His Dad was a pretty aggressive character in his prime. Grumpy bloke.
His dad basically had to be crazy to ride the brutal HRC 500 of his day the way he did. Lawson and Erv Kanemoto somewhat tamed the thing, with which Eddie’s All time great skill as a rider doubtless helped, Mick Doohan with advice from Eddie eventually managed to do so while still being maimed by the thing, Wayne just rode the bucking bronco. I can remember him having a massive tank slapper, somehow staying on the bike, then continuing as though nothing had happened.
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Pomona NY
Chancy - but fair. I've yet to hear of any riders filing complaints against him. He won't be able to get away with that stuff (at least not so often) when he moves up to MotoGp. I think he'll quickly surpass Miller who seems a bit of a dunce.
Joined Mar 2015
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Chertsey, Surrey, UK
Yeah I think he'll outshine Miller, but Millers problem was being promoted to early and forced onto a crap bike.
When you look at the gear manufacturers are giving the satellite teams now, would Miller be the same?
Seems to be pretty fast on an actual Ducati factory bike, faster than their 2nd factory rider all of the most recent race weekend anyway. He was fast at Qatar as well, and I doubt his intellect or lack thereof had much to do with his seat coming loose early in that race. He also has won 1 more motogp race than many, admittedly a wet race, but Dovi similarly had only one win in a wet race for longer than the first few years of his premier class career on much better equipment.
In retrospect he would have been better spending time in moto 2 given how poor the second string Honda satellite bikes were during his tenure as a Honda motogp rider.
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A winding country road.
lol, i must have slipped of to a parallel universe where Wayne wasn't an aggressive rider and Jack is a dunce.
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Pomona NY
Gardiner Sr. was very competitive - but he wasn't trading paint every other lap.
As far as Miller's concerned - I stand by my call. The guy is dumb as a box of rocks.
Hmm, Jack is dumb and you talk of a different Gardner ...............
Dunce or not, Jack has not had a full factory ride yet has more race wins than many in the top class.
Let us not forget that he got his first win before Crutchlow, Vinales and others riding far better equipment.
Plus of course, dunce or not, he is making the money and living the dream that us armchair legends (of our own mind) can only dream
As for Wayne Gardner Not trading paint, well he was super aggressive in his day and would not have thought twice of running a rider out to the line. Fierce, tough and brutal are all words that could describe him .............................. or as a friend of mine who knows him personally constantly says 'Wayne is the biggest toughest prick to ever race in Australia, cars or bikes' .
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USA
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Pomona NY
Hmm, Jack is dumb and you talk of a different Gardner ...............
Dunce or not, Jack has not had a full factory ride yet has more race wins than many in the top class.
Let us not forget that he got his first win before Crutchlow, Vinales and others riding far better equipment.
Plus of course, dunce or not, he is making the money and living the dream that us armchair legends (of our own mind) can only dream
As for Wayne Gardner Not trading paint, well he was super aggressive in his day and would not have thought twice of running a rider out to the line. Fierce, tough and brutal are all words that could describe him .............................. or as a friend of mine who knows him personally constantly says 'Wayne is the biggest toughest prick to ever race in Australia, cars or bikes' .
To be sure - a rider can be less than brilliant and still be competitive. One much loved American rider we all liked was a terrific racer - but off the track - dumb as a bag of hammers.
Memories of races 40 years in the past will differ. I watched Remy racing last week and he was elbowing riders left and right and I recall his dad - competitive but much cleaner in his passes. In terms of being an outright hard-headed .... - he's not a patch on Doohan.
Joined Mar 2015
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Chertsey, Surrey, UK
I presume you are referring to the Binder brothers. Hmm I don't think they bash around that much, but Daren certainly is more legs and arms of the 2. Nor do they go for grabbing someones brake lever.
I do remember those races fairly well and Wayne was no stranger to swapping paint, although did not elbow people that I recall. He came from superbikes and never competed in the 250 or 125 championships, and the bikes in those classes were not uniform then anyway, but use of the elbows is fairly mandatory if you are to compete in moto2 or moto3 these days with packed fields and supposedly equal bikes.
Mick was Wayne’s superior as a rider and particularly at development and set up and one of the hardest .......s who ever lived, but mostly passed fairly cleanly himself unless peeved with Alex Criville and desirous of making a point to him.
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I think there may be a bit lost in translation due to differing understanding of analgous words/expressions. Elbowing was not meant to imply that Remy was literally jabbing riders in the chest to throw off their rhythm. I enjoy watching him and was not put off by how physical he is when passing. Very entertaining really. Certainly - nobody complained of "rough riding"; at least not so far.
Regarding equality of Moto 2 bikes - I never assume that. Clearly some chassis and fairing manufacturers are superior and some team techs are bound to think outside the box and come up with legal tricks to offer small advantages.
I agree, and meant to imply that I don’t think the bikes are equal in moto 2 now, but there are a lot of them and they are closer together than the golden era 500s when the now legendary riders had imo the greatest stoushes ever on bikes that required rather substantial rider input, but there were marked performance differences in the field generally.
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Pomona NY
Yep - that differential sure as hell accounts for why Sheene and Schwantz were so heralded. The Suzukis were really deficient compared to the Hondas and Yamahas. Watching the wild shapes Schwantz made on that bike was really something. It was like gravity had gone insane in his little sphere of existence.
I'm stealing this. Great description of any rider/bike on the edge of control.
Joined Mar 2015
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Chertsey, Surrey, UK
As someone pointed out, in moto 2 and 3 they all do that now the field is so packed its inevitable. I've even noticed McPhee is getting his elbows involved and hes a nice guy lol.
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