Race bikes and rider aids (electronic)

[CHOPPA]

Is it here to stay?Who say's?...the buying public?blindly led by the nose at the best of times...or the factories.

Who benefits?The buying public?...no they will still wrap themselves round road signage but now at a greater rate of knots and still not know why.
Of course it benefits racers as it makes the less skilled more competitive,but eventually every fucker will be following each other,same lines,same brake points,same acceleration,same ol' samo.Because with electronics they only work one way and you have to ride the bike that way.

Had a great laugh at an article about Bradley Smith saying how easy his M1 is to ride compared to his moto2 bike (something fucked-up in itself just quietly)but all was made clear when he mentioned his team technician was out on the track earlier for four hours with a GPS logger calibrating the traction control.
Get rid of them and bring back raw as bikes and ultimately different riding styles,that'll sort the thoroughbreds from the donkeys.

MotoGP want's to decrease costs and increase grids,we all know electronics is the problem.So unless they are provided free of charge to all teams they are currently the ultimate racing buzzkill

I take it you have never ridden a bike with tc abs anti wheely?

[Mental Trousers]

Mine was turned off cause its shit in the wet and also my front tyre hadn't been calibrated. Hayden, robbie, Craig, Moir all run the same system and the Kawasaki would be the pick of the bunch for electronics and he won.

Electronics make f/a difference, we are the same guys at the front as we were before electronics.

Its ignorant to think electronics make someone a better rider.

I thought Nick had his turned off (or turned right down) for today's track conditions.

The commentator was saying Hayden wasn't running any traction control etc. Guess he was wrong.

[Dave-]

Mine was turned off cause its shit in the wet and also my front tyre hadn't been calibrated. Hayden, robbie, Craig, Moir all run the same system and the Kawasaki would be the pick of the bunch for electronics and he won.

Why's it crap choppa? what needs calibrating? how's it done?

entirely out of interest.

[eelracing]

How do we know electronics is the problem ???

History.

The same reason Morini, Motoguzzi,Gilera and smaller factories Mondial and Ducati pulled out of GP's in 1957 and also Honda in the 60's.Technical reg's and budgets were getting blown out of proportion and no longer could racing be justified by these makers.
Sounds all to familiar doesn't it.
What did the then FIM do?Simplified the rules governing engine cylinders,CC rating and 6 speed gearbox's etc,to reign in costs and bring back more manufacturers.I'll admit it was helped by the rising tide of the Japanese industry at the time,and as we know led to some great racing in the 70's,80's and 90's.

I take it you have never ridden a bike with tc abs anti wheely?

You would be correct,but strictly for the personal reason that I am simply not interested.

[CHOPPA]

Why's it crap choppa? what needs calibrating? how's it done?

entirely out of interest.

Gotta put in the circumference of the Tyre so the ecu can calculate spin. I set the program for my slicks which are completely different to my wets

[scrivy]

From a riders perspective, yeah, have all the bells and whistles - then the person with the biggest chequebook will probably win..... a bit unfair for those strapped for cash in these hard times.

From a spectators perspective do away with them.
I still remember watching the F1 class years back, guys like Holden, Deans, Toomey, Williams all muscling around the pigs they rode, doing big power slides, and wheelies in the esses at Wangas...... Oh, such fun.....
Spectators don't know, or dont care if the lap records were broken, they just want to see action. Period. They want bang for their buck.

Who watches the winner of the classic sidecars way out in front by themselves? Rather watching the likes of Willy, Dennisons and Nev getting totally out of shape!
Why do people watch in awe as Jay Lawrence backs it in?? Why do spectators drool over motards doing their crazy shit? Cause they wanna see seat of the pants stuff.

Not taking anything away from the top riders, yes you still have to do your top level stuff with the gear on your bikes to shine at the front, but if everyone went back to wooden suspension, skinny tyres, drum brakes, I think you'd have more bums on seats...... and since it would be cheaper to buy and run, you'd probably have more bums on race bike seats too.... which would end up costing less for entries as the grids might just be fuller.


Or I could be wrong......

[rastus]

Mine was turned off cause its shit in the wet and also my front tyre hadn't been calibrated. Hayden, robbie, Craig, Moir all run the same system and the Kawasaki would be the pick of the bunch for electronics and he won.

Electronics make f/a difference, we are the same guys at the front as we were before electronics.

Its ignorant to think electronics make someone a better rider.

Nick very rarely uses traction control in the dry and not in the wet from what I have observed and he hit a moist patch in turn 4 and highsided.
Risked his own neck to get his bike out of the way so you and Hayden didn't hit it coming over the hill and prevented a red flag incident. He looks bloody sore and is limping badly but he rode his bike back after the race and helped pack up.

[CHOPPA]

[QUOTE=rastus;1130517665]



Im not sure what you point is?

