GuzziMoto

Respect for doing that race. More respect for doing it on a Guzzi. I would not do that race, but if I did a Guzzi would not be my mount of choice. Clearly not meant to dis Guzzi's, just I don't think they are the best bike for that "track".

I would check where the R/R is getting its reference voltage from. The stock one got its reference voltage from the headlight circuit, and the voltage drop from the draw of the headlight was factored into its settings. Replacing the R/R with an aftermarket R/R may require changing where the R/R gets its reference voltage, otherwise it may overcharge. Where as, changing where the stock R/R gets its reference voltage from may cause the system to undercharge since the stock target voltage is low because it is including the voltage drop from the headlight. Eliminate that and its target voltage should mean it undercharges. There are also common issues with the ground for the charging system. DC voltage is 50% voltage and 50% ground. A restriction on either side restricts the whole thing. As mentioned, the relays are a known issue as well as their bases. A good relay with a poor connection doesn't work any better then a bad relay.

Should also add, I would check and / or replace the relays as docc mentioned. If relay #2 turns off it will turn off key elements, like the fuel pump and the main headlight (the running light I mentioned will stay on). Also watch for bad connections in the base that the relays plug into. The relays are a known issue, but the base they plug into is also a known issue. Something seems wrong with your charging, when running the battery voltage should be up at or over 14 volts from the charging system.

It is not out of the question that Marc Marquez could win this years title. But if he can't win it I suspect he would rather Jorge Martin win it. Hopefully that won't happen again.

And there you go, Practice 2 (which is timed and counts towards qualifying) has Pecco Bagnia on top with Marc Marquez second and Jorge Martin third. When the pace was upped, Pol Espargaro had nothing, and fell back out of the top 10 (13th). But winning the race is not why Pol is there. Being in the top 10 in Practice 2 gives you a direct spot in Q2, everyone else has to go through Q1 and only the top two in Q1 get to run Q2.

Yeah, cultural differences can be huge. And it gets even weirder when cultures merge. For example, normally someone might say "Mr Myers, can you help me with this?" or someone might say "Michael, can you help me with this?". But sometimes the two merge and someone says "Mr Michael, can you help me with this?". Using the formal Mr or Mrs in front of the first name instead of the last name. I work in the same office as my wife, and we do not kiss often in the office. Kissing in the office may be frowned upon, and someone might not know we are married. "Hello, HR?". Anyway, in FP1 Jorge Martin was fastest with Marc Marquez second quick. Pol Espargaro, who is doing a wildcard ride was third quick on his developmental KTM. Pecco Bagnia was in eighth, struggling a little with soreness but honestly he isn't the kind of racer who is usually quick out of the gate. He tends to work his speed up more slowly then some.

I am a little confused. A V11 Sport in the US should always have the headlight on when it is running, right? And that would be important as the V11 Sport charging system takes its battery voltage measurement to know how much voltage is in the battery from the headlight circuit, downstream of the headlight bulb as I recall. So a headlight that is off or even burned out could / would stop the charging system from working properly. Also, the V11 Sport has a headlight and a lower wattage light in the headlight bucket that is a running light. I assume that is for markets where the headlight can be turned off. If the main headlight is out for any reason it is possible to see the lower wattage running light and mistake that for the headlight. I have done that. The two lights are feed by different circuits so it is possible for the lower wattage light to be on while the main headlight is off. I do agree, if you have a Power Commander and it is not running right it is really easy to take the Power Commander out of the equation by unplugging it and seeing if the problem goes away.

