jihem

Iggy is bad. He's a torn cafe racer that will dig deeper than you in a nasty corner and cut your line... As for the Buell pointing, I dunno. Iggy's life has seen ups and downs and like every musician, the right choices are sometimes dictated by the amount of food you have in your plate or not...

I would disagree as I believe they're not playing the same league. Clapton is a great guitar player, when Hendrix was a great ELECTRIC guitar player who made and played songs for this specific medium while Clapton was "merely" using electricity for itself. JHendrix was more inventive, adventurous and bold, when Clapton, all brilliant than he is, is an instrumentalist more than a composer. From the sixties, I would personally pick up Hendrix, Zappa, John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service ), and Jimmy Page ( . Now, we're only talking about guitar in a solist way and that spares you to have to look at great videos from arguably one of the best rock band ever: Iggy And The Stooges.

we're that close to the look of a 916'back

I actually like its look and the pointing angles do work for me. Kudos to Brian, he proposes something different for people who want to alter the way their V11 look. The dashboard really interests me actually. Digital dashboard…………………€565,00 Main road functions Speedometer Odometer and trip Engine RPM Main warning lights Track functions: Stop-watch computer Lap-time display and memorization 100 laps storing

looks like some kind of official video, with real hooligan added content

Bruno just send me the pics of the new Sport Monza... It's a frame/engine/goodies kit that can be bolt on any given V11. V11/Sport Monza Kit……………………… €5.240,00 Body fairing, front/rear frames, seat, lights, gasoline tank and pump, chin spoiler Carbon fiber chin spoiler………………………€250,00 Digital dashboard…………………€565,00 Main road functions Speedometer Odometer and trip Engine RPM Main warning lights Track functions: Stop-watch computer Lap-time display and memorization 100 laps storing V11 push-rod……………€85,00

i had two Ducatis before my Ghezzi ( a 1989 750 Sport and a 1993 Superlight) and I loved them. They are exhilirating bikes but they do have some serious flaws (the Superlight especially: carbs would freeze, suspension arm would break (warrantly replacement) , new battery every year, REGULATOR, and the list goes on///). Plus the Ducati stores are a real pain in the neck and the Ducati crowd can be extremely annoying (this is what you get when owning one has become a social statement among some). But they're great, fun, fast bikes to ride.

I actually have ask a friend of mine who's a motorbike journalist, and he had the pleasure to ride several MotoGP bikes. When journalists, or Shumi, ride them, the map they're using is the softest one possible. It's very true they are temperamental bikes, but they could be ridden relatively not slow by most good riders. But they're real beasts to ride fast. The problem isn't really to be within 5 or 7 seconds of the pole time (most fast riders, or people used to fast velocities like Shumacher, could achieve that), the problem starts once you try to go faster than within these 5 seconds. THERE it's really very shaky and the bike goes all around the place and you get your arms pumping mad and your breath is taken away cos the acceleration is outta this world and you just can't take the carbon brakes after 5 laps... He says, among other things, that these bikes aren't as brutal as the ol' 500 2 strokes were, and the new crop of 250cc riders coming up do find the acceleration breathtaking but more easy to fine tune than on their 250 bikes. The hard part is that lap times and speed have increase so much that there are more things to control (cos the dynamic of a motorbike remains the same, with or without TC there's still a moving two wheels object to direct) in a smaller amount of time. Cornering speed have increase a lot, straight speed has been rocketing, braking distances have been shortened a lot by carbon brakes, all those elements mean that while electronics do help in some departments, today's racers have more inputsto process and more outputs to generate in a smaller time frame. All I'm saying is Bring It On, the show is amazing

this can go on and on and on and this is where one guy says : "if it was really the case, why aren't all the bikes in the same team having the exact same performances ? ". Just because one guy can cut off all its survivor instincts and full open the throttle in the middle of the corner, and doesn't even pray, doesn't make him the fastest. The rider is still what makes the bike goes fast. TC is only one parameter in many that are needed to be able to use a racing motorcycle to its best. I do agree tho, 800cc GP bikes aren't the beast the 990c were, and nowhere near what the 500cc 2 strokes were at the times. But the times they are different, that was then, this is now. >Rossi pointed this out a year ago, it's too much like f1 these days. Rossi talks a lot when he's losing

