| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
Both Crutchlow and Toseland appear to be struggling at Philip Island on the R1 Yamaha (althoughtesting never proves anything of course and they could just be sandbagging or testing new stuff). The track certainly appears to favour the Ducatis, who ennjoyed a pretty clean sweep of the top 5 places at times during the test. Leon Haslam and Johnny Rea look strong though, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them slugging it out at the front all year just like in BSB  | ||
| Trojan |
On the subject of Yamaha WSBK....It appears that they have tried to change too much since last year and have lost the plot completely. They have increased power by 10bhp and reduced weight by 5kg, but crucially have moved the whole fuel tank lower on the bike which has seriously hampered handling to the point where Crutchlow crashed as he was unable to close the throttle because the bike was bucking so violently in corner entry! The bike now suffers huge chater mid corner and is unstable on entry, so is unlikely to be cured for next weekend without a radical rethink or going back to last years bike. Toseland had harsh words with his team and left the circuit early and Crutchlow said that he doubts they can even make it into the points this weekend! Definitely gives credence to the old adage that 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'  | ||
| Buell2001b |
Ducati is the brand to ride in SBK. real engineers, not copy cats | ||
| Trojan |
real engineers, not copy cats I don't see how Yamaha are being copy cats with their engine? | ||
| Jaimec |
I'd say the same thing about Aprilia. Just more anti-Japanese bias at play here. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I think that the real problem that Yamaha has with their 2010 WSBK bike is......."Spies is not riding it" How good was the 2nd factory 2009 R1 that Sykes was riding?? Not very impressive. So I do not think there is something wrong with their 2010 version, just that Spies is not riding it. Back to reality for Yamaha........... I say.......2010 WSBK champion = Leon Haslam. He has fire in his heart and it is him that made the Suzuki look so good at the tests so far. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
""Ducati is the brand to ride in SBK. real engineers, not copy cats"" Not 100% true. Ducati won the title when they had the best WSBK rider riding for them. I do not think their bike is more special than the rest. I also think that their "tradition" keeps them back in chassis and engine development. A 90degrees V2 is too long, and the trellis frame is outdated and outclassed (look at motoGP)............ How about their extra 200cc advantage ??? Wouldn't the right word be...."real cheaters", instead of "real engineers" ?? Leon Haslam............Go for it !!! | ||
| Buell2001b |
Ducati will take the title, ha ha ha | ||
| Jaimec |
If they do, it'll be because of Noriyuki Haga and not because of the machinery. GO NITRO NORI!! I felt bad for him last year but I had to root for my "Home Boy." This year, Roger Lee is about as long a shot as you'd care to make and I don't think he'll figure anywhere in the championship. It's Nori's year. | ||
| Trojan |
I think that the real problem that Yamaha has with their 2010 WSBK bike is......."Spies is not riding it" Spies was undoubtedly a force of natur elast year in WSBK, but don't let that fool you into thinking his bike wasn't good enough without him on it. At the very first WSBK test at Portimao on the days following the final 2009 round Cal Crutchlow jumped on Spies bike and lapped almost a full second faster than Ben had done the same weekend (with no adjustments or experience on the bike). The R1 also won pretty much every other major championship last year including BSB by a country mile, so it was obviously a good bike to start with. Yamahas 2010 problem is bad planning and maybe even a little arrogance more than anything else. To travel across the other side of the world to a major test with new untested parts and no backup is ridiculous and unprofessional. They didn't know if the new weight distribution/fuel tank location would work, so why did they leave the 2009 kit in Italy instead of taking it as a backup? I'm sure arses have been soundly kicked around the garage and Yamaha will be competitive when the season starts (even if the bike is an amalgam of 2009 and 2010 parts to start with). How good was the 2nd factory 2009 R1 that Sykes was riding?? Not very impressive. Actually if you ignore Spies performance then Tom Sykes was very impressive for a rookie, finishing 6th in his first WSB season on a new bike. In any other season this would have been viewed as pretty impressive, but Spies performance just overshadowed it completely and Sykes lost his job at the end of the season despite being pretty good on the bike. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Haslam was also a rookie, but he made many "statements" about his speed and racing spirit on many rounds. Sykes did not. So Haslam went up to factory Suzuki , Sykes went down to Kawasaki. Simple........ | ||
