Sepang test = New tire rule may be best thing for MotoGP?

Granted, the tests are preliminary and it's hard to truly draw
conclusions yet. Up front, not many surprises: Rossi and Stoner, after
all, have been the dominating force in MotoGP. Behind them, though, it
could be that we are seeing a much closer field, and that the new tire
rules are a big equalizer that will tilt the rider-to-motorcycle
winning cocktail more decisively towards the rider. It's good to see
quality veterans like Capirossi and Edwards show the upstarts that
they're not quite ready to live off a pension plan. And great job by
Elias, too, I have always liked his aggressive style and he deserves
to be on more equal material.

With a more equal tire base, and perhaps more judicious investment in
R&D that benefits satellite teams, perhaps 2009 will be a very
entertaining season to follow. Since there are fewer bikes, it would
be great if at least they give each other closer races.

 

how about 19" wheels and max size of 110/90 ?
or a 3 speed gearbox
now _that_ would slow them down


I sense turbo's not too far down the track, the major car companies
seem to extract meaner, greener performance out of fewer CC's,
stratospheric fuel injection pressure and variable geometry turbo's

 

Closer, but smaller, field.

Elias fastest Honda. New Suzuki actually looks like a normal racing
bike. Gibernau surprisingly fast. Hayden being honest about what a pig
the Ducati is to ride. No Kawasakis. Edwards is always fast on Monday
(and Saturday).

Not long now till the first WSB race...

 

Champ wrote:


Very happy to see that. Glad he and the bike can make the one-size-fits
tires work.

Anyone got a video link? I understand it was an awesome Moonshot that
would do Gorgeous Jorge proud.

No. If he were whining, he'd have done a Pedrosa and gone home with a
tummy ache. He mentioned that his hand hurts like hell (Apparently,
you've never suffered a hand/foot injury? Be glad you haven't!), and he
mentioned that as the reason he didn't do any long runs. He still went
out and blitzed the field riding the most unruly bike in the paddock.
Not exactly 'whining' in my book.

I bet he's more than a little worried at this point. I hope his hand
isn't permanently screwed up.

Canepa was the surprise underachiever. There was talk of him replacing
Marco last year, but after this test I have to wonder why.

 

Hah! I broke 3 metacarpels in my right hand in my big racing crash
last year. One was plated. I now have two fingers 5~10mm shorter
than they used to be. Here's the relevant bit of my blog:
http://champ.org.uk/blog/index.php?m=200806

I said whinging, not whining (there's a difference in British
English), and anyway, he should have let his times do the talking for
him. But no, he had to have something to moan about.

 

Champ wrote:

Please elaborate! I always assumed the daft Brits were simply
misspelling 'whine.'

 

Yeah, why is that when I was reading about it I heard echoes of
Spencer and Schwantz. There are injuries that se3riously affect your
ability to compete in a long race, even though you are fine when it's
just about doing a few very fast rounds.

 

Hey, we may be cousins. My right hand looks the same after an
idiotic supermoto incident in late '07. But I know others who have
suffered hand injuries, and it's a luck of the draw thing, as you well
know depending a lot on nerve damage and such. I was very lucky, even
though I am likely to develop arthritis anytime now, supposedly...

 

heh. Well, I must admit the meanings are pretty close, but for me
whining is something you'd get from a child or teenage girl, whereas
whinging implies an adult who is moaning and complaining. Not
necessarily without justification, but the subtext is they should just
shut up and get on with things.

 

I'm puzzled about the spelling. Is this right? "Stoner is a whingy git".

There was a weird interview with him about the MotoGP move from
Donington to Silverstone in MCN where he said something like "I don't
expect the Silverstone crowd to like me any more than the Donington one
apparently does. As if moving 50 miles south and west would somehow
result in a better class of spectator who wouldn't moon him[1] on the
slowing down lap.

[1]That's probably the least of it!

 

Aaron Slight ?

 

I got really caught up in the whole Honda/Slight v Ducati/Fogarty
thing. Foggy was very easy to dislike Aaron banged on a bit about
the 750/4 v 1000/2 thing quite a bit.
Bummer that Aaron's career got interfered with by some stupid brain
aneurysm thing. I'm still confused why Honda didn't stick with the VTR/
SP development; money I guess.
Got to meet Aaron and Colin Edwards back in about 2000 at an open day
in Cambridgeshire, Aaron had the coolest scar where they opened his
head up, Colin seemed like a really nice bloke. Some Spanish guy on
the super sports bike too.
I remember watching a very youthful Aaron Slight cleaning up on a TZR
250 (about '86) in Production racing at Manfield (NZL), definitely had
that "something special".

ahh... those were the days

 

OK, here's an interview from the testing.
http://members.cox.net/geonerd/whinge.mp3

I appreciate that Casey is not always Mr. Personality, but does this
qualify as a real-live winge?

What sayeth the court?

 

heh. I wouldn't convict on that evidence.

 

crickey dick cobber