The competitors for the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb have just concluded a two-day tire test at the Colorado road course, and it should perhaps come as no surprise that our boy Carlin Dunne has posted the outright fastest lap for a motorcycle during the tire test (the Santa Barbara native set the outright two-wheeled course record last year on his Ducati Multistrada 1200 S). What is surprising about Carlin’s result at the tire test is that he was on the Lightning Motorcycles electric superbike. That’s right, the fastest bike so far for 2013′s Race to the Clouds is a 200+ hp electric superbike that is refueled with solar energy. Petrol heads, eat your heart out.
Talking to the Indy Star, Mark Miles (CEO of Hulman & Co, the parent company to Indianapolis Motor Speedway) has put some doubt into the historic venue’s commitment to host the MotoGP Championship. Having a contract to run the race through the 2014 season, Miles said that IMS might opt-out of the final year in its agreement with Dorna (IMS apparently has this option for a brief window after the 2013 Indianapolis GP). However while the news has focused so far on IMS’s ability to opt-out, both Dorna and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have options in their contract to go through with the 2014 round, and with a bevy of variables in the air, we may or may not see three American GP rounds next year.
Surprise! America will be getting a 847cc three-cylinder naked bike for the 2014 model year, the 2014 Yamaha FZ-09. Replacing the Yamaha FZ8 in the Japanese company’s line-up, the FZ-09 is the first motorcycle from the tuning fork brand to sport the Yamaha’s new line of three-cylinder engines. The Yamaha FZ-09 comes about as the MIC is reporting its second-consecutive year of growth in the 751+cc sport bike segment, as well as increase in commuter riding over short-distance sport riding. With those trends in mind, Yamaha has punched out the displacement on its middleweight naked bike, and focused on giving riders a comfortable, yet stout, motorcycle. Priced at $7,990 MSRP, we think Yamaha hit the nail pretty much on the head with this one.
In the past few years I’ve come to believe that, while superior physical differences (their reflexes and fine motor skills) are significant, it’s the mental differences that are the most interesting. I suppose anyone who has ridden a motorcycle even a bit beyond one’s comfort zone can appreciate some part of the physical aspect of riding a racing bike. For most of us, even the speed of racers in local events is impressive compared to our street riding. While the skills with throttle, brakes, and balance are on a level similar to the best athletes in other sports, I think that what really sets motorcycle racers apart is their ability to overcome fear.
The progress in the last five years on electric motorcycles has been astounding. Taking their first laps around the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course, a 87.434 mph pace was the best an electric motorcycle could do at the prestigious road race in 2009 — a pace that was on par with the 50cc record set in 1971. In just five years after the first laps were taken by electric motorcycles at Snaefell, these machines have grown their average lap speeds by over 20 mph at the TT Zero race, setting a new record of 109.675 mph in 2013, and boasting a rate of improvement of roughly 5 mph each year since 2009. If hitting 142.2 mph down the Sulby Straight speed trap wasn’t further proof of the speeds these bikes are achieving, maybe some visual evidence will help support the notion.
Darius Glover is a dirt bike racer. Like you and me, he lives to ride, and when he is on two-wheels he feels the freedom that only other motorcyclists can truly understand. The thing is though, Darius is paralyzed from the waist down. Where others would give up their dreams and this sport, Darius at the age of 15 instead pushed onward. No pity parties, no excuses, just simply a daily example of where there is a will, there is a way, and a reminder that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to. It’s hard not to get a bit choked up listening to Darius tell his story, but you walk away feeling uplifted after feeling his attitude come across the screen.
Any race where 1,500 riders start, 500 qualify, and only 14 finish, has got to be an epic competition, and considering the fact that the Erzberg Rodeo starts in the excavation pit of an Austrian mine…well, it takes a special rider to be enticed by such an event. One such special rider is Graham Jarvis, who was the first of the fourteen men to reach the 20th and final checkpoint. Taking 2 hours and 52 seconds to complete the course, Jarvis made the 2013 Erzberg Rodeo look downright easy. However, with one look at the race-day conditions from this past weekend, we know it was anything but.
While normally, MotoGP fans never get enough of seeing Valentino Rossi on TV, there is one shot they would (for the most part) gladly be spared. As he leaves the pits, Rossi stands on the footpegs, and pulls his leathers from between his buttocks, before sitting back down again and leaving. These rituals – part useful limbering up, part invocation of Lady Luck – are something many riders perform, in their attempt to exert control over themselves, and over their environment. In a fascinating press release – by far the most interesting we have received in many months – the Aspar team today provided a discussion and explanation of what riders are trying to achieve through the use of these rituals.
