| Author | Message | ||
     Rsh |
What's with all the bagging on Yates. Yates rode the EBR bike for one season and finished higher in the 2013 AMA standings than May. Yates also completed two World Superbike races and May has not. AMA Superbike 2013 1 Josh Herrin 345 2 Josh Hayes 330 3 Martin Cardenas 297 4 Roger Hayden 228 5 Danny Eslick 213 6 Larry Pegram 190 7 Chris Fillmore 183 8 Aaron Yates 162 9 Geoff May 161 10 David Anthony 159 11 Taylor Knapp 123 12 Cory West 117 13 Chris Clark 113 14 Chris Ulrich 96 15 Robertino Pietri 49 16 Dustin Dominguez 49 17 Reese Wacker 43 18 Trent Gibson 42 19 Huntley Nash 35 20 Johnny Rock Page 23 21 Ryan Kerr 23 22 Danny Kelsey 23 23 Mathew Orange 22 24 Bernat Martinez 20 25 Nico Ferreira 15 26 Oleg Pianykh 12 27 Francois Dumas 12 28 Jacquel Gonzalez 12 29 Kevin Pinkstaff 11 30 Jason Farrell 10 31 Marie-Josee Boucher 9 32 Michael Garner 9 33 Rodolfo Ramirez 8 34 Justin Neyra 3 35 Aaron Ascher 0 (Message edited by rsh on February 28, 2014) | ||
| Gschuette |
He was 5 seconds a lap slower than the leaders and 2 seconds a lap slower than anyone else. That's where the bagging comes from. Selling and winning may not be 100% linked for a company like Honda that sells the Ruckus, Gold Wing, kids dirt bikes, utility quads and side by sides in addition to the CBR1000SP. Making that argument is a little harder when discussing EBR. They have one bike and it's a $19,000 185hp suberbike. I bet the vast majority of people shopping the RX are well aware of the Ducati, Aprilia, and Honda competitors to the RX and the race results of each. You can try and convince yourself that Buell's finishing position doesn't matter but it does. Why else would one go racing but to win? How much gear does the Jimmy Johnson trailer trailer sell in comparison to the Paul Menard trailer at each Nascar race? People want to be associated with a six time champ and not some guy whose billionaire father bought him a seat. Results matter. | ||
| Tpoppa |
"And EBR is in the business of SELLING MOTORCYCLES . . . . not WINNING RACES." Right, it's not like RACING is in the name. Wait, what?  | ||
| Rex |
ahahahaha, that was funny  | ||
| Gregtonn |
Slow as the EBR may have been it still finished race 2 ahead of the race 1 winner.  G | ||
| Teeps |
Gregtonn Posted on Friday, February 28, 2014 - Slow as the EBR may have been it still finished race 2 ahead of the race 1 winner. Yea, but the race was cut short by 6(?) laps? | ||
| Gregtonn |
Yep. They could have run another 6 laps and Yates would have still finished ahead of Laverty. At the current burn rate Laverty will be out of engines before Laguna Seca. G | ||
| Court |
>>>it's not like RACING is in the name. Wait, what? Hahahaha . . . good point. But look at all the companies that have won and been on their asses . . . companies like Ducati and MV Agusta. EBR will do fine. They are stepping onto a new stage but they have a ton of talent of the mother's milk of racing . . .funding. They are going to do well. But . . . the point . . . since you can only extract $130,000 a week from your own pocket for so long . .. is to sell motorcycles. . . . make a profit and grow a business. RACING plays a role in that. Many folks are hearing of EBR who have never heard the name Buell. There are dealerships and EBR offices now being opened around the world. These are exciting times. Ok. . the selfish part of me is thrilled to have been given a reason to see some countries I'd have never otherwise seen. I'm excited . . .see you at the races. | ||
| Rex |
Cool. I still have people say, how do you say that? BoooooEEEllllllll.... | ||
| Classax |
What's with all the bagging on Yates. I don't think its bagging. More like wishful thinking by those who would rather win races than quickly develop the bike in to winners. He is a great rider. If you want to WIN races, he is handicapped in couple of ways; He's a big guy, he's older and therefore not as daring to take risk. What we have to understand is he isn't employed to WIN races, he's employed to DEVELOP the bike on the race track. If they get a win in the process its icing on the cake. IF they want to WIN races then you will need an elite racer who is focused on that. To put it in perspective, I know guys who are stupid fast on the street that are at best mid b group on a track day. I know A group track day elites who are at best mid pack club racing experts. There are stupid quick Expert club racers who often fail to qualify for an AMA race. In the AMA there is a distinct front and mid pack, and of the front of that pack only a few every so often, are able to run in the mid and front of WSBK. Yates was a very good mid pack AMA guy who is now in WSBK. The moment May crashed I'm certain Yates got one new order. DO NOT CRASH too or the weekend is a bust. Give the guy credit for circulating on a bike he's not comfortable with on a track that is tough to ride and unlike anything we have in the States at a pace that few if any of us reading this could match on our very best day. That said, there are guys who are much quicker if you are trying to win races, which I believe I have been clear in stating is a only a coincidental result of the actual objective, developing the bike. (Message edited by classax on March 01, 2014) | ||
| Hootowl |
Well said, Tim. | ||
| Teeps |
