Ducati Monster Forum

I looked at the countdown, and I thought it was a mistake.  3 weeks away, I can't wait.

mitt

Giggity!!! 

 [beer]

The withdrawls have sucked! It can't start soon enough. [thumbsup]

okay...who takes the 1st win?

It's a toss up between Johnny Rea and Michele Fabrizio, although JT is pretty fast on Phillip Island too. (Yeah, yeah he's a worthless tool... blah, blah...)

don't forget about haslam on a "real" bike.

It's going to be a Brit dominated series this year I think.

Yep, I'm betting on a lot of Union Jacks flying over the podium when they start spraying the bubbly. ;D

haslam over fabio.

Haga....Crutchlow will podium

are you taking haga for the championship?

personally, i wish, but no.  i think he's going to continue to out-haga himself.

I dunno who'll win.  Could be Haga, Rea, Biaggi.  Dunno what to make of JT yet on the R1, but he should be up there.  The mole can't do it on the Kawi, and I don't trust the zuke to be competitive, even with Haslam on it.  Shakey can't do it on a privateer bike.  Crutchlow's the dark horse.   

Gonna be a good year.  Lots of paint swappin' (just seems to be how the Brits ride).  Love it.   [thumbsup]

unless they run the whole series at portimao.  ;D

and i think cal is going to be up there every time.

I do too, but he's still an unknown on the SBKs.  Then again, you could put him back on his WSS bike and he'd run WSBK times, so he'll prolly do just fine.  He crashes though. 

If they've done something with the Suzuki so that it can run at most tracks, Haslam's gonna impress as well.  And, as always, I like his girl's boobies. 

huh?  two mechanicals, but i don't think he crashed at all last year.

WELL.....let me throw out a different bit of idea for yall...Corser + Tardozzi + BMW = results moreso than last year....and I think Troy has had a bit better time acclimating to and getting adjustments done to the Beemer over Ruben, even though I like Ruben alot.

I thought he crashed like 3-4 times last year.  Looking at the results, I'm wrong -- just two DNFs.  I coulda sworn he crashed out with a huge lead at one race?

That BMW *might* get close (but I don't actually think so) and it'll do better than last year (assuming they *finally* figure out Superpole), but it's not gonna be championship bike.

yep.  but let's keep in mind this is season 2 of that bike even existing at all.  they're doing pretty damn great.

sounds like you're thinking of laverty @ Magny-Cours

No Crutchlow did crash out big time....lost the front on a very fast, downhill right hander.  I can't remember if he was leading, but there was no one around him.  Imola maybe?

mechanical at imola.  gearbox went kaplooey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzZs0-0QwzY&feature=player_embedded#at=49 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzZs0-0QwzY&feature=player_embedded#at=49)

...ok, what's that hat Corser is wearing?

[laugh]

Best.  Hat.  EVAH!  He didn't sound too psyched about the bike.  And JT sounds like he's still pretty (understandably) butt-hurt.

Man, there's a great 10 min recap of 2009 in the vid.  I forget exactly how much drama there was in the first half of the 2009 season with Spies.  

the energy drink sponsor he picked up last year:

http://www.pussydrinks.com/home.html (http://www.pussydrinks.com/home.html)

Pussy: Natural Energy

you really oughta watch assen race 1, like, weekly.  ;D

and re JT, i think i mentioned this recently somewhere else: you should read the spec tires article in the new RRW.

I was wondering about that hat, the video is a bit IZ_ and I wasn't sure I was seeing what I thought I was.  [laugh]

Indeed, Corser didn't seem all that excited about the bike.
Maybe that's just his style in pre-season?

Which issue of RRW?

I can't watch Race 1 anymore.  It makes me touch myself innappropriately, which violates a couple of standing court orders preventing me from doing exactly that. 

I saw that article from wherever it was that you linked it.  Interesting. 

march 2010.

good article but easy to summarize:

Pirellis = soft carcass.  don't like tons of load, so requires the rider to point-and-shoot ("superbike") the corners.

Bridgestones = hard carcass.  requires tons of load to work correctly, therefore requires the rider to maintain a lot of corner speed.  so you get 800cc* GP riding; a lot like the 250s and a lot of follow the leader.  yawn.

i mentioned JT because in the article there's a quote from The Ben saying that 4 years was probably too long to spend on the Pirellis, which was why JT didn't do so well in GP [once he got off the michelins].

the article is about the fact that this single issue is why the two series are so different.  the bikes themselves aren't too far apart really: superbike = 215 hp, 356 lbs; motogp = 225 hp, 330 lbs.



