To be a world champ, you need to be left handed

Rumour has long held that to be a world champ on two wheels you need to be left handed, as if being a left hooker somehow bestows a magical gift of supreme throttle control, or uncanny balance. 

To find the truth, Visordown conducted the following research with the last ten MotoGP champions. Globally, around 12% of men are lefthanded, which means only one champ should be left handed. Here are the results: 

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Rumour has long held that to be a world champ on two wheels you need to be left handed, as if being a left hooker somehow bestows a magical gift of supreme throttle control through having to 'teach' your right hand precisely what it's doing. Or is it a left-hander's uncanny balance? 

To find the truth, Visordown conducted the following research with the 10 ten MotoGP champions. Globally, around 12% of men are left-handed, which means only one champ should be. Here are the results: 

Statistically, that’s bang-on. And it means all you right-handers out there are still in with a shout of the world title. Just to check, we looked at five random current MotoGP-ers:

So there you have it. Or do you? Because we’re curious, we decided to check the last ten World Superbike champs as well. And guess what?

Half and half. So perhaps it does hold some weight afterall. So we looked at a random selection of the current crop of riders:

Our random sample only produced one lefty, which is statistically 20%. That's higher than average but not exactly conclusive. 

There's still the over-representation of left-handers among WSB champions to explain though. Here's our conclusion: proportionately, lefties rule WSB.

Perhaps the much-touted fact should now read: "If you want to be a world champion, be left-handed and race in World Superbikes."*

*talent also required.