| Author | Message | ||
     Rokoneer |
As soon as I lose half my bodyweight. ...and become a MUCH better rider. ...and hell freezes over. Pedrosa: 104 lb, 5'2" Elias: 121 lb, 5'4" Melandri: 128 lb, 5'6" Stoner: 128 lb 5'7" Capirossi: 130 lb, 5'4" Rossi: 130 lb, 5'11" Hayden: 150 lb, 5'8" Gibernau: 154 lb, 5'9" Weight difference between Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden: 46 pounds. | ||
| Buellgirlie |
they are soooooo tiny! in weight and height. sheesh. i had no idea. interesting factoid  D | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Also, people named Dora are small and fast. | ||
| Buellgirlie |
ha ha ha! hi nate i hope so. my goals for this season are to not suck badly and to not crash much. not even beginning to think about chasing points or trophies. time to learn bike, learn tracks, and become a better rider/racer! D | ||
| Jimidan |
Yeah, they are almost like jockeys. I guess this is the revenge they get for all of the butt-whippin's they got when trying to play sports in school with the bigger kids. Geez, I outweigh Rossi 85 lbs. at 5'11". jimidee (Message edited by jimidan on April 06, 2006) | ||
| No_rice |
if i remember right 5, or is it 7 pounds, is worth one horse power. like always lighter is better | ||
| Rocketman |
Dave Jeffries was the fastest man around the TT on a tuned R1, holding the lap record. He was on course to beat his own record on a GSXR 1000 but was killed. He was going to try and be the first 130mph TT lapper, needing 16 seconds to do so above his record lap. He would probably have done it too had he not been killed. DJ was a big bloke. He weighed around 180lbs if memory serves. Rocket | ||
| Jackbequick |
The little guys get the advantage because the natural evolution for motorcycle racing is for riders to start in the smaller displacement classes and then graduate up to the bigger bikes if they are successful. It does not matter how good you are in the 50cc and 125cc classes if you weigh 200 pounds and can barely fit on the bike. Jack | ||
| Bomber |
interesting parallel to research I've seen on fighter-pilots -- a very large percentage of high-scoring pilots were much smaller than the mean of their generation -- thanks for the post -- now I've got another excuse to be slow (along with a complete and utter lack of talent, that is ;-} ) | ||
| Davegess |
Personally I don't think size is as much of a factor as we think. What I think happens is you have these very competive, very athletic, very tough individuals who would be great stick and ball athletes but they are too small so motorsports gives them an outlet. Some people, like Jefferies grow up in a racing family so they are not going to be soccer players. | ||
| M1combat |
I used to run Karts in Phoenix. I'd go down there by myself on a Saturday morning, give the track/kart owner $100 and run until a bunch of people showed up. I'd usually have the track to myself from about 9AM to about 3PM. Then he'd generally let me run 5-6 races with other people. I suppose he probably would have let me run until 2AM when they closed, but I never tried. Most of the time I'd just drive until my hands hurt and I couldn't turn the wheel, wait 15 minutes, have a smoke, and do it again. I was consistently about a tenth off the lap record which would get bumped occasionally by the same guy. One day I asked one of the guys working there who the other guy was. He told me that he was 14 and about 80 lbs. He was headed to some sort of national/world level race in Brazil. I asked him if I was faster anywhere at all (because I never saw the split times of the record laps) and he said I was just a hair faster through the rhythm section, but once I got to the two straights (well, one is just a longish WOT curve) I lost it all due to an overwhelming lack of acceleration... I weighed about 195 when I was doing that. I weigh 202 now, but I'm on my way back to 180-185. In any case, I'm glad bikes have more than 10 horse... I figure the reason I was faster in the rhythm section was due to the fact that any time I saw a light person run that part of the track, the kart would skitter around on them a bit due to cracks and stuff in the concrete. I could just rest my ribs on the outside support of the seat and keep the tires planted firmly. It certainly would take it's toll on my ribs by the end of the day though... I got hit once doing that and thought I broke them... | ||
| Rocketman |
The little guys get the advantage because the natural evolution for motorcycle racing is for riders to start in the smaller displacement classes and then graduate up to the bigger bikes if they are successful. Actually, I believe I'm correct in saying, if we're talking GP racing in the modern era, that hasn't proved to be the case when it comes to actually winning the world championship. Strange? Yes. I'd agree. Whilst there are several world champions from 125cc and 250cc GP racing who have jumped to the premier class, I think you'll find there's only one who has secured the world championship in MotoGP too. You may have heard of him. Valentino Rossi? Rocket | ||
| M1combat |
Hadn't heard of him... He came from 250GP you say? | ||
| Metalstorm |
Rossi? Ain't he that guy from that TV show, Friends?  | ||
| 12r |
Alex Criville was 125cc world champion in 1989 and went on to become 500cc champion in 1999  | ||
| Rocketman |
125cc champ in 1989, then 500 champ in 1999 isn't really what the comment was implying. Since 1999 was two strokes, and you're going back 10 years to a 125 championship, it doesn't really support the evolution from small bikes to large bikes theory. If you'd have gone the other direction from 1999, or even a little earlier, there's still only Rossi who's proved the point with championships in small and large classes. Rocket | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Bomber, I don't need any more excuses, I only need one; I've grown out of my invulnerability complex! | ||
| Black_sunshine |
I got the size thing licked.....5'8" 154lbs Seem to be lacking the riding skillz that those guy have. Maybe its the lack of fear and nutz the size of basketballs....anywho.....I'll stick to my Buell and some sick mountain twistie ridin' with my 3%ers. | ||
| Kdan |
5'11" and 220. My only problem is getting IBM to sponsor me in my bid for a Moto-GP ride. That and they seem to think I'm better at surfing the internet all night...And the fact that I'm 43...and my center of gravity is 3 feet above everyone elses...and I'm slow...Other than that... |