| Trojan |
Haslam has been around a lot longer than Tom Sykes and was riding a bike that has had a few years for sorting (even though he was in a new team last year). The move to Kawasaki for both Tom Sykes and Chris Vermuelen is certainly risky but could prove inspired if the big K put the effort and money into the project that they have promised. Hopefully Sykes will get more team support from Paul Bird at Kawasaki than he got at Yamaha last year, where all the attention was lavished on Spies and Sykes got next to nothing. First qualifying results from Philip Island would suggest that testing form has continued (not surprising seeing as they tested here last week) 1 7 C. Checa ESP Ducati 1098R 1'32.155 0.000 2 84 M. Fabrizio ITA Ducati 1098R 1'32.162 0.007 0.007 3 91 L. Haslam GBR Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'32.373 0.218 0.211 4 67 S. Byrne GBR Ducati 1098R 1'32.635 0.480 0.262 5 41 N. Haga JPN Ducati 1098R 1'32.703 0.548 0.068 6 3 M. Biaggi ITA Aprilia RSV4 1000 F. 1'32.850 0.695 0.147 7 65 J. Rea GBR Honda CBR1000RR 1'32.884 0.729 0.034 8 50 S. Guintoli FRA Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'32.902 0.747 0.018 9 96 J. Smrz CZE Ducati 1098R 1'32.905 0.750 0.003 10 35 C. Crutchlow GBR Yamaha YZF R1 1'33.038 0.883 0.133 11 2 L. Camier GBR Aprilia RSV4 1000 F. 1'33.296 1.141 0.258 12 77 C. Vermeulen AUS Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'33.389 1.234 0.093 13 52 J. Toseland GBR Yamaha YZF R1 1'33.422 1.267 0.033 14 57 L. Lanzi ITA Ducati 1098R 1'33.454 1.299 0.032 15 66 T. Sykes GBR Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'33.492 1.337 0.038 16 11 T. Corser AUS BMW S1000 RR 1'33.512 1.357 0.020 17 88 A. Pitt AUS BMW S1000 RR 1'33.940 1.785 0.428 18 76 M. Neukirchner GER Honda CBR1000RR 1'33.960 1.805 0.020 19 111 R. Xaus ESP BMW S1000 RR 1'33.984 1.829 0.024 20 123 R. Resch AUT BMW S1000 RR 1'34.065 1.910 0.081 21 31 V. Iannuzzo ITA Honda CBR1000RR 1'34.417 2.262 0.352 22 25 J. Brookes AUS Honda CBR1000RR 1'34.663 2.508 0.246 23 15 M. Baiocco ITA Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'35.892 3.737 1.229 24 95 R. Hayden USA Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'36.113 3.958 0.221 | ||
| Buell2001b |
I think Fabriozo will be the surprize. what more can you ask an Italian on an Italian Bike. just like whe Danny the American on Buell the American Brand | ||
| Jaimec |
I think it's pretty obvious Roger Lee ain't no Ben Spies. Still, I'm hoping he'll improve and at least be somewhat credible by the middle of the season... | ||
| Vagelis46 |
It is also obvious that Kawasaki is no Yamaha..... | ||
| Jaimec |
Kawasaki is putting all of their eggs into this one (WSBK) basket in racing this year. They dropped out of AMA Superbike and MotoGP. I don't know if they are competing in any other national series either. With all of their attention on this one series they better do SOMETHING or their reputation is finished. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
So far, Kawasaki are just talking the talk about their WSBK efford...... | ||
| Jaimec |
I'm amazed at how far that company has fallen. When I first started riding, THE bike to own to win races in the mid-sized class was first the KZ550, followed by the even sportier GPz550. Nothing else was close. Eddie Lawson DOMINATED American Superbike riding the Kawasaki GPz750 before leaving for Europe. Depressing (and I've ALWAYS been a "Yamaha fan" since I started riding; my first bike was the Yamaha XJ550RJ Seca). | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Their WSS 600cc bike seems OK. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I've owned 3 Kawasaki's now... 1985 KLR-250, 1995 KDX-200, and 1990 KX-60. All three bikes taken piece by piece are fairly underwhelming, but the sum of the parts somehow works really well. I look to Kawasaki as an inexpensive way to get an entertaining motorcycle, and haven't been dissapointed yet. | ||
| Court |
I've had a couple Kawasaki's (have two basket cases sitting here waiting to get married) and have thoroughly enjoyed them. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Bravo to Haslam and Checa. Nice to see a veteran like Checa win a race with great style. Wouldn't it be great if a pivateer Ducati with written off veteran rider get a WSBK title ???? Sound like an American movie..............but impossible is nothing. Rea ???????? | ||
| Crusty |
I want to see Haga do a little better than he did last year. | ||
| Jaimec |
