Hayden optimistic about 2008 Honda

The 2006 world champion struggled to adapt to the RC212V for much of this season.

The tiny bike's slight proportions were met with surprise when it first appeared before the season, and led to suggestions that it was designed especially for Hayden's small teammate Dani Pedrosa, who weighs in at just 49kgs.

Hayden said that although he had not yet seen the 2008 bike, after recent progress with the RC212V he was happy for the team to follow an evolutionary path rather than trying a totally different design philosophy.

"If you'd have asked me mid-season I would have said to throw this thing in the trash and start completely over again," he said.

"But now I don't think we need to start completely over again."

He added the abandonment of initial plans to run the 2008 bike at either the Motegi or Sepang post-race tests had made him slightly "nervous", but he remained confident that the design would be worth waiting for.

"They're still tight-lipped as to what next year's bike is going to be as at one time they were going to bring it to Japan, then Malaysia and now it looks like neither one of those is going to happen now," said the American.

"So on one hand it makes you nervous at being late, but I can't believe that Honda are going to bring anything but a weapon. I'll sleep in the streets if they come two years in a row with a bike that's anything less than a straight weapon."

Hayden also hinted that Honda now believed the small RC212V might actually been a little too radical.

"This whole central weight/mass centralisation is not going to happen (next year)," he said.

"The (2007) bike runs too hot, the pipes are all inside... I guess that it looks good on paper to the engineers but I don't think it's been the big advantage. I think that the bike's going to be more of a normal size next year."