<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Apr 23 2009, 03:01 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Firstly you have your wires crossed, the 06 bike marco was given was not an evo bike, it was just the standard 06 bike that Dani was using (not an 05 like you said). He was actually only allowed to use it for a few races, and duly swtiched to the 06 bike.
As for Hayden chosing to use the bike, i have heard that he was put under pressure to use the new one, and that he was reluctant but as said before he didn't put his foot down and he accepted the advice he was given, with successful results. As far as parts testing goes, I don't believe that the mid season parts Hayden used would have been presented to the team if they were not intending to improve his performance in the short term, as the 800 was built and tested in the summer. Nicky even turned down testing it to keep his eye in with his 990.
I appreciate that the circumstances and performance of the evo 990 were not ideal, but it did the job it was designed to do and took Hayden to the best performance of his career. I'm just not of the opinion that Honda unfairly shafted Nicky. I just don't buy that Honda would make a rookie their team leader while they had a championship contender on the other side of the garage, fighting for a title they desperately wanted. Nor do i buy that HRC would have wasted resources developing a one off bike useful for only one season to be ridden by their rider to evaluate parts for a bike whos design concept differed more than any other teams 800 from their respective 990's. Especially not when they had the 800 by mid season anyway.
This is what you originally said, so quit back tracking as usual:-
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Apr 22 2009, 10:38 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>And i repeat that Nicky chose to run the evo bike in 06, he was advised by the engineers that despite not being sorted initially that it would be better over a full season. He could have put his foot down and taken the Pedrosa bike, but he didn't and it worked.
Complete U-Turn, utter self contradictory bull. Have you ever thought of pursuing a career in politics Tom? and you have the audacity to claim that I have my wires crossed.
1/ Granted, Melandri did not start on the season on the evo bike, but he didn't use the standard '06 version either. Furthermore, I never said he did...read the post. I said he was given the 06 chassis
during testing which he rejected. Rather, he commenced the '06 campaign using an '05 chassis because he didn't get on with the 2006 frame. The 2006 standard bikes were given to all RC211V riders
bar Nicky- Try to understand, I'll take it very slowly this time
Nicky...had..no...say...in....the...matter
Got that? it was imposed by HRC - and Hayden had huge reservations about it. It transpired during testing that Honda had a
second chassis design which enhanced rider feedback during cornering. This featured a modified headstock,
and was initially given to Pedrosa only by request of Mike Leitner and eventually filtered down to Marco and Casey.
2/ It is accepted fact that Nicky was testing internals and concept for the '07 abortion. Nicky himself has stated this since his departure from HRC, it was common knowledge throughout the paddock at the time, and well documented by the worldwide press. Jeez, if that isn't enough, I even remember Fukui and Horiike confirming this after Nicky had secured the title for Honda because they were defending allegations that this may well have detracted from Nicky's title bid. They maintained that there was a balance between a current title bid and future development and as an employee of HRC Nicky was expected to trial future development during his racing in the interests of The Honda Racing Coorporation embracing the forward thinking ethos and future aspirations of the company on the racetrack. When questioned why Pedrosa was not given these responsibilities they were very evasive. The answer is that HRC had such high hopes for Dani, that they believed he could secure the title in his maiden season. I recall talking to Toby Moddy in the paddock at Laguna that year, and he was adamant that Pedrosa represented Honda's 'grand plan' - Pedrosa was the future, unquestionably favoured, and had stepped up to assume the role destined for Kato. They really believed that with their backing, Dani could win it in his first attempt. Hence Nicky became the whipping boy.
3/ Honda had the 800 by mid season, you are correct there, which is why the new designs and concepts were increasingly filtered onto Nicky's evo bike - it was i
n tandem with the behind the scenes testing of the 800, the parts deployed into a race environment. Remember the evo 06 bike was not only the rarest Honda's ever built, but was a complete ad-hoc almost Heath Robinson-esque affair. The main difference apart from the weight distribution was the chassis which had been cut and re-welded in a very haphazard manner and in multiple places. Having finally got it to work, they then had to duplicate the result three times over and try to similarly bodge identical chassis in triplicate (two bikes for Nicky, one for the testing team). This sounds very unprofessional for a company such as HRC, but the fundamentals and philosophies of prototype racing have remained the same for decades - whether confined to the back of white van or a tent in the paddock, under a disused railway archway in a backstreet workshop, or in the gleaming environs of HRC in Tokyo. The actual internals of the evo were initially very similar, if not the same as the 06 customer bike - don't think of the evo as being some radical creation designed to blitz the championship - it was a test bed. the better bike was arguably the pure unbridled '06 standard customer issue which is why as Curvey always reminds us Dani was so fast that year. They were in many senses improvising with the evo bike...making it up as they went along. It was purely a vehicle for developmental concepts designed with the future intent to overhaul and rival yamaha, the concept extending to accommodating the impending switch to 800cc - so it was not simply a drive to claim the championship for Nicky - that was Pedrosa's job which is why he was given the standard bike, refined throughout the season, with the ultimate aim of winning the title.
