| Author | Message | ||
     Fresnobuell |
Electronics if done badly can certainly slow down guys at the top level of racing. No doubt. It doesn't surprise me in the earlier days that guys could go faster when them turned off. Nowadays I doubt that is possible. Electronic aides are so engrained that the engineer is arguably as important as the guy riding the bike. I wish they would get rid of electronics and aero completely. They will never do that because of the trickle down effect to the street bikes and rider safety. To answer your question about the current generation of racers riding 500cc bikes--you would see alot of high sides for sure! | ||
| Jaimec |
Both Japanese factories seem to be lost in the wilderness. Aprilia sure has made a giant step in the off season! | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Interesting to see the change from a Japanese dominated series to a European dominated series. Seems like the Japanese are one step away from pulling out of the series completely. | ||
| Jaimec |
Hope you're wrong about that. Suzuki was a shocker. Kawasaki followed the old adage: "If at first you can't succeed, QUIT." Suzuki WAS succeeding. Hope Yamaha and Honda can pull themselves out of their hole. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
I can see the viewpoint of Return on Investment from the company point of view. It is always hard in business to justify quantitative expense with unquantifiable benefits. The accountants for sure see exactly how much money they are pouring into the GP racing team, but exactly how much benefit is the company gaining from the exposure? That is extremely hard, if not impossible to, to quantify. Obviously, if a team is struggling to perform well it makes the argument against going GP racing that much stronger--especially since the answer to getting back to the pointy end is almost always MORE money. I would be very curious to hear what the experts say about the shift in success from Japan to Europe. Is Ducati just that much better to have the dominant bike in both GP and WSBK? I have said it multiple times here, that Ducati (love em or hate em) should get tons of respect for dominating racing. They are such a small company compared to the Japanese manufacturers. It takes alot of Ducati sales to fund these racing efforts. Hard not to admire this company. | ||
| Jaimec |
The turn around for Ducati came when they poached Gigi away from Aprilia. Remember, when he was with Aprilia, they were dominating WSBK. Aprilia is only now getting back to the top in MotoGP, but they are nowhere in WSBK these days. Gigi's genius seems to be in finding and exploiting loopholes in the rules. He was the first to introduce aero in MotoGP and everyone had to play catch up. He was the first to introduce a holeshot device for the starts and everyone had to play catch up, etc. etc. etc. He is also getting the Ducati to FINALLY handle cornering... something all of their riders complained about back to the days of Loris Capirossi! Speculation I've seen implies that thanks to their desmodromic valve system, Ducati will almost always enjoy a horsepower advantage over the other factories. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Sounds like as good a reason as any. It does seem like Ducati always come up with the innovation and the other teams play catch up. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Oh Boy. COTA this weekend. Possibly the worst track on the calendar. I wonder how bad the Nascars beat up the track. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Rins had a great weekend on the Honda. COTA specialist I guess you could say. I always liked him, ever since he an MM locked horns a few years back in that epic race where MM was essentially brake checking Rins mid-corner. Misano? | ||
| Jaimec |
Now that MM knows the bike is capable of winning, will he be an even BIGGER reckless maniac when he returns? | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Interesting that Rins seems to be the opposite of MM as far as riding style. At least that is the way I kinda see the two. Rins being smooth and carrying corner speed. MM being more an aggressive, point and shoot style. It will be interesting to see if the Honda can do anything with the Ducatis, or is this just a COTA special? | ||
| Jaimec |
