Motorcycle Racing: Then and now...

Motorcycle Racing: Then and now...

I don’t need Mahabaleshwar or Lonavala on weekends – MotoGP on television, a bunch of friends who’re also mad about motorcycle racing and some cans of cold beer work just fine. And while everyone is rooting for Rossi, I’m usually harbouring secret hopes of Loris Capirossi (and till last year, Max Biaggi…) pulling one out of the bag and taking top spot.

Rossi is a racing god no doubt, but my loyalties are elsewhere. Cable TV has been around for less than twenty years and hence most of my motorcycle racing heroes, and the racing motorcycles which I idolise, are from the 1980s and 90s, which is when I started watching racing regularly. Barry Sheene, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan from the two-stroke 500s era. Biaggi, when he was racing Aprilia 250s, was awesome. Capirossi’s 125 and 250 battles were also epic. From World Superbikes, some names that come to mind are Giancarlo ‘The Lion’ Falappa, Raymond Roche, Fabrizio Pirovano, Doug Chandler, Rob Phillis, Scott Russell, Doug Polen and of course, Carl Fogarty.

It’s not that motorcycle racing is any less exciting now than it was in the 80s and the 90s. It’s just that motorcycle racing heroes you grow up watching and reading about, like the music you grow up listening to, always stay with you. They are special in ways that can’t always be logically explained. Kevin Schwantz, for example, may have won only one 500cc World Championship, but for me, he’ll always be greater than Valentino Rossi. A part of the all-American Rainey-Lawson-Schwantz holy trinity, number 34 is magical beyond the number of races and championships won.

Likewise, I worship Freddie Spencer for having won both the 250 and the 500 crowns in 1985. And Lawson, for winning the 500cc championship aboard a Yamaha YZR500 in 1988 and then again winning the 500 crown in 1989, on a Honda NSR500. That both machines were radically different in terms of their power delivery and handling characteristics made Lawson’s victories that much more significant. Of course, Lawson also gave Cagiva their first 500cc GP win in 1992, in the Hungarian GP, and got a Ferrari from Claudio Castiglioni for his efforts! And I do think Lawson’s fire-engine red Cagiva was one of the best-looking racing bikes ever, along with Schwantz’s 1989 Pepsi Suzuki RGV500, various Rothmans Honda NSR500s and green-white-blue Kawasaki ZXR750s from world superbikes. The JPS-liveried Norton F1 rotary racers also have a special place in my memories, as does the extraordinary blue-and-pink Britten V1000, which used to leave Ducati V-twins like they were standing still.

From ferocious, fire-spitting, two-stroke 500s, to tech-laden 990cc four-stroke MotoGP bikes today, and 800cc machines which are going to come in from next year – change has been the only constant in top-flight motorcycle racing. However, one thing still hasn’t changed. What’s still as important today as it was back then is what the oft-injured Barry Sheene used to say. It’s the will to win. And that, thankfully, will never change…

Motociclo Bello!

I often wonder what it is about Italy. It’s a small little country, and unlike Japan or Germany, it’s not generally regarded as being particularly advanced in… well, anything. With one exception though. Italian motorcycles. And cars for that matter. Some of the most exquisitely beautiful motorcycles available today are from Italy. Which is delightfully surprising, because none of its neighbouring countries is anywhere near Italy in terms of motorcycle building abilities. French motorcycles? When was the last time you heard of a Voxan? Germany? Except for the BMW K1200R and the R1200GS, I can’t think of a single German motorcycle that I’d want to have anything to do with. Austria? The KTM 990 Super Duke is interesting, but apart from that, absolutely nothing. And it’s the same story with Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, and… I can’t think of any other countries in that neighbourhood. Motorcycles from these European countries? Zero, zilch.

While the Japanese are certainly making some of the most powerful, quickest, fastest, and fun to ride motorcycles (which are also very reliable and affordable…), the Italians have taken the art of making motorcycles to another level altogether. The engine performance may be just about equal to, and in many cases below that of similar-spec Japanese bikes, but when it comes to styling, the Italians are Gods. Take one look at the MV Agusta F4 and tell me if you think its lines can ever be improved upon. The F4 750 was launched in 1997, and ten years on, it’s still the best looking motorcycle in the whole world. And the other MV, the Brutale 910 isn’t too far behind either.

The man who designed the F4, Massimo Tamburini, also designed one more motorcycle which the world will never forget – the Ducati 916. While Ducati have, since then, moved to the 999, the new bike certainly isn’t as svelte and sexy-looking as the old 916. Which is understandable perhaps. Tamburini is Italian. Pierre Terblanche, who designed the 999, hails from South Africa. At least the Ducati Monster, especially the S4R, continues to look good as ever. The new Ducati Sport Classics have more style, more beauty than the best Milan fashion houses put together, and the Paul Smart replica is to die for.

Though I rate the Bimota Mantra as one of the ugliest bikes ever made (but then it was designed by Sacha Lakic, a Frenchman, not Italian…), I have been a big fan of other Bimotas. The SB6 and the YB11 was really good looking, and the even more gorgeous Furano, fuel-injected and packing 164 horsepower, was, for some time in the mid-1990s, the fastest production motorcycle in the world. And what motorcycle enthusiast can ever forget the hub-centre-steered Bimota Tesi 1D, so radical, so beautifully engineered and so deserving of success? What a pity then that Bimota have never really managed to earn enough money for proper, full-scale R&D operations. Still, the new Bimota DB5 and the Delirio are some of the most sumptuous motorcycles produced anywhere.

And the list doesn’t end with MV Agusta, Ducati and Bimota. There’s also Aprilia with the very beautiful and aggressive RSV 1000R and the slightly insane Tuono. There’s Moto Morini, with their mind-blowing Corsaro 1200. And there’s Benelli and Laverda and Moto Guzzi, whose long-departed Sei 900, Jota and Le Mans 850 are still remembered with so much fondness, by fans of Italian motorcycles. No doubt, Italian motorcycles have always been special in ways that cannot be explained by real-world logic. Let’s hope they stay that way.