Sorry. It can get even worse. In some cases on the AF1 forum people just use initials, like PB for Pecco Bagnia or MM for Marc Marquez. And back in the day when Jorge Lorenzo was still racing he tended to be known as JLo. It makes it easier to type. While P6 can certainly call Pecco Bagnia Francesco, I suspect only his mother calls him that (when she is mad at him). I typically say / type Pecco or Bagnia. But aside from Pecco, everyone else just has a first name and a last name (on the AF1 forum some guys have unofficial nick-names, that can also make it more complicated. Marc Marquez, for example, is "The Joker" among other nick-names). And I usually use last names but sometimes I use first names, usually with people like the two Marquez brothers (because there are two Marquez brothers just saying Marquez doesn't tell you which one). Honestly, when you know peoples first and last names as a set it isn't as hard to follow. Same as everyday life. I have co-workers that I sometimes refer to by their first name and sometimes by their last name. Do you not do that same? Last names are more formal, but first names are usually shorter. But sometimes there are two Kevins, so using a last name instead can help be more specific. Like say Alex or Marc instead of Marquez since there are two guys in MotoGP with the last name Marquez.

If Guzzi made a modern V8 version of their V8 GP bike I would for sure buy one, as long as I financially could afford it. If for no reason other then how cool it would sound.

As a racer, if the guy in front of me had run that far off line I would have went by him the same way Pecco did. I really don't know a racer that would not have done the same thing there. He was looking for a chance to make a clean pass on Alex, and when Alex ran wide he had his chance. If he had not went for that it is hard to say if he would have had a better chance on a track that was as one line and slippery as that track was. And if Alex fought as hard as he did after running wide, it seems likely he would have fought just as hard the next chance Pecco had. I see nothing that says it would have been easier if Pecco had waited. I do agree about Alex riding like he was because he really wanted to be on the podium with his brother for his brothers first win in years. I think it is clear he was either hanging onto that podium or he was crashing. Which is why I don't see how Pecco waiting would have helped, unless Pecco should have accepted fourth. Any pass attempt Pecco made was likely to be met with the same amount of aggression and determination that resulted in this crash. Pecco had beat Alex to the next corner. The corner was Pecco's. Alex threw it in there way too tight and going too fast to make the corner. In hindsight, perhaps it would have been smarter for Pecco to yield, let Alex throw it into the corner like that, and then go by Alex after he runs wider or throws it down because he wasn't going to make that next corner. But hindsight is a luxury that Pecco did not have in that moment. Just glad Pecco was not hurt. I am personally rooting for Martin in the title fight, but I would rather they settle the title fight without outside influences. We don't need another championship decided in part by people not involved directly in the title fight. I don't expect others to get out of the two title contenders way, but I don't expect a mid-pack guy like Alex to take out the championship leader in a desperate attempt to stay on the podium. I think Alex ran wide and he should have known that Pecco was going to beat him to the next corner. But I am not sure about a rule that says that. I don't think a rule like that would work. It would become a judgement call and I don't like judgement calls. Did he really run wide? Does he have to yield? I do think that some clarity and consistency with regard to one rider hitting another rider would help. But I am not sure a new rule would help.

I am not a conspiracy theory guy. But I have no doubt some people think Alex took out Pecco to help Mark beat Pecco in the points this year (or insert your conspiracy theory here). I don't think Alex or Marc cares if Martin wins the title, but I do think Marc would love to beat Pecco in the points this year. He would rather win the title, but beating Pecco in the points would be almost as good. That said, I think none of that factored into the crash. I think it was simply a matter of Alex being determined to hold on to that third place podium so he could share that podium with his brother. He wanted that so bad he was willing to do anything he could, even if it meant Pecco didn't finish. Unfortunately for him he also didn't finish. No doubt that wasn't part of the plan. But Alex appeared to make no effort to avoid the contact. He was likely focused on not falling down during the contact, but it did not work.

