With the AMA Superbike season one third of the way over a few things have become pretty clear. One of those is that American Honda’s decision to build their own Superbikes has proved to be quite a challenge to the two factory riders and to the Erion factory supported team. While Duhamel and Zemke have made some brave runs on poorly handling bikes, they are inevitably racing for the honor of not being the last factory bike rather than having a chance at challenging the incredible factory Suzukis. Another thing that has become clear is that the pressure of being on an uncompetitive bike is again bringing out the worst in Kurtis Roberts.

The situation in Formula Xtreme is less clear. Honda CBR600RRs have dominated in that class but have also done so with no other full factory bikes on the grid as competition. The question can’t yet be answered of whether Honda’s AMA Superbike woes are because they lack the time to test the full variety parts available or whether they don’t have the R&D resources to compete with an established factory supported teams like Yoshimura or directly with factories like Ducati. Until some other factories enter Formula Xtreme, we won’t really be able to tell. What is clear is that the CBR1000 has sufficient power since their top speed has been on par with the other bikes. That means the problems they face are with the components like clutches, suspension and brakes. Clearly these are not combined into as complete as package that what is found on the GSXR and 999.

But where we can draw some comparisons are with the riders. While it seems unlikely that Roberts will be challenging Mladin on the track, he is giving the five time AMA Superbike champ a run for his money in the arena of bitching every weekend. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog posting anytime there is a TV camera or journalist near by you can be sure Mladin can find something to complain about. Well, now it appears to be Roberts turn as he’s been pretty vocal after the past few AMA Superbike races about the state of his Erion Racing CBR1000RR. He even issued a veiled threat that he would quite riding the bike if results don’t improve…and the results thus far definitely haven’t been good: 9th at Daytona, a second in his one-off ride in the Daytona 200, back-to-back DNFs at Barber, a 12th and a DNF at Fontana. Ouch!

Now I’m not an insensitive type. I understand that a talented racer will always want to win. If the rider isn’t winning, especially if its because of inferior equipment, they will eventually start to complain. But given the fact that Kurtis spent last year venting about his father’s Proton bike it is getting pretty old to hear him griping about the Erion bike.

In the grand scheme of things, Honda made a big business decision last year. Roberts knew it was in the works when he signed with Erion. The two factory riders, both of whom are also struggling for results, have buckled down to the hard task of developing the CBR into a Superbike. Kurtis is getting a big fat paycheck and is certainly expected to do the same. If he can’t get his head around this task, stop bitching about the bike and start providing some meaningful effort then he’ll burn a very big bridge with both Erion and Honda. It would be a shame for the youngest son of King Kenny to talk his way out of a factory supported ride. This would be doubly tragic if it ultimately keeps him from ever having a shot at a Honda MotoGP ride, since Honda’s seven GP riders make up one third of the entire grid. Pissing off Big Red means he’d have just shot 33% of his chance of returning to the world’s premier series.

Mladin gets away with all his whining and griping because he has been on a great bike, with a great team and has put in great rides to bring home the goods for Suzuki. Until Roberts can do the same, he needs to zip it and use his considerable talent to help Honda build a bike that could be competitive in the future. If he can turn the CBR into a bike capable of carrying the number 1 plate then he’ll have a blank check for complaining about the bike, the riders, the tracks, the race organizers, the press and whatever else ticks him off each weekend.

[image from the Thousand Oaks Honda web site.]