, mainly his streak of top ten finishes this season and his history of strong races at the Kent circuit. Unlike last year when he challenged for the lead, this year the popular Italian was mired well down the field. He had a bike problem in race one and finished unlucky thirteen in race two.

“It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.” - Ben Bostrom - For whatever reason, the Renegade Honda team and their rider Benny B have never really gotten started this season. Whether this is a machine problem, a rider problem or a combination of the two may never be known but any time a rider of Bostrom’s talent has a weekend with 12-10 finishes you know things aren’t right. At the moment the team is an abysmal 15th place in the championship, the most disastrous season in their history. We can only hope that BBoz has another year left on his contract and that Renegade can make the same breakthrough with the CBR as the Ten Kate team have done.

“He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” - Garry McCoy - McCoy’s downward spiral continues, both in the macro view of the entire season and the micro view of this particular race weekend. The Aussie was once the golden child of the GP paddock but faded from glory there. He had brief moments of success on a privateer Duc in WSBK last season but this year moved to the star-crossed Foggy Petronas team with predictably poor results. In race one, he earned his tenth DNF of the season and then was the last place finisher in race two for an 18th place result. While much of the blame can be firmly placed on the machine there is also the question of whether McCoy knew the FP1 was this bad before signing on for the season. The Sultan of Slide is rapidly slipping into obscurity.

“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, theres no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - Pere Riba - Spaniard and ex-GP rider Riba got the phone call to replace the injured Mauro Sanchini as Walker’s teammate on the PSG-1 Kawasaki squad. Riba scored a fourteenth in the first race and a twelfth in the second, putting him in points earning positions in both races. Certainly an acceptable weekend from a rider that hasn’t race since June of last year and one on par with the results put in this season by the man he is replacing.

“A star shone at the hour of our meeting.” - Fonsi Nieto - Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bad moon rather than a lucky star. Just a couple of years ago, Nieto was on the verge of winning a 250GP title and was the great hope of the Spanish moto-journalists. Crashes ruining that shot at a 250 championship and the repercussions were felt for the next two seasons. This year it seemed he had a chance to step back and regroup but has instead gone from GP disaster to WSBK disaster. His dual DNFs this weekend were his seventh and eighth of the year with the only highlight of the season being a fifth at Phillip Island. Nieto may be the best test case yet for whether Spanish nationality alone is sufficient for a rider to keep their ride despite dismal results…

“This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers: Gnaws iron, bites steel: Grinds hard stones to meal: Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountains down! Time.” - Ducati - This weekend was, in my opinion, the final nail in the coffin for Ducati’s chances of claiming their 14th manufacturer’s title and their 12th rider’s title. Time has marched on and the dominance of the v-twins from Bologna may be at its end. If WSBK, like so many of the national superbike championships, commits to freezing the rules for a few years then the big red machines may struggle more and more against their four cylinder competition. Only time will tell if Ducati introduces a Superbike version of their V-four MotoGP bike (especially when GP rules go to 800cc in 2007) or if a more competitive v-twin can yet be built.

[image from the Yamaha Racing web site.]

Despite the June WSBK race at Silverstone officially being called the “European round", this weekend actually marks the second time this season the World Superbike guys have come to the UK to race. (Hopefully, they will get better weather than the torrential downpour that greeted the MotoGP guys three weeks ago at Donington Park). With 70,000 fans flooding into Silverstone for the WSBK race in May and 75,000 showing up for the drenched MotoGP race at Silverstone last month, anticipating a large turnout at the Brands Hatch circuit should be a foregone conclusion especially considering its proximity in Kent putting it so near London.

This is the eighth round of the twelve round series, so we’re at the 2/3 mark for the season. After this, the riders get nearly a month off before returning for the September race at Assen. As such, all the riders would like to go into the break with a good pair of results. With silly season in full swing, the motivation is that much higher. Finally, the two brits of Toseland and Walker, along with the British based Renegade team, would all like to do well in front of their home crowd so expect that little bit extra from them.

