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Motogp

Started by Walt_M., May 11, 2016, 04:54:43 AM

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Walt_M.

Just wondering if there are any motogp fans around. I have been following the series for a long time and there has been some interesting racing.
Whale oil beef hooked!

lexx790

I used to up till a couple of years ago but the BBC gave up its coverage and now its on pay monthly channel.
The highlights are on a couple of days later but the program is not the same.

Walt_M.

I just re-read my post and hasten to add, last season was very interesting with Rossi leading the championship until he got penalized and had to start from last on the grid in the last race of the season. He lost what would have been his tenth championship to the teammate he doesn't like. This year it has been mostly a tire war, the racers vs Michelin. I can't watch the races as I don't get the BEiN Sports where it is now. It is 99% soccer or futbol and none of us in the US are interested enough to have anyone carry the channel. But I digress, Lorenzo is once again leading the championship with Ross second with Marquez fighting his Honda into third. All three have crashed.
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

It's a soap opera what with all the tire development, new compulsory electronics, contracts elapsing, and Honda trying to get the power into the track.  I think they have dug a hole for themselves with so much power.  Nobody needs to go over 200 MPH (330KPH)!  But so what?  Big money makes the show go on.  I think it's great that Suzuki is nearly competitive again, and Ducati IS competitive.  Every factory is having development problems with their bikes and also trying to get or keep the best riders.  It's a real show, I tell ya.

I keep up with it by checking with the websites Asphalt and Rubber, and Motomatters.  Crash.net has MotoGP stuff too plus F1, WSBK, BSB, etc., but they barge in with advertisements so I don't spend much time on that site.  The MoteGP website can be good if you have the bandwidth to watch a bunch of videos.  My internet connection is a bit 'limited', so I tend to read about the races and qualifying sessions.  David Emmitt (Motomatters) is a good journalist, and Jensen Beeler of Aspahalt and rubber does a credible job and usually has good photos of the day.

The next MotoGP race will be at Mugello Italy 20 (practice),21,(qualifying) 22 May (race day).  Maybe some news of Dani Pedrosa signing a contract, but with which team?  If he stays with Repsol Honda then Vinales may go to Yamaha to fill the vacant seat left by Lorenzo as Lorenzo will go to Ducati, but Yamaha hasn't offered as much to Vinales as Suzuki has, so maybe he stays where he is.   It's musical chairs soap opera for sure.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

It would be good if they could stabilize the rules. The spec ECU is not really a good thing and since it is not helping Honda it will probably be put aside when it isn't so obvious. I am not a Honda fan as you might guess but it is enjoyable to watch them flounder. They have so much money they can do pretty much anything they want but they are so ego driven that they can't ever admit they were wrong. For reasons only fathomable to Honda they seem to have reversed their crank rotation this year and with engine development frozen for the season they may well be screwed.
I hope Pedrosa stays with them and Vinales goes to Yamaha. Iannone can go to Suzuki, the reduction in power may help keep him on 2 wheels. I suspect Ducati will win some races with Lorenzo but they have to get the bike better balanced first.  It should be entertaining if Michelin can just get the tires more predictable
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

And the show goes on . . . . . . .

I think it's not just Honda that can't admit wrong decisions, it's pretty much human nature bur especially in Japanese culture.  Look at the Fukushima nuclear disaster.  Saving face, you know.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

I guess I am showing my age but I remember when Honda got back into gp racing in the 70s. They didn't want to build a 500 2-stroke but were limited to 4 cylinders, Honda's solution, the oval piston, 8 valve, 8 con rod V-4. The things couldn't get out of their own way. Of course they followed that with the brilliant 500 2-stroke triple. Which was followed by the upside down V-4, another embarrassment.
Whale oil beef hooked!

Rikugun

 :)  Leave it to Honda to over-engineer stuff. Well, at least they spend a lot of money doing it.

