| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
Electronics are DEFINITELY killing the sport. I can see MotoGP as a "laboratory" of sorts for developing new technologies that may one day see itself trickle down to street machines, but some things are just ridiculous. Traction control based on GPS?? Marking where the bumps are on a particular track and adjusting power based on that?? What POSSIBLE "Real World" application could that be? Unless you spent your entire riding career on a specific circuit, that has NO application in the real world. Get rid of it. And I've said this before too: Ditch the carbon brakes! Unless you're a billionaire driving a Bugatti Veyron, there is no practical street application for carbon brakes. There are most likely other cost cutting areas too, those are just the most obvious (to me). | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Day 1..... I was impressed with DePuniet that had the same pace as Rossi and Hayden. Capirossi......was 0.7s slower than RdP....No excusses....Just go home..... Stoner the top Honda from day1.....I am impressed but I kind of expected it. What was really interesting is that Stoner said that initialy he found the power delivery too smooth and asked for more "raw" power , while so far Honda riders were talking about that they had a "wild" power delivery. Casey will bring new things to HRC . Their invstment starts to be paying off ... Bravo to Ben Spies that shows the difference a factory bike&team is making . He was 0.4s faster . He said the bike was very similar but there were some small details that make a difference. Great investment from Yamaha.... Rossi ??? As fast on day1 as Hayden and DePuniet and in 10th place and way out of pace , as was expected. No mention from Ducati about what they will do with the CF frame , they just talk engine , are they missing the point ?? I know it is only testing but should Rossi-fans start worrying ???? | ||
| Jaimec |
Rossi's speed is not an issue. I'm pretty sure he was more into evaluating what he had to work with than going out and setting fast times. Like I said, the true test will be the one in February after the factories have digested what they've learned during this session. | ||
| Crusty |
Don't forget that Rossi is riding injured and is scheduled for surgery in the near future. I'm sure that the pain has to affect his performance. | ||
| Blake |
Matt, methinks you need a vacation. Moto2 is less interesting than supersport racing. | ||
| Trojan |
Day 1..... That sums up the whole test for yesterday. The times don't mean a thing to anyone except people outside of racing just looking for tabloid news and are not important at this stage. There are a huge number of reasons why some were faster than others. Yamaha riders used the same bikes they had on Sunday pretty much, so were bound to be on the pace straight away. Likewise the Honda camp rolled out 2010 bikes with mnor mods so they were likely to set fast times straight away. Others like Rossi were onnew bikes and testing 3 different engine configurations and two different front ends (at least) so were notlooking to set a fast time just for headlines innext weeks paper. Crutchlow and Abraham had their first time on track on MotoGP bikes and had said befoe the test that their aim was just to get comfortable on the bikes. Testing times are pretty meaningless unless you are a headline writer at MCN, and the only time we'll really know who is fast nextyear is when the flag drops at the first GP in March  Moto2 is less interesting than supersport racing. You've been telling us all year that you don't watch Moto2 or 125 as you don't know the riders,so how can you compare? Moto2 is certainly much more exciting to watch than MotoGP at the moment, and with 40 riders compared to 15 or 16 it has a lot more action right down the field too! | ||
| Trojan |
And I've said this before too: Ditch the carbon brakes! Unless you're a billionaire driving a Bugatti Veyron, there is no practical street application for carbon brakes. I think we will start to see carbon brake technology before long on street bikes. Maybe not the same as MotoGP/F1 but certainly with carbon composites. If you have ever ridden a biek with carbon composite brakes the difference is amazing and now that they have brakes that work in the wet as well as dry I think it will start to filter down soon. We can already supply carbon composite brake kits from Sicom in Germany for a range of sports bikes including Buells, and there will be an XB racing next year in the US equipped with these  | ||
| Vagelis46 |
What would the "experts" be saying if Rossi was immidiately fast on the Duc ???? In that case, no-one would have mentioned anything about testing engines-forks-electronics, and the Rossi "worship" would have begun. Now , Rossi is slower than Hayden and surprisingly even , slower than DePuniet and over 1 sec off pace than the leader. This clearly indicates that the Duc is a miserable bike and it just took Stoners abilities to get the results they had. The Duc needs a re-design , and Rossi just proved it . | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Vag, Back when you were trying to say the 2 racers purposfully ran over the other racer I THOUGHT you were full of sh$t.... Now I KNOW you are! | ||
| Trojan |