The track itself is a great one. Brand’s Hatch has been on the WSBK calendar since 1993 and as mentioned above has been one of the best attended throughout that time. The circuit is 2.62 miles in length with 9 (or 11) turns depending on how you measure it. The track has a few “straights” that actually contain a kink so these sections are particularly fast (as well as confusing when tallying the curves). In addition to the fast turns there is also a lot of elevation change around the circuit, so suspension setup becomes particularly tricky. The fast corners need some plushness to the suspension to keep the tire from lighting up over small bumps while the elevation changes require a stiff suspension to avoid bottoming. Expect to see different riders make different choices and thus have bikes that react differently in the various parts of the circuit. Another feature of the track is the difference in safety between the old classic track and the newer, faster “new” portion of the track. The new section runs through the woods making it both scenic and a bit more dangerous in the event of an accident.

Another unique aspect of the track is it’s history. Only two brands have ever won at Brands, Ducati and Honda, despite having hosted 22 superbike races. Even odder, of the 11 rounds held at Brands, 7 have resulted in double wins as Falappa, Foggy, Edwards x2, Bostrom, Byrne and Haga have all “done the double” here. Of the riders currently in the series Chili, Bostrom and Haga have all had good results at this track. Last year, the race was dominated by Haga with double wins on his Renegade Ducati. Equally memorable was the vicious race one highside experienced by Chili while leading the race. He rebounded to an amazing second place finish in race two. Laconi also had a mixed bag last year with a second place in race one but then a crash in race two. The final memorable ride was Corser who brought home a fifth on the Petronas, one of their best finishes ever. Unfortunately, he DNF’ed race two, keeping at least part of the FPR reputation alive.

This year, things are looking much better for Troy Corser. First, he comes into Brands with a 94 point lead in the championship. Second, he starts the weekend a new father as his wife Sam just gave birth to their second child, a baby girl, last week. Third, he won three weeks ago at Brno, his first win since race one at Monza, which shows that the early season speed of the Suzuki hasn’t been completely eclipsed by the Ducatis, Hondas and Yamahas. Finally, he grabbed provisional pole position in qualifying today. If he can follow that up in Superpole it will be his third straight pole, which will net him his 34th career pole position and 72nd front row start (out of 217 races…that is a staggering 33% ratio of front row starts in his 13 year WSBK career). The man is a machine when it comes to qualifying!

So, who (other than Corser) should you watch? Well, most of the riders had inconsistent results at Brno so its tough to tell. Haga won race two but was down in seventh in race one. Vermeulen carded a third in race two but was behind Haga in eighth in race one. Likewise, Laconi was third in race one but sixth in race two. Even Toseland (2/8), Walker (4/10) and Abe (9/4) were a little schizophrenic in the Czech Republic. Only Corser really shined with his first and second place results.

If you look elsewhere for a sign, the Silverstone races in June casts things in a different light. In front of the English fans, it was Toseland that “came good” with a third and a win. Laconi also looked strong with a win in race one but a crash in race two. Haga showed flashes of improvement with a third in the second race to bounce back from a crash in race one. There was a lot of consistency just off the podium as Vermeulen earned a pair of forths, Chili was fantastic with double fifths despite a broken collarbone and Walker wrestled the Kawasaki home for twin sixth place finishes. Corser, naturally, finished the doubles by getting second in both races to extend his points lead over Kagayama. Silverstone was the first sign of trouble for the Japanese WSBK rookie as he was eleventh in race one and seventh in race two. The British track was the beginning of the end of Yukio’s challenge of Corser for the WSBK title.

So first and foremost I’ll be watching the Brits. Toseland seems to find that extra little bit when racing for his fellow countryman so expect something special from him. Likewise, Walker did well at Silverstone and the Kwack is improving every race so he should be able to run closer to the front. Laconi seems to run well at Brands, when he isn’t crashing, and his past few races show a “win it or bin it” attitude. Given the addition of some animosity with his teammate, if Toseland runs up front I suspect Laconi will as well since he seems to believe in the “beat your teammate first, everyone else second” philosophy. Corser, naturally, should be at the pointy end though that 94 point championship lead means he can play it safe if things get too hairy. Finally, Chili is perhaps more popular in Britain than the British riders. He has had many spectacular rides at Brands over the past 12 years and if he can keep it on two wheels expect him to be at the front. Finally, I really want a Yamaha to challenge for the podium to prove that Haga’s Brno win wasn’t a fluke. The series *needs* a competitive Yamaha R1 to go with the GSXRs, CBRs, and 999s.

