Came upon this vid of the Aussie 1983 champs, which was held at Bathurst. Noticed there was a lot less barrier to hit but still way too much that could be hit [video]https://youtu.be/zJ30B5G3blk[/video]
Thank you. Bit of nostalgia there, I remember that very well. I think that was also the year A.J. had the VFR 860 thing, that had so much power but wobbled so bad... I could not BELIEVE you could ride a bike that was wobbling that bad and still race it around Mt Panorama, let alone win. I thought front end all over the place, mid corner, you're going to lose the front and land on your head, but he stayed on it. Balls like cannon balls, that man. [edit] Here's some other old bike racing. It isn't Bathurst, not even Australian (although W Gardner makes an appearance.) I think these were some of the greatest 2 rider dices that bike racing has ever seen. https://youtu.be/Yx5rJ-L7-zk
Nice of bathurst vid. Fractionally before my time, although I may have watched if it was TV (the 6hrs I recall seeing as far back as the 70s), not sure about bathurst. The schwantz/rainey stuff is great entertainment, although they probably ride a bit all over the place compared to how close to the edge current guys ride. The aussie in suzuka section ('93?) is beattie rather than gardner.... who had retired year previous. Itoh (I think) is in the background on the other Rothmans NSR. Anyway, great stuff
This is what it used to be like... https://youtu.be/sia_sk_K2q8 Actually, that's not quite right. This race, you don't know who is going to win until the last corner, it could be any one of about 6. That's what makes this a really great race. They are a little bit all over the place, yeah. But that's how you rode a 500. Doohan used to get out in front and try to stretch his lead, but most people couldn't do that. You'd over work the tyres, and you'd be very close to the edge a lot of the time so there was a pretty good chance you were going to bin it. So they'd nurse the bike and themselves around like a peloton, and then go hard on the last two laps or so. Watch Rossi through this. He's not trying to get to the front, he's trying to get within reach and stay there, and hope somebody screws up a bit through the last couple of bends.