It was disheartening, watching the live results and seeing the EBR racing backwards every lap. I was expecting to see the EBR & Yates somewhere in the field, not off the back.... I guess by the opening performance of the EBR; there is a lot of development to be done. Maybe Red Line or Royal Purple oil would help... (sorry had to take a poke.) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Geoff May posted to Facebook today that he had surgery to repair his broken clavicle yesterday. Turns out it was actuaLly broken in 4 pieces. He said he'll still be good to go for the next race. | ||
| Jaimec |
FOUR places? Okay, I'll give him a pass, then. Lorenzo's was broken in only three places; I guess that's why he was able to get back on the bike so quickly.  Get well soon, Geoff! | ||
| Northernthunder |
Amazing effort by EBR just to get bikes and riders to WSBK after only being in existence such a short time. WSBK is real competition, manufacturers who have been in the series a long time and who have been in the bike business for a very long time have their struggles being consistently competitive. Kawasaki couldn't buy points in WSBK not that long ago and look at them today. AMA isn't even a viable option any more as it has become so mismanaged, no promotional capability, hardly any races for 2014, etc.. I for one am very happy to see EBR in WSBK, results will come with time and effort. Shows character to keep the guys who have been with the team and have shown loyalty to the brand. Yamaha ditched Sykes first chance they got, Kawasaki stuck with him and he stuck with them while they developed the bike, look where both of those teams are in WSBK now. ( granted Yamaha probably had to put all their racing resources at the GP level to keep up with the HRC program) EBR just needs to stick to their plan for 2014 which is learn lots and have fun. Get well soon Geoff, hope to watch the races in person at Laguna this year. | ||
| M2typhoon |
So riddle me this.. Erik put fuel in the frame and now needs an auxiliary tank for the longer SBK races. It has also been stated that the RX bikes will be getting a new swing arm. Would they even be allowed to put fuel in the swing arm and ditch the under seat tank? | ||
| Trojan |
Would they even be allowed to put fuel in the swing arm and ditch the under seat tank? Under WSB rules the can pretty much put fuel where they like. However filling the swingarm with fuel would make it heavy (getting lighter as the race went on so changing handling). Most teams are moving the fuel tank more under the rider seat now for better mass centralisation. Putting it in the swingarm would be the opposite of that. | ||
| M2typhoon |
^ True and it would be unsprung weight as well but they would be eliminating the tank altogether and weight that would be up high in the chassis. | ||
| Kajunman |
My vote, put Danny on the team. He seems to have a synergy with the EBR Motorcycle. kajunman | ||
| Nobuell |
The auxiliary tank bottom must be higher than the fuel pump intake in order for the aux fuel to move into the frame. Aside from the CG issue addressed above, you could not pump the gas up to the fuel pump using the standard gas in frame pump location. | ||
| 1125rcya |
Is anyone training right now to ride for Geoff in the next race? | ||
| Hughlysses |
^ Geoff says he will be ready to ride by the next race. He had surgery to repair the broken collar bone. | ||
| M2typhoon |
May will be ready but no testing. Track time is #1 everything else is #2 so not what EBR needs right now. (Message edited by m2typhoon on March 06, 2014) | ||
| Court |
Geoff will be back and in top form for Spain. | ||
| Trojan |
Geoff will be back and in top form for Spain. Let's just hope they have improved the top speed of the bike and the team are on top form, or it could look embarrassing on the long Aragon back straight | ||
| M1combat |
Last year's top speeds at aragon here... http://sbk.perugiatiming.com/pdf_results/pdf_frame .asp?p_S_Campionato=SBK&p_Anno=2013&p_Round=ESP1&p _Sessione=Q1A Looks like we'll need to be upwards to 300Kp/h to be ok on the straight. Yikes that's fast... | ||
| Xb1125r |
Suzuki " we go out with a big bang" lol Laverty has to be wondering if he will have enough engines to race half the season! | ||
| Classax |
I wouldn't worry too much about top speed as a bone stock RX with a 6'3" 245lbs parachute hanging out in the breeze, will easily charge to 136 with only 7 grand showing on the tach. Don't ask me how I know. I think once they have the new high flow heads, and longer swing arm they will be making and putting down better power. The stock RX heads are really a sweet design for overall performance, but for all out power, I can see how they'd be a bit restrictive. | ||
| Trojan |
will easily charge to 136 with only 7 grand showing on the tach. But the leaders will be hitting 136 as they change out of 3rd gear and hit the straight to start accelerating! Around 190-200mph will be the norm through the speed trap at Aragon for the top bikes. | ||
| Classax |
Mat trust me when I tell you the bike is completely agnostic about gear selection and even with a rider 100lbs heavier and 6" taller than most of the guys in the WSBK field, at 7 grand and 136mph the stock motor isn't even out of bed yet. The 11.5k redline and gearing theoretically could do 194 with stock power. Barring any more niggles, top speed should be on par with the middle of the pack. |