[image from the Official Brands Hatch Circuit web site.]

After this summer’s USGP nearly all the motorcycle web sites were abuzz with the news of which movie, TV and rock stars were spotted at the Laguna Seca race. Brad Pitt, Matt LeBlanc, David Alan Grier, Vanessa Marcil, Orlando Jones, Ahman Rashad and even porn star Brianna Banks all found their names in unfamiliar territory as magazines, newspapers and web sites mentioned them in their MotoGP reports.

Now I’ll admit up front that I’m not particularly in touch with pop culture. I don’t really follow movies, TV or the Billboard 200 to see who’s who and what’s hot. I don’t know most actors and actresses by name, nor do I know the faces of most of the stars in the hot TV shows. On the contrary, I’m a full blown motorcycle geek and nearly all of mypop trivia knowledge is centered around two-wheels. As a result, I’d much rather know what Andrew Pitt is doing on weekends instead of Brad Pitt. While fans, and even some of the racers, were wondering where Brad’s girlfriend was during the MotoGP weekend, I was ticked off that some yahoo’s helicopter was making so damned much noise while I was trying to listen to the track PA system.

All that said, there is one VIP that I think deserves mention each and every weekend. That superstar is Michael Jordan. Sure, I know he’s an amazingly famous basketball hero and that he’s constantly surrounded by an entourage of stick-n-ball devotees but the reason he deserves every ounce of respect that motorcycle fans can give him is that he’s spending his money and working with his personal sponsors to improve our sport. Brad Pitt’s picture in People magazine may make some people think our sport is getting greater recognition but I bet photos of Brad Pitt at a polo match have been shown in People and I don’t see ESPN scrambling to increase their coverage of those well-heeled horse jockeys. Until Mr. Pitt decides to spend some of this copious bank to support bike racing, he’ll just be another anonymous face in the crowd to me. But His Airness? The crowds at racing events should part like the Red Sea as he walks through. He should receive a standing ovation whenever he appears and should have his mug posted on small shrines throughout the pits. Jordan is putting his money where his heart is and that’s in motorcycle racing. Now *that* qualifies as a star in my book!

Perhaps even more compelling, he is working to bring his own personal sponsors into the sport. Nike, Giant RV, Upper Deck and Gatorade are all helping out the Michael Jordan Motorsports team. All of these are companies that are not traditionally associated with motorcycles, nor are they the types of companies that have historically been involved with bikes: Tobacco companies, movie/entertainment/media firms and soft drink mega-corporations. With tobacco logos becoming verboten in many countries, and with corporate sponsorship of AMA teams drying up faster than race fuel spilled on hot asphalt, anyone that can bring in fresh money will seen as a miracle worker. Add in that MJ is bringing friends like Kid Rock and Chris Chelios to the track, both of whom have expressed at least a passing interest in getting involved with motorcycle racing, and there is another dimension where he is helping expand our sport. I hope Jordan stays with the sport for a long time but I hope the presence of his contacts will be felt even longer.

[image from my photo collection.]

I’m still playing catch up, this time with the AMA Superbike races held at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course a week ago. Seems like there are some interesting ways of measuring success at Mid-Ohio, so I’ll focus on some unique forms of quantifying differences.

First and foremost, the biggest story of the weekend was that it was raining cats and dogs on Thursday night and the linger affects of this weather influenced the whole weekend. The first practice sessions on Friday were slower than cold molasas to get started because water was bubbling up through the track. More rain was forecast for the weekend and this made the topic of racing in the rain on the tricky Mid-Ohio track a hot one. Most of the riders felt the track surface was inappropriate for a rain race and Mat Mladin went so far as to declare he wouldn’t race if it rained Saturday or Sunday. While it did eventually rain on Sunday, it was just a wee sprinkle and the track was dry by the time the Superbike race was flagged off.

