Horn Mono and Other Gobertisms
Gobert’s Tiny Tweaks: The Bizzik Misunderstanding
by Dean Adams
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Reader and sticker enthusiast Scott K asked last week, "What does 'horn mono' mean, anyway?"
"Horn Mono" adorns one of our current Soup stickers and has been our go-to caption for photos of motorcycles wheelieing for 25 years or more.
The phrase "Horn Mono" originated with the late Anthony Gobert when he came to America to race the Daytona 200 as part of the Muzzy Kawasaki squad. Whenever he saw someone pulling a wheelie in the pit lane, Gobert would exclaim, "Horn Mono!" We took it to mean "great wheelie." According to Anthony, the phrase had its roots in Australian Supercross racing, where he grew up.
Along with his wild-child ethos, Gobert brought his own colorful vocabulary to roadracing.
After being expelled from Grand Prix racing, Gobert made a triumphant comeback with the Vance & Hines Ducati team in the USA. Riding a factory Ducati with American Jim Leonard as his crew chief, Gobert was immediately fast, but the team faced challenges deciphering his unique terminology when it came to setting up the bike.
For instance, Gobert would sometimes tell Leonard, "Just back it off a bizzik, Jimmy, just a bizzik, mate."

Dean F. Adams
Goey: young, fast and beautiful. This was the day he learned to use an upside-down race gearbox. In one day. At Daytona!
Gobert and his entourage would eventually roll back into the paddock, often in a scene reminiscent of Spicoli and friends arriving at prom in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
"Okay, okay, I gotta stop laughing before I go in," Gobert might say before entering the trailer. Inside, Leonard and Ducati Corse engineer Ernesto Marinelli would be waiting for him, armed with a setup sheet and a computer monitor.
"What do you mean when you say to change something a 'bizzik'?" Leonard, a standout math whiz in school, would ask, ignoring the distinct smell of alcohol on Gobert's breath.
"Oh, you know, mate, just a bizzik—just a tiny bit," Gobert would reply, holding his thumb and index finger close together to illustrate. "You know, just bizzik."
Finally, Leonard and Marinelli understood. A "bizzik" meant a very small adjustment. Relieved, they’d send Gobert back to the hotel for rest. "Oh, I’m heading there now," Gobert would assure them. (Of course, instead, he and his crew ended up at Buckhead’s party bars, drunkenly stealing license plates off cars—but that’s another story.)
It wasn’t until weeks later, while riding to work, that Leonard had an epiphany. Gobert hadn’t been saying "bizzik" at all. When he wanted a tiny, minuscule, almost microscopic change, he’d actually been saying:
"Bee’s dick."
Leonard laughed so hard he nearly missed his exit, wondering how many engineering meetings had been derailed by Gobert's uniquely Australian unit of measurement. From then on, every minute adjustment to the Vance and Hines Ducati was forever referred to as a "BD" in the team's notes.
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