Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Yeah true, even the rear looks a bit large in size compared to the current M1.

Btw, I personally like it without discs up front. Gives me the look of a single sided swing-arm like the one's on Ducati SBKs.

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Oh good. I was thinking maybe they are using some special high-tech paint or something... :-)

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

yes in the ultra slow motion the bug spots and splashes are visible on their bikes' visors' and windscreens' white painted areas :-)

also, someone said maybe rossi is "letting" the young ones have their golden times..of course not, if he is doing that then lol he's totally lost the racer dna..the fact is he's just not fast enough anymore..he is older now and those ducati years wrecked his confidence to push to the limits and in general he really needs almost everything in his bike to fall in place to make it run with the repsols at the moment...plus i think (maybe) a couple of other things mentioning which elsewhere has raised a shitstorm and got me labelled a rossi hater (which i am not (and not a fanboy either), but am new here so you guys won't know that) for no real reason in the past, so not mentioning it here.
@incipient - yes there was some article last year i think (cant dig it out anymore), in motomatters probably, talking about the max RPMs in the present 1000s vs the 800s..the rcv of today goes to 16000 but i think the desmo goes to 17k still, or something...all this has to do with the max bore (that was set in 2009 for the 2012 1000s) being 81mm..if i remember right, the 800s had the bore set at 83 mm ? have unfortunately forgotten these nice tech details. guess we should be discussing more about things like these .

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Update on difference in Jorge and Vale's riding style.
"Rossi explained once again that he is still struggling with the same problem, being able to brake the way he wants to and then get the bike turned. Braking stability is probably the Yamaha's biggest weakness at the moment, but Lorenzo's style disguises it best, braking early and smoothly, then releasing the brake early to carry as much corner speed as possible. But the fact that Lorenzo is complaining of the same issue as Rossi, who likes to brake late, deep, and then pivot the bike on the front wheel, shows that it is Yamaha's highest priority right now."

Courtesy - Motomatters.com

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Yeah, i vaguely recall something about a limit on bore size. Maybe that was introduced to make 'em rev lower?
From what i've read Dorna tries to limit the performance of the bikes to reduce the gap b/w the top factory teams (the ones with $$$) and the others.
I wonder what Honda could come up with if all these restriction were removed :-O

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates


I would agree with you except to the part in bold Rossi is currently the most experienced racer on the grid if I am not missing someone and he wouldn't lose confidence because of his 2 bad years on a Ducati! Yes, generally he is not fast enough as the current top 3 right now, it's pure and simple as that. Moreover, as you might agree, his age doesn't make competition any easier against the younger riders. Naturally, he probably requires his motorcycle to work as perfect as possible so that he has to fight it as much less as possible. This definitely doesn't mean that he is less of a racer now that he was before, but such is the age thing!

Yes, as an open Rossi fan for life, it becomes frustrating for guys like me to see Rossi finish behind the three but I guess he is doing his best to adapt to changes. See, Rossi's awesome legend is in the longevity of his success. It's not just about 9 world titles (which also includes one on a 2 stroke 500cc Honda) it's about being consistent for so many years, whether he has won championships in all these years or not. Besides Ducati, Rossi is still so competitive that given a perfect race machine, he will still give nightmares to Marquez, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. But currently, he can only manage 4th, so that is it for now. It might be nearly impossible for someone like me to accept that Rossi may not win another championship again, but there's no doubt I hope that he do it just one more time

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

yes the primary reason that was given for the bore limit being set 81mm for the 1000s was to reduce the power disparity between factory and CRT bikes and as a cost control measure.

that's why also the matter of introducing a rev limiter is thrown around whenever the time to decide on the upcoming year's regulations comes up..this time a few weeks ago they finally officially signed and fixed the 2014 regulations till 2016 and i read in some article, again either motomatters or cycle world, that the matter of rev limiter has thus been put to hold till at least 2016..but dorna plans to talk about introducing it from 2017 onwards...it's this topic of rev limiter that has also been a primary straw between dorna and msma/factories...HRC threatens to leave if rev limiter is ever introduced (dorna wants to do it at 15000 if i remember right)...dorna wants to do it again as a cost control measure and more importantly to reduce the disparity between MSMA and non-MSMA motors.