But for the first race on Saturday afternoon rain wasn’t an issue. On a dry track, Mladin continued to do what he’s done all season…start from the pole and just clear off on the rest of the field. Mladin’s win was bodacious, carding a 11 second lead over second place Ben Spies and third place Eric Bostrom. Aaron Yates ran in second place for most of the race but crashed out 3/4 of the way through the race, handing the place to his Texan teammate. Also notable was that American Honda’s Jake Zemke ran in the top five for the early laps but a mechanical failure on his CBR took him out of the race.

When the boys finally lined up on Sunday, after being delayed a couple of hours while waiting for the track to dry after a morning shower, all eyes were on Mladin. He had won the first race by a country mile and given his form this year was expected to do the same in race two. A second win would net him a 44 point lead over second place Ben Spies and surely set the stage for a conservative run over the last four races to sew up the title. Instead, Mladin got a lousy start when the green flag flew while Ducati’s Eric Bostrom got one of his patented killer starts to take the holeshot. Mladin started charging forward, eventually turning the fastest lap of the race. Eric pulled a gap over second place Yates while Mladin closed up on the rear wheel of his fellow Yoshimura Suzuki rider. On lap eleven, Bostrom drifted a little wide at the Carousel and Yates tried to tighten his line to go for a pass. Instead, he asked for just a smidge more traction than this rear tire could deliver resulting in a lowside. Mladin, directly behind Yates at the time, followed Yates off the track and eventually tipped over on the wet grass. Bostrom inherited a monster lead and took the checkers with a 6 second gap over surprise podium visitor Miguel Duhamel in second and Ben Spies in third. Zemke was again out with a mechanical, giving Honda a schizophrenic pair of race two result. The Red Riders got another boost, in addition to Duhamel’s fantastic second place, when Kurtis Roberts brought his Erion Honda home in fifth behind Neil Hodgson, making this Kurtis’ best finish of the season. While Suzuki was disappointed losing two of their three factory riders in a single crash their pain was lessened a tad by Jordan Racing’s Steve Rapp coming home sixth and teammate Jason Pridmore following him home for seventh.

The mathematics of the weekend work out like this. Mladin loses a boatload of points to Ben Spies and now only has a 9 point lead in the championship battle. Bostrom gained a massive 66 points on Aaron Yates and leapfrogged into third in the championship. In fact, the points accruals starting at Pikes Peak show an interesting story. Spies has earned a stunning 177 points in the past six races while Mladin has earned 170 and Eric Bostrom 167. Yates, in stark contract, has only added 87 to his tally. This tells the story, as Spies and Mladin have pulled a nearly unassailable gap on everyone else but the race for third has tightened up considerably between Bostrom and Yates.

The trends are equally interesting. Ducati have won four of the last six races but the two teammates on the 999s have also had three DNFs in that same time period. Mladin has three wins, two seconds and one DNF over that time while fellow Yosh rider Spies has maintained his amazing rookie season performance with two second place and two third place finishes. Clearly the Ducatis have come good here at the end of the season but its mainly been because of the misfortune of Mladin on two occasions that things look as rosy as they do. Eric’s three wins at PPIR, Laguna and Mid-Ohio have come just in the nick of time, as silly season is hard upon us and EBoz’s two year contract comes to an end this September. Surely this late charge by one of the most talented riders in the paddock won’t go unnoticed by team managers.

One rider that doesn’t have to worry about next year is Mat Mladin who announced at Mid-Ohio that he had signed a contract renewal with Suzuki that will seem him racing with them through 2008. I’m sure Mladin, soon to be a six time AMA champ, is making a metric shitload of dosh (and deserves every penny) and may well be in a position to run his own team next year, should he desire it. Whether its Mat or someone else, expect the Mat Mladin team to expand to two riders in 2006.

