MotoGP 2017

[Autech]

Not long to go now lads! At least they rock up at a great track for racing. Bring it on!

[Dadpole]

At least I had a fix watching the final hour at Suzuka yesterday. Almost like a short race with the interesting diversion of a bike having a small but interesting bellypan fire and still finishing third.

[husaberg]

tsk tsk. naughty.

Some pretty good passes though, plus a few dubious moves from both sides (One clearly a bit worse than the other though)

[pritch]

This probably deserves a better plug but most people who would be remotely interested would visit this thread. They'd better not leave it too long?

I suspect this is organised by Alex Briggs, there is an online auction of mainly GP memorabilia to raise funds for overseas cancer treatment for a girl. Lots of signed boots, knee sliders, shirts, triple clamps, gloves, a watch, a pair of Ohlins forks (unsigned), plus the love letter Rossi wrote to his M1.

https://www.shannons.com.au/auctions...nline-auction/

[pritch]

Well all the riders will have had to drag their arses away from their beaches. Any who raced at Suzuka will be going for some sort of a miracle cure cause the action starts again in a couple days although Miller may not be in too much trouble, depnds how long his Honda lasted. You'd think that somebody at Honda would be getting worried, they loose their 'roads' team at the IoM to crashes caused by mechanical failure, then they lose the race and the endurance championship to Yamaha at their own track.

It'll make a refereshing change from the ongoing circus at the Whitehouse, and the Whitehouse Lite at the Labour party so bring on the racing.

[roogazza]

https://motomatters.com/analysis/201...irst_nine.html

[malcy25]

RIP Angel Nieto

https://www.superbikeplanet.com/summ...eto-1947-2017/

[pritch]

RIP Angel Nieto

That is sad. I see that some of the pundits have felt it appropriate to point out to younger followers of the sport that back then the small classes were not just stepping stones as they are today. People like Ubiali, Nieto and others, usually built like jockeys, would ride their whole career in the 'tiddler' classes.

[malcy25]

That is sad. I see that some of the pundits have felt it appropriate to point out to younger followers of the sport that back then the small classes were not just stepping stones as they are today. People like Ubiali, Nieto and others, usually built like jockeys, would ride their whole career in the 'tiddler' classes.

I've been racing with a Nieto replica helmet for the last couple of years....



He was probably not so well known down here as compared to a 500GP rider, but one of my first races I saw on TV when quite young was him racing at Silverstone on the Garelli twin in about 83, just as I was building a 125 to go racing with.

[actungbaby]

RIP Angel Nieto

https://www.superbikeplanet.com/summ...eto-1947-2017/

Yes when i started buying motocourse books back in 84 . Remember looking ar the former gp winners and . Being dumbstruck how many titles had the name nito . Incredable . Champion .
Sounds like had anazing personailty to match .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mulletman]

Riders are starting to get messages on the fly.

[mulletman]

Jorges new fairing, similar to what we've seen earlier this year (hammerhead)

[roogazza]

MotoGP
MotoGP desk 5 Aug 2017

'All the accelerations, maybe three or four accelerations, are from second gear to fifth gear, so that means that acceleration here is very important and it is one of the circuits where we struggle more' - Marc Marquez.

Marc Marquez feels he will lose out to his rivals on acceleration at Brno this weekend, but the Repsol Honda rider is still confident of challenging for the podium nonetheless.

Marquez, who holds a slim advantage of five points over Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, was 10th fastest in the dry in FP2 on Friday after narrowly missing out on the top spot in the wet morning session by 0.039s to Johann Zarco.

The MotoGP World Championship leader used Honda’s new covered winglets fairing after gaining some improvements with the RCV during a test at the Czech circuit during the summer break in July.

Marquez was more than eight tenths down on Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso after setting his best lap in 1m 57.209s, although he stresses the gap would not have been so pronounced if he had chosen to fit the softer compound rear in FP2.

“Today the track was still a bit slippery and me and Dani [Pedrosa] didn’t put the soft tyre in the rear – everybody put it, or nearly everybody, and for that reason the difference was quite big.

“But I’m happy because the feeling was more or less good and also in the last run I tried the hard front tyre; I felt a little bit on the limit, but I was in the box and I said to my mechanic that I wanted to try it in case on Sunday it was like this – to understand what is the limit of the temperature,” said Marquez.

“I was a little bit on the limit, I nearly crashed and the confidence wasn’t there, but in general I was happy because with the bike I felt good – this morning in the wet, this afternoon in the dry – and we will see tomorrow where we can arrive.

“It also looks like on Sunday it will be a little bit of mixed conditions, or maybe very wet, but you never know here because it changes so quickly.”

Giving his thoughts on the new Honda fairing, Marquez said small improvements are being made on a ‘step by step’ basis.

“The new fairing was one of the new items that we tried in the summer test and it was working a little bit better, I like it and we improved a little bit with it with one of our problems. It looks like step by step we improve, but then we are here and Ducati also brings a special one that is bigger than ours.

“We must keep pushing and improving, but it is a small improvement that we can take some benefits [from].”

One issue that is a cause for concern for Marquez is the time he is losing on acceleration compared to his key rivals. However, he still feels a rostrum remains within his grasp on Sunday.

“Here is one of the circuits where we will struggle more – especially me a Cal [Crutchlow]. We’re not heavy riders but Dani is very light and here, he can use a lot the torque and you can feel. All the accelerations, maybe three or four accelerations, are from second gear to fifth gear, so that means that acceleration here is very important and it is one of the circuits where we struggle more.

“That is the reason why we come here to test before the race, to try to have a small advantage in the beginning and try to have some base set-up. We will see during the weekend but I believe that even like this we can fight for the podium,” he added.

“Dani will be tough; OK, I know he will have the same bike as me and we have a very similar pace during the test, so we will see during the weekend depending on the conditions.

“Then Ducati, here, they can use a lot the power, the torque, and then I follow [Johann] Zarco and the Yamaha is working really good here – just they need to find the set-up, but for sure they will be fast.”

Looks like an honest samatian from MM . They didn't use the soft and neither did Rossi.
Bring on Qual in the dry and we'll see where we are I think.

[roogazza]

[ellipsis]

...Go Vale...he has a few to contend with to get there though...MM's elbows will be ragged points of pain if he has to ride the Honda out of corners on them every lap...my respect for Jorge is building again, he looks like he is coming to grips with the Ducati...again too many variables to start betting...