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

About Motomatters.com, who are the guys behind it? In "Kropotkin thinks" is Kropotkin the name of a guy?

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

I think that would be Colin Edwards (39).

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates


I did forget someone I guess Rossi has raced longer in MotoGP though.

Colin is one of those I have always wished to fair much better. He's a lovely guy. I still feel sad for him when he lost to Nicky at the final corner in Assen in 2006.

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

david emmett...not anyone named kropotkin lol...

it's his site..he covers the motogp stuff and a guy named jared earle covers WSBK stuff...

however, from this year, in the european rounds where emmett is himself also present, the real time posts of results of a race just finished and such type of posts are posted by someone else named mike something...but those detailed articles, which are the main content of the site, are written by emmett.

i read and follow articles by kevin cameron (writes for cycle world, a killer magazine), mat oxley (motor sport magazine), david emmett (motomatters) and dennis noyes (speed tv motogp), apart from crash and MCN and sometimes superbikeplanet, visordown and bikesportnews..

of those 4 named journalists, i guess if i have to pick an absolute fav, it's kevin or noyes...

why not emmett ? he writes good shit, even makes some smart analysis (such as the ones of the seamless gears by recording and analysing the sounds of gear shifts, very informative and impressive stuff), but likes to make dramatic sentences and very often has his bias and personal favoritism encoded in his articles..

why not mat oxley ? writes even better in the sense that there are no dramatic and filmy clauses, just straight and dry sounding and to the point statements...but also sometimes has his bias explicit in some of his writings...

why dennis noyes ? while i havent really read a lot of his articles, but whichever i have read have been really unbiased and an impartial observer's point of view, and at times really detailed thoughts into some of the small points no one else cares about..no personal bias either in so far the articles i have read from him..loved his article on the lorenzo-marquez incident jerez 2013..

why kevin cameron ? this dude is a well known tech and sportriding guru..writes on several technical topics for cycle world...has deep understanding not just on tech but insights and unbiased expert opinions also on the little and big things of racing and riding styles...doesnt put his personal bias at all ever (so far in so many of his articles that i have read)..summarizes an article on a race weekend really to the facts and then ends them with some killer insight into styles and rider mentality possibilities...

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Good Points there,
I feel Mat Oxley and Eurosports have taken initiative to bring uk audiences only.
Anyone keeping an eye on testing times. Marquez acting like vettel Want P1 everywhere, 3 mins to go he was 3rd after Rossi. Next I check he's put in the fastest time. was so happy for a moment Rossi was 2nd.. , but this was just test , aint it??

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

Thanks for the info about Motomatters.
Yup i really like Kevin Cameron's articles, there's always some good tit-bits of information in his articles. Mat Oxley articles are often humerous. :-)

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

i'd like to think so too..in any case, i usually give him the benefit of the doubt. :-)

rossi is one of the greats no doubt, but like everyone else, he also needed some luck/factors to be on his side..his longevity and consistency was helped by the fact that -

1 - he never really got seriously injured until 2010. unlike so many other riders. a very good luck factor to consider if one is pointing out his longevity

2 - as great riders barros, sete or biaggi were, with all due respect to them, they weren't stoner or lorenzo types...till 2005-2006, the only "alien" on the grid was rossi himself..sete, biaggi etc were near abouts but never really that "alien" type riders nor were consistent enough to match rossi..in whichever sense you define being an alien...then comes 2006-2008 and he faces two young aliens who were equivalent of him (or almost equivalent of him), and also a 3rd one (dani)...i am not suggesting it was "easy" for him with no stoner or lorenzo types in his competition (though in some races and with his skill, it appeared to be so to many people in the pre 2006 era), but he didnt really have to face the really tough kind of consistent competition until stoner and lorenzo came..now there were really strong and ambitious multiple aliens racing and so obviously it became much more difficult for him to win titles after titles...yes rossi still beat them in laguna 2008 and catalunya 2009 and won 2 titles while they were both there, but he really had to dig deep and work much harder...in 2009 after at least 2-3 races with hard races with lorenzo i clearly remember him telling BBC how because of lorenzo he was having to push and push and ride so much harder so frequently than ever before and he was not so happy about it..so it's obviously a logical question what would have happened and how many titles after titles would he have won if lorenzo and stoner (or other such kind of aliens) were also the same age as rossi and had been racing with and against him since 2001-2002 itself...ifs and buts kind of an argument i know, but people forget he never faced alien competitors until 2007..that's an important factor to think about if one wants to point out his consistent titles after titles. it's not just any mere could-have-beens.

