Continued

Q What's the Honda RC211V MotoGP bike like to ride? If you had to explain it to someone who has ridden a motorcycle, but never sat on a MotoGP bike or a Superbike, what would you say?

A I think the coolest thing that I really like ... I'm a front end guy. If I don't have the front end under me, I'm lost. But even when you're having front end problems, it's still there. That's, to me, that's the biggest thing about the bike. The front is just planted. It's not going to go anywhere. I've been on bikes before that you just don't know what the hell the front's going to do. But this thing, it's bizarre. You can run it in, and you think you're putting a lot of force on it, and it's just asking for more. All through testing, especially, at Donington, you can get away with murder on the front.

But when it's not right, it's not right. That's the one downfall about it. There's no happy medium. But that's the best thing about the bike. But as far as riding it - to be honest, they're so de-tuned right now that all you do is just take power away left and right to get the thing not to wheelie and not to loop out on you, and once you hit fourth, fifth, sixth gear, then you get full power. We're not the only ones doing it. Everyone's doing it.

Q That leads to my next question. How big of a part of MotoGP is traction control?

A As a rider, I see a bit of the bigger picture, I think. But most riders'll tell you oh, the rider's 90% of it, and the data guy's 10%. I don't think that's right. I think it's like 50-50. It's almost getting to a point where you're as good as your programmer. If you've got a guy that's studying where you're having to back off and where you're having to stop the wheelieing, he can catch that, and say okay, let's take a little bit of power here away and add a little bit here, a little bit more traction control here. When you've got a guy that's really studying, studying the lines on the computer screen and can come up with all that stuff, that's the guy you need to keep around. Because it's not anybody in the world that can do that job, you know?

All it is is experience. Just good experience. My data guy will come up, and actually, we call him Prince. It's his nickname. He'll come up out of the blue and say ... I'll just be sitting there bull-shitting. Civilian clothes. He's like, what do you think if second gear, we just lean it out at the top, or do this? He'd come up with some explanation. And I'd think about it, and go, 'Yeah, okay. That might be all right. Let's try it.' And it's better. That's their job.

But as a rider, it's hard to think about suspension and chassis and this second gear could be this and fourth gear could be that. You've got 900 different things running around in your head. And it's his job to come up and say, 'what if we do this? What if we do that? Let's try this.'

Q It sounds very complex on your end.

A You're as good as your programmer, to a point. Obviously, you can over-ride to an extent. But if you've got a good programmer that's feeding in the right numbers, it makes it that much easier. That's all he's doing. Just making the job a lot easier.

Q But the traction control, as I understand it, is still fairly crude for 2003. It's not really measuring tire slippage and taking it away foot by foot, corner by corner. It's just taking power away, right? Making the bike more tractable and less peaky by removing the rough spots in the powerband.

A Yeah. Basically, I think, the more advanced system at the moment is like what Ducati has. They've got where you can actually hear it missing and spitting and sputtering off the corner, which is, to me, like a true traction control. It's cutting fire, or doing whatever it's doing, but the power's still there when it comes back in. So our system, yeah, it's ... whatever our system is, it's pretty f*cking good. It's not bad.

The Aprilia was, to a point, where you'd ride it by wire. You could come out of a corner and just run (the throttle) to the stop. You could just open it to the stop, and the ride by wire ... obviously that (system) would measure front speed and rear wheel speed and differences, variations, and then it would cut it at a point, or whatever. That thing, you could just hold it wide-open and you didn't have to think about it. You'd just run it to the stop, and it would do it all on its own. Whereas the Honda, yeah, you can't just run it to the stop. You have to be a bit more careful about it.

I think the new breed of riders that are coming up now are going to enjoy it a lot more. They're going to get a lot more out of it. Because, I think at the moment, (we're) old school, we're still stuck in the riding habits made 20 years ago. As soon as the rear steps out an inch, we're already compensating for it on the throttle. And then now you have the electronics compensating right after you. You know what I'm saying? So, sometimes it's like a double negative. And then, that might start a little wiggle, or do something, and you have to get over that correction and just let it do it on its own.

Q It sounds very mentally difficult to do.

A Mentally, it's just a lot of trust. You just have to trust what you have.

