in over the last few years I have had to adjust the brakes during the race. I like to have the brake lever quite hard and tight, while some riders like to pull it in quite a long way before it bites. At tracks that are hard on the brakes, the lever would often work its way in towards the bar and become spongy, meaning I couldn’t apply enough force on the brakes. So a small adjuster wheel was fitted which I could turn a couple of clicks to move the lever back out to its normal position. At another circuit, though, I might never have to use the adjuster.
I’m also unusual in that I have never used my back brake, on the right footrest. If you ask ten riders, six probably don’t use it and four do. I think that if I had ever tried to use it, I would have lost time. And the position I rode in meant that when I was braking hard I was so far over the front of the bike that I couldn’t feel what was going on at the back brake. It’s more of a psychological comfort for me, knowing it’s there should anything go wrong with the front brake. Then again, even if that were the case the back brake would hardly slow you down at all because it needs to be used four or five times to get some heat into it.
A few people change their back brake to make it a thumb lever on their left handlebar. Michael Doohan started all that when the injuries to his leg meant that he couldn’t feel the back brake any more. I tried having one on during 1997, but found that I didn’t use it and took it off for the following year. I guess it’s the guys who go into corners scrubbing off speed who tend to use the back brake more than others.
If you are riding a four-cylinder bike and you go down through the gearbox quickly, you tend to lock the back wheel up anyway, and a lot of riders like that. A Ducati, however, is not as easy to slide into corners because the engine braking is so different. It does not stop some Ducati riders doing it, such as Troy Bayliss and Neil Hodgson, but the four-cylinder riders seem to be able to do it a lot more easily. When I was changing from fifth to first, I tended to go down a couple of gears and leave a very small gap before going down another couple. That helped me keep the bike as stable as possible and not have the back end weaving all over the place. You never seem to see guys riding twin-cylinder bikes out of shape as much as the four-cylinder riders.
However much preparation is carried out on getting the brakes right, things are bound to go wrong. One major problem is the discs overheating, especially at circuits where you can’t generate enough speed to cool them down – again, like Donington. I have had problems with warped discs, when the lever starts pulsing in your hand, and with bits of shit getting onto the discs and affecting their performance.
At Monza in 1998, my brakes were absolutely knackered and warped in the first race because of all the heat that is generated in the discs around that circuit. I was lying third behind the two Hondas, which were much quicker than my bike that year. But on the final few laps I couldn’t outbrake anyone because they were juddering so much, so I ended up dropping down to sixth place. And there have been lots of times, especially when braking too late while trying to do one fast lap for qualification, when I have run on at a corner. Again, that happens more at the fast circuits like Monza and Hockenheim, at the bottom of fast straights.
The first corner at Monza was changed in 2001 to suit Formula One cars, but it became tighter and therefore more dangerous for bike riders. At the old corner it was possible to have three or four riders braking together and very often one ran through the gravel and back onto the track because he couldn’t slow down in time. There have been a few hairy moments there, but none worse than that involving Jamie Whitham during practice a few years ago. He came into that first corner at 180mph and his front discs just shattered – a huge chunk went missing. He was travelling so fast that the gravel wasn’t able to slow him down and he just managed to pick a line that avoided the wall. He admitted that he had absolutely shit himself!
Another time when riders tend to overshoot is when they have been slipstreaming someone down a straight and are approaching the corner a little bit faster than they would normally. The trick is to brake hard, but obviously not so hard that you lose the front end. Very often you have to run round the outside and come back onto the track.
I have never really considered myself to be someone who is especially good on the brakes, but I’ve still won races by outbraking riders into the final bend. I beat Chili in 1998 at Assen when he fell off, and I won my first race on a Honda in 1996 by outbraking Aaron Slight at the end of the straight at Monza. The following year I did the same to Neil Hodgson. He was pushed outside the racing line where there is a lot more dust and dirt on the track, and he ran on at the next corner. Clearly, the more a track has been used, the more rubber there is down on the surface and the better the grip is. If you try to brake hard on the loose stones and bits of loose rubber, the chances are that you are going to go down.
The idea is also to keep both tyres on the track. There is footage of me going into corners and braking so hard that the rear wheel is off the ground. And I’ll never forget the time during my first TT win in 1989 when I was having a real battle with Steve Hislop, bunny-hopping at the bottom of the hill entering Governor’s Bridge in the 750cc production class because I was braking so late and so hard.
So, at the right sort of corner, and if it means winning the race, I can certainly be as good on the brakes as the others are, but obviously people have occasionally got the better of me. In one of my last ever races, at Hockenheim in 1999 after I had clinched the world championship in the first race, I got myself into a position to win the race entering the last corner where all the braking is done. I underestimated how hard Chili had gone on his brakes and he came underneath me to win the race. Luckily I wasn’t too bothered because I’d already won the title.
I’m usually better braking into the slower corners, but this wasn’t the case in Austria in 1997 on a very slow first-gear hairpin corner. John Kocinski had just taken the lead from me and he broke really late because he knew I was going to come back at him. I knew I could outbrake him so I hit the brakes as late as I could – too late on this occasion. I was in two minds whether to run through and knock him off (he was a big rival) or to run wide. There was a split second’s hesitation and panic before I ended up running into the back of him, taking myself out of the race while he went on to win.
To actually pass someone on the brakes you have to be right on their back wheel going into the corner. Sometimes you have to let go of the front brake, enough to run past the other rider, and then brake later in the corner again. That would have meant spoiling my line as well as John’s and scrubbing off some speed, but it’s worth losing three tenths of a second off your lap time if you get past another rider. It might also mean taking the corner in first rather than second gear, so then you are using a combination of the front brakes and engine braking.
We must have looked like four Michelin men, except for the fact that we were using Metzeler tyres. It was my first trip to Japan, with my dad, my mechanic and a guy called Lew Durkin, who came everywhere to help out. We were still on a pretty tight budget, so we couldn’t afford to pay freight charges. A bike had been lined up for me to ride in the 1989 Formula One World Championship round in Sugo, but we had to bring out our own gear – including tyres.
So each of us checked in for the flight with a tyre on each shoulder, along with all the other stuff we needed. But that was nothing compared to having to find the right train when we got there and then to carry this lot all the way to Sugo. We arrived to find a disgrace of a bike. There was oil all over the place and the brake pads were knackered. We’d also heard that Joey Dunlop was not going to make the trip. So there was a RVF sitting there doing nothing while I, the reigning world champion, had to make do with this heap. There was no way, though, that they were going to let me use that bike.
It didn’t matter for one practice session because Metzeler produced a fantastic rain tyre and I was easily the fastest
