Although Dani Pedrosa didn’t have the best weekend in Mugello, he did win the title of the fastest man to ever ride a MotoGP bike. The Jockey sized Spainard was clocked in the speed trap at a phenomenal 217.03mph, shattering the previous record set by Makoto Tamada by 4mph.
Tamada, while also on a Honda, set his time on the 990cc variant of MotoGP bike, while at the Shanghai circuit in 2006. With the 800cc machines originally thought to be down on power when compared to their predacessors, we have seen them breaking lap records all over the series, and now they can claim the top speed honor as well.
Part of the success of the 800cc bikes is that while making less power, they deliver it in a much more usuable fashion, thus allowing for greater overall speed. This top speed record is a bit astonishing though, when you consider that pure straight line speed is usually a matter of sheer horsepower and aerodynamics.
Because of this we presume, there had initially been doubt over the accuracy of the speed measurement, but Pedrosa’s achievement was quickly confirmed ahead of the MotoGP race.
Before this past weekend, the fastest top speed at Mugello was 213.11mph, recorded by Alex Barros in 2004.
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