Hoping to make it four wins in a row, it goes without saying that the MotoCzysz crew is working hard to close the gap to the John McGuinness and the Mugen team. However, having Team Principal Michael Czysz stuck back in the US, undergoing cancer treatments, must certainly add another level of motivation for the on-island MotoCzysz crew. Making time in their busy schedule, Asphalt & Rubber got to take some up-close photos of the 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc. The most obvious changes made to the MotoCzysz E1pc for the 2013 TT Zero race are the use conventional suspension pieces. Of course, it’s not a completely standard suspension setup, as MotoCzysz has developed its own adjustable triple clamp that incorporates tunable lateral flex parameters.
Max Biaggi is to make a surprise return to riding a MotoGP machine. The former 250 and World Superbike champion will take a seat on Ben Spies’ Ignite Pramac Ducati as part of a one-day test at Mugello, as part of Ducati’s testing program, according to Italian site GPOne. Spies was scheduled to stay on at Mugello to take part in a two-day test, but after the first day of practice at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, it was clear to both Spies and Ducati that his shoulder was still too weak to ride a MotoGP machine. With work continuing on the Desmosedici, it was important for Ducati to get as much data as possible on their bike, and so Biaggi was offered the chance to ride the machine.
The crew over at On The Throttle TV have been doing a multi-part interview with AMA legend Mat Mladin. OTT asked Mladin what he thought about former rival Ben Spies as a racer. Mat’s response: the best rider of our time, or not far behind Rossi himself. That’s high praise a from a six time AMA Champion, and even higher praise from the Aussie rider. You can find the whole interview here, and the clip after the jump.
Source: On The Throttle TV
I don’t get it, the title of the post and what is said in the post are completely contradictory…
“Mat Mladin: Spies Better Than Rossi”
vs.
“OTT asked Mladin what he thought about former rival Ben Spies as a racer. Mat’s response: the best rider of our time, or not far behind Rossi himself.”
So which is it?
If you watched the video, Mat talks about Ben’s abilities as a road racer and the amount of raw talent he has. There is no question as to Ben’s ability to ride a bike. As you can see with Toseland and Crutchlow on the Yamahas this season, Ben absolutely strangled the neck of that R1 last year, rode around a few bike issues and walked away with the title in his hand.
You should be cpmpletely drunk to say Ben Spies is better than Rossi.
For sure he is a great rider, but from that to being better than Rossi …. no comments
I’m gonna have to agree w/ caRRera…lol
rossi is great, but only because his competition has been mediocre. he’d get his ass handed to him if he raced in the days of doohan, schwantz, rainey, lawson, & spencer.
Watch and comprehend the interview. He doesn’t say Spies is better then Rossi so don’t get all upset about it. The title of the article is misleading.
Mat Mladin: Spies Better Than Rossi – http://bit.ly/avmWqa #motorcycle
@keet: You think Rossi has had mediocre competition for all of the last 14 years? I’m sorry but that’s preposterous. Not to knock Doohan, Rainey or anybody at all but Rossi should have more than proven his abilities to anyone, regardless of whether you like him or not.
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Mat Mladin: Spies Better Than Rossi – http://bit.ly/avmWqa #motorcycle
Let Spies win 9 world titles and then make any comparisons.. to claim beforehand that he’s better than the greatest of all times is foolish.. sure he’s good, but let him prove it first in head to head battle.. :P
my comment stands… who has rossi beaten in the last 10 years? (i’m only counting the big-leagues, 500GP/motoGP) what great racers has rossi beaten? biaggi? gibernau? melandri? wow… BFD!
I agree with keet who has he beaten really the only one to give him a real run for his money is “Lorenzo” and then monkey boy spits his dummy out and demands that “Yamaha” doesn’t resign “Lorenzo” I think monkey boy should have a season or 2 in world superbikes I think then we would see how good he really is…..
i think the headline overstates it a bit…but it is, after all, a headline. mat certainly states that ben may be as good as or better than rossi, but not in a definitive way. i think it’s certainly possible, especially over time. what i thought was most interesting was how different post-retirement mat is from the mat we saw in interviews prior to his retirement. he’s always been somewhat matter-of-fact and not given to complimenting other riders, which has given him something of a reputation. i have always liked his unwillingness to pull a punch, but it’s also nice to hear him give ben his due. mat’s on the shortlist of guys i’d like to have in the commentary box when i watch races, and this clip certainly didn’t change that wish.
