Interview with Kurtis Roberts

[.RJ]

Kurtis certainly knows how to ride a motorcycle, and perhaps his career choices havent worked out too well in his favor but he certainly seems a little bitter about something. Maybe its the hair.

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With your fellow Nicky Hayden, Roger Lee Hayden, John Hopkins and Colin Edwards out there this weekend, if you were on the right equipment, do you think you could be right there with them?

Oh yeah, no problem. You say Roger, whatÔÇÖs Roger. I mean I like Roger, but whatÔÇÖs Roger ever done? HeÔÇÖs one a couple of Daytona races, but thatÔÇÖs easy. HeÔÇÖs never won a championship yet. IÔÇÖve won three of them. YouÔÇÖve got Nicky [Hayden]. Other than the Superbike championship, IÔÇÖve won the same championships he has and he didnÔÇÖt have to race against the Suzuki 1000s the following year like I did. Nicky is not the guy coming in here that is favored. ItÔÇÖs Casey [Stoner]. And you look at Casey and [Dani] Pedrosa. I know who is better there. And the guy who is better is not the guy who is winning all the time, in my opinion. I mean Casey is a great rider and heÔÇÖs doing really, really good this year. But then you look at Valentino. He struggling and you know he didnÔÇÖt forget how to ride. All the Michelin guys are struggling a lot. But there is no doubt in my mind that, I donÔÇÖt think there is a doubt in anyone on our teamÔÇÖs mind that we would be there if we had what we needed.

[G.Irish]

It might kind of sound dick but he's right. Roger did a great job at Laguna but he's rather short on credentials. The only reason he got that ride is because of his name. Not that there's anything insanely wrong with that, there are plenty of people in the highest levels of motorsport that got opportunities based on their name or their passport. Kurtis is one of them.

But he has won more championships than Roger has, that's not disputable. Now if he's gonna say he's won more than Nicky in AMA, that's true, but Nicky got up and left as soon as he got the chance. He definitely could've won more titles if he had decided to loaf around in AMA.

[stevegula]

Personally, I can't stand most of the Roberts family. Not for lack of talent but their seeming huge egos and raging arrogance. But I 100% agree with him - electronics is ruining the sport. It is turning into Formula One and Formula One fucking blows. I don't know how y'all watch that. What are there? Like two passes per race other than pre-turn 1 shenanigans?

Case in point - How exciting was it to watch Gary McCoy on the Ilmor when he was riding that? It wasn't. Traction control made him outdated and boring.

And he's right about Stoner/Pedrosa. Pedrosa is the better rider (in the dry, anyway) but Ducati has got their electronics (along with Bridgestone tires) at 100% and it shows (and it's been awhile but their dominating HP #s show too). Vermeulen said it best two years ago when he was interviewed for that fill-in spot he got at Phillip Island, he said there was nothing to riding a GP Premiere bike because the bike does nearly everything for you.

I'd like to see a shootout with all of those guys on mostly stock bikes - no traction control or anything. I bet that'd be pretty entertaining and amazingly disappointing to some rider's fans.

[G.Irish]

Personally, I can't stand most of the Roberts family. Not for lack of talent but their seeming huge egos and raging arrogance. But I 100% agree with him - electronics is ruining the sport. It is turning into Formula One and Formula One fucking blows. I don't know how y'all watch that. What are there? Like two passes per race other than pre-turn 1 shenanigans?

The lack of passing in F1 has very, very little to do with traction control and everything to do with aerodynamics and the fact that the difference in performance in the cars is very large. Next year they are doing away with traction control and I doubt you will see much more passing, but you will see more driving mistakes and crashes. You will also see the smoother drivers gain an advantage.

And he's right about Stoner/Pedrosa. Pedrosa is the better rider (in the dry, anyway) but Ducati has got their electronics (along with Bridgestone tires) at 100% and it shows (and it's been awhile but their dominating HP #s show too).

Pedrosa better than Stoner argument is debateable. Stoner rode a KTM in 125's that was clearly inferior to the Honda and Aprilia at the time. In his rookie 250 season he had 5 wins to Pedrosa's 8. So yes Pedrosa beat him when they raced in the same class but Pedrosa didn't really blow him out, and Stoner of course crashed a lot.

Stoner's Ducati is working better than Pedrosa's Honda right now but even then Stoner is clearly the only one who is getting the best out of his package. One can have their opinion about who's better but even if Pedrosa is better than Stoner it's not by a huge margin.

Vermeulen said it best two years ago when he was interviewed for that fill-in spot he got at Phillip Island, he said there was nothing to riding a GP Premiere bike because the bike does nearly everything for you.