[quickbuck]

Im not sure what you point is?

That Nick is an all round GC?

Yes, it was the grass! Looked amazing on my TV.

[Robert Taylor]

From a riders perspective, yeah, have all the bells and whistles - then the person with the biggest chequebook will probably win..... a bit unfair for those strapped for cash in these hard times.

From a spectators perspective do away with them.
I still remember watching the F1 class years back, guys like Holden, Deans, Toomey, Williams all muscling around the pigs they rode, doing big power slides, and wheelies in the esses at Wangas...... Oh, such fun.....
Spectators don't know, or dont care if the lap records were broken, they just want to see action. Period. They want bang for their buck.

Who watches the winner of the classic sidecars way out in front by themselves? Rather watching the likes of Willy, Dennisons and Nev getting totally out of shape!
Why do people watch in awe as Jay Lawrence backs it in?? Why do spectators drool over motards doing their crazy shit? Cause they wanna see seat of the pants stuff.

Not taking anything away from the top riders, yes you still have to do your top level stuff with the gear on your bikes to shine at the front, but if everyone went back to wooden suspension, skinny tyres, drum brakes, I think you'd have more bums on seats...... and since it would be cheaper to buy and run, you'd probably have more bums on race bike seats too.... which would end up costing less for entries as the grids might just be fuller.


Or I could be wrong......

And deprive all the technicians their fun. There are classes that subscribe to what you have rattled off, as there are classes that allow ( to a degree ) constant development. The team and the rider have done their job very well if the bike is fast and for want of a better expression'' boring.'' Jorge Lorenzo and bike are ''boring'' but he is a 2 time World champion. Theres a guy that turns up at Paeroa and wobbles around on a Harley, exciting maybe to some spectators but its technical nonsense
I think a lot of people are struggling with accepting electronics, its another way of doing things that were previously only done mechanically.
How many people have needlessly crashed Hyosung 250s and other 250s because they are just too ''flexible'', wind up like a spring and unload? How many ''heavy'' people are deprived an even-ing up of the playing field in these classes because they are not allowed to change to springing more suitable for them?
How many cavemen would design a three track vehicle with an odd number of wheels if given pen and paper?
Electronics are here to stay and continue to have increasing influence on our lives.

[sidecar bob]

From a technicians point of view, vehicles from the electronic age are far easier & more fun to work on than some old nail with points & a carburettor. I think we tend to forget what a bloody mission old shit was in general.

[Mental Trousers]

Fron a technicians point of view, vehicles from the electronic age are far easier & more fun to work on than some old nail with points & a carburettor. I think we tend to forget what a bloody mission old shit was in general.

My wife still tells everyone about the time she went out to the shed and the bike mechanic of 20 years was standing well back out of the way with his arms folded watching me fix the bike with a laptop.

So much easier for geeks to fix things now. Although you still have to undo things with tools.

But hey, my traction control is my right hand and outside foot.

[scrivy]

Electronics are here to stay and continue to have increasing influence on our lives.

Heh heh heh......... until there's a massive solar flare....... then we're fucked......

[quickbuck]

Heh heh heh......... until there's a massive solar flare....... then we're fucked......

Yup... There will be no more KB

[wharfy]

History.

The same reason Morini, Motoguzzi,Gilera and smaller factories Mondial and Ducati pulled out of GP's in 1957 and also Honda in the 60's.Technical reg's and budgets were getting blown out of proportion and no longer could racing be justified by these makers.
Sounds all to familiar doesn't it.
What did the then FIM do?Simplified the rules governing engine cylinders,CC rating and 6 speed gearbox's etc,to reign in costs and bring back more manufacturers.I'll admit it was helped by the rising tide of the Japanese industry at the time,and as we know led to some great racing in the 70's,80's and 90's.






You would be correct,but strictly for the personal reason that I am simply not interested.

Ummm... still not sure you can blame electronics for it. Is it more expensive to develop software or chassis/engine/gearbox ?
Tyres all done by Bridgstone, suspenders pretty much all done by RT's Viking mates ?
My understanding is the stuff inside the engines and gearboxes is so trick that teams are not allowed open them, they all have to go back to the factory race department if there are any problems and they can use (6 ?) engines for the series, how much do you reckon a MotoGP engine costs to build ?
We are of course all familiar with the problems Ducati had trying to get a chassis that worked (that should get some discussion going )

Mental Trousers can probably give us an idea about the cost of ECU development - I don't think there is a shortage of computer geeks (especially in Japan !) to do that stuff. I imagine (hope) that a lot of testing is done - terms like "crash" and "blue screen of death" take on a much more literal meaning if your computer fucks up at 275 kmh !!!

As I said, I'm not convinced that the electronics is what is driving the cost of MotoGP up. If you have some info to support that theory I'd be keen to see it.