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Mat Mladin: Spies Better Than Rossi http://bit.ly/avmWqa
Matt is is a bigmouth, I’m shocked that would even continue to quote him on anything. Being bi-polar is not his fault, but I think we can all see that anything can and will come out of his mouth and its not all factual. Spies is going to be something to watch. Massive potential is a little different than massive results. That is why they run the races !
I would love to see Rossi in the WSBK paddock and on the Aprilia RSV4 of coarse! On that bike I am quite sure that he could add a WSBK title to his already massive list. As for him not having any competition, I thing people seem to forget that he was a winner on the RCV and then went straight on to be a winner on the uncompetitive M1,with all the other best riders in the world available at the time, and he rode the wheels off that thing to win on his first race on it.
I haven’t seen the name Keet winning in the Moto GP or WSBK , and yes the people you name are some of the greats for sure, but no of them have as many titles as MR ROSSI.
I also think the lap record to his name might mean something too!
“uncompetitive M1″ …i see you’ve memorized rossi’s biography. thats BS… it was crap BEFORE, but with rossi’s developmental help (probably more to do with burgess than rossi though), that M1 was probably the second best bike on the grid!
thanks, you support my claim… rossi HAS won so much because of the mediocre competition around him!
This is soundling like Mladin upping his own value since he was beaten by Spies. Can’t have some motivated AMA rider beating him. It has to be an AMA rider that’s better the Rossi. All told I expect good things from Spies but Matt would’ve had to get out there and play with the big boys to become an icon. He chose not to $$$$.
The trouble with all this is that nobody can say anything against “monkey boy” on one hand we have the likes of “keet & Me” basically saying what we feel and then on the other hand we have the likes of “Valendino” who has been brain washed and wont have anything said against “monkey boy” theres a lot of people like this who also have been brain washed, looks like it’s going to be another boring season in gp’s I only watch it when theres no WSBK on the tv mind the new moto2 looks interesting (just a rip off of WSS…IMHO) we’ll have to see how it go’s I mean the moto2 bikes have less power than the WSS bikes so whats the point of this type of racing they say that it’s going to bring close racing but we’ll see…….anyway that my 2pence worth……..
Sorry Maxx, I am not brain washed, I can just reconize talent and I think that all the world titles and lap records prove it. We will have to see if Ben can outdo Valentino on the race track and have more world titles to his name before he retires! I do respect that everyone is entitle to an opinion and it doesn’t mean that we all have to agree!
As for Moto2 I am not excited about the class and truly beleive that it was invented to kill off Aprilia’s dominance in the 250′s.
Come on man admit it who has pushed “monkey boy” for all of these years..???? mmmmmmmmm…………???????? I can’t really think of anyone really yes there are good racers in gp’s but no ones pushed him and that just makes him look good I suppose. Lorenzo will be back again this to push even harder I hope other wise it’s just going to the usual S**T..!!.
(I’m not doing this to wind up anyone it’s just a friendly bit of banter among race fans….)
As for the 2 strokes I agree with u.
spies and rossi were brought up on two different sides of the world in two very different approaches to road racing. while rossi had the quicker easier way to make it to the world stage (by already being in Europe), spies had to work his way up to the hard to earn factory seat. AMA is no slouch when it comes to talent that spies had to contend with and some former wsbk champs (Russel, bayliss, corser, kasinski, hodgeson and even former gp champ nick Hayden) can agree with that. Up untill 5 years ago AMA rivaled wsbk for being the best sbk class in the world with guys like the haydens, the bostroms, duhamel, maladin, yates, hacking, Chandler, gobert, hodgeson and the list goes on. while ben was coming up thru the AMA pro ranks he still has 6 titles to his name. they may not be world titles but 5 of those were on big bikes with one being wsbk. 5 years racing against maladin was the best thing for spies. who knows how many wsbk titles mat could have won but look what he taught ben. you gotta give props to ben for winning 14 of 28 races on 99% of tracks he hadn’t even seen in his rookie year!!!. that’s half of the races!!! I think rossi is a beast but think how many world titles he would have if he came thru America. yes ben has the talent. do I think he is better than rossi? no… but I do think he has equal talent and drive. with gp going back to 1000cc next year I think spies has a really strong chance at winning the gp title the same as rossi did his 2nd year.
Rossi has been pushed in the last few years, and been beaten. Hayden has beaten him once, Stoner once – and would have been twice if he hadn’t gotten sick. So, that would make it 3 of the last 4 years. He just happens to me the most consistent. Still a great rider mind you.
