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FEATURE<br />
the 2002 bike that him and I<br />
debuted at Motegi – with just<br />
a few laps I ran, then coming<br />
on the front straight, the<br />
rear broke loose and traction<br />
control kicked in: it was more<br />
re-active then. If you took<br />
me out of my era and put me<br />
there now then that’s the part<br />
of it that would feel most difference.<br />
All that control that<br />
you had to have, versus now,<br />
you have to trust the electronics<br />
to do something. I don’t<br />
say that all electronics make<br />
things easy. <strong>No</strong>. It’s just that<br />
moment when you have to<br />
trust it.<br />
The amount of technology<br />
you find on standard sportsbikes<br />
these days is amazing…<br />
That allows good MotoGP<br />
riders to come from different<br />
categories. They have very different<br />
riding styles. Everybody<br />
is under a microscope now.<br />
You can see the difference between<br />
the riders so well, even<br />
from one track to another.<br />
Ergonomics is the main thing<br />
now. Lorenzo started it all,<br />
and everybody’s on it. They<br />
are asking ‘how is the bike<br />
supporting me?’<br />
And it comes basically because<br />
of two reasons: first of<br />
all, the G forces are higher<br />
than in your era and they’ve<br />
got more grip-<br />
Absolutely.<br />
Did you ever think of ergonomics<br />
much when you<br />
were racing and maybe some<br />
of the advantages it might<br />
bring?<br />
I always focused on that. Even<br />
though I was not so much of<br />
a braker initially. But I would<br />
trail-brake really deep into the<br />
corner. My whole thing was<br />
all about getting the bike in<br />
a position to accelerate. My<br />
strength was mid-corner and<br />
exit speed and a lot of the<br />
so-called top speed advantage<br />
came from there. Back<br />
in those days, we didn’t have<br />
data acquisition and all that.<br />
But we had radar guns and<br />
I’d have them at the end of<br />
the straight to measure the<br />
gain off the corner (leading to<br />
that straight). So that is about<br />
positioning and keeping the<br />
upper-body relaxed. I understood<br />
that it was about lower<br />
body stability. That’s why<br />
they are really working on the<br />
tanks today - Jorge obviously<br />
- because for him it’s about<br />
mid-corner speed.<br />
So you were already doing it<br />
already in your time? We’re<br />
talking about how you can<br />
grab the tank and how your<br />
arms are not overstressed by<br />
braking force…<br />
I was doing that [putting<br />
sticky stuff on the tank to grip<br />
the legs and knees] to keep<br />
my lower body stable and my<br />
upper body relaxed. I’m not<br />
a counter-steering guy. I was<br />
all about feeling that front
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