Isn't that exactly what people were saying about Stoner in his first year of MotoGP, and then he moved on to Ducati (and bridgestone) and he stopped crashing ? yes, sure, but they're still riding 145 kgs/240 HP bikes that most of us wouldn't be able to hold on a track for a full lap. Isn't that what Max Biaggi did in 1998 (pole first race, win first race, that year he won twice, was 8 times on the podium, and finished 2nd to Doohan) ? And so did Rossi, and I'm pretty sure there are other examples. I read a lot against TC and electronics and strategy and how it was so much harder "back then". Well, the roadracers of today are confronted to challenges the old riders didn't have yet. The actual cornering speed is way way higher today, the acceleration now is totally crazy, the forces they need to come up with to resist braking is stupendous, the overall speed at which they travel on a race track is wild (i mean 347 kmh per hour on a motorbike,...). So, i don't think we can compare today's racing to yesterdays'. It's just different. The way today's riders meet their challenges doesn't make them diminished riders at all. The basic techniques are still to be known and used and a lot more parameters do get into play.

I disagree. Altho the electronics do add something different to the equation, there's still a pilot who needs to control the thing and they're not all alike and not all react the same way. The guy at the front isn't there cos he's the less fearful of them, he's there cos he's the one who can combine the better all the elements involved in a motorbike race, and that still implies throttle control, brakes control, angle of the bike, use of the front brake vs rear brake (Stoner uses a lot of rear brake), braking points, lines to be chosen, fast thinking, race tactics and agressivity, mental strength, physical condition, etc...etc... Stoner is what he is cos his upbringing has taken him to this point of excellence. Sure, his attitude seems to be "go for it and stop thinking about it" but still he has thousands of decision to make during a lap and he's better than the others at that. Racing at night in dirt track back in Australia really helped him last week in Qatar cos he had raced before where there wasn't even decent lighting and he couldn't see the track. But he's the kind of racer that would have been doing very well at the time of the crazy 500 2 strokes too. He's just very good and totally intune with the bike he races right now. And as far as riding a 145 kgs bike with 230 HP is concerned, it's surely more than most average bikers can take. respect

While he surely still has a few good races ahead of him, I think his reign ended last night. Oh, he'll win some races, sure, but i don't think he'll be world champion (in MotoGP) again: the new crops are very good, very fast, and definitively NOT afraid of him. On the tv screen, last night, Vale looked old.

yes this is going to be an extremely spectacular year !

i really want Marco to do well too, but I doubt very much we'll see that this year. he seems extremely confused (and I bet the ducati board must be too...)

still, they'll take some, goood The results at the Quatar Night Test show, again, Stoner in a different league than the others: 1. C. Stoner, DUCATI MARLBORO - 1'55.330 / 61t. 2. J. Lorenzo, FIAT YAMAHA - 1'56.019 / 77 3. R. De Puniet, LCR HONDA MotoGP - 1'56.062 / 88 4. A. Dovizioso, JiR TEAM SCOT - 1'56.121 / 81 5. J. Toseland, TECH3 YAMAHA - 1'56.251 / 90 6. A. De Angelis, HONDA GRESINI - 1'56.571 / 69 7. J.Hopkins, KAWASAKI RACING - 1'56.614 / 71 8. D. Pedrosa, REPSOL HONDA TEAM - 1'56.621 / 72 9. V. Rossi, FIAT YAMAHA - 1'56.749 / 82 10. C. Edwards, TECH3 YAMAHA - 1'56.762 / 86 11. T. Elias, ALICE TEAM - 1'57.007 / 85 12. N. Hayden, REPSOL HONDA TEAM - 1'57.010 / 91 13. S. Nakano, HONDA GRESINI - 1'57.223 / 79 14. C. Vermeulen, RIZLA SUZUKI - 1'57.522 / 80 15. L. Capirossi, RIZLA SUZUKI - 1'57.551 / 66 16. M. Melandri, DUCATI MARLBORO - 1'57.593 / 70 17. S. Guintoli, ALICE TEAM - 1'57.644 / 66 18. A. West, KAWASAKI RACING - 1'57.787 / 51 Stoner said it felt like being in the videogame "Need For Speed". Lorenzo described the feeling as "like if you were alone on the track". Most of them mentionned the cold being worst than the night time riding actually.

