To make it a test of two riders both of them have to be­ on the same bike prefferably a bike niether of them are­ used to.

I personally don't think anything will become of­ it.
would love to see it happen tho !
I'm a big­ FAN of both of these riders.
Sod the BMW's what­ about the two of them on a RSV 4. ;-)

Yes Bayliss won a race in Motogp at the end of the 2006­ season beating Rossi in the process, but it was a one­ off ride with no pressure and he could just go out and­ have fun. Rossi was challenging for the title still and­ under enormous pressure at the time. But ultimately the­ real question here is how many races did Rossi whup­ Bayliss's arse in. Bayliss won one race against­ Rossi, while Rossi won more than I can remember against­ Bayliss.
In the 2007 season Bayliss got his arse­ handed to him by Toseland, who went to Motogp and­ experianced the same thing from Rossi. If these two­ raced against each other the only reason it would be­ remotely close is because Rossi likes to put on a show.­ Put Bayliss on a 1000cc four and lets see how he gets­ on.

rrcarsofgosport, i think that the race could and will­ happen. As far as PR everytime that Rossi dose a­ commercial on the Yam is PR. remember he was also­ having fun in WRC autos. He's at risk of getting­ hurt just moving around. Plus this will be great PR­ for the R1. As far as Bayliss, he is ready to still­ strut his stuff.

Dream on you lot, this will NEVER happen only in your­ dreams, troy's retired and has beaten vale in a­ moto gp race, and vales sponsers aren't going to­ risk him getting injured in a PR race, now i would love­ to see this race as i'd like to see m/schumi given­ a WSB ride to see how he fairs against bike racers, but­ as most things people are desperate to see, they­ don't happen- repsol ross

Both Rossi, and Bayliss are great rider, but my money­ is on Rossi, he makes less mistakes than Bayliss.

Goliath v Goliath will be a great day for the sport,­ pity Foggy isnt their as well

thanks for your views on rossi,it has been bugging me­ all season when people have said he is the­ greatest.john mcguiness holds the lap record at 130mph­ round the tt course taking it off the late david­ jefferies. so what time and speed do you think the­ great rossi could do round the tt course? my thought is­ max speed 100mph if he has it nerve to open the­ throttle far enough.

well amey t you say rossi made bayliss eat his dirt in­ motogp, well that's not quite true. go back to 2006­ the last round of the championship at valencia title to­ be decided between rossi and hayden with a troy bayliss­ returning for a 1 off ride on the departing 990cc­ ducati before they went to 800cc, if you can think back­ that far i think you will find a certain troy bayliss­ whooped there @#$% to win the last ever race on a 990cc­ motogp bike, and a certain rossi was in the dirt on the­ second corner and finished the race behind tamada on­ the honda in 14th place.so does that answer your point­ amey t

Oh- and no like machinery. Race for the company you­ work for- period. The new R1 has speed and Ben Spies­ proved that at the test. It will pull the duty. Haga­ rode the wheels off the 08 bike. The 09 is already­ better and they've just scratched the surface.

Bayliss' stint in GP was mared by a 990 that­ couldn't put the power to the ground. If you­ remember the last 990 race Bayliss stomped everyone. He­ was like a machine. So, I chalk up the GP failure on­ equipment and technical issues. Bayliss is a master at­ Superbike. Could Rossi adapt to the R1 in one race? I­ think so. Mostly, he'd have to adjust to the­ suspension over horsepower. If you gave him (Rossi)­ enough laps to test with I believe he could roll into­ Qatar and at the end of free practice be in the top 5.­ Will it happen? Yep- Rossi is hands down the most­ powerful racer in Motorsports right now. If he wants it­ bad enough you can bet the farm that Italia Yamaha is­ preparing a bike (or 2) for him to compete on. It's­ a matter of Bayliss saying he'd do it. Couldn't­ be too tough to talk him into it.

Yes the TT is a different beast to modern MotoGP. But­ Rossi aspires to be compared with Agostini and Surtees,­ etc, and the Isle of Mann is far closer to what they­ raced on, then the MotoGP circuits with air-fencing and­ heaps of runoff.
And riding conditions on IOM are­ closer to what us riders are facing in the real­ world.
So if you want to be known as a the greatest­ rider, its reasonable for some to ask that your skill­ be shown!
And thats why Laguna Seca is one of my­ favourite circuits (and probly of everyone's­ favourites).