*another piece of the perfect storm of tire events when GP went to the 800s.  due to being down on power and the peaky nature of the new bikes, everyone increased their corner speed.  the racing got boring and the softer construction tires (michelin) started to suck.  soon everyone wants to be on the Bridgestones, rossi moves, pedro moves, the whole paddock goes Bridgestone spec... thereby requiring the style of riding that they're now trying to remedy (among other things) with the move to 1000cc.

So...

Does the Bridgestone deal expire with the 1000cc switch? ;D

http://www.motomatters.com/results/2009/09/27/2009_imola_world_supersport_race_result_.html (http://www.motomatters.com/results/2009/09/27/2009_imola_world_supersport_race_result_.html)

yeah, but i think he crashed because of the mechanical.

No, he lost the front at about 130 into a downhill right hander....very fast....definitely not a mechanical failure.

you sure that wasn't magny cours?

laverty fell off at magny-cours, didn't he?

i for sure remember reading mecahnical + Imola.  i may have been drunk.  who knows.

..oh wait:  this isn't where i (may have imagined that i) saw it originally, but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Crutchlow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Crutchlow)

He finished in the top four at every race until a mechanical failure while leading at Brno, and found himself in a two-way championship dice with surprise package Eugene Laverty on a Parkalgar Honda. Crutchlow lead the championship easily until a gearbox failure while leading at Imola meant that Eugene Laverty moved to within 3 points.  However, at Magny-Cours after an intense start it was Laverty's turn to have some bad luck, falling off, but picking his bike back up to leave him 19 points behind Cruthlow with 1 race at Portimao left.

2010 WSBK preview video.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39402 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39402)

Having trouble wrapping my head around that.
Not due to the conclusions, just can't see how the carcass effect would be that way.

Rossi has been quoted in an interview before while speaking on the Stones.  He commented about the same.  He said the require the rider to keep them heavily loaded during all phases of the corner, so you have to keep steady speed, but not upset the bike or you'll lose a lot of time.

If you poke around, back when Michelin used to do their one-off specials for every race, Rossi's tires were a much stiffer carcass then what other michelin riders used.  Edwards onced commented that he didn't understand how Rossi rode his tires, because they were stiff as a brick and Edwards couldn't get the same performance out of them when he tried them.

14 Days!!!

Woot!   [thumbsup] [thumbsup]

I can't wait.    [moto]

my interpretation means i probably should have said in order to get maximum grip.. for both cases.

too much sustained heavy load, the softer construction tires give way.  not enough sustained heavy load, the harder construction tires don't perform.

(in my muuch less sophisticated track riding) i've seen the same thing with certain tires.  they sucked until i started to go fast enough, long enough.


that's a bit of an exaggeration.  :)

Seems like a heat issue to me since tire flex equals heat.

Soft carcas = more flexible = more heat generated in the tire under sustained load, which frys the tire.

Hard carcas = less flexible = less heat generated under sustained load, meaning sustained load is necessary to keep tire at optimal temp.

The area that's really giving me trouble:

I'm assuming that there is some optimum stiffness of tire, or a least a 'good' range, the stiffness being a combination of carcass and air pressure.

A soft carcass tire would run higher pressure than a hard carcass tire to get the same stiffness.

...and then you have the issue of compound and how it interacts with the above.

these last 10 days are really gonna drag.

Srsly. 

I'll do the annual "Race season is starting so don't be douche and post spoilers" post in General next week as we get closer to the actual races. 

have to say tho, the motomatters calendar hanging in my kitchen is already doing it's job...

the wife last wknd: "oh hey, Philip Island is only 2 weeks away!"

;D

Wanna trade wives?  Not permanently or anything.  Just for race season. 

...i was generally stoked on the calendar of course but it wasn't until i hung it up that i realized the negotiations it's going to save me.  all the wsbk and GP events are advertised well ahead of time in my house

speaking of, after PI, it's another FULL MONTH before portimao >:(.  april finally gets good..

..trade, well, you'd have to quit sleeping almost entirely and start taking care of two little gremlins if you really want her for the season.  so, sure!  =)

Keep the spawn.  I've got my own.  I just want your wife -- a straight across trade for the race season, no cash in addition.  You keep the title, but I'll cover insurance for the duration.