Ciao998

Pete, Pete, Pete..........Rossi is the best racer since he has joined moto gp.

That however does not equate to the greatest of all time....Ago has 8 Premier championships, and was in much the same boat as Rossi, except Ago had better competition. Mike Hailwood, Jim Redman, Phil Read, Kenny Roberts, Barry Sheene...............

Ago usually had one of the best bikes with the MV. Early in his career however the Honda may have been better and late in his career he won on the Yamaha. Soooooo, look at both riders bodies of work.

Not to mention Ago raced the IOM TT!!!! As well as the Nurburgring!!!

When Rossi gets 3 more championships, I'll prob call him the 2nd best, lol.

GixxerPete

Some would say Ago faced lesser competition, not greater. And that he had the best bike a good chunk of his career.

Rossi has won championships in 125, 250, 500 GPs, two different brands of MotoGP 990s, and now the 800. He can ride *anything* fast.

That said, it's really hard to compare riders from such vastly different eras. The machinery has changed so much over the years, and I would argue the talent pool is a lot deeper today, as the sport on the whole is a lot bigger, there's a lot more money in it, and so it attracts a lot more riders all vying for a factory MotoGP ride.

But really, everyone knows Ricky Carmichael is the GOAT.

richardlpalmer

That's what I was thinking about Ago -- at least that's what his detractors would point out. The competition in that era appears to have had quite a disparity from top to bottom.

That's also one of the reasons I think King Kenny (or serveral others from his era) could be considered the GOAT.

But mostly I think you're right about the difficulty in comparing riders from such vastly different eras. So you think RC is the GOAT, huh? What about Jeff Ward?

Ciao998

That's why I like Roberts, or a big reason. He was successful in many different forms.

As long as Rossi continues racing he will continue building his legacy IMHO.
But at some point he will be done with GP, at which time I would love to see him race the IOM TT, and do some SBK racing. THEN we will know if he can ride anything fast.

If he simply quits racing.....................That would suck.

Ago also was good on other motorcycles. He won the Daytona 200 in his first attempt and also his first time racing a 2 stroke motorcycle.

You could also argue the talent pool was deeper in Ago's time as well. Now you pretty much only have the rich or "super talented at a young age" brats.
Back then you had people from more varied walks of life, guys worked on their own bikes as privateers. And even as factory riders they were much more involved with the machinery. IMHO the only good argument that there is more talent now, is simply because there exists more people. But realy no one will ever know.

E36M3K6GSXR

Rossi won in the Suzuka 8 hour race with Colin Edwards for Honda back in the day, just to add to his credentials as pretty much the best.

tokin

I'd like to see him race cars/rally

Ciao998

but but......look at the names he raced against, lol!!!!!
He even beat sheene and roberts on their home turf on a bike unlike anything he had ever ever ridden, lol.

Jeff Ward was awesome, still is a little. Best Motorsportsman?

eurospeed

i think ciao is right.
when rossi is done with motogp he should go to WSBK just so we can see biaggi's face.

dragracer1951

^^^

jwfzr

Agree with almost everything you said here. Although I would argue that Ross too rode the best bike almost his entire career, and why not? guys like that earned it.
I think I might be fished out until 09, and yes there is only one GOAT and he is a skinny little Floridian.

richardlpalmer

My uncle? :

GixxerPete

Jeff Ward? Great rider, but not really in the same league as RC. Just look at RC's wins, championships, etc. But his record book doesn't tell just how much he dominated, and he flat out SMOKED everyone else in the field, many races lapping up into the top 5, even top 3 sometimes. Yup that's right, lapping other full factory pro riders, and nobody has ever said it's because of his bike... there is no such thing as Ducati cheater bikes in MX/SX racing. He's just that fucking fast, that much faster than everyone else.

