MotoGP Austin CotA 2014 ** Spoilers **

[thought]

rossi's front donut:

That'll buff right out.


What I'm wondering is if the rest of the tire manufacturers are willing to pick up the expense of providing specialized tires to motogp.  With the current reduction in viewership... their marketing dollars might be better spent in other places.  Especially when it's a pretty big black eye if they start to mess up like Bridgestone is now... and on top of that, it's going to create a new divide in performance.  Not just the factory guys vs the non... it'll be the custom tires vs the spec tire guys.  Pretty sure that any non factory rider is going to have a hell of time trying to get tires that work for him or his bike vs the factory guys basically dictating what they want to get.

[duccarlos]

I think we beat the one tire manufacturer horse to death, but I don't mind giving the corpse a few whacks!

Here's the deal, the biggest issue was that certain manufacturers were delivering tires to certain riders right up to the Thursday before the race. It really didn't help that Michelin had a dreadful season providing tires for Rossi. I think that they can go back to multiple manufacturers as long as they set some limits on the number of tires and at what point they need to deliver the tires. Also it becomes an issue when you're doing tests like they had in PI. The more manufacturers you add, the more moving parts that need to be coordinated. Hence the original reason of lowering cost. They might just need to open the contract so that they have to bid on a yearly basis. Also, Dorna has a contract with Pirelli for WSBK. What is stopping them from switching to them after the Bridgestone contract is up?

[Speeddog]

This is MM's tire, not looking so good either:



Relying on the twitter: https://twitter.com/manziana/status/456130704338731008/photo/1
Possibly it's Pedrosa's, I don't remember their respective gloves or boots.

[derby]

I think that they can go back to multiple manufacturers as long as they set some limits on the number of tires and at what point they need to deliver the tires.

That's exactly what they did in 2007-2008.

[derby]

This is MM's tire, not looking so good either:



Relying on the twitter: https://twitter.com/manziana/status/456130704338731008/photo/1
Possibly it's Pedrosa's, I don't remember their respective gloves or boots.

That's Marquez. Dani usually wears orange boots.

[duccarlos]

That's exactly what they did in 2007-2008.

Didn't go so well then.

[Speeddog]

Scott Redding's front tire.

Nuthin' wrong with that. 

[koko64]

 

[thought]

 

What I dont understand is how these are the 2013 tires... supposedly should be the same ones they used all year with no huge probs cept at PI.  And now they run them again at COTA, where they did great last year, and now they all implode.

And it seemed to be all the riders in the paddock having issues so it's not just a one off defect.

[Speeddog]

< snork > 

[1.21GW]

Scott Redding's front tire.

Nuthin' wrong with that. 

Did he ride through a hay field?

[Triple J]

Redding's tire is unbelievable...WTF!

[Speeddog]

What I dont understand is how these are the 2013 tires... supposedly should be the same ones they used all year with no huge probs cept at PI.  And now they run them again at COTA, where they did great last year, and now they all implode.

And it seemed to be all the riders in the paddock having issues so it's not just a one off defect.

From what I've seen in print, only the medium compound rear was a 2013 spec.

Leading one to assume that the soft and medium fronts, and the soft and hard rears were 2014 spec.
Supporting that to an extent, Bridgestone's chief engineer Masao Azuma specifically states  <strongly asserts but does not specifically state> in their press release that the hard rears are 2014 spec:
http://www.motomatters.com/press_release/2014/04/16/bridgestone_press_release_masao_azuma_ad.html

Standard definition of 'assume' noted......

<edit>

[ChrisK]

Marquez had that anti-gravity rear tire fitted for Austin:

https://www.snappytv.com/tc/219536?autoplay=true&h=244&ss=&w=435

[triangleforge]

Nice laws of physics you got here. Sure would be a shame if something happened to them.

I liked the way Matt Oxley described it in his blog:

"Márquez has moved the game on and is now doing things on his Repsol Honda RC213V at every other corner that most riders can only dream off doing once every other race.

"What we saw at Austin was a new Márquez, a MM93 1.2, an updated version, upgraded with hitherto unseen levels of confidence. He spent the entire weekend playing with his motorcycle, getting into some frankly ridiculous situations: riding sideways over the inside kerb, front wheel two inches in the air, or rear tyre six inches in the air as he braked and cranked into a corner, front tyre tucking as the rear regained the asphalt, transferring potentially disastrous forces through the rest of the motorcycle."

http://www.motomatters.com/blog/2014/04/16/guest_blog_mat_oxley_marc_m_rquez_he_s_p.html