Mike Hailwood 1978

I couldn't get a chance to finish the clip. How did it end? Hailwood, Read, Hobot?
 
Kenny Hailwood held back to 3rd place hanging a bike or so behind for 10 laps half the race, then on 11-12 lap made a move past second place by pure power play out of a turn but then the real race started - and lasted, about one more lap till Hailwood waited to brake later and harder to shoot past the leader from pre-apex on, then eased a couple-3 more seconds ahead to the flag. In a 40 sec lap race that's like 8% faster! Hailwood sure made that twin sound faster than the screaming inline 4s. Lap 10 and then 11 or 12 is where the race was won.

Rather nerve wracking to me as that track had lots of long held sweepers for tires to melt away and oscillations to build up. The Ducati with Hailwood hardly twiched but the ex-leaders bike sure did for instants before apexes trying to catch Hailwood in a couple of turns after he became second place.


My G meter sense was pegging trying to feel what Hailwood was and took note of the mention of him following same lines every where. Realize that freaks me out no end, if it also means nil reserves for hazards, so my level of handling concern or joy starts when that perfect line on limits of balanced power planting >>> goes all to hell*** yet not crash just snick up next handling phase for G's that are better than sex. Bikes are so scary and suck so much in leaned conditions I try to spend least time leaned at all, so i just don't do long sweepers when in a hurry.

Mike Hailwood 1978
 
I ain't in league of elite racers on elite cycles.

So a really major deal to me seeing all these superstars race on super-duper bikes, is how dam hard they are working. Another reason I've sworn off balloon tires. I want the bike to do the work and me just enough to stay centered and focused and refreshed. Can skinny tires take the power loads for speed though turns of these elites, I don't know yet but the fat tires I've tired didn't impress me to hold surface or their rubber very well. Maybe because I don't hold a lean long, no matter how long the sweeper, the skinny rear might not heat away too much. Once you find tire limits and bike behavior its freeing to toss bike into turns like Hailwood w/o hardly thinking like playing fast music w/o missing a beat. THE Gravel has long sweepers that can be faster trans-versed with least tire wear by short sharp tips that are over before crash waves set in and gives more time upright with good hook up till next facet point - when next longest straight though turn is seen. Just a series of grunts not huffing and puffing or shifting body over hang to each side of the frame.
 
Good Clip , Now . If NORTON had done a Pre Unit Cosworth Twin , we couldve been in witha chance . bar sabotage andpolitical manipulations . :p :lol: :oops: :wink:
 
The gearbox was approaching its power limit in the race Commandos, what were you going to do for a cog-box ?

P.S. Modern race bikes rarely have gearbox troubles these days, what have they done to them to make them so tough ??
 
As the box was over 50 years old , we'd of had to use the N.V.T. ( as we were ) rotissary wankle gear box , forthe next 50 . No point getting to entusiastic at that stage , after all .
Even if it was just a version of a Triumph triple trans . I myself would have something to say about the cases though . Afterall , we'd been doing casting since the bronze age .
Manganese Bronze obviously dateing from that Era . :wink: :)

With the Rotary & Cossie as closely related cousins , in part . Or some parts . Life couldve gone ahead . If theyd shipped those rowdy communists a Meridan to Siberia . :D
We could still have the gear lever on the Right side .
 
Great video. Hailwood showed that he was still a cut above the rest.

Rohan said:
Modern race bikes rarely have gearbox troubles these days
Click to expand...

They are more common than you think.
 
I was there, Mallory being my nearest track. Spotted a friend of mine that I would have been standing with on exit from hairpin on that video, but couldn't see myself. It was a great day. I was lucky enough to see Hailwood at first race meeting I ever went to at Mallory in 1967. He was even more dominant then. Worlds greatest racer? Yes I think so.

Ian
 
Hailwood was in Australia just prior to the time of those races. I helped fix the clutch on a manx owned by the Dunster brothers, just before he rode it to another win at Winton. Our Hartwell Club president was very close to Mike while he was here , and we were most distressed when Mike was killed along with his daughter in a motorway accident in the UK. Incidentally, Dunsters' manx was provided for Kel Carruthers to ride at the Broadford Bonanza a couple of years ago. When I watched Mike ride at Winton,he simply looked super smooth and fast, but the circuit didn't provide the spectacle like Mallory Park. Racing at Phillip Island is good to watch, but not as good as what is in this video clip. I was most impressed with the way he came off that sweeper and through the esses. At those speeds you would really have your backside hanging out for the kicking therof.
 
Rohan said:
Modern race bikes rarely have gearbox troubles these days
Click to expand...

daveh said:
Great video. Hailwood showed that he was still a cut above the rest.
They are more common than you think.
Click to expand...

He had a good apprenticeship - having someone buy you a new bike every time it goes bang helps a lot in the learning process. !
Not something that everyone can afford - so not everyone with the required talent makes it. ?