Pecco seems to be back on track (so to speak). Interesting advice he got from "The Doctor" who advised him to "slow down." I guess he meant not to attack the turns so aggressively; kind of like being the "Anti-Marquez." It seemed to help. If he can keep it up, it'll be a runaway season for him even when MM93 comes back. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Slow down to go faster. Maybe smoother as well. The one thing I noticed about the GP riders is most are so smooth it is ridiculous. I could sit there all day watching them at Laguna Seca T5. Beautiful thing to witness. | ||
| Jaimec |
Two more crashes for MM93. He obviously hasn't slowed down. If he keeps this up the only thing he'll be riding will be a wheelchair... | ||
| Jaimec |
I see Franco finished ahead of Fabio in today's "Ducati Cup." Brad Binder was the only non-Ducati in the Top 5. | ||
| Jaimec |
MM93 should heed the words of Max Biaggi: "In order to finish first, first you must FINISH!" | ||
| Jaimec |
<sigh> Another "Ducati Cup" race with only Jack Miller breaking up the top nine finishers with his KTM... And Honda's favorite wrecking ball withdrew before the race start due to an injury sustained in yet ANOTHER high-side accident. At least this time he didn't take anyone out with him... | ||
| Fresnobuell |
What a joke. racing sucks when dominated by a single manufacturer. | ||
| Jaimec |
Honda preps Marquez' bike for the second half of the season.  | ||
| Jaimec |
I'm happy for Aleix. I've always considered him one of the most under-rated riders on the grid and always wondered how he'd do on an actual competitive machine. Happy to see that FINALLY happened for him. About time, too. He's the oldest rider on the grid right now! | ||
| Jaimec |
BTW, does anyone know what happened to Sean Dylan Kelly? I only saw one name listed on the Onlyfans American Racing team this past weekend and it wasn't his. He wasn't even listed as "DNS" (Did Not Start). I can't find any news as to why he wasn't there. | ||
| Jaimec |
Disregard my previous post. FINALLY entered the correct "keywords" in Google and found my answer: https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/moto2-sdk-wil l-miss-silverstone-to-continue-recovery/ | ||
| Jaimec |
I wonder if Pecco is starting to feel like Quartararo did last year... | ||
| Jaimec |
https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1037331/1/offici al-marc-marquez-leave-repsol-honda-end-2023 He's giving up a HUGE paycheck to ride a year-old bike for a non-factory team. He's DESPERATE to match Valentino's record. I'm hoping he falls flat on his face... | ||
| Jaimec |
It really seems as though there are rules for every team in MotoGP EXCEPT for Honda. Example #1: The "Rookie Rule" that stated a new rider could NOT enter the series on a factory team, so Ben Spies had to start out with the Tech3 team instead of the Factory Fiat Yamaha team. Suddenly when it's time for Marc Marquez to move up from Moto2 thttps://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1037898/1/jack-m iller-acosta-ktm-should-have-been-allowed-fifth-bi keo MotoGP, that rule was tossed aside. Example 2: KTM has too many contracted riders for their existing machines and tries to get a fifth bike to allow Pedro Acosta to move up from Moto2 without demoting any of their riders. When Honda had that issue with Marquez moving up from Moto2, DORNA had NO problem with Repsol Honda having three factory riders in Marquez, Pedrosa and Dovisioso. Or maybe they just keep re-writing the rules when it comes to Marc Marquez as he was involved in BOTH decisions? How do they KEEP getting away with that sh**?? The rules in MotoGP seem to change CONSTANTLY with no rhyme or reason. Whatever Marc or Honda wants, Marc or Honda gets! | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Looking at FP at Phillip Island, exactly one Japanese brand in the top 15. That would be MM on the Honda. I know PI is a HP track, but jeeeeeezzzz. Has Japan thrown in the towel on GP racing? | ||
| Jaimec |
I just wanted to make a correction to my last post. Honda ran three bikes in order to provide a bike for Casey Stoner, NOT Marc Marquez. In this case, it was Honda getting what they want when no other team can even before Marquez joined their ranks. | ||
| Jaimec |
Oh well... no fairy tale weekend for Alvaro Bautista in Sepang... | ||
| Crusty |
Dorna Might be sold: https://motorcyclesports.net/dorna-sports-confirms -it-could-be-sold/?fbclid=IwAR162XlM052cmcVhkqKyov hLzOgTAVQBPcuTDU5MlZ--zU0r1Awclkakaow | ||
| Jaimec |
I have this nightmare of the DMG Group buying them out and doing to them what they tried to do with AMA Professional Superbike in this country... |