Pardon the possible naivety in my question, but will they race the famous banking and all or will the track be different ? I know a few people who raced bikes there and they say that banking is just the most insane thing possible on a bike....

I just see it as an evolution, and there were lots of steps where you can look back and wonder 'had this to do with motorbikes ?' What about the arrival of two strokes ? Eight cylinders ? 6 cylinders ? big bang engines ? injection ? disc brakes ? slick tyres, Q tyres ? Everytime a new technological advance was made available to the riders, some of them didn't adjust too well to the new parameters and just faded away. Here, no one would notice if the fading rider in question wasn't a history maker like Rossi. Everyone loves him and it's a shame to see him on bad machinery, and not winnng as he used to. But we shouldn't ban TC just because it alters the way bikes behave. There's still a man on top of that bike, in a curve, at 280 kph... Stoner was a crasher, yes, and he was in a spanish team where competition is known to be really harsh and merciless and personal pressure was intense. Then he got sign to Ducati, where the atmosphere (while merciless at the top managment floor) is better and far more family like, he got to evolve more, they "embraced" him and his girlfriend and he just felt at home and liberated. The Ducati has always been fast, from the first GP model in 2003, and he just melted with it and comprehend the new formula better than other riders. I see no problems with electronics, the ballet of bikes is just as magical as it always was, new riders come in and older ones go out...And i'm extremely excited it's a Ducati on top of the bill

There seems to be very few people who can ride to maximum effect that heavily-charged-in-electronic-controls Ducati around. Stoner definitively can but, last year, Capirossi had a real hard time get to grip with the traction control on the 800cc, and so do Elias and Melandri: they just don't 'trust' the system enough to let go. All these devices do filter the way informations go back to the rider and not everyone can read the bikes now. Apparently, as an example, with the Ducati TC, you can open full throttle in the middle of the corner, then you pray for the Marelli to do its job... That doesn't diminish the talent of the rider, it's just that something additional is being asked from them and some handle the new situation better than others.

Let's be generous

Sylvain Guintoli, on the Ducati Alice satellite team could be one rookie to watch if he beats the infamous Capirossi syndrome. And, yes, Toseland. Definitively.

that would be a great start for a novel...

from what I know, KTM will enter in 1000 Stock, but not yet in WSBK Team KTM Maehr Superstock: Mahr Rene, Pauli Pekkanen

The Fireblade was WSBK winner last year, with Toseland. And its street version runs among all the other in sportbikes tests. But I see what you mean about Honda loosing some of its focus. It's been taken off guard by Ducati, really. No one expected Bologna to come up with a bike that good in 800cc. They went for a screamer, and it took anyone by surprise. Mind you, their 990 was so good that it prompted Honda to gently ask for a cc reduction to 800cc for "safety reasons"

thanx for the tip. except for the flowed heads, PC III and dynobench tuning, we didn't do much more to the engine, except using KN pods cos the frame/airbox of the bike couldn't breath no more. I'll look into the lashes !

I have a Scola RS installed. Heads have been flowed, KN pods installed, etc...the bike is now very much more nervous and fast. But won't idle too well.