7 replies to this topic

[jonnoj]

With practically every class of bikes being based on production bikes, can anyone get to build and race a bike they've created, tuned or altered?

Before these days of 'formula' racing, we'd see bikes on the grid that had been worked on by known tuners or frame builders. Along with the Lancefields, Broads, Dunstalls, there would be the QUB bikes and motocross engines in homemade frames. Is there room for today's racing bikes to be improved?

[rd500]

hi, i cant see it going anywhere from next year after they force in moto 3 and the 1000 modified proddys. the whole thing is going nowhere fast, in the relentless chase for money dorna and the manufacturer's have ridden this tidle wave on the back of rossi and completely lost what was the whole point of grand prix as well as the years of history.

sadly this has boiled over into national racing as the organisers desperately try to modify the rules for the close racing the armchair fan craves so much.

this in turn has made all racing bikes clones, so the armchair fan can watch close racing and trundle off to the local dealer and buy the 600 of their dreams.

my point is that there has been a backward motion in motorcycle racing in the last 10 years, would there be much isse made of simoncelli 10+ years ago, i doubt it very much. also think back to when you rode or spectacled at a meeting years ago and it rained, it was a bit of a pain in the butt but now it makes for drama, unless of course you are in the uk where they try their hardest not to compete in the rain at all now.

the only thing that has advanced is electronics on motorcycles, and harold bartol sorted that one out when he said - performance 4 strokes need such devices because the torque curve is very poor - are we going back to a class set the fim scrapped in the 80s, remember FI,II and III. proddie cases and frames of whatever kind.

even in the 80s we had more engineering technology like the elf, fior or the cobas etc, i believe people when they are calling this the lost decade. people have said to me - but they used road engines the 50s and 60s - yes but there werent the restrictions there is now and you could have done what you liked practically and this in turn was given back to road rider in the next years bike.

because flamini was given his world production championship (should never have been a world championship) and the fim have lost the plot we are seeing road bikes coming out with launch control etc so they can use it in said series as a standard fitment, in a way im becoming more and more withdrawn from it, i actually dont miss it at all and to hear that dorna are trying to sell it just sums it up really. to be frank i couldn't give a flying duck who won the bsb or what happened in the moto gp.

its interesting to watch the whole thing choking itself, so sit back and enjoy their next move. i dont think there is any room for homemade stuff now accept in the smallest of club races. how good would it have been if norton had the rotary for moto gp and to see the faces of the spanish money men as it made there technological dinosaurs look like they were going backwards, it would of been banned by the end the end of the lap. remember the trouble they went to ban the KERS on the ktm a few years back? please remember people we cannot advance technology at the price of profit. cheers ian

Edited by rd500, 31 May 2011 - 08:44.

[fil2.8]

Very well said

[rd500]

my rd500,h2 kh400 and rgv250 are considered old technology, go figure?

[rd500]

fil2.8 i thank you for your comments to my posts

Edited by rd500, 31 May 2011 - 22:59.

[Hoofhearted]

You don't "tune" bikes anymore. You plug in your laptop and program them.

[jonnoj]

You don't "tune" bikes anymore. You plug in your laptop and program them.

Can a laptop port a head or do any of those fiddly things a top tuner could do to get the last drop out of an engine?

[llmaurice]

Can a laptop port a head or do any of those fiddly things a top tuner could do to get the last drop out of an engine?

That is the biggest problem.There is hardly any point in pulling the current CBR Honda ,S1000 BMW etc. apart as they are so spot on that there is hardly anything to gain and it seems the current "generation" of people that ride bikes (as opposed to bikers of yore)are only interested in bikes that can drive past your front door and with a paint job yours can look identical.
Having recently dropped out of an outfit that is competing in the Ducastropie 848 Challenge in the UK I had to laugh when one of the team "followers"went public to say "they even have to strip the clutch after each session" !
Having spent ages with 250s where after each session the barrels come off ,rings and ring grooves
inspected and relieved,clutch taken apart etc. and gear ratios changed as required I feel that if the current breed of "enthusiasts" saw the above taking place their thought would be "why bother with all that " ?
Personally ,I feel that when the learner laws came in then the low horsepower learner bikes were introduced , the death knell was sounded for our beloved two strokes and the interest in bikes continues to go downhill as less and less youngsters get involved .
I don't think there is "an answer" so lets just enjoy what we like and if folks want to deride the current GP bikes and F1 cars , well -don't watch them .Just walk away and do something else!
Fortunately , in the UK ,the North Gloucester Club still has a 250 C/ship and Bemsee have two two stroke race series with MZs and the TZR/Ypvs c/ships so maybe we are luckier than many so lets enjoy that whilst we can .Remember that a good Yamaha R6 600 would probably see off what were considered as the pinnacle in club racing some time ago e.g.,TZ700,750 and 500 .