With this generation of Rossi, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Spies, Simo racing all at once, could it be the best group of riders out there competing at the same time? I'm not that old but growing up it was Kevin vs. Wayne. Then Doohan's domination followed by a weird couple of years before Val took over. Now, it seems like we have a group of guys where everyone of them is a threat at each race. Obviously each generation has guys like Mamola, Beattie, Sete but I feel like we're pretty blessed to see all of these guys right now. Thoughts from the historians?
Not a historian but I agree with you. Certainly seems to be the deepest field since I've been watching.
The stink wheel era was the shit. Not everyone could ride those bikes anywhere near the limit. It took gods. A trained chimp could ride a diesel with all the electonics on them.
Lots of talented riders this year. How many world championships does this field have combined? GP's, 250's, 125's, WSBK. Maybe more than ever before.
I guess Schwantz, Lawson, Raniey, Gardner, Doohan and Kocinski back in the early 90's don't count? Every generation thinks their pool of talent is the deepest, until the next generation comes along...
Lorenzo = 3 Dovizioso = 1 Edwards = 2 wsbk Aoyama = 1 Barbera = 0 Spies = 1 wsbk RDP = 0 Abraham = 0 Bautista = 1 Elias = 1 Pedrosa = 3 Stoner = 1 Crutchlow = 0 Rossi = 9 Simoncelli = 1 Capirossi = 3 Hayden = 1
I grew up watching those guys as well but all I remember was watching Kevin win or Wayne win. Then Doohan decimate after Kev and Wayne were gone, then Val punching Sete in the taint all the time. Like I said earlier, let me know if I'm wrong.
Nope, not at the same time as each other, especially OCKocinski Edited to add I do remember Doohan being up there and occasional flashes of Beattie and others but they weren't week in week out contenders like Kevin and Rainey and Doohan. So overall I still don't think the field was as deep.
And which do you feel is a harder championship to win? wss or 125 GP? There had to be a cut off of different types of championships to count. Adjust the numbers to your preference.
I think maybe the talent was as deep but because it was on fire breathing two strokes it isn't as apparent in the numbers. Four strokes being what they are, makes for a closer field so it's hard to compare? Tough to tell. Koc was a weird dude. I remember when he won the WSB races at Laguna and was being interviewed on Speedvison, he started rambling on about how everybody in the stands came to see him and he was so thankful for it. Little conceded I thought, especially considering there was a slew of American riders in the field so it's not like he was the only American out there. Isn't that a SV650 in your avatar?
I always wonder "What if".. Had Daijiro Kato had a full race career. I loved watching him...I though he was gonna be one of the greats. He may have very well been in that list above.
Your question was about world champions in the field. I couldn't read your mind and know that you feel some championships are not worthy of being listed. With that said, the winners of 15 of the last 20 125GP championships never even made it to the MotoGP class (although we can assume that Marquez will get there). And some wss champions who got there didn't look too bad: Vermeulen, Crutchlow.
WSS absolutely counts for Crutchlow. And Hayden / Spies should get something for their AMA titles, maybe a .5