In my opinion Vinales did what he always does. You never know which version of him will show up. If he feels good, if he has confidence, he can be amazingly fast. But on that track, with those low grip levels, he was never going to show up feeling good, feeling confident. And without that feeling, without that confidence, he will struggle. I was not surprised Marc Marquez won. Nobody should have been. It was not a sure thing, but he was clearly the favorite to win. I think he was the favorite before they even turned a lap in practice. After practice it was pretty clear he was better that weekend then anyone else. The only person who could have stopped Marc from winning that race was Marc. Unless he screwed the pooch and made one of his classic mistakes, he was going to win. Between the left hand counter-clockwise layout and the excessively low grip due to the recent re-paving, he was in his happy place. Being fairly opinionated, I certainly have an opinion on the Alex Marquez / Pecco Bagnia crash. It seems I agree with Simon Crafer, it was a racing incident but the blame was clearly on Alex. He should have seen Pecco, as Pecco was 90% in front of him (also, his angle going into the corner was such that he should have seen that Pecco was on the racing line and mostly in front of him. But as Marquez crashes go that was fairly tame as far as recklessness is concerned. It clearly wasn't tame as far as danger is concerned, he literally ran over Pecco. But for a Marquez crash it was not bad. I would guess that Alex was determined to hold on to that podium, he really wanted to finish on the podium with his brother for his brothers first win in a few years. He was in podium or bin it mode. And he binned it. Sadly, he took Pecco with him. But this may be the new reality for Ducati. With both Marquez brothers on Ducati's, the old "All for one, one for all" mentality will probably not be there. The Marquez brothers are only out for themselves. Not only did Alex mess up, he took Ducati's number one rider and championship contender with him. It will be funny if the points lost that day end up costing Pecco the title, Martin wins the title, and Martin takes the number 1 plate with him to Aprilia. I will laugh, they did it to themselves.

A trellis frame does not refer to where it attaches to the engine or even if it attaches to the engine. It refers to the trellis design of the frame itself (in this case trellis means it is made up of metal tubes). Where it attaches to the engine doesn't enter into it. And wow, the arrogance it takes to say that something that happened did not happen because you have never noticed it happening. Wow.

I think the clue is in the other direction. Ogura would not sign to ride the Honda, and instead chose to ride the Aprilia. And I suspect many other racers Honda wanted would also not sign to ride their bike. It is not a seat that too many racers want. So they had to take what they could get. Chantra is pretty far down the list, no doubt. But you never know, he may do well on it. I doubt it, but the bar for "well" on the Honda is pretty low. As to Roberts, his problem now is his age, having missed out on this cycle means he will be too old in two years when the next round of contracts is open. So unless a change happens mid-cycle I don't see him getting a MotoGP seat.

This is what makes it a carbon fiber version of the trellis frame they had at the time. By that point their "trellis frame" was a trellis that connected the steering head to the engine cases. The engine itself was part of the "frame". The swing arm pivoted in the engine cases. The carbon frame was a similar design, it was a carbon fiber structure that connected the steering head to the engine cases. They had already switched from a full trellis frame to the abbreviated trellis before the carbon frame came to be. It was part of the gradual shift at Ducati, the slow loss of competitive speed, even in the hands of Stoner. On a side note, back in the day when I raced a trellis frame Ducati 750 where the swing arm pivoted in the engine cases the team mechanic found he could literally tell how hard I was riding by looking at how much oil wept from the seam in the engine cases. The harder I rode the more the engine cases moved relative to each other and the more oil would weep at the seam. I also had an aluminum full frame Ducati, where the engine was solidly mounted but it was not at any point in the structure the entire path of forces in the chassis, and it never did that no matter how hard I rode. You sure can make a frame like that work, but it becomes much hard to adjust frame rigidity when the engine itself is a major part of the frame. Especially in a era where all your engines have to be submitted at the start of the season. That means you don't have as much adjustability over the course of the season with regard to frame flex or lack there of.

It was a surprise for me. Not sure what he brings to the table that Roberts doesn't other then being some 4 years younger. They currently seem to be about the same speed wise. I would have understood passing up Roberts for a better choice, but I don't get passing up Roberts for someone else with about the same ability. And while Ogura might sell well in Asia, he isn't going to sell them well in their own country. And that was supposed to be part of their deal, to expand MotoGP in the US. This signing will not help with that at all. But it is what it is. Maybe Ogura will do better then Brivio's other "successful" signings. He gets a lot of credit for bring guys into MotoGP, but only one of them had real success, Mir. And that success was winning the title while only winning one race. To this day he only has that one race win.

