NICKY HAYDEN
And also the challenge. Yeah, it’s going to be a big
challenge to beat that guy on the same bike, same
garage, but, you know, that’s…I need to stand up
if I want to be heard and not be brushed aside. I’m
going to have to make some noise. So, I mean,
obviously there’s going to be things he’s probably
going to get, I’m not. I want to believe I’m going to
get the same equipment and I hope that’s the case
and it’s up to me to take it from there.
Did it surprise you that they’re putting this
much effort into a bike for one year?
It’s not going to be an all-new bike. They’re al-
ready working on 2012. So, yeah, they’re upgrad-
ing it, but I can’t say… you know, it’s not like we’ve
seen it – those wings [on the fairing] we were run-
ning last year. Everything, it’s the same basic en-
gine right now. It’s not a lot different. But they got o… they brought him here. If you’re going to ask him to cook, like [former football coach Bill] Par- cells said, you at least let them pick their grocer- ies. I mean, sure they have to make some requests for him. I’m sure that was part of the deal. What would you like to change? I would like to make the front [give] more feed- back. My feeling is the front is too stiff. It needs to be softer and even in the swingarm. I mean, since I’ve gotten here… that’s one thing I hope me and Vale will be closer than me and Casey [Stoner]. He always, he liked stiff. He wanted it stiffer and stiffer. And then last year, before the start of the season when I got a softer swingarm that I wanted, it was a big help for me. So I want to go that way again. Turns out Casey liked it once he tried it. But, you know, those are the two big areas. Rossi was saying it was a brutal bike. You have to ride it with claws. Yeah, I wouldn’t say he’s far off there. I think it’s a lot mellower than it was two years ago. I mean, the big-bang engine has made it much softer and we got rid of the pumping. That was the thing that was so hard when I got on it, on the exit was just pumping all the time. Once we solved that… I think now it’s, truthfully, a more consistent bike, a more normal bike. But you still got to hold on tight
sometimes and let its head move a little.
