secret; but Kokubu did reveal that the mechanics of the system “are very similar to our F1 engine”. Okada has been testing the bike at Motegi and Suzuka, as well as at the Honda Tochigi proving ground. Why had HRC gone ahead with this wild card entry

for Team Roberts/Proton. Now he has joined forces with Ricardo engineering for an all-British 800-class offering. Any takers?It's a buyer's market. Mario Illien of Ilmor Engineering fame (also F1) already has a 20,000rpm pneumatic valve-spring V4 undergoing

-forces are much stronger in an F1 car, both in braking and lateral G in cornering. Casey Stoner broadly agreed. “In 2003 when I slightly broke my collarbone after breaking it earlier, I had to do 10 push-ups to show I was strong enough. “But maybe

manager (to American 125 rider Steve Bonsey), and he did not rule out a possible return, even during this season. The team has been in negotiation for more than a year now with an American group, F1-Maxx, planning a triple-header sponsorship programme

offer from McDonalds. Into the frying pan, from the fire.Latest news also is of yet another test with Ferrari after Brno, and growing rumours that he will jump from M1 to F1 in 2007. MotoGP will be bereft in more ways than one, since those juicy sponsors

Rossi's flirtation with F1 and Ferrari is over, ending in mutual recriminations as racing's golden boy complains that the drivers are more like monkeys or robots, while it is engineers who do the racing... even instructing drivers over the radio

.The mobile restaurant may only be another F1 hand-me-down, but it raises the standard yet again for bike racing. Just one problem. Under new European no-smoking legislation, none of the free-spending sponsor's well-fed guests are allowed to light up a

Bike racing fans are smug about comparisons with F1 racing. With good reason. Motorcycle racers overtake one another. They battle it out through the corners. It's proper sport, rather than an exposition of technical prowess where overtaking takes

, in a row, that it starts to hurt. Anyone brave enough to bet against Rossi again?BETTER HURRY - the wonder boy is off to F1 soon, by the look of it. He's wanted for 2007 after some impressive Ferrari tests, and has been told to make his mind up even

with pneumatics in F1, a face-saver if they copy their motorbike rivals in this matter. It’s much harder to imagine them being comfortable with copying a system nowadays exclusively associated with Ducati. Well, certainly in public, anyway …The scale