Neevesy from MCN – living the dream?
What does Neevesy really think? MCN road test legend talks to Visorvision!
On a 750 mile drive through France in a van there’s plenty of time to kill, so I took the chance to quiz someone more used to doing the quizzing – MCN’s Michael Neeves, more popularly known as ‘Neevesy’ and the only bloke I know who has not 1 but 2 replica helmets in the Arai line-up.
A bit of background about Neevesy that most of you won’t know:
- He is from The Isle of Thanet – that’s the bit that pokes out pointlessly from Kent towards France just North of Dover.
- He does amazing wheelies with anything from a wheelchair to just about any motorcycle.
- He never opens a bottle without making a very convincing noise which will make you believe he’s releasing the pressure (he’s not!)
- He likes Porsche 911′s and can drive a car ridiculously fast.
- His legs aren’t as attractive as they were after a crash between a car and his RGV250 in 1994. He didn’t walk for 3 months.
- He has been racing since 1989, and has raced everything from the original Slingshot GSXR750 to last year’s BMW S1000RR’s with a few weird and wonderful things in between.
Q.1 Road testing Motorcycles for MCN looks like a Dream job; what’s the truth?
It is a dream job. Like any job if you do it 24/7 it has its bad moments, but you’ve got to have a reality check if you are having a bad day and remember that it is every motorcyclists dream to do this job.
A bad day could be riding out in terrible weather, there are many days with really long hours, there’s always lots of travelling and of course there is writing to a deadline on top of everything else.
But that said, you get to ride motorcycles every day, travel the world, meet your heroes, ride the latest bikes as they come out, so ultimately, yes, it is a dream!
Q.2 What’s the biggest myth in Motorcyling?
That manufacturers know what they’re doing!
Q.3 There’s always tittle tattle about road tests being biased, or influenced. What’s your take on it?
Just not true. You can’t lie or pay lip service to a manufacturer in a road test. MCN is very professional and as road testers we’re unhindered by pressure from manufacturers or advertisers. We state our opinions truthfully which you must realise are just that – our opinions, which may differ from the next man along, and the man after that.
Before I joined MCN, like most people I had preconceptions about this issue, but it simply doesn’t happen.
Q.4 What’s the last thing you learnt about riding a motorcycle?
When you’re into bikes you’re learning all the time, 24/7 – thats the Great thing about them.
The last thing I learnt was the skill of knowing when not to do anything with the controls – there are times when the best thing to do is lay off the gas, lay off the brakes and let the bike do it’s own thing going around a corner.
Q.5 – Electric motorcycles – will they ever win us over?
No. I’ve ridden an Electric RC8 and you’re left feeling that they’re soulless.
They don’t enjoy a good connection to the tarmac and range is also a problem – a 100 mile range electric Motorcycle thrashed on a Sunday afternoon will give maybe 50-60 miles, which is impractical.
So much about the enjoyment of motorcycling is from the feel you get when riding, just the pure excitement of it, and you really miss the engine. What’s really noticeable when you don’t have one, is the way that a conventional engine helps a bike to handle better in the corners.
Maybe as practical A to B transport they have a future, but at the moment, as sports bikes, they’re wide of the mark.
Q.6 How many of the Current MotoGP tracks have you ridden?
About 80% – thinking about it, everything except Le Mans, Laguna Seca, Brno.
Q.7 Are sportsbikes dead?
No. The interest is only dwindling because there are so many more interesting genres appearing to choose from.
It was once true that you may only have had a choice between Sports bikes and something quite dull, but now you have Adventure bikes, Super-Nakeds, Sports-tourers – these genres are made up of fabulous bikes like the Street Triple or Multistrada, which I believe will compete with but ultimately won’t kill sportsbikes.
Q.8 If you could assemble every biker in the World in one place and tell them just one thing, what would it be?
It doesn’t matter how fast you are.
Never feel you need to keep up or be faster than your mates.
There’ll always be someone better than you, Motorcycling is all about enjoying yourself and that doesn’t need to be about how fast you ride.
Q.9 What’s the Fastest proven speed you have done on a motorcycle?
I don’t do the speed testing at MCN, Bruce Dunn does that, and I don’t get to ride a bike with a datalogger on very often – but I’d say it’s around 185mph.
Q.10 What’s left for Michael Neeves?
Keep sampling the new bikes, keep enjoying Motorcyling.
I’m 40 now which would have been an issue once but age is less of a reason than ever to stop enjoying bikes; the bikes themselves, the riding kit, the tyres, all of them go to making sure we can carry on longer.
I’ll carry on doing trackdays, racing and road testing as long as I can! Max Biaggi being WSB champ at 39 is a lesson to us all.
Q.11 You have to buy one bike with your own cash – what bike would you buy and why?
GSXR750.
There are faster bikes out there, more technologically advanced bikes too, but its the best mix of power and handling and it’s beautifully balanced.
A bike that you can use to it’s limits, very fast in the right hands and very exciting!
Q.12 What are the best 3 bikes you’ve ever ridden?
1 – Rossi’s 2006 M1 MotoGP bike – the last year of the 1000′s
2 – Nicky Hayden’s 2005 RC211V – the first time I rode a MotoGP bike, and the first top level race bike I rode. It made me realise how nice and friendly they are – they’re not nasty, difficult machines, but more like the best Fireblade you have ever ridden. I’ve ridden club race machines which are way more aggressive.
They were still quite raw when I rode this, without hugely advanced electronics, and that meant I could pull big wheelies which I enjoy!
3 – Pedrosa’s 2005 championship winning 250 – before getting on I was non-plussed about riding this, even though it’s a 250GP bike which I love, because I simply didn’t think I would fit on it!
Turns out I did fit on it and it was just magnificent.
In the same sort of way as a GSXR 750, it gives you the feeling you are in charge so you can really enjoy riding it flat out. Also it sounds great, handles great and it makes you feel you can ride it to it’s limit.
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Neevesy will be racing the Park Lane BMW S1000RR in MRO meetings in 2011, drop by and say hello!