The TT is a completely different beast and meant for­ another article. Simply, because you cannot totally­ set-up a bike for the Isle of Man. You'll catch­ rain on certain parts of the circuit and jumps in other­ parts. You would have to get a general set-up and leave­ the rest up to the rider to cope with the transitions­ in a split second. The riders in the TT have something­ indescribably beyond courage. The downside of the TT is­ that you rarely see any head to head corner after­ corner passing because there is one line for the most­ part. It feels more like F1 or Nascar to me. Either you­ have one guy who is running away or coming very fast­ from behind and when he arrives, the tactics Rossi used­ on Stoner at Laguna Seca simply would not work. In­ fact, if he tried that at the TT, Rossi would have­ ended up in the side of a house! And probably taken­ Stoner with him. So from what I see, the TT is an­ amazing race but has a lot more to do with respecting­ the circuit itself.

Yep good point jukev. As a big fan of pure road racing­ in Ireland and the Isle Of Man i have far more respect­ for anybody that competes at these events then i do for­ Rossi but i can still appreciate what brilliant riders­ Rossi and Baylis are. Could Rossi beat John McGuinness­ at the TT? No. Could McGuinness beat Rossi on a short­ circuit? No. Are either one of them better then the­ other? No, they're both great.
Is Rossi better than­ Baylis, in a one off race he may or may not be but what­ does that prove...Nothing.
I really hope that these two­ greats of motorcycle racing do not reduce themselves to­ such a ridiculous idea.

jukev, great point. I'd luv to see Rossi take on­ the Isle of Mann TT, as at the speed they race at, that­ track is far from the MotoGP tracks with all their­ runoff and airfences.
Its incredible when you see sum­ guy at the Isle of Mann hit a stone wall and yet walk­ away from a totally destroyed motorcycle!
BTW, I'd­ luv the KR750 on which Mick Grant rode. Sure, I'd­ probably kill myself, gut what a way to go.

Well Rossi is supposed to be the greatest rider ever­ but Bayliss is one of the best in super bikes for sure.­ But the question is? The great Rossi is always compared­ to Hailwood and Agostini but they raced at the Isle of­ Man TT and won, like Bayliss has in British superbikes­ and World superbikes. So for Rossi to be classed as the­ greatest rider ever he has to win the World superbike­ championship and take on the legendary Isle of Man TT­ course. So the question is when is Rossi doing the TT­ as that used to be part of the GP championship?

Bayliss is a family man of his word (he would hang up­ the leathers for good) and his wife would need to sign­ off on the deal firstly. It should be obvious by now­ that Rossi races for the fight and would take up the­ challenge if it meant that he had to lose all of his­ sponsors and had to race on a scooter off the showroom­ floor. I'd love to see it happen with Rossi on an­ R1 and Bayliss on his Ducati. The field is already­ leveled enough with the control tires--if anything, set­ a rule for equal fuel loads. Bayliss did the deed in­ MotoGP for a couple of years on a Ducati that was not­ supposed to win races or get on podiums as quickly as­ it did--and a team that he was not at his best­ with...All while Valentino had Burgess and a­ championship winning capable bike. If Rossi wants to­ call a man out then you go to his house and shout at­ him in his front yard! So let the race take place at­ Phillip Island. One on one for 10 laps. Then just like­ in boxing, have a lead-up race between Pedrosa and­ Nicky Hayden on two Ten Kate prepped bikes. One on one­ would be the only way to keep some other rider from­ acting as a buffer. Yes, I'm in the U.S. but­ that's not why I dislike Pedrosa. I just do not­ respect it when you get a midget to race on a bike that­ looks like the engineers gave up on fairings just to­ get the best power-to-weight ratio. What's­ next?--Getting a 25 pound NASA trained monkey to pilot­ the MotoGP bikes? I'm sure that monkey would have­ no problem trusting all the electronics that make bikes­ easy enough for me to probably get past the­ Kawasaki's. Is anybody else frustrated with the­ traction control on consumer bikes? The best moments of­ my life were when I learned how to spin the rear after­ the apex on track days. Now they have even taken that­ from me! Take my word-the U.S. is lame! All this­ corporate money and open land over here and we are yet­ to have a world class race facility capable of seeing­ MotoGP bikes reach top speeds.

Can't see it happening and i hope i doesn't.­ Neither of them have anything to prove, they're­ both great riders.

But if it did happen and Rossi lost­ then Rossi fans would say it was unfair as he was on an­ unfamilliar bike and concentrating on MotoGP so­ didn't ride 100% and is still the greatest and if­ Baylis lost fans would blame it on the fact he­ hadn't ridden a bike all winter but he's still­ the greatest.
What's next, stick John Surtees,­ Agostini or Duke on a bike for a head-to-head with­ Rossi??

how about an aggregate race 20 laps then swap bikes for­ another 20 laps