Not to mention that RC changed the whole nature and competitiveness of MX/SX racing. It used to be the guys would just kind of ride around for most of the race, then go for it the last few laps, and tap the kegs right after the race and party on, Wayne. But Ricky was all business, trained like a madman and went balls-out from green flag to checkered every time. The days of partying and being out of shape (relatively speaking) were over. Everyone had to step up their game, or get left even further behind in Ricky's dust.

The only person that could ever challenge RC was James Stewart. James may surpass RC as "GOAT" someday, but that is still yet to be seen. From a fan perspective, it sucks that Ricky didn't go another season or two, as the titanic battles between Ricky and Bubba were some of the best, most exciting racing I've ever seen in any series, period. Imagine having two Rossis going head to head, passing and passing back from flag to flag. Two riders at the absolute top of their game, but a tremendous amount of respect for each other. There were never any dirty moves between those two, they went all-out but always gave each other room.

So yeah, Ricky is definitely the GOAT, until such time as Bubba unseats him.

richardlpalmer

RC's a hack -- riding the best equipment against a weak field (except for Stewart). Back in the day though, Ward had big time competition every race. And the machines back then were all 2-smokers and did not have much of a difference between machines.

eurospeed

here http://www.motorsportsetc.com/champs/motogp.htm

jwfzr

Nice Euro- thanks. Cool site.

eurospeed

need to start an other post titled: pedrosa or stoner
because i think pedrosa is gonna finish 2nd

GixxerPete

Richard L. Palmer... have you resorted to outright trolling? That's not a very good example to set as a mod, you know. Tsk tsk.

RC hasn't had competition cuz nobody could hang with him... until Stewart. It was never about the bikes. The two strokes were all even, and the four strokes are all even. The only time there was a big disparity was the year Stewart was the only one still riding a smoker, as Kawasaki was typically lame and way behind the game making a four stroke. That season Bubba rode the wheels off his KX250 (and crashed a lot) trying to hang with the much faster four strokes, especially outdoors where the thumpers have an even bigger advantage.

There is plenty of argument and differing opinions on who is the GOAT of roadracing. But there really is no argument in the MX/SX world, Ricky is the fucking man, and everyone knows it. His record towers above everyone else's, and his on-track dominance was a sight to behold. He and Bubba are definitely cut from a different cloth than the rest. Everyone else was just racing for third place. Now with Ricky retired, they're racing for second. Did you happen to catch Bubba's *perfect* season in MX this year? He won every single race of the season... a feat only accomplished by one other person.... you guessed it, RC. Now that's dominance.

richardlpalmer

Yes, you're right. I'm sorry...



But he did it first with this stupid thread!

jwfzr

How would McGrath fit into it Pete? number 2?

GixxerPete

So how was that trolling? It was a simple poll with no bias toward either rider, just pick who you think will win.

You should have just stopped with the apology, and not gone for the blame-shift.

GixxerPete

That's a tougher question. MC did kick some serious butt in his day, but the latter part of his career he had an SX-only contract, which costs him a lot of respect in my book. In his case, he was never as dominant outdoors as indoors, hence the SX-only contract. His was the first of its kind, and has unfortunately prompted several other sissy-boys like Chad Reed to follow suit. SX racing is ok, but MX is the real racing, and what separates the men from the boys. But I digress...

So not racing in MX definitely hurts MC in my opinion, but he is still an amazing rider. I spose he can hang on the #2 spot for now until Bubba takes it away from him.

NoQuarter#121

What about wild man Hannah? Roger Decoster? Bubba?

(I actually agree that RC is the GOAT)

Can't compare GOATS.

Ago was the GOAT of HIS era.
King Kenny, his.
Now Rossi.

There is really no way to actually quantifiably compare these guys.

They are all great champions beyond mortality.

Different machines, different eras, different tires, different tracks.

But the thing the all had in common was their ability to dominate motorcycle racing at the highest possible level of the day.

GixxerPete

So you're saying if some of Ago's competitors had been on Bridgestones history may have turned out very differently?

Ciao998

2nd sucks. If anyone cares who is second, you have a brighter outlook than me

Might as well stop racing, end the season and save some money??