| Author | Message | ||
     Slaughter |
Hope he's OK (looks like recoverable injuries) Cathcart injured on 1125RR (Message edited by slaughter on October 08, 2009) | ||
| Sparky |
He ran wide in a corner. Oh no, did someone put Firebolt Dunlop Sportmax radials on it?...  Seriously, I hope he's OK and this crash doesn't cloud his perception of the RR. | ||
| Gaesati |
I hope cathcart is alright. He is usually very objective about bikes(with the possible exception of ducati). | ||
| Ducbsa |
I met him at Daytona BOTT in '83 or so and he was a nice guy and I assume still is. | ||
| Lovedabueller |
HOW IS THE BIKE????  | ||
| Vagelis46 |
This is the second British journalist that get injured by riding a Buell. Is Buell so different than anything else that need a lot of riding to adapt to ? Recently a friend of mine that owns a GSXR told me after we changed bikes : "how do you ride this thing? I could not make it to turn!" | ||
| Imonabuss |
If someone falls off a Ducati, Honda, whatever, which happens all the time, it's a rider error. If they fall off a Buell it's the bike. This is ridiculously unfair. Actually, it's unbelievably unfair and viciously prejudiced. I guarantee Alan will have enough class to know he made a mistake, as he has also fallen off many brands. When you ride a full bore racebike at race speeds it's a delicate balance. F***, I have fallen off virtually every brand at one time or another, street, roadracing, motocross, trail, you name it and have always known it was my fault. This is insane. If your friend can't ride a Buell, he simply can't ride, and has chosen to vilify Buell for his lack of skill because everyone thinks that's OK. It was no problem for Taylor, Danny, Cory, Julius Ilmberger, etc., etc. | ||
| Blake |
Best wishes to Alan for pretty and gentile nurses and a speedy full recovery. Vagelis, That was incredibly poor form to pollute this thread as you did, queerly trying to blame the race bike and Buell in general for Alan's crash. I agree with Imonabus; that is ridiculously unfair and seems malicious in nature. Press riders crash bikes all the time. Think? I recall the evaluation by former WSBK racer and AMA Pro Thunder champion, the late Kirk McCarthy, of the Buell Pro Thunder XBike. Kirk had won the 2002 AMA Pro Thunder championship on his Advanced Motorsports Ducati by a mere two points over Hal's Performance Buell XB racer Mike Cicotto. At season's end Mike and Kirk were able to swap bikes and compare their relative merits. Kirk commented that the Buell handled even better than his Ducati. | ||
| Blake |
Here's the exact quote from the Road Racing World Article:
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| Dentguy |
Man, you guys are so quick to jump on somebody for blaming the Buell. Maybe I'm just reading what he said and not reading into it? Didn't he just question if adapting to the Buell is any different than adapting to anything else? "Is Buell so different than anything else that need a lot of riding to adapt to ?" (Message edited by dentguy on October 09, 2009) | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I just said that Buells are generally different and require a different riding style, more involving than the rest of the sportbikes and that it takes some time to get used to it. | ||
| Blake |
Here's a few interesting quotes from M4/EMGO Team Road Racing World Suzuki Daytona SportBike racer, Jason DiSalvo, after putting Michael Barnes' RMR/Geico Powersports 1125R DSB through the paces at New Jersey Motorsports Park just last month:
If you haven't already, please do yourself a huge favor and get at least the electronic subscription to Road Racing Word and Motorcycle Technology. It is hands down the best sport bike and motorcycle road racing publication in the world. A one year online subscription is only $14.95; three years is only $29.95. It is a steal! Here's the link to subscribe. They have a really nice online magazine viewer that allows easy transition to and from simple text and published magazine layout modes. https://home.roadracingworld.com/clickshare/addAcc ount.do | ||
| Backcountryme |
Wow, DiSalvo said some good things. I really didn't think that he would have much good to say about the Buell. I can tell you that I gained a ton of respect for the kid when he stood up to Hacking in that press conference. I was so sick of hearing Hacking cry like a 5th grader about the Buell. I got to tour the Buell plant and I can tell you that part of the reason the bike is so great has to be the passion and dedication of all the people that work at Buell. Everyone there was smiling, happy, and totally focused on making the best bikes. (Message edited by backcountryme on October 09, 2009) | ||
| Blake |