Q Coming from motocross, 250s and Superbikes, you've been programed to control the throttle with your wrist. It can't be easy to un-learn.

A Yeah. All my shit's been manual my whole life. I've been doing it 27, 26 years of that right wrist working, and now you just kind of have to trust what you have and the right wrist is not as important.

Q Next question: What's the priority for the rest of the season? Is it trying to solidify a decent place in the championship?

A Win races. That's the only thing I can do at the moment. I've just got to win races. Okay, I'm sitting fourth in the championship, and that looks nice, which is saying something in itself, for consistency, but as far as ... Donington was the only race I was even happy with. And still I wasn't happy. Valentino still kicked my ass. And that was the thing.

I got done with the race, normally, if I get beat, it's like, well, it was doing this, or it started to do this on this lap or whatever, or so on and so forth. But I was like, the f*cking bike was perfect. I don't know what I could've done. Obviously if I wouldn't have backed up and could've got with him, then it would've been much easier to tow around with him. But I don't know if I would've had anything for him. I was like f*ck, man, I rode my ass off. And I still couldn't catch him.

Q Sete's down in the championship now, from where he was. Politically, maybe that'll push some new spec equipment your way, do you think? Hope?

A I don't know. There's always - after the summer break, that's how Honda are. After the summer break, they might have chassis, or I doubt engine. But there might be something. Who knows? That would just be typical. Just as we got the thing sorted out, here, try this new chassis. Obviously if it's better, then we'll run it. But it just takes time. You've got to do it at a racetrack, put another chassis on and test it out, and lose a little bit of time here or there testing things. So I don't know. I don't know what Honda's plan is. I give up thinking and pushing about that.

Q How's life on the road been this year with your wife and daughter along?

A It's been awesome. We've just been living in Italy. We actually live about five minutes from Misano racetrack. And about half a mile from Valentino. It's out in the country. Tivulia. It's right near Cattolica. We've got a house this year. We leased it for three and a half months. Right after South Africa, we went straight there. It was already furnished. It's like 1800 square feet probably, vineyards in the back, you don't have a neighbor for 100 yards. Just out in the country. Hills. You can see for damn 10 miles over the hills. It's awesome. It was like a little retreat. A haven.

So we got into that and bought some different couches, bought a big screen TV, all the normal shit you have to buy when you live somewhere.

Q Yeah. Americanize it ASAP.

A That's it. That was fun. We had Gracie cruising around the whole time. But we were just flying to and from the races. But this year's schedule's been odd, because it's back to back, and then the next weekend back to back, and it was ... as much time as we thought we'd be spending there, we really haven't spent that much. We've been on the road.

The guy driving our motor home used to drive the Ford Cosworth rally team hospitality. He was their chef. Sous chef. So he's our driver, he's cooking up for us, it's like freaking awesome. It's badass.

Q The MotoGP paddock is becoming more like F1 every day. Do you miss the old days of World Superbike, with the open hospitalities, and everybody went to everybody else's hospitality? Or don't you see it as that unfriendly in MotoGP?

A I think it's more intimidating now than it ever was in GP. I think whenever I was in Superbike, coming to Grands Prix, shit, I could walk into the Yamaha tent, or I could walk into the Honda, or go visit the Proton guys, or whatever, and just go hang out. Now, yeah. To come from Superbike, or to see it, without watching it grow the last couple of years, you go there, and you're like damn, what the hell is this? Yeah. It's gone mental. I don't know. I guess somebody has a master plan somewhere, but as far as myself, I just enjoy riding two wheels. If it's in the back yard or it's in a Grand Prix paddock, it doesn't really matter. I just love to ride, man.

Q MotoGP bikes this year, they're smashing lap records, and the bikes are faster than ever. With a tailwind in the pre-season, the bikes were pulling huge mile an hour. It's got some people concerned that they're getting too fast.

A This started last year. I remember there was a couple tracks we went to, and they changed a few things, but it's like we're outgrowing the tracks. Used to be, where you'd come out of a corner and you're carrying 100 mile an hour, you might get up to 120 for the next little bend. Now, you're coming around at 110 and getting up to 135 getting up to the next bend. So the space and distance where walls used to be safe, that's definitely changing. It's almost like, you go out in the middle of a field and lay some tarmac down, then it'll be safe.