Actually, I rather like Honda as a company and admire their diverse and usually reliable, high quality products. I suppose even their spectacular failures teach them things.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

Walt_M.

Well, I just missed the most exciting race of the season. I don't get the bein network it is now on so I just got to watch the jerky, blurry video on a post it note sized window on my computer. There were at least three passes for the lead on the last lap. The announcers gave the win to Marquez every time he passed but Lorenzo kept coming back and got him at the line. Unfortunately Rossi lost an engine early.  Iannone put his Ducati in third and did not crash his teammate.
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

Like Nicky Hayden said, "we line up on Sundays, anything can happen".  The 'fortunes' can change in a very short time, and there is a long season yet to go.  It won't be over until the last race in early November.

I am a Honda fan, and a Yamaha fan, and a Ducati fan, etc.  All the companies engaged in the competition at such a high level are trying their best within the 'rules' they have agreed to, and they all want to win, so they spend enormous sums of money and energy to participate in hopes of gaining some boost to their retail sales.  I have no idea if this stuff actually helps make enough financial gain to pay for the effort, but that is the 'excuse' that Honda uses, and probably Yamaha and Ducati too.  No matter the financial return, it is a very entertaining process to behold.

My internet connection is too limited to allow much video use, so I read about the races and employ the 'theater of the mind' so to speak.  Some of the moto journalists are pretty good with their descriptions, which makes it easier to imagine the action.  There was a website last year that I saw a transcription of the race announcers, and that was a great way to follow the race, as it was all the commentary they reported on air.  It may have had a link from the MotoGP site or Motomatters.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

Well, the more the better as far as manufacturers go. Suzuki and Aprillia are in and KTM is coming next year. The problem seems to be a shortage of riders capable of running at the front. There will be a rider shake up next year with Lorenzo going to Ducati and Vinales moving to Yamaha. Ianonne will be going to Suzuki from Ducati and Bradley Smith is moving to KTM.
Whale oil beef hooked!

Walt_M.

Another interesting race but a little disappointed that crazy Joe Ianonne took Lorenzo out of fourth.  Rossi and Marquez had  a good battle with Rossi taking the win but Marquez took the points lead.
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

Under a subdued atmosphere as a result of Luis Salom having a 'freak' crash and losing his life during Moto2 practice,  . . . and at the Isle of Man TT two other participants lost their lives in pursuit of 'glory' and a faster lap.  The atmosphere led to Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi to actually come round and shake hands on the parc ferme at the conclusion of the race, a well received gesture that the animosity between them evaporating, and hopefully returning to 'normal'.

Andrea Ianone again took out a competitor, this time Jorge Lorenzo.  There just seems to be something about that guy, though it may not be all his fault.  Lorenzo wasn't anywhere near the front when this happened, so there may be more to the story yet to be explained. :police:
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

Don't really know why Lorenzo was going so slow, maybe the little metronome in his head was off. I was wrong before and he was actually fifth when the human torpedo got him. Loved the Rossi-Marquez battle though. Marquez rode the wheels off the Honda to pass Rossi and Rossi just cool and collected passed him back and gapped him!
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

Maybe it's my cynical mind, but Lorenzo has a contract with Yamaha and gets paid a lot of money no matter the outcome of a race, though probably gets incentives for better results.  It's going to be interesting to see how he does on the Ducati next year.  It may not be as great as he thinks it is, but then again, maybe it is.  We'll see.

Lorenzo's tires were reported as 'shot', so it may have been he selected the wrong compound for easy grip, and not so good for a hot dry track.  Just another aspect to juggle in the 'set up' before the race begins.

