Pre-season MotoGP 2012 tests just finished today at Jerez...

[ape66]

Edwards tested his new bike and guess what????? It has front end chatter. I like Edwards, but I'm not sure how everybike that he has ridden since he left WSB has had front end chatter. Even though his teammates never talk about it and they have better results. I'm just tired of the broken record.

i hear what your saying.
'he is a pretty cool dude' but your right there always seems to be something not quite right with the bike.
Is he still in moto gp for he's development skills or his riding skills not sure which one??

[olie]

reading on crash rossi only did one lap or two in the 39's the rest was in the 40's to 41's so is he going to be a contender or a protender again this year???

....someone needs to contend with the CRT's...

[ape66]

....someone needs to contend with the CRT's...

Ha Ha LoL give them something to chase ya reckon

[potere]

Hail Marys can win the game because Dorna is the referee. All they have to do is modify the rules enough to push the advantage away from the Factory bikes and towards the CRTs. Lowering the rpm limit is one way to do this, and a higher weight limit is another step. The last advantage that the Factories will have is the best riders. But, what if the sponsors start to shift their support money over to the CRTs and the riders follow because of a perceived rules advantage of the CRTs? It's game over for the Factories, unless they decide to start selling CRTs too.

You probably know Dorna does not decide these things in a vacuum, the factories have votes also. For example, if Ducati gets beat by an Aprilia, they will scream bloody murder about their weight penalty, you can bet on that. And if you read my post again, you'll see the comment about how the factories are very nervous at how closely the Aprilia factory is working with some of the CRT teams which is too late now to vote against.

This hail Mary is indeed no way to right a listing ship but it may work, we'll see.

[Prilliant03]

You probably know Dorna does not decide these things in a vacuum, the factories have votes also. For example, if Ducati gets beat by an Aprilia, they will scream bloody murder about their weight penalty, you can bet on that. And if you read my post again, you'll see the comment about how the factories are very nervous at how closely the Aprilia factory is working with some of the CRT teams which is too late now to vote against.

This hail Mary is indeed no way to right a listing ship but it may work, we'll see.

The Ducati weight penalty is a WSB thing.

[Turder]

Interesting lap time comparison from ZutAlors. Now be amazed and compare recent Moto2 test times against 990cc MotoGP times 120bhp 600cc goes faster on okayish Dunlops than many of the 990cc MotoGP bikes did. But Jerez is more forgiving to smaller capacity bikes with no big straights and long radius corners were corner speed is important.

Their bike is essentially a Superbike with gear cams and a few other bits of fruit they can't get away with in WSBK.

RdP said that the ART engine does not have all geardriven cams, like the old SBK bike had. Actually SBK engine is slightly more powerful probably due to engine allocation restrictions (limited to use 12 engines per year, SBK can swap it more often). Even when there aren't that many restrictions to engine development and tuning in MotoGP than it is in SBK.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Power is nothing without control....to quote an old Pirelli ad...

Thr ART bikes are developing very well, makes me wonder if we might actually see a podium during either a wet race or in an epic smash up race involving front runners. Very interesting times.

[potere]

The US and it's stats is not the world... your viewing figures are minor compared to Europe and Asia.

Bike sales in Asia - booming! Three new BIG production facilities opened in the last couple of years capable of more than 1M units annually.

I missed the part in my OP where I said "US figures", I'll go look where that is. Maybe it's in between the lines.

[Prilliant03]

I missed the part in my OP where I said "US figures", I'll go look where that is. Maybe it's in between the lines.

Perhaps we have misunderstood. I also assumed from your previous post that you were refering to the US, particulalry given that overall sales of smaller bikes are actually rocketing, particularly in Asia. Also, the accident rate comment appeared to be US specific. Crash stats have been on the decline in Europe for many years now, even before the financial meltdown led to a sales decline.

No biggie. Reading between the lines is pretty much essential on web forums

[OZSLR]

Edwards tested his new bike and guess what????? It has front end chatter. I like Edwards, but I'm not sure how everybike that he has ridden since he left WSB has had front end chatter.

I wasn't aware that every bike he had ridden had chatter. I know he complained about it mid 2000's but I am not aware of him making an issue of it in recent years.

Just as a benchmark, the Repsol Hondas were reportedly suffering some chatter at Aragon, put down to the new tyres and something they felt they could address with further testing. Logic says that Edwards could be suffering similarly, particularly in view of the fact that he is riding a brand new bike and there are certain to be bugs to iron out.

Maybe you could drop by and show him how to ride it properly?

[Chris_Mag]

That's interesting - thanks. I need to do more reading

Probably to