"I just said that Buells are generally different and require a different riding style, more involving than the rest of the sportbikes and that it takes some time to get used to it." Which implies that Alan's crash is attributable to the bike. That is very reckless and outrageous implication. It has no place in this thread. You are just making stuff up. In a matter of a mere ten laps, Jason DiSalvo was besting Michale Barne's lap times froma 25 lap stint on the 1125R by 1.4 seconds. Yeah, real tough to learn how to ride. | ||
| Blake |
I just read Jason's entire article in RoadRacing World Magazine. Wow! He is a fantastic writer! He had me laughing and eager for more, and yes, he dinged the 1125R on a number of counts too, but he did so with thoughtful objectivity and with the humble credibility of an accomplished professional motorcycle racer. Jason has made a new fan, and I suspect if he gets a chance to do more such writing, he'll be making a LOT more. The following is hilarious!:
 | ||
| Court |
>>>Press riders crash bikes all the time. As do the Harley-Davidson media staff.  It happens. >>>Recently a friend of mine that owns a GSXR told me after we changed bikes : "how do you ride this thing? I could not make it to turn!" Nothing a session in a Motorcycle Safety Foundation can't help. Your friend needs to work on skills. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I have subscribed to Britain's MCN-Bike-PB instead. Maybe you should do yourself a huge favour to subscribe to these mags, so that you get a more global view on motorcycle aspects, because sometimes for certain matters you sound single minded. So far the articles on these British mags are saying that the street 1125R, is "not ready yet". Maybe this is a British conspiracy to send "kamikaze" journalists to get injuries while riding the 1125R, so that their articles are justified and they prove their point. I am not saying that there is something wrong with the 1125R. I am just p@%# off that after a commend that "Buells are different", I get insults. Was it a rider's mistake ?? It probably was. We will never know unless the rider speaks off the record to someone. Even if he blames the bike, it does not mean that he is right. Maybe the certain rider needed more riding time to get adjusted to the bike. Of course a journalist does not have the same abilities as an active professional racer, otherwise he would be a racer not a journo. Are Buells different ?? Yes they are, that is why all of us ride one. Are Buells better ?? Noone can tell, unless they race against their equals. Mo matter what Buell "super fanatics" say, racing a 1125cc twin against a 600cc IL is not fair. | ||
| Slaughter |
Riding off a track IS a rider's mistake if there wasn't a mechanical breakage that caused it (I can almost guarantee there were NO mechanical issues) I'm no expert (though the license says otherwise) - but you test a machine and keep it within its limits or you can have something "unplanned" happen. This is a RIDER choice and is based on the RIDER's perceptions and experience with the machine that they're riding. Sometimes people might exceed their limits and this can happen. You can't think in terms of the BIKE's limits being exceeded but the RIDER exceeding HIS limits. The rider has to ride the bike that is UNDER HIS BUTT at that time in the conditions of the time on the track (or road) at that time. ...but that's just me. (and I will NEVER have the depth and level of experience that Cathcart has - NEVER) | ||
| M1combat |
Mo matter what Buell "super fanatics" say, racing a 1125cc twin against a 600cc IL is not fair." Busted . Yes it is. You're just not smart enough to see why. | ||
| Black |
+1 M1Combat! | ||
| Backcountryme |
+1 more M1Combat!! | ||
| Court |
>>>Mo matter what Buell "super fanatics" say, racing a 1125cc twin against a 600cc IL is not fair." Actually a statement like that doesn't, of necessity, mean a person is not smart it simply belies a lack of understanding of how motors make power. I'd suggest any one of several good books on the topic. Be mindful that my Ford pickup has nearly THREE TIMES the displacement of an Indianapolis race car. Do you think my pickup goes 600mph? | ||
| Riohondohank |
Ducbsa wrote: "I met him at Daytona BOTT in '83 or so and he was a nice guy and I assume still is." Were you racing BOTT at Daytona in 1983? I was there as sponsor/tuner for Marvin West (Cory West's dad) riding a BMW. We were running 5th in the GP class before the hand grenade engine gave up.  | ||
| Blake |
