High Style

Josh Hayes has spent nearly 30 years refining his riding. That dedication led to seven AMA national championships, including four Superbike titles.

Hayes has 83 all-time AMA race wins, second only to AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Miguel Duhamel.

Now, the 45-year-old Hayes is doling out go-fast advice to MotoAmerica riders who have tapped his deep well of experience.

When Hayes began racing in the early 1990s, he knew little about riding technique.

“World Superbike and Grand Prix racing were on TV when I was in high school,” Hayes said. “All you could see was that they were hanging their butts off the inside of the motorcycle.

“Books I read said you were changing the center of gravity. I thought, ‘Well, that is good enough for me. I want to look like those guys.’”

Hayes patterned his riding style after Mick Doohan, the Australian who won five consecutive 500cc Grand Prix world titles from 1994 to 1998.

“I had more of an upright look, like Doohan,” Hayes said. “[My Team Suzuki Endurance teammate] Grant Lopez was more like the modern example; he would disappear off the side of the motorcycle.

“We didn’t have much understanding of how and why. It was based on feel, if it was helping us get what we were looking for to be successful on the motorcycle.”

Hayes began to study top pros.

“When I won my first championship in 2003, I was still being pretty rough with the motorcycle,” he said. “I was so busy thinking about speed that body position and riding technique weren’t really there.”

“Eric Bostrom and Ben Spies were moving around a lot and hanging off their bikes, but they didn’t look like they were making a lot of effort. They looked awfully boring to be going as fast as they were going.”

Hayes began to incorporate what he saw on the track into his own riding.

“I was amazed what changed in my bike and in my progress,” he said, “when I was able to analyze what they were doing, how they were doing it, and make sense of it—why it made me better.

“Now, I am talking through some of those same things with guys I’m coaching.”

Hayes’ tutelage has paid off.

Cameron Petersen won the 2020 MotoAmerica Stock 1000 championship.

▲Hayes coaches MotoAmerica Superbike race winner Bobby Fong (pictured), who sometimes even wears Hayes’ signature “Jolly Roger” helmet.
Photo by Brian J. Nelson

(Petersen’s crew chief is Melissa Paris, Hayes’ wife.) Mathew Scholtz earned 10 Superbike podiums. Bobby Fong is the only rider other than five-time champion Cameron Beaubier to win Superbike races.

Hayes also has worked with Garrett Gerloff, who scored three podiums in his World Superbike rookie season, and Richie Escalante, who won the MotoAmerica Supersport title.

Is there a common thread?

“Across the board, timing—when to move on the bike and a little of how to move on the bike,” Hayes said. “Bobby and I are similar in how we tried to force a motorcycle to move quickly, but we were incredibly inefficient. Physically, it was very demanding. We created issues and wore out ourselves. And, as we got tired, we went even more in that direction.

“I communicate with Bobby better than most, but we have three years working together and we have built a rapport. If I say, ‘Hey, man. I think you need to do this.’ He’s going to give it a shot.

“Mat Scholtz is a bit new for me. Cam Peterson has a pretty solid foundation. I learned a lot from Garrett.”

Hayes’ own riding has improved, as well.

“I have been able to watch, analyze and understand better by being on the sidelines,” he said. “When I was racing, I was too busy, trying to work on too many aspects of the game to be able to narrow things down and go through drills to fix them.”

What makes Beaubier special?

“No one rides a motorcycle like Cameron Beaubier,” Hayes said. “He has his own feel, and it is special.

“In 2014, we went to Sonoma Raceway, a track where I had done really well quite a few times. And that kid was one and a half seconds per lap faster than me.

“We broke out the data,” he said. “I was 100 percent throttle 26 percent of the lap. Cameron was 100 percent throttle 6 percent of the lap. Our apex speeds were the same in every corner. I grabbed 12-bar brake pressure, and he grabbed eight and a half.

“He sat up earlier, he didn’t grab the brakes as hard, but he beat me to the apex of the corner, and we were the same speed at the apex.”

Hayes didn’t understand.

“My brain can’t compute what Cameron does on a motorcycle,” he said. “He works in such fine increments of throttle. He is efficient—he moves well on the bike—so he has the dexterity in his hands to do it. He can pick up 3 percent throttle and go to 4, 5, 6, 7.”

Hayes was focused on getting to full throttle.

“If I am 100 percent throttle here, the bike accelerates the same,” he said. “When I get to my brake marker, I am going the same speed, so I know I can hit the brakes and make the corner the same every time.

“Cameron feeds in the throttle so slowly he doesn’t have the same references that I do. How does he lap so consistently? I can’t tell you. No one I know can do it.

“Fortunately, I am old enough and I have been around long enough to understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat.”

Josh Hayes is still learning.