The history books will show that Hodgson, Spies and Bostrom all won races in 2005. Unfortunately, those stats don’t show just how one sided the season has been. Luck is an important part of racing and Mladin has had a skosh more bad luck this year that the other riders. Other than his Fontana clutch failure and being taken out by Yates at Mid-Ohio, he has only been off the podium once: his forth place finish at PPIR after pitting for new tires. For him to go into VIR in a tight points battle is good for the fans but ultimately shows how the AMA points system rewards consistency over outright wins. Spies has only been off the podium three times (Infinion, Road American and Laguna), which is astounding for his first full season on a Superbike, but has only won once. He deserves accolades galore for his riding but that record shouldn’t give him a shot at the title against so dominant a rider as Mladin. I’d rather see a points system that encourages riders to go for the win…then I think we would get a truer measurement of the series champ.

[image from the DC Sportbikes web site.]

There has been a growing amount of talk in the motorcycle magazines and on the net for the past five years or so about a class of motorcycles generally referred to as “Adventure Tourers". The boundaries of what make up one of these bikes are pretty vague, running the gambit from things slightly too large to be a full on dirt bike (like the KLR, XR-L and DR-650) to strange long suspension touring bikes (the BMW GS, KTM Adventure, Tiger) and some others that defy even these classifications (V-Strom, Multistrada). While the characteristics are unclear, one thing definitely is clear…these are all very, very fun motorcycles.

By way of illustration, let me describe my ride this past Saturday. My buddy Kreig just bought a used BMW R1100GS and I thought I’d put together a short morning ride that would should him the versatility of the bike. My buddy Todd Unpronounceable was supposed to be out test riding a new R1200GS but a slow leak in the front tire of his DR650 kept him closer to home, so he decided to join us.

We met up in Boulder and then headed up into the mountains on Flagstaff road. This road is just a long series of switchbacks which start at 5600 ft, crests 7700 ft high Flagstaff Peak and then drops down to 7500 ft at Gross Reservoir. We rode this at a “spirited” pace. I’ve owned by GS for four years now and have, on occasion, managed to touch down a footpeg but this ride was the first time I’ve ever tapped a saddle bag (this feat being aided by a rear shock that is about 5k miles past replacement!). The wide handlebars, upright seating position and low-end grunt of the GSes really shine on this stuff. Todd’s DR lacked the gumption in the engine department but its light weight and incredible handling more than made up for it.

From there we took a 4x4 road that connects Lake Shore Park with Magnolia Road. This wasn’t serious dirt biking but was challenging enough to discourage your average street bike into taking the long way around. Todd, both being a great dirt rider and riding the light DR flat disappeared in this stuff. While muscling a 600 lb bike over rocks isn’t easy, at least compared to doing it on something like my DRZ, the bike is still capable of going places normally reserved for Jeeps. My GS did pick up a few new scratches on the bash plate in this section…

Next was a 10 mile jaunt on some of the local gravel roads, including Magnolia Road. The last couple of miles of Magnolia is a beautiful set of tight, paved switchbacks which drop about 1500 ft down to Boulder Canyon. Then it was 15 miles up CO-119 to Nederland. While Flagstaff is tight and twisty, Boulder Canyon is faster and more flowing so the emphasis switches from side-to-side transition to stability while leaned over and mid-range power. This is perhaps where the GS is most at home with the engine right in the fat of its torque curve in fourth gear and the bike arcing through wide sweeping corners effortlessly. The DR, in contrast, didn’t stand a chance. Uphill climbs in top gear combined with sudden bursts of acceleration simply aren’t its forte.

Once up at 8500 ft in Ned, we took Ridge Rd to Cold Springs and then back out to CO-119 going north. Here the road is even more open than in Boulder Canyon so the bikes can really stretch their legs. I swapped with Todd at this point, so he could at least ride my R1150GS in place of the R12 he had intended to test. I rode his DR650 and can safely say that the bike is a freakin’ hoot to ride Supermotard style. Hold the throttle wide open and just shift your weight from side to side so the bike is kept relatively upright. The front end on the DR is surprisingly confidence inspiring, much more so than on my DRZ. Had I been willing to close my eyes at the speeds I was going, I could easily have imagined I was flying down a Supermoto track.