Both riders are good. Rossi continues to perform at the twilight of his career against riders much younger. It remains to be seen whether Ben or anyone else can amass wins at 30! Mick was also an outstanding rider and along with his peers has made comments about how good Valention is. All of the great champions have recognised his ability and they should know right… . Not one of them has made negative comments about his sheer talent and ability. I take nothing away from Ben but he has yet to prove himself in Moto Gp and we will need to wait and see.
i think keet should get a grip and stop talking so much b.s. and learn ,A manners , B respect and c to talk about something he actually know’s about, when all of the mentioned riders including aggo cite’s rossi as the best rider the sport has produced with the best natural talent and burgess see him soley responsable for the M1 improvement , so keet you should be keeping your amature and ignorant mouth shut about a sport you clearly don’t yet understand, i met him at the TT last year and it was a shame he couldn’t make it this year, but two other GREATS of the sport did
I have read all of these posts and to be honest I agree with some but as a fan of bike racing in general and a fan of no particular rider it baffles me that people on here are doubting Rossi’s talent.
The reason all the other guys look mediocre is because he is so good and it was the same things said about doohan when he was racing. Bottom line is if you get lap records and titles you are the best. Biaggi and Capirossi raced Doohan but Rossi was too strong for them like Doohan was. The best always wins and with 9 world titles who can argue with that.
Spies is good but how good remains to be seen. Same go’s for Lorenzo to. Rember Criville? he won the title when Doohan could not race but went to pieces after that so anyone that can stay on top as long as Rossi has is nothing to be taken for granted.
The M1 was made competitive by the whole team and remember the rider has to be able to use whats under him. Perfect example Stoners 2007 Ducati clearly the fastest bike on the grid but only Stoners talent could win on it. I would also like to point out that Rossi has never lost a title in a straight fight.
2006 it was tyre and bike reliability and anyone who thinks Nicky Hayden out raced Rossi needs an eye test. If you challenge that statement just review the season and see where Valentino was on a number of occations when he was forced to retire a race due to reliability, add up the points and you will see that Nicky would never have been in the running.
2007 similar story except this time it was due to a slower bike. Fairplay to Stoner for mastering it but if your on a similar bike to Rossi performance wise, odds are you will lose. Jorge Lorenzo has been great to watch as he has raw speed and a burning desire to be the best and has re-motivated Rossi into producing some awesome performances but despite being behind early in the season I honestly believe that under pressure Rossi is too strong for Lorenzo and I think he would have still won the title this year.
Lorenzo, Spies and Stoner are the future but since they all measure themselves against Valentino all your opinions have been answered by the best qualified people in the business like it or not. As regards seeing him in Superbikes, the best will always win no matter what. When he did the Suzuka 8 hourson production bikes he was fastest (even Colin Edwards commented on it as he thought it would have been the other way around).
Racing always produces exceptionally talented individuals from time to time and Rossi is one of them if not the best. Would he have beaten Doohan etc? of course he would have but in turn they would also have beaten him such is their talent. I look forward to Rossi’s return as it seems for now only he is able to run with Jorge.
Like him or not guys his achievements speak for themselves but like all records someday, somebody will beat them. Have your favourites if that’s how you like to do it but don’t let favouritism cloud your judgement. Some of the best racers of all time have even declared him the best so far, who are we to argue with that.
Cheers for reading my opinion and here is to great racing in Gp or WSB!
Well said J. Looking forward to tonights race!!
He’s not “better”, he’s “different”. He has aggression, acuity, skill and fearlessness that credits Mladin more than even his clear innate skill racing a motorcycle. See, Mladin’s one of, if not the, toughest, intimidating and dominating racers ever. After Spies’ tutelage under the Mladin menace, he’s become virtually unstoppable. It’s really as if he’s racing purely in his own head, and it doesn’t matter where he is, or who’s racing alongside him, he’s going to go as fast as humanly possible and past whatever’s in front of him. Period. Rossi has a total mental stranglehold on the entire field. Spies is the only one who couldn’t care less! Rossi, or no Rossi, just like mladin taught him, he’s gonna cream the field whenever he can!
I’M GLAD MAT DIDN’T MENTION HIS OWN NAME IN THE CONVERSATION. IMAGINE ROSSI EVER SAYING SOMEONE ELSE WAS BETTER THAN HE. HELL, YOU CAN TAKE CAPAROSSI OUT OF THE MOTOGP ON A SUZUKI AND BE A CHAMPION IN THE AMA SUPERBIKE SERIES.