In two seasons Casey Stoner had 7 wins on the carbon chassis. That is not good for Casey Stoner, he finished 4th in both seasons on the carbon bike. Again, not good for Casey Stoner. He switched from the carbon Ducati to the Honda and promptly won the title. I take all that as the carbon chassis Ducati was not as good as the aluminum chassis bikes it was racing against. That doesn't mean it couldn't be better, sure it could. But maybe they should have developed it to where it was an improvement before switching to it. They started out at a deficit to the aluminum chassis bikes in terms of speed and without any internal metric it seems they were never going to get it to where it was better then a conventional chassis bike. And in the end, that is what racing is about. And honestly, it would be a fools argument that Ducati made the wrong choice there as they switched to an aluminum chassis and now the Ducati (with an aluminum chassis) is the dominant bike in MotoGP. Could a carbon fiber chassis bike win in MotoGP? Sure. With enough development I have no doubt it can and will. But right now it looks like KTM and Aprilia are the two most likely to do so. I do think Ducati's carbon fiber chassis was handicapped because they seemed to have built a carbon fiber chassis that was an evolution of the hybrid trellis chassis, where the chassis was sharing its job with the engine cases. But it is the past, and Ducati seem to have moved on quite well. Hindsight would say they made the right choice.

I am not sure about converting a V11 Sport to run on E85, but unlike some others here I get the reasons you would want to. Even in a normally aspirated engine it can make more power and fewer emissions. But one major fear would be the plastic fuel tank of the V11 Sport seems to have issues with ethanol in the gasoline causing it to swell. Not sure it is possible, but the ideal way to go seems like it would be a dual fuel setup with a fuel sensor. That way you could run it on E85 or regular gasoline. I am not sure I would want to be pigeon-holed to only be able to run E85. It is just not available everywhere around here. There is an interesting test done where some people ran a Chevy LS V8 on different fuels. On each fuel they messed with ignition timing and fueling to find best power. First they ran 87 octane E10 gasoline. The engine made about 500 hp, and wanted 29 degrees of timing advance. They then ran the same engine on 91 E10, 110 race gas, and 116 race gas. On all the different fuels the engine made almost exactly the same power, around 500 hp, with the same curve. It also wanted the same 29 degrees of timing, regardless of the octane of the fuel. Then they ran the engine on E85. The engine made noticeably more power through the entire curve, but funnily enough the motor wanted the same 29 degrees of timing. I really enjoyed the test, it disproved a few common engine myths. Sure, a boosted engine can benefit more from E85 then a normally aspirated engine. But most engines can make more power on E85 then they can make on gasoline. Fuel mileage will be worse, noticeably worse, but power will be better. And emissions should be less. The subject has been brought up a few times in the past. Not sure if any of it ever went anywhere.

To be fair, Stoner said he liked the CF chassis, but was not able to go fast on it. He believed it had promise, but it was not ready for primetime yet, and even with Stoner on it the CF chassis was not a winner. I am pretty sure the move to an aluminum chassis was made for the same reason you seem to suggest KTM should switch to Ohlins suspension. It was the quickest and easiest way to get on par with the others. From there, once you are on par you can then start developing new designs and see if they are actually faster. But rolling out a new design before it is actually faster is a mistake. Ducati rolled out the CF chassis before it was faster. And then they had nothing to reference it to internally, so they were lost. As to the steel trellis frame and each one feeling different, that is true. But that may be why KTM don't really run a trellis frame anymore. First they went from a steel trellis frame to what could best be described as a steel beam frame. That would have reduced, if not eliminated, the frame to frame differences you tend to get with a trellis frame. Then they rolled out the carbon fiber frame, we don't know exactly how it is made because KTM are careful to limit pictures and they aren't revealing things like that (understandably). But it is clearly not made up from pre made carbon fiber tubes. It looks very similar to the previous steel beam frame, but has some visible differences. But exactly how it is made no one outside KTM seem to know. It does seem to allow them to change the weave and layup of the carbon to alter the flex of the frame, as you mention. Their issue seems to be that once they hit on a combination of weave and layup that worked with the spec tires Michelin changed the spec tires, the goalposts have moved.