Some of the tracks we go to ... a perfect example is Katoh's accident. Where he crashed, you just don't ever crash there. Nobody does. But that wall was five feet off the track.

But it's not only there. It's everywhere. I mean, every track we go to is the same. Perfect example, turn one in Rio. You come out of there right, if you highside and stay with it and kind of ride it in that fence is five feet off the track.

Q Same situation as Suzuka where Katoh crashed.

A It's exactly the same. And you look at where Pedrosa crashed last year in Australia. There's still danger in it, but it's to a point now to where the speeds - and don't get me wrong, I love going fast. I think it's awesome. I always want to go faster. But I think for safety's sake, they're going to probably have to do something with it.

Q A lot of people think, with the new Motogp regulations, where they're going to lighten up the fuel load and back down the cc, the bikes are just going to get faster.

A Yeah. I don't think that's going to help anything, personally. ... Even if the things were 750s, this is the problem.

Even if they were 750s and had all the work, all the trick shit like we have now, we're still going to be running damn near the same lap times. It's not going to change anything. The only difference is, it's going to be easier to get to the weight limit. It's not going to change much, not when you've got this much money and all these factories behind it. It's still going to be crazy.

Q USGP, there's a lot of talk. Have you heard anything lately? Have you pushed? Has anyone asked you anything?

A We had a - Espoleta sat us down, I guess it would've been Barcelona, all the Americans, and I think Bayliss, because he had done Superbikes. Just asked us about the track and what he felt needed to be changed. I think he just wanted to feel us out, to see what kind of audience is there, and what it's like. He hadn't been to a Superbike race, so he wanted to get a feel. And I think he was pretty pumped about doing it. That was my feeling. I think he was ready.

I think the only thing he was worried about was if we'd get 100,000 spectators. And I said, well, we had 92,000 in 2002. You've got five Americans, why wouldn't you get 100,000? So I don't know.

I hope it happens. I'd love for it to happen. Laguna's a Grand Prix track, definitely. Just need to get a few of their barriers figured out, and we'll be dialed in. It's a Grand Prix place. That's the thing about it. It's like fricking going into Hollywood.

Q Another topic. Do you miss Superpole at all?

A Yeah, Superpole was good. As much as some of us might have thought this or that about it, I grew to enjoy it. Just because it was you and the track. There was no draft, there's no tow, there's no - you knew you had one lap to do it, and everybody pretty much slotted in their place. Whereas now, it just depends on who gets a tow, and what Kawasaki's behind what Honda, and what Suzuki's behind what Yamaha, and, I mean, it's just - you've got guys up there in the top 5 that you know you're going to come by them in the first couple laps. It just makes you work that much harder.

Q Your old championship rival, Troy Bayliss, didn't really have a fantastic season this year before Donington. Were you surprised? Looking at him on the bike, he certainly did not look comfortable at all. Even less comfortable than you were, before Donington.

A Yeah. Troy, sometimes on the Superbike I'd say he didn't look comfortable, but he'd just ride the crap out of it. I'd love to see him stay. I think this year, with all the problems ... I think he was just getting last year's bike really dialed in, and was having fun with it, and they go and change 1000 pieces of it for this year. So that's definitely a bummer. I talked to Troy, and he said it's getting better.

I don't want to see him go either. Shit. He definitely deserves to be there.

Q The Bridgestone situation. Is it for real? Do you think they'll be a contender next year for a championship, or top three in the championship, on one of those bikes?

A I don't know. It's just hard for me to believe. I mean, not that I'm a corporate guy with Michelin or anything. I just know what they... I know a lot of stuff that they do. I know a lot of their technology and a lot of the things that make Michelins so frigging good. And to believe that Bridgestone has somebody that can lead them in the right direction, and they can build the right stuff, I don't know. I mean, that stuff doesn't happen in six months. Sometimes it doesn't even happen in five years. I think, obviously, at Mugello they worked good last year. At Brazil they worked good last year. There's another track where they worked good--Motegi. So you've got like three tracks where you know they work good, and it looks like the same this year.

I don't think top three. Personally, I don't think they can get in the top three next year. I don't think it can happen. I'm just solely basing that on the fact that I know what Michelin are doing. And what they have, and how they work. That's the only reason I'm saying that.