I think I'm pulling for Nitro Nori this year myself. He was an honorable opponent last year and deserves the title. But it sure was fun seeing Matt's "favorite" racer pull an upset win in the second race. That was one helluva charge up through the ranks for Carlos! | ||
| Trojan |
Checa rode a storming race in race 2 for sure, although i think Guintoli and Haslam slowed each other enough for Checa to catch them in the first place. I hope that Suzuki have a talk to their riders before the next round as I'm sure they don't want to see them fighting each other too much! Haslams performance was true to testing form and he looked really good all weekend (as was Laverty in WSS). The Yamahas looked terrible and obviously haven't sorted their handling issues despite their reasonable qualifying positions. Crutchlows crash looked just a simple front end chatter problem in race one Toselands crash also looked like a simple handling problem. Neither looked really competitive in race two either (although it was good to see Cal beat Toseland in race 2 ). | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Haslam and Guintoli need no team orders..... Fabrizio and Haga need no team orders..... Crutchlow and Toseland need no team orders.... Let the best rider win !!!!! Checa proved that he is a great rider, that for some reason always had a 2nd-class bike. I actually feel sorry for Checa, he was riding the slowest bike, many hp down on power compared to the Xerox Ducatis. Even Fabrizio, in the interview after race2, admited that Checa was slow in the straight but very fast round the corners. Checa might be Ducati's best chance for good results and to stop Leon Haslam and the Suzukis. But if Checa's bike stays that slow, who will stop Haslam in 2010 ?? Is there a chance that Checa is a title contender ??? I hope so. I just like this guy !!! The Suzuki bikes looked the best at PI. Of course, Suzuki seems to have signed the best riders for 2010, which definately helps. Actually the R1 of Spies was looking worse in the last race of 2009 in Portimao, but it did not stop Ben winning race 1 and the 2009 title. | ||
| Trojan |
Even Fabrizio, in the interview after race2, admited that Checa was slow in the straight but very fast round the corners. Checa might be Ducati's best chance for good results and to stop Leon Haslam and the Suzukis. But if Checa's bike stays that slow, who will stop Haslam in 2010 ?? When Shane Byrne was faster than the factory Ducatis in testing last year Ducati actually withheld parts from his team so that he didn't 'embarass' the Xerox boys later in the season. I would not expect that Checa will get any favourable treatment from Ducati either (at least until the factory team have no mathmatical chance of winning the title)  Checa definitely benefitted from the tussle for the lead in race two,and was able to bridge the gap pretty easily between the first and second group (my surprise was that nobody else did it too). If Guintoli had ridden 'shotgun' for Haslam instead of racing for the lead it may have been more difficult for him to catch up. However at this poit in the season I can't see anyone taking any notice of team orders even if they had them! | ||
| Vagelis46 |
In any case, it is good to have 2 competitive Suzuki bikes. It is good to have a strong satellite Ducati team. I like Checa&Byrne better that Haga&Fabrizio. | ||
| Jake318 |
As far as Ducati..Cheating?.. getting a twin to match the HP of a 4cyl is a much more complicated endevour than just adding 200cc, thats no monumental addition to displacement considering they only have 1/2 the power pulses and more recipricating mass. The Ducatis are actually down on HP , if it wasnt for the torque and rear grip giving better drives off the corners Ducatis would be grid fillers . On a short strait they are competitive , on long straits once the 4cyl bikes get thier revs up they blow by the Ducatis . Who ever commented that Ducatis tradition is holding them back on chassis design is correct . Moto2 will show how the trellis frame is good but out of date compared to the twin spar designs | ||
| Jaimec |
Spies "looked bad" in the last race because he rode a SMART race. There was no reason to ride like a maniac when all he had to do was bring it home in fifth or better if Haga won. There was nothing wrong with his bike and he said as much in the post race interviews. He didn't want to do anything stupid and throw the title away, so he rode a smart, conservative race to preserve his lead. This is how he won three consecutive AMA titles against Mat Mladin. Mladin just wanted to win races, Ben wanted to win the title. Sometimes you give up the race win to preserve the title. Mat actually won more races than Ben in those three years, but the races he didn't win he more than likely DNFed because he didn't care about "second place." Like Dale Earnhardt said: "Second place is just the first loser." |