Some of KTMs issues stem from subtle changes to the range of Michelin tires that are spec'd. They seem to be struggling with the new tires, so are the 2023 Ducati's. That is one of the issues with spec tires. It seems obvious that spec tires are fair and equal to all. But KTM have a very different chassis design that would likely do much better with different tires than the others, who all now have an aluminum beam style chassis. Think back to Ducati trying to make their carbon fiber chassis work. It likely could have worked, but they were struggling to get it to work with the same tires everyone else was using. In the end, they realized it would be easier to build a chassis the same way everyone else at the time was doing. And that was right. But KTM is heavily invested in the steel chassis idea, and they do not want to loose that. They have already moved from a tubular trellis chassis to what could be described as a steel beam chassis to then a carbon fiber beam chassis. But switching to aluminum is not a move they are yet willing to make. So they are struggling to make their chassis work with the current spec tires. And each time they seem to get closer, the goal posts move, Michelin changes the tire construction and/or compound. Also, the current bikes do things to the tires due to the aero cr@p that is crazy, the tires struggle with temp and pressure. Follow someone else too closely and the tire temps and pressures go up and out of the window for best performance. In all my years of racing I never had to deal with anything like that. The Michelin tires seem to work best at the bottom edge of their pressure window, and any increase in temp causes the pressure to rise above that optimum pressure. That does not make for better racing. This has been exacerbated by the addition of tire pressure sensors measuring tire pressure real time and penalties being applied for the pressure going below that threshold for a substantial percentage of the race. This has all been done in the name of safety, but there were no safety issues to begin with, there were no tire failures occurring due to the low pressures being run. It was merely the fear that such failures could occur that lead to the tire pressure rules. No actual tire pressure problem existed. Not sure if Ducati will continue to dominate until 2027, but for sure next year things will be dramatically shaken up. Not sure how things will change next year, but odds are things will change next year with the changes happening at Ducati.

Wow, that is cold. Pretty sure I have more motorcycle racing experience them Phil. But you do you. I'm out.

Yes, it seemed very simple and obvious. But the realities of speed on a race track are rarely simple. There are many factors at play, ranging from tire grip to engine settings and gearing. He made it look easy, but I am pretty sure it wasn't easy. But I do get that many will have seen that and assume that there is a conspiracy in play, that Ducati are working behind the scenes to make sure Bagnia wins and not Martin. I don't believe that is true, but I have no doubt some will. I agree that Ducati would rather Bagnia won over Martin, but in the end I don't see them working against a guy on their bike, I don't see them doing anything to slow Martin down. I get them working harder to help Bagnia, but not actively working against a guy on their bike. That would make them look bad, and Ducati don't race to look bad.

Yeah, that would be a concern for next year. Ducati would be kidding themselves if they think next years two factory team riders will work together like this years. Even though he is being shown the door Bastianini is still a team player. I could see Marc even poisoning the well by giving false feedback so when they ask his mechanic (since he isn't going to directly help his team mate) they get bad info.

Yeah, I assume the conspiracy theory people will be all over that. He did motor by with ease. Break out the tin foil hats.....

Well, the Austrian GP came and went. It was not an overly exciting race, but it was an excellent ride by Pecco, showing why he is already a world champion. Jorge Martin did an amazing lap in qualy, but sadly he did not have that pace in the race. Had he not messed up in the sprint Martin might have had something for Pecco there, but that mistake missing the chicane and the bigger mistake by not slowing down to loose a second was pretty costly. How did he not see that coming?