RideFast March 2022
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Moto GP<br />
The Icon vs The Machine:<br />
the strange case of Barry Sheene versus Kenny Roberts<br />
By the time this magazine graces your palms, the first round of the<br />
<strong>2022</strong> MotoGP season should be underway in Qatar or possibly have<br />
already happened. In which case, what took you so long to buy this<br />
mag?<br />
Doing any sort of modern MotoGP pre-season analysis becomes<br />
redundant the moment the lights go off; therefore, we shall not analyse<br />
anything modern and instead look back to one of the most iconic<br />
rivalries in history and see what it taught us.<br />
In the mid-seventies, Barry Sheene was all the rave. This longhaired,<br />
cockney charmer was the darling of all the world, becoming the first<br />
professional motorcycle racer to grace the front cover of mainstream<br />
magazines and turned motorcycle GP racing from a niche fancy to a<br />
global phenomenon.<br />
And he was pretty good at riding, too, winning the 1976 and 1977 500cc<br />
World Championships aboard a Suzuki baring the iconic number 7<br />
plate, something he kept even after winning the title.<br />
Naturally, his title wins are lauded, but that’s not what makes Barry<br />
Sheene special.
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