3 - there were no spec tyres back then either..there was the luxury of overnight specials, and rossi was the golden boy of motogp and a marketing charm, so his tyre company (and dorna too, as many opine? i dont know, i am not a conspiracy theorist) made extra sure he got his perfect tyres more often than not..but then, everyone had the luxury of overnight special tyres, so logically speaking proving how much this factor played a major role is not possible..but sure every once in a while it gave him a very important and significant edge over others..

it's these points saying which have ended up people labelling me a rossi hater (and so i avoided mentioning these even though indirectly the topic came up earlier) but anyone except the very blind fans know and can see that only facts have been mentioned. had to write this now that the topic of his longevity and consistency has come up explicitly.

just to be clear, i also dont deny the fact that stoner benefitted hugely from the 2007 bridgestone and powerful ducati against a still developing and problematic repsols and yamahas..and i also dont deny the fact that lorenzo benefitted from rossi injuring out in 2010..saying this so that it's clear i am not a blind lover or a hater of rossi or anyone else..similarly rossi benefitted all those years from having the great luck of never injuring himself seriously, overnight special tyres and never having to face aliens like 27 and 99 in the pre 2007 era...they have all needed a few things as luck factors to become champions, in addition to the primary factor which is their riding.

that's the thing mate, he needs a perfect machine...thats what i mean when i say that now in order for him to win it seems every little thing in his bike needs to fall in place (even then it's not guaranteed he will win but at least he will be able to run with the top 3 consistently and till the end)...and a perfect machine is never gonna happen right ? thats where the riders come in, thats what their role is, to complement an imperfect (but still good and competitive) machine...on a perfect machine a lot of riders would be performing much better than they are doing right now (god knows on a perfect machine what would marquez and lorenzo do at the moment ).

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

@aditya_YZF-R15:

Unfortunately, most people in the world, including very long timer followers of MotoGP, do not have a rational point-of-view like yours (not that I agree with you on anything)

As you rightly said, it's an ifs and buts argument. Fortunately for me, Rossi will be remembered much more for being one of the greats and the greatest face of MotoGP so far more than anything else

For the sake of fun, it's a pity other riders have not been as lucky as this particular Italian

Re: MotoGP 2013 Season - Updates

^^ By all what you said above, we get the point you don't hate him, but you don't respect him either. You're giving all the credit to his luck and being in the right place at the right time. We get all that, but he as delivered when he was there in the right place at right time. The thing what I understand is, you don't like the way he races and thus those 9 title may not mean anything to you. That's fair enough. But you still shouldn't take away the credit by bringing factors like luck and other stuff in between.
What ever point you have for Rossi, would you say the same things about Marc and Jorge or in fact Stoner after 8-9 years from now. You would come across youngsters who would not appreciate the talent of these guys after so many years. There will be other Marc's and Jorge's for people to follow. We not only love him for what he's done, we love him for what he is. Even at Ducati people knew he's not going to win or even see the podium, but we still saw the races or went to see races in hope. I for myself am in the same boat as [MENTION=19026]Satellite.kid[/MENTION] wishing for just one more title. But if your trying to prove it's worthless, it won't work.
You might have not seen Rossi race when he was in 125 or 250 or in fact 500, so you might not understand why we like him. That's perfectly Ok. But giving reasons the way you did, you are taking that credit away and saying he's not worth it. I personally appreciate any of those front runners, but I never given the credit to their luck or machine or anything apart from the rider. At the end, falls are always up to the rider, if they ignore or don't know about something they are going to encounter, they always have the choice of being safe. So you think they think about it. When Rossi won you say it's luck, what about now, don't you think it's luck. No, now you say he has lost it. Well if he has lost it, he certainly had it when he won those 9 titles. I can bet you 10 years from now, there will be no one of the current riders who would have 9 titles in total under their belt. Not because they aren't as lucky but they never had what it took Rossi to win 9 in total.