We turned off Peak-to-Peak highway (aka CO-119) at Jamestown Road and started back down into James Canyon. Again, the first bit is a gravel road which then becomes paved. The town of Jamestown recently had a mud-slide due to the instability of the surrounding hillsides after a big forest fire two years ago. The main street through town was covered in silty sand…no problem thanks to the enduro tires on these three bikes. The canyon below Jamestown is another tight, twisty road so the wide handle bars again showed their value flipping and flopping from side to side.

At Left Hand Canyon, we split up. Todd taking the DR home for a puff of air in the front tire while I lead Kreig back up towards the town of Ward. Just before Ward, we turned south onto Lickskillet road which climbs about a 1,000 ft in elevation in just one mile to reach the town of Gold Hill. Lickskillet is a maintained gravel road but it always rutted, thanks to rain rivulets criss-crossing across the road. The torque of the GS will keep the rear tire constantly spinning up as it tries to get power down to the ground while bouncing up and down over these bumps. This was especially true on my bike, thanks to the stock shock which failed to punch in on the time clock today. Still, the fuel injection is smooth enough, the tires good enough and the engine linear enough that careful throttle application will slowly build up speed while making the climb.

At Gold Hill, we turned and headed down Sunshine Canyon. The first half is thick gravel which means the front tire is constantly sliding over the small, ball-bearing sized rocks. The road has a few different sets of switchbacks, so learning to trust the front tire despite the vague feel is important. The ABS really comes in handy in this stuff too as its easy to lock up a wheel when braking. I didn’t turn off the ABS on my GS but could still get the rear tire to kick out going around tight switchbacks just by stomping the rear brake pedal. This really helps square off the turns without having to lean the bike too much. The lower bit of Sunshine Canyon is like James Canyon…beautiful asphalt, steep switchbacks and a constant loss of elevation before returning to Boulder.

The final show of how flexible these bikes are is that we then rode down US-36, a four lane divided highway with speeds well over the 75mph posted limit to a co-worker’s party. I was carrying a change of clothes in my saddle back and could stow all my gear (Aerostich riding suit, gloves, boots and tank bag) in the Jesse bags. I then locked my helmet on the bike and walked into the party with no one a bit the wiser that I’d shown up on a motorcycle.

It was really a great example of what makes motorcycling in general, and this class of bikes in particular, so amazing. A few hours of riding that went from scraping pegs to scraping bash plates in just a few minutes. A morning of hanging out with friends and sharing the laughs that go along with riding motorcycles. Then a quiet ride home enjoying the sunset. I know that I could ride Peak-to-peak faster on my GSXR. I know I could ride the 4x4 road better on my DRZ-400. I could probably even drive to a party better in my Jeep. But the fact that I can do all of those on the same vehicle, and do it while grinning till my cheeks hurt, is why I love my big adventurer tourer.

[image from my photo collection.]

The way to make a diamond is to take the proper material, basically raw carbon, and then put it under tremendous pressure for a long time. In the end, the black carbon is transformed into a naturally clear, incredibly hard diamond. Well, perhaps the best sign that Hayden has finally come of age is that he is now being subjected to the famous Rossi pressure.

After qualifying it was birthday boy Hayden’s Honda that would be lining up on pole position for the German GP. During the post-qualifying press conference Vale fired his first shot at Nicky by publicly stating that Gibernau and Biaggi are the threats at the Sachsenring circuit, not Hayden. In the past, Rossi has focused his psychological death ray on Biaggi, Gibernau and Melandri…to devastating effects in all three cases. That he is now spending some time bad mouthing Hayden is perhaps the strongest sign yet that he considers the Kentucky Kid a threat.

When the bikes lined up in front of an amazing 95,000 fans it was time to see how Hayden would respond to this first attack. He did so by launching off the line and immediately pulling an eight tenths of a second gap over chasing Rossi. So far, so good. Then John Hopkins got sent into low earth orbit after getting high sided off his Suzuki which resulted in a vicious landing. As Hopkins lay writhing on the track, the race was red flagged. On the re-start, it was again Hayden with the hole shot but Rossi was much closer and quickly took the lead. Gibernau, also under pressure to beat both Rossi and Melandri in order to reclaim his position as a viable MotoGP champ, then charged forward passing both riders to take the lead. Unlike past races where Hayden seemed tapped out just to hang with the leaders this time he was able to take the fight forward to his fellow competitors. He passed Rossi and took off after Gibernau. As the laps wound down Rossi again put the squeeze on Hayden, eventually forcing the pass, and started to apply his patented pressure to Gibernau. On the last lap, Sete again cracked under the strain and ran wide in the first corner. Valentino took his eighth win of the season, Sete recovered to save the runner up spot and Nicky returned to the rostrum for his second time in three races.

