Dani Pedrosa took a light fall off his very MotoGP Repsol Honda prototype during a publicity stroll on the streets of Melbourne, Australia. Pedrosa was accompanied by Jack Miller, himself a future MotoGP rider next year in a public event staged by Honda ahead of the Phillip Island round this weekend.
It’s no secret that the top MotoGP riders make a lot of money from product endorsement contracts, and so do their teams. This meant that from time to time, the riders just have to take part in various actions which usually involve riding their bikes in certain non-racing events, such as group rides, laps of honor, and more. Or they must introduce new models ranging from the liter-class superbikes to the small-displacement first-bike segment.
Repsol and Honda have already indulged in at least two such events, with the biggest being having Marc Marquez riding his Repsol Honda across the Millennium Bridge in London, ahead of the Silverstone GP. Another similar publicity stunt involved allegedly refueling the HRC machines in a Repsol gas station before the Aragon race.
Riding a MotoGP bike on the street is not at all easy
Three races down to the end of the 2014 season, Honda had Pedrosa and Miller out on a casual ride in Melbourne. The bikes have been equipped with the best tires the team could come up with for the Australian asphalt, the wet ones. Still, it looks like both these bikes and their tires are definitely not the killer street machines some may believe they are.
Marquez refrained to doing a small burnout and taking a cab ride to his Millennium Bridge feat. We all wondered how come we didn’t see a wheelie on the famous bridge, but it looks like safety reasons and the wind across the river Thames were more than enough to keep things... tame.
However, Pedrosa and Miller seized the opportunity and decided to show off a bit on the banks of the River Yarra. While local young star Miller made it without incidents, the same cannot be said about Pedrosa. The Spaniard came off his bike at slow speed after lading a wheelie.
The problem was Dani Pedrosa’s short stature, which makes it rather impossible for him to keep the bike straight when riding very slowly or when stopped. And the turning angle of the MotoGP prototypes doesn’t make things any easier, too.
Dani was not hurt and his bike was only scratched. It will not buff out, but his mechanics will install new fairings instead. The Spanish riders also says that this is the very first time he ever rode a MotoGP bike outside the race track, and it is definitely a much harder task than it appears. MotoGP resumes this weekend with the 16th round, at Phillip Island. We remind you that Marc Marquez is the 2014 World Champion.
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