Watching the MotoGP series, they pump out some serious hp, and give no indication they are limping along through lack of gears. ?
Maybe they get a new cluster every race - but thats still a good workout.
 
Rohan said:
[
He had a good apprenticeship - having someone buy you a new bike every time it goes bang helps a lot in the learning process. !
Not something that everyone can afford - so not everyone with the required talent makes it. ?

Do I detect a bit of the green eyed monster there :?: :) :cry:

For the record Hailwood’s father, Stan, did not buy new bikes every time, he simply got the engines rebuilt by well know engine tuners e.t.c. The D.O.H.C. Ducati 185 he rode was a used bike.

At one circuit Hailwood turned up in what appeared to be new sign written vans, out shinning any thing else in the paddock, everyone thought that there was a big spending team attending, but in fact they were second-hand ones that had been given a respray job.
Click to expand...
 
Bernhard said:
Do I detect a bit of the green eyed monster there :?: :) :cry:

For the record Hailwood’s father, Stan, did not buy new bikes every time, he simply got the engines rebuilt by well know engine tuners e.t.c. The D.O.H.C. Ducati 185 he rode was a used bike.
Click to expand...

It is important to point out that motorcycle racers are not born, they are trained.

Having someone to buy all your bikes, and have the engines rebuilt/whatever when required rather speeds up that process, rather than struggling along on a shoestring.
Hailwood certainly became good - but if (many) others had had the same path, would he still be so dominant, and fondly remembered ??

These days, 3 year olds are already quite competent race riders, on those micro mini bikes.
Future MotoGP World Champs in training, all of them ??
 
wasnt stuck for choice ,

" Stan asked to work on commission only, buying in old bikes and repairing them, before getting his hands on newer and more expensive machines. Stan rose through the ranks to Managing Director, making Kings the largest dealer in the country. And of course, the more money Kings made, the more money Stan made. Stan was soon a self-made millionaire and the most powerful man in the motorbike industry."

still , wasnt overly ostentacious in the approach , a few Dukes & experimentals & theraceing in South africa . Probably put more ( time / effort ) into the sport ,
Mike , as a rider , in a considered manner , than any other of his age , at that time . Experiance - you get out what you put in . Mayve made it a bit less stressfull
but he'd put a awfull lot of time into raceing in his early days . when others would be off at the pub or larking about ( miss spent youths ). So hardly a cake walk .
Privilaged perhaps , but not unearned results .
 
You don't get to be a good rider by riding bad bikes, you just learn how to crash safely and sometimes inadvertantly go fast. I've just been watching the movie titled 'Fastest 2011' about the MotoGP kids, and I was appalled. These young blokes seem to come up through moto cross, and their 'crash and burn stage' involves 240bhp racing machinery. I went through that stage at age twenties on relatively less powerful bikes, and I know avoid crashing very well. Looking at what those MotoGP guys do is a real turn-off for me. If you watch Hailwood race , you know he won't crash.
Stoner is not a Mike Hailwood.

Here is a case in point. John Surtees rode here in Australia in the 80s against a few of our top A graders. He just rode around them . People like Hailwood and Surtees are extremely well practised and thus competent . You don't get that by riding for three or four years on even the best bikes on the planet :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL3Yv_GXnrw
 
acotrel said:
Stoner is not a Mike Hailwood.
Click to expand...

A number of folks have commented that very few riders in their lifetimes go to an uncompetitive race team, and then win a world championship on it. !!
Stoner has now done it with TWO such teams.

Its actually quite difficult to find any similar comparisons, very few riders have ever accomplished this.
 
acotrel said:
You don't get to be a good rider by riding bad bikes, you just learn how to crash safely and sometimes inadvertantly go fast. I've just been watching the movie titled 'Fastest 2011' about the MotoGP kids, and I was appalled. These young blokes seem to come up through moto cross, and their 'crash and burn stage' involves 240bhp racing machinery.
Click to expand...

It says a lot for Barry Sheenes campaign for safe tracks that they can 'safely' crash a 240 hp monster and generally walk away unscathed ?

Getting the electronics to the point where they are today has involved a lot of seat-of-the-pants testing of these systems.
My hats off that they have the guts to do it.

Kawasaki and Suzuki walked away from MotoGP because they couldn't find the sweet spot for their electronics.
Whether thats because the riders or the technicians weren't good enough, who knows. ??
But H reportedly lured away someone from Y to get a few secrets.
And Stoner just rode around it on the Duc. !! Amazing......
 
I have no doubt Stoner is Not Mike Hailwood.
I was comparing Stoner to Matt's comments re Hailwood riding race bikes from an early age. Stoner did the same. Again thanks to his parents commitment.

CS is a one off talent in my opinion, no matter how much he is criticised by people less talented.

Graeme
 
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