I know I’ve focused on Nicky Hayden a few times lately but I’m still thrilled to see him growing so much this season after stalling out most of last season. I think that one thing he still has to learn (in addition to learning how to race in the rain!) is dealing with pressure, both in the press and on the track. Being a great racer isn’t good enough.,,Biaggi, Gibernau and Melandri all fit that mold. To beat Rossi, it takes more than just talent, work ethic and an amazing bike. It also takes a mental toughness that seems generally lacking in the MotoGP paddock these days. The real test of whether Hayden will ever be a MotoGP champion is how well he parries to the Rossi attack. He got a little taste of the battle before the race but also spent quite a few laps with the Italian breathing down this neck on Sunday. While Rossi ultimately won the race, Hayden was able to get some important schooling…lessons from which he was able to learn. As long as the 24 year old can keep growing as a rider, his hopes for a world title aren’t misplaced.

As for Gibernau, he needs the upcoming three week break more than anyone. He’s been crushed season after season and needs to regroup after being badly pummelled over the last couple of months. Its been over a year since his last win and its been his own mistakes that have plagued him since the first race of the 2005 season…he is still feeling the tremors from that last corner bump back at Jerez.

Biaggi is also continuing a trend, mainly that he qualifies and starts poorly but comes on strong to rescue a reasonable finishing position, a forth in this case. Honda is rumored to have a new frame and Biaggi is rumored to have run it at the Sachsenring. I think Max needs more than new bike parts to fix his problems, after all Melandri, Gibernau, Hayden and Barros have all run at the front this season. Like Gibernau, Max is being played by Rossi like a puppet and desperately needs to get back to racing on his own terms rather than on Vale’s terms. He’s had his best shot at getting his head together over the past few months because he was off Rossi’s radar. His Repsol seat probably has Pedrosa’s name on it already so now all he can hope for is to salvage a Honda satellite ride for next year. That’s a lot to think about for three long days…

Melandri seems to have come apart like a cheap tissue since his incredible performance at Assen. It was at the Dutch track that The Doctor dropped his psychological bomb on Marco and the stats at ground zero don’t look good: a crash at Laguna, a crash at Donington and now a seventh in Germany. He is just barely maintaining his second place in the standings and has probably lost all hope of taking the MotoGP title this year. Melandri has to regroup and come back strong at the Brno circuit in order to salvage any confidence for 2006. At least he’ll be fighting for runner-up against fellow Rossi victims Gibernau and Biaggi…

Ducati and Suzuki both desperately need the three week break, perhaps worse than anyone else. Both teams have been mired mid-pack for most of the season despite their riders putting forth heroic efforts. Roberts’ second place in the rain not withstanding, all the Bridgestone teams have been struggling just to see the tail end of the Honda/Yamaha bullet train. Whether this is a tire problem or a bike problem is hard to tell but Kawasaki’s brief flashes of improvement haven’t been mirrored in the other two team’s results. Suzuki needs the break doubly bad since John Hopkins’ two crashes this weekend mean he needs to cram a six week recovery time for his broken foot into the MotoGP mid-summer 21 day vacation. Given how many times Ducati’s Carlos Checa has crashed this season, its amazing he isn’t nursing broken bones as well. Still, he’ll probably need the break to turn down the volume of that bell ringing noise in his ears.

And finally, Rossi needs to take a little break as well. Why? Well, he’s been doing quadruple duty this season by racing for Yamaha, educating the young guys, crushing the old guys and sticking it to Honda all at the same. He’s gotta be tired! Besides, he needs to build up his energy for 2006 when he’ll be doing it all over again.

[image from the Nicky Hayden web site.]