This clearly indicates that the Duc is a miserable bike and it just took Stoners abilities to get the results they had. No, what it clearly indicates is that you have no understanding of MotoGP racing in the slightest and of testing in particular. The racing will start in March next year. Until that time no times or speeds will mean a thing except to certain ego's. When the BS stops the racing will start | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Rossi fans are geting nervous ! Great !!!! So , you "experts" say that the times in this test are irrelevant. So , Spies finding an extra 0.5s and immidiately running together with Lorenzo , after joining the factory Yamaha , means nothing. Stoner being the fastest Honda rider from day 1 , on a "new" machine means nothing . Rossi having to start from the base on the Duc means nothing. The racing have already started !!! Paint_s#iter , thanks for your kind words ...  | ||
| Jaimec |
Testing times (especially this early in the post-season) are meaningless. For a vivid example, Colin Edwards is almost always one of the fastest riders during the testing phase. Those times never seem to translate over to racing times. Again, we'll have a better idea in February. The Duc Rossi is riding doesn't really have ANY of the engineering "suggestions" from Rossi/Burgess. Try to remember seven years ago when they first had an opportunity to ride the M1 and how miserably slow it was. Then lo and behold! He won the first race of the new season in South Africa. Oh, and as was pointed out at another website: Lorenzo just guaranteed that neither Rossi nor Stoner can claim "Two consecutive victories on two different brands" next year. | ||
| Trojan |
Rossi fans are geting nervous ! Great !!!! I haven't got time to be nervous because I have been laughing so hard at all the anti Rossi BS here and on other sites from people who have no idea what is being done in Valencia. As Jaimec has said,and I said earlier, times at this test are not worth jack sh*t because nobody is really trying to post a time (although I suspect that Lorenzo & Stoner think they have a point to prove somehow). Rossi/Burgess/Ducati are going through a set testing schedule that would have been worked out weeks ago and won't be worried about times at all just yet. If you bothered to read any of the intelligent commentary sites such as twowheelsblog or motomatters you'd know that they are working their way through various engine and chassis configurations, as opposed to Stoner who just jumped on this years bike and tried to go fast straight away (proving and testing nothing in the process). I think I would go with a systematic approach by Ducati (and an experienced crew with countless world championships behind them) rather than what appears to be happeneing elsewhere in pit lane just to grab a few headlines | ||
| Jaimec |
Oh, one more thing (for anyone who read Rossi's autobiography): Even when Yamaha did come up with a significant speed increase back in 2003/2004, Rossi did everything he could to make the factory keep quiet about it. Why tip off the competition as to your TRUE potential when they still have time to respond?? | ||
| Vagelis46 |
This was a hard test for Rossi. Just 15th ??? Last of the Ducatis ??? Setting the same lap time as rookie Abraham ??? Test or not test it is not very positive for his image , since the world were expecting a very different performance. This test was even harder for Rossi's fans. They were expecting him to match and beat Stoner's time , but ....... the truth sometimes is hard !! So , as expected by people that knows , the Duc was miserable for Rossi as it has been so far for any rider . Rossi cannot adapt to the current Duc and be fast straight away and basically cannot make the current Duc any faster, so.....Preziosi just said (after day 2) that they have to change the bike (completely??) in order to suit Rossi. They have a lot of work to do , while Honda and Yamaha riders will have an easier task fine tuning their machines. (Message edited by vagelis46 on November 10, 2010) | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Let me add....... I really love this !!!  | ||
| Bads1 |
vagelis, You have no idea what your talking about and if you do maybe they should hire you in some capacity in Moto GP. Where was Yamaha before Rossi got a hold of it ??? They sucked thats what. That was the first day of testing and the day after the 2010 season..... wow give it a break. Lets see if Lorenzo can continue to develop the Yamaha to where it presently is at. Which BTW I think Rossi had a very big hand in. But they have Spies that can maybe do that. Considering he did very well developing the R1 in WSB. | ||
| Jaimec |
Again, why would a crafty competitor like Valentino Rossi display his hand this early in the game? And I'm no "Rossi fan." In fact, I consider him a traitor to Yamaha at this point and hope Lorenzo and Spies send him back to school next year. But what we've seen over the past two days is NO indication at all of what Rossi and Burgess will accomplish on that bike. You can bank on that. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Why you underestimate Lorenzo's ability to develope a bike ??? He will do just fine !! The wall in Yamaha's garage actually seemed to help Lorenzo find a better setup and do better 100% on his own , while the experts were saying that he was copying Rossi's setup to go fast. Lorenzo and Spies combination will be great. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I just do not buy this theory...Rossi is not showing his true potential because of mind games. Of course he did not go 100% , but ........I am sure he wanted something better than 15th and +1.6s | ||
| Bads1 |
Why you underestimate Lorenzo's ability to develope a bike ??? He will do just fine !! I'm not at all. But hes been riding a bike developed by Rossi. Bigger engines in the future. That means they run different,feel different,upset the chassis,geometry, ETC. Can he ride around those differences in the future?? Rossi can develop and he just what Ducati may need. Remember when Nicky was riding the Honda and riding along side Rossi??? Thats actually the last time Nicky did his best riding. | ||
