MotoGP 2014

[DidJit]

... so where does Bautista go... anyone?

Possibly Aprilia...

[pritch]

"with Scott Redding moving up to the RC213V vacated by Alvaro Bautista,"

Redding on the factory spec bike, Jack Miller on the proddy bike, so where does Bautista go ... anyone?

Forward Racing who are losing both of their riders, or Aprilia test rider? Not many options.

[Banditbandit]

The suzuki will be the slowest of the factory/satelite bikes.How can they be anything but?.They have been out of the game for years.Have they got a pit crew lined up?

Remember what Rossi did his first season at Yamaha - everyone wrote off the bike as slow and wondered why Rossi was going to that team ... He won his first race in SA and took the championship that year.

Don't write off Suzuki before the season starts ..

[Shaun Harris]

Remember what Rossi did his first season at Yamaha - everyone wrote off the bike as slow and wondered why Rossi was going to that team ... He won his first race in SA and took the championship that year.

Don't write off Suzuki before the season starts ..

The Suzuki will be there or there abouts

[Drew]

Remember what Rossi did his first season at Yamaha - everyone wrote off the bike as slow and wondered why Rossi was going to that team ... He won his first race in SA and took the championship that year.

Don't write off Suzuki before the season starts ..

On an established bike, with little more than set up issues. Not to mention Rossi was streaks ahead of any other rider at the time, and the bikes were without electronic assistance.

[pritch]

On an established bike, with little more than set up issues.

Where does this bloody story keep coming from? It was a completely new bike, unless of course a new engine and a new frame don't actually make a new bike.

Rossi and Brurgess met with Furusawa etc who showed them the various options that Yamaha were working on. Rossi and Burgess picked the options they preferred and the new bike was developed accordingly.

The heads went from five valves to four, the crank went cross plane with the engine running backwards. I hope we agree that qualifies as a new engine. The frame was heightened and the engine mounts lowered, among other things, which should qualify it as a new frame.

Set up issues? Hardly. When Rossi referred to the M1 as "My baby" he wasn't really kidding.

[Mental Trousers]

Remember what Rossi did his first season at Yamaha - everyone wrote off the bike as slow and wondered why Rossi was going to that team ... He won his first race in SA and took the championship that year.

Don't write off Suzuki before the season starts ..

On an established bike, with little more than set up issues. Not to mention Rossi was streaks ahead of any other rider at the time, and the bikes were without electronic assistance.

Also, Yamaha were committed to improving the bike and had a budget to do it. Suzuki are notorious for not fronting with the money to do the job properly.

I'm sure everyone (except maybe Shaun) will be very surprised if they do come up with a decent budget.

[BMWST?]

And they already had the designs in motion when rossi moved

[Shaun Harris]

I'm sure everyone (except maybe Shaun) will be very surprised if they do come up with a decent budget.

I like to fight for the underdog

[Banditbandit]

And they already had the designs in motion when rossi moved

I hope it was in motion - after all, that's why they have wheels ..

[roogazza]

Where does this bloody story keep coming from? It was a completely new bike, unless of course a new engine and a new frame don't actually make a new bike.

Rossi and Brurgess met with Furusawa etc who showed them the various options that Yamaha were working on. Rossi and Burgess picked the options they preferred and the new bike was developed accordingly.

The heads went from five valves to four, the crank went cross plane with the engine running backwards. I hope we agree that qualifies as a new engine. The frame was heightened and the engine mounts lowered, among other things, which should qualify it as a new frame.

Set up issues? Hardly. When Rossi referred to the M1 as "My baby" he wasn't really kidding.

Pretty much on it pritch, have you read his book 'what if I'd never tried it?' (I think that was the title ?) Lays it all out in there, how it went and the secret meetings etc.
That first GP of 04 blew everyone away.Trying that again on the Dookati backfired tho huh ?

[roogazza]

Something I'd like to read and will, as soon as I get my hands on it.
Here's someone we can believe in and learn from.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2014/Aug/140805tb21.htm

[Shaun Harris]

Something I'd like to read and will, as soon as I get my hands on it.
Here's someone we can believe in and learn from.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2014/Aug/140805tb21.htm

yea man that will be a good read

[pritch]

Pretty much on it pritch, have you read his book 'what if I'd never tried it?' (I think that was the title ?) Lays it all out in there, how it went and the secret meetings etc.
That first GP of 04 blew everyone away.Trying that again on the Dookati backfired tho huh ?

Yeah, I had that book but gave it away. Can't remember it all, but definitely remember Rossi and Brivio hiding under tables at midnight to avoid being seen by the security staff. If Rossi and the Yamaha manager were seen hiding together at midnight it would definitely have started a rumour. And not just about their sexual orientation.

BIKE magazine also did an article on the M1 when they were allowed to ride the bike at the end of the season and that article also detailed the design changes and the effect thereof.

Plus I have here "The Grand Prix Motorcycle" by Kevin Cameron which mentions some of the options Yamaha offered Burgess and Rossi, including four different engine designs.

Cameron mentions other changes too. Yamaha had previously tried to individually tailor their bikes to each individual rider, the riders need both of their bikes to be as near identical as possible. Yamaha were trying so hard to optimise each bike to each rider that Biaggi complained his bike was never the same twice. The M1 was developed so that the same design could be ridden by any rider in the team.

"Burgess was surprised to discover that Yamaha did not previously practise trackside mapping, which is altering the fuel injection and ignition control maps during practice to tailor the machines behaviour to particular situations."

Not just was the M1 a completely new design, the whole philosophy of how it would be used had changed. As had the management of the Yamaha racing effort, Furusawa having replaced Yoda who went to Kawasaki.

And still that "set up issues" theory gets trotted out.

And then there was Ducati where the plan seemed to be that nothing would change. Ever!

[Shaun Harris]

Pritch, I bet there was a lot of verbal promises made within Ducati for JB and VR to be able to do what they wanted all but, until the crunch time came that is.

Remember when VR talked about the effort it took to convince JB to go to yamaha in the first place, then the Ducati was simple " Jerry said he is my boy and I go with him" Bet that was based around the verbal diatribe of the spaghetti eaters and JB thought they would be able to conquer again, not to forget JB Quoted very very early on saying " We Know what is wrong and how to fix it" They probally did know exactually what was wrong as they were the best in the business together, but Ducati Money and powers that be obviously knew better and Rossi stayed out of pride is my guess just taking shit loads of MILLIONS from them.

There JB and VR as a team burnt out, the rest is history