Recent reports show that Honda again has acceleration over Yamaha, finally.  Their engineers and motor builders in Japan must have been really burning the midnight oil to get back on top after losing the championship to Yamaha and Lorenzo.  Quite a come down after Marquez won two years in a row and was juat about unbeatable.  But that was then.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

Don't know who said Honda now has acceleration over Yamaha but the last two races didn't look like it. Marquez got passed by Lorenzo at the finish line at Mugello and Rossi just repassed him and rode away the last two laps in Spain. As for engine development, each manufacturer gets seven engines for each rider for the season. The engines are sealed with no development permitted during the season. At least that is true for this year.
Whale oil beef hooked!

admin

tuning in late but, yes, MotoGP and MotoAmerica fan I try and record all the races on Bein
but I don't always have time to watch them all.
being a skinny Italian kid I have to give it up for Rossi, what a phenomenal rider and career.

as far as having bein on comcast goes, I looked at my cable bill a while back and was ready
to dump them but a friend of mine told me that if you call them and ask they might give you
a loyal customer deal, I did and got my bill dropped to 75 a mo for 2 years with a contract.
I was paying 130 or so.  comcast still sucks but only slightly less so. lol
In some ways you're probably better catching what you can on the site as  I find some of the announcers
to be a bit over the top.

on the lorenzo Ducati move, it will be interesting to say the least, I hope he does well.
I appreciate the commitment Ducati has to their racing team.

so do you think he will be able to outgun Yamaha?





fret not

The Honda acceleration aspect was reported by David Emmit of MotoMatters, a well regarded moto-journalist.  Specific examples of acceleration late in a race can be very misleading as tires lose their grip and tread.  Lorenzo's tires are blamed for his lack of pace before he was taken out by Ianone on the Ducati, and Rossi is well known for managing his tires during a race.  So I am looking for the Repsol-Honda team to have a better showing in the future. 

It's a moving target to be sure, as all the teams are trying to improve.  With the sealed motors about all they can really do is try to understand the required electronics that everyone has to use.

I worked several years in a Honda dealership that had a subscription to the British paper, Motor Cycle News (MCN) and loved reading about Agostini, Hailwood, Phil Read, and Barry Sheen, and then came the Americans and the Transatlantic Races.    It was certainly hot stuff for the times, and all the displacement classes from 50cc to 500cc made it more interesting to me, but now it has been "simplified" to 3 classes ordered by rider age and ability.  I think the 1000cc displacement is too much, too fast, too hard on tires, very dangerous, and VERY expensive.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Walt_M.

Yes, racing is expensive and the more rules that are to put in to make it less so only make it more so. The six engine rule(last year) only made the engines more expensive. I was reading Kevin Cameron in Cycle World and he reported it takes Yamaha 14 days to build a crankshaft.
As for electronics, Yamaha is blaming the spec ECU for their engine failures at Mugello. They said the rev limiter was not precise enough and allowed the engines to overrev. Of course the spec ECU was put in to save money and it just costs more time and money to make it work. Honda's improved performance is probably due to their coming to better grips with the ECU but they still have handling issues and more power will not make that better. Suzuki will probably be next on that list. Their bikes are being described as 'sweet handling' which is PC for slow.
I would not be at all surprised if Lorenzo comes back and wins the next 4 in a row like he did last year. Of course I am pulling for Rossi for the championship. It is a shame the last season ended the way it did.
I don't know how Lorenzo will do at Ducati. The bikes are fast enough and they finally have their chassis working. It will be a matter of achieving consistency in more conditions. I wish them well, more competition means more exciting racing and we all want that.
Whale oil beef hooked!

fret not

I have been hoping Dani Pedrosa would step up his pace and begin regular assaults on the championship but it seems not to be in his nature.  Still, it COULD happen.  In the mean time I will root for Marquez and Crutchlow on the Hondas, and hope no one gets hurt in all this. 

The Honda and Yamaha GP bikes seem reasonably matched this season, though it's a bit difficult to really know from the perspective of my computer chair.  When Lorenzo arrives at Ducati we will see if the problem is the bike or the riders.  Rossi found it was the bike when he went there, but that was a different time, and the Ducati now seems to have more speed than anything else on the track. 

It's a cruel obsession.  It will take all the money and time you can throw at it and it will demand more.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!