of racing enormously. Apart from the obvious costs of having to design new bikes from scratch (though only Honda built something completely new), the smaller capacity did the worst thing possible in racing: It made horsepower expensive.Let me explain a

is that horsepower, and with it, top speed, has become incredibly expensive. The best way to cut costs, then, is to make horsepower cheap again.The easiest way of making horsepower cheap is the old-fashioned way, by raising engine capacity. There is no replacement

form, horsepower and aerodynamics. Differences in bike speed are doubly emphasized here, as not only do the bikes reach their top speeds, but they spend longer at them, so a faster bike is not just faster, it's also faster for longer, gaining valuable

.On the evidence of the first two races of the 800 era, that's exactly how the race is likely to play out. At Qatar, we saw how the awe-inspiring horsepower of the Ducati blew everyone away down the front straight, while the more agile Yamaha gained back

of the man anointed future world champion have been eclipsed by that other rising young star, Pedrosa's former 250 arch-rival Casey Stoner.Reign Of Terror The young Australian had won the season opener at Qatar utterly convincingly, the horsepower

of the field, the engineers from team green having found an extra 10 horsepower to power the young Frenchman into contention. After the frenetic final fifteen minutes of qualifying had finished not a word was being spoken about the Ducatis, as the world

It seems entirely self-evident: the winner of any given motorcycle race on any given Sunday will be the best rider, on the best bike, with the best tires. The rider with the most horsepower, the sweetest handling and the stickiest rubber

was perhaps the most monstrous of all. Never short of horsepower, in a straight line, the Duck was virtually unbeatable. And we now know that in the new 800 cc era, things are no different. In an awe-inspiring display of straight-line speed, Stoner

machines down the long straights. That horsepower is not entirely paramount was demonstrated during last year's race, when John Hopkins used the superior handling of his underpowered Suzuki GSV-R 990 to keep in touch with Dani Pedrosa, Nicky Hayden

gear turns, and low down grunt to get out of those turns as quickly as possible. On the face of it, the Ducati's days of clubbing the opposition into submission with brute horsepower are over. But there was one detail which was easily lost among