am i the only person who liked the 990's and and thinks moto gp should be on bikes that new 250 guys can't win on right out of the box, remember the 500's, i know max biaggi won his 1st race on one, but most guys had a long learning curve to master the bike and become world champion at the highest level,most had a long journey getting to their 1st win,wheelies,smoking tires,backing it in, ......now it seems like a faster 250 race, yea i know the times are faster than ever ,maybe i'm just old school, comments Mike gsxr1000/tl1000s
The 990s with the latest electronics may be the same to ride as the 800s, only faster. The change to 800cc brought about complete redesigns that teams would have been reluctant to risk otherwise. The 800cc formula and everyones scramble to adapt (Ducati in particular) forced them to look at fresh ideas out of fear of being left behind.
still looks more like a 250 race to me. i just always enjoyed how hard it was for the very best riders to master and win on bikes that were so difficult to adapt to .RLH said last year at laguna that he had to get used to holding the throttle open so soon in the corners on the moto gp bikes compared to his superbike,that doesn't seem right
Right now it looks easy but don’t underestimate a that the new guy (Lorenzo) just might be that good. With traction control one still needs to get it tuned properly. From everything I’ve read it seems that the 800's are tougher to ride than the 990 was. It looks like the power is coming all up top in the rpm range and as the search for more power comes the 880's power band will be more 2 stroke like. I find it funny when a racer says the engine is more electric. Why? Because an electric motor likes to run at exactly 2 speeds, stop and full rpm (in the US that would typically be 3,450 rpm) it takes an electrical governor to control the electricity to allow rpms in the middle and this is like the electronic engine control units tunability, i.e. traction control. In other words the power band on an electric motor is narrower than a 2-stroke gasoline engine. Something I don’t see anywhere in the motorcycle road racing world is comments about tuning a bike to be “raceable†versus best “lap timeâ€. The closest to this is once in a while a racer like Casey, Nicky, Colin or Valentino will say they are comfortable with the handling for the race. Raceable meaning the set up isn’t perfect for the maximum lap time but is good enough to pass a competitor and keep them behind. Its one thing to catch a guy and another to pull off a pass. I have not yet seen Valentino pull off the “get alongside on the brakes, keep the competition to the outside and motor off on the exit†pass. Valentino seems to always try and shoot completely past on corner entry which leaves the competition free to try for the inside-outside pass on the exit. BTW it was nice to see Colin, Nicky and John near the front.