| Amafan |
Nicky was Rossi's teammate in 2003, Nicky's rookie year in MotoGP, he won the title in 2006 . By the way all you people saying Rossi was slow because he was testing 2 different motors, Rossi did 140 laps with Big Bang motor ,and just 1 lap on the Screamer motor . Nicky was the one that tested both motors, back to back both days . | ||
| Bads1 |
Nicky's rookie year in MotoGP, he won the title in 2006 Thanks for updating me on that .lol Ummm but back to what you didn't understand. He was riding a bike that Rossi perfected in many ways didn't he ??? | ||
| Blake |
Sorry Matt. For me moto2 = pew. | ||
| Amafan |
No, the 2006 bike Nicky was on was a new bike, matter of fact none of the Honda riders wanted to ride it .HRC made Nicky ride it ,he wanted to race the 2005 bike that he had finshed 3rd on, but he developed the 2006 bike, and won the title on it . | ||
| Bads1 |
No the bike had not really been signfinately change since Rossi a hole lot. But it had the year before when Nicky had to ride a football. Theres changes to these bikes and engines every year.... thats R&D. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Rossi's developing abilities = Too much hype PR crap , that suits the system !! Fast riders develop fast machines if the engineers are listening to them, but that was not the case in Ducati. I think now at Ducati they are forced to change their approach. As Amafan said , Ducati Corse was expecting Rossi to fix their bike after 140 laps , but now they know the truth . Their current bike is miserable and needs a major redesign. Or it needs Stoner's riding to make it a winner from time to time. Some points on the 2 days test : 1. It is proved 100% true, that only Casey Stoner can win on the current Ducati bike. I thought that great riders can be fast with "wrong" bikes , but Rossi proved that wrong . 2. Stoner is super fast on any bike. 3. Ducati spent 30mil Euros to sign Rossi and get his feedback to finaly realise what everyone already knew. How is Preziosi feeling that Rossi made clear to him that his design is not working for him ?? 4. If Ducati builts a bike that is a M1 frame with a Duc motor and Rossi starts being fast and winning , what will this mean ?? Will that be a Ducati ???? 5. Spies is as fast as Rossi on the factory M1. | ||
| Trojan |
This was a hard test for Rossi. Just 15th ??? Last of the Ducatis ??? Setting the same lap time as rookie Abraham ??? Test or not test it is not very positive for his image , since the world were expecting a very different performance. This test was even harder for Rossi's fans. They were expecting him to match and beat Stoner's time , but ....... the truth sometimes is hard !! You really need to either change sports or pay more atention to what is happening. This is testing, not racing, so having the fastest time isn't too important to anyone 'in the know' at this stage. If you read what Ducati & Rossi had said before the test you would know that times were unimportant at this stage although I think they have been given a long list of design changes to do over the winter to suit Rossi. It would be easy for him to get on the bike, go as fast as possible straight away (and risk a big crash) and learn nothing. Getting to know the faults and understanding how to fix them is another thing entirely. Do you really think that Rossi is really slower than most of the guys in front of him (on any bike!)?? If this was the start of the season now you can rest assured that he would ride harder and risk crashing more in order to get near the front. Your assumption in your last post are astonishingly wrong and only go to show a deep seated and irrational hatred of Rossi rather than an undertanding of how motorcycle racing at this level really works. Here is what Alex briggs (Rossis race engineer) had to say on twitter regarding the test: Hi guys. I'm compleatly smashed, I have not worked that hard @ a test for a few years. Accomplished a lot. Result was crap but not representative of what we have learnt. The poor old rider was compleatly stuffed also. Big part of the time was just the riders body letting him down. But we kept lapping & testing. End result is the engineers have a long 2 do list courtesy of us! But they r the best guys. Its going 2 be fun. At yamaha I guess in the end I felt like we just were tuning. At Ducati I feel we are really working. Its going 2 be great 2 see the end result. May the force be with us The wall in Yamaha's garage actually seemed to help Lorenzo find a better setup and do better 100% on his own , while the experts were saying that he was copying Rossi's setup to go fast. Lorenzo and Spies combination will be great. Easy to do when you are riding a bike developed over 7 years by someone else. Very different if you have to develop and sort a bike from scratch on your own. This will be new ground for both Lorenzo and Spies to develop a totally new GP bike for 2012 even if they can rely on a pretty unchaned formula for next year.  Sorry Matt. For me moto2 = pew. Your loss unfortunately Blake, as it is by far the most exciting GP class this year andpromises to be even closer next year. (Message edited by trojan on November 11, 2010) | ||
| Jaimec |
It would be nice for Moto2, however, if the bikes were at LEAST as fast as the Formula Extreme bikes that use a hotter version of the same engine... | ||
| Jaimec |
Matt, sometimes we forget that Rossi still needs shoulder surgery to repair the damage he did to himself. Even Valentino Rossi is "human" in that regard, despite his surprisingly good performance in the last few races. |