The bikes are a lot easier to ride for sure but the best guys are still going to win. They just might not win by as big a margin, which is fine by me. Some people like to piss and moan about how TC is making the bikes too easy to ride but I think they're missing the big picture. With easier to ride bikes you have more people who can ride the bikes to the maximum and less crashes and injuries.

I'd like to see a shootout with all of those guys on mostly stock bikes - no traction control or anything. I bet that'd be pretty entertaining and amazingly disappointing to some rider's fans.

I wish they'd do something like the old Trans-Atlantic Match races but instead with equal machinery and open it up to every country. I'd love to see a contest between Italy, Spain, USA, France, England, and Australia. It sure would be interesting.

[stevegula]

Personally, I can't stand most of the Roberts family. Not for lack of talent but their seeming huge egos and raging arrogance. But I 100% agree with him - electronics is ruining the sport. It is turning into Formula One and Formula One fucking blows. I don't know how y'all watch that. What are there? Like two passes per race other than pre-turn 1 shenanigans?

The lack of passing in F1 has very, very little to do with traction control and everything to do with aerodynamics and the fact that the difference in performance in the cars is very large. Next year they are doing away with traction control and I doubt you will see much more passing, but you will see more driving mistakes and crashes. You will also see the smoother drivers gain an advantage.

There are other electronics involved in motorcycles, like the ones that keep the front wheel down coming out of a turn (or launch control, but I don't consider it a valid point for this argument). I'd say electronics for yaw control but it's probably the same ones handling traction control.

But that doesn't invalidate the point, F1 is boring as hell and GP is probably only a few years to a decade away from being the same.

The bikes are a lot easier to ride for sure but the best guys are still going to win. They just might not win by as big a margin, which is fine by me. Some people like to piss and moan about how TC is making the bikes too easy to ride but I think they're missing the big picture. With easier to ride bikes you have more people who can ride the bikes to the maximum and less crashes and injuries.

But I don't care if anyone can ride them, I'd prefer to be watching the best of the best. If anyone can ride them then the only people who are going to start bumping up from other competitions are those who happen to be standing at the right spot at the right time. I want to watch the bikes move and see who's pushing them to the limits. These days you can typically only tell when someone crashes.

[G.Irish]

Personally, I can't stand most of the Roberts family. Not for lack of talent but their seeming huge egos and raging arrogance. But I 100% agree with him - electronics is ruining the sport. It is turning into Formula One and Formula One fucking blows. I don't know how y'all watch that. What are there? Like two passes per race other than pre-turn 1 shenanigans?

The lack of passing in F1 has very, very little to do with traction control and everything to do with aerodynamics and the fact that the difference in performance in the cars is very large. Next year they are doing away with traction control and I doubt you will see much more passing, but you will see more driving mistakes and crashes. You will also see the smoother drivers gain an advantage.

There are other electronics involved in motorcycles, like the ones that keep the front wheel down coming out of a turn (or launch control, but I don't consider it a valid point for this argument). I'd say electronics for yaw control but it's probably the same ones handling traction control.

But that doesn't invalidate the point, F1 is boring as hell and GP is probably only a few years to a decade away from being the same.

The lack of passing in F1 is because of AERODYNAMICS. The leading car leaves a dirty wake that reduces the aerodynamic efficiency of the trailing car which slows the trailing car through the turns. GP bikes have very little downforce so they flat out do not, and will not have that problem.

If you think GP racing will be boring because the bikes don't slide and wheelie as much, that's a matter of opinion. Personally I've seen great racing in the 250 and 125 classes and none of the riders slide those bikes either.

The bikes are a lot easier to ride for sure but the best guys are still going to win. They just might not win by as big a margin, which is fine by me. Some people like to piss and moan about how TC is making the bikes too easy to ride but I think they're missing the big picture. With easier to ride bikes you have more people who can ride the bikes to the maximum and less crashes and injuries.

But I don't care if anyone can ride them, I'd prefer to be watching the best of the best. If anyone can ride them then the only people who are going to start bumping up from other competitions are those who happen to be standing at the right spot at the right time. I want to watch the bikes move and see who's pushing them to the limits. These days you can typically only tell when someone crashes.

Just because more people can ride them doesn't change the fact that the best riders will go to Moto GP, and only the best riders in Moto GP will win. You don't see guys like Hoffman or Checa winning races do you?

As for average riders getting bumped from the lower classes, that's been happening for decades based on who has the right passport and sponsors. But again, just because you can get into GP doesn't mean you'll do well or will be able to stay in the class.