Vage, We might be suffering the effect of a slight language barrier. I forget that you are Greek, you write so well in English. Then again your closing comment about your GSXR riding buddy seemed to reinforce the impression that you were implying fault in the bike. As to your contention that "racing a 1125cc twin against a 600cc IL is not fair", that would be true if both engines were designed and tuned to the same level of optimized racing performance. They aren't. Not even close. The Japanese 600cc engines are as close to MotoGP tech as exists in a street bike. In race trim they put out upwards of 150 BHP and the bikes reach speeds of 180 MPH. If the 1125R engine was developed to the same level, it would rev to 15,000 rpm and in stock form be putting out 200 HP, 240 HP in race tune. It doesn't. It is a street bike engine designed and configured to run optimally below 10K rpm for maximum benefit in the real world. The Japanese 600cc repli-racer engines are designed and configured from day one, first and foremost for racing, to run optimally above 10K rpm and to respond spectacularly to allowed racing class modifications (decking of heads, re-timing of cams, optimization of exhaust and ECM). To top that off, the Japanese 600cc repli-racers are loss leaders; they don't earn a profit for the factories. Why would you demand Buell, a company of 200 people, be forced to adopt those same idiotic (my view) standards for their street bikes. It would harm them significantly. | ||
| Blake |
Can you see why the Japanese so vigorously promoted their little 600cc displacement based racing class structure? Can you see why they defend it so vigorously, to the point of employing journalists to promote their propaganda? Don't be a sucker for it. MotoGP is the place for all out, no holds barred racing engine tech. The street bike classes need to return to their intended purpose, classes designed for parity among machines in which similarly capable sport bike platforms race head-to-head, regardless of the displacement of their engines. | ||
| Black |
C'mon Court, You Lie!!!!!You know that displacement is EVERYTHING! If they would let giant Terex trucks race Ferraris, you would see! That Terex would smoke that Ferrari! Anybody from Supersquidplanet knows as much! (Sorry, that was too much fun to resist!) | ||
| 2kx1 |
If I remember correctly ,and I may be mistaken, the lap times between the superbikes and DSB in New Jersey were about 2 seconds apart. The superbikes had slicks and the DSB's run Dot's. | ||
| Elvis |
Cathcart had some nice things to say about the Buell and, amazingly, SBP printed them without editorial comment: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Oct/091009b.ht m BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Oct. 9, 2009) - Alan Cathcart crashed during a testing session Thursday (Oct. 8) at Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham, Alabama. The crash resulted in three fractured ribs, one cracked vertebrae, a broken right foot and the top of his left thumb being ground down. Cathcart is currently in the University of Alabama (UAB) Hospital in Birmingham. Cathcart was on hand for this weekend's Barber Vintage Festival presented by Michelin to ride Danny Eslick's Daytona Sportbike Championship winning Buell 1125R. On Thursday Buell asked Cathcart to test a couple of its prototype Buell 1125RR Superbikes to give them feedback. "Buell wanted me to give them my thoughts on their prototype and specifically how it compares to the Ducati and KTM Superbikes I've ridden that are campaigned in the national-level Superbikes Series in Europe," Cathcart said Friday. "Testing was going along just fine and the lap times were coming down into a very good range, when on the last lap of the last session I ran out to the curbing coming onto the front straight and the rear tire spun up. When it came on the tarmac again it hooked up rather violently and spit me off. "I was able to get enough laps to know that Buell's 1125RR is quite good and compares favorably to the Superbikes raced in national-level series in Europe. Obviously I would have liked it better with traction control," Cathcart said with a grin. "Buell is very popular in Europe and I believe some team will decide to race the 1125RR, perhaps in the IDM Series in Germany as soon as next year. The bike is very powerful and torquey." (Message edited by elvis on October 09, 2009) | ||
| Blake |
Screw stuporbike vomit. That article appears on Speed, written by SpeedTV staff. http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/bmp-journal ist-cathcart-injured-in-test-crash/ "Buell wanted me to give them my thoughts on their prototype and specifically how it compares to the Ducati and KTM Superbikes I've ridden that are campaigned in the national-level Superbikes Series in Europe," Cathcart said Friday. "Testing was going along just fine and the lap times were coming down into a very good range, when on the last lap of the last session I ran out to the curbing coming onto the front straight and the rear tire spun up. When it came on the tarmac again it hooked up rather violently and spit me off. | ||
| Elvis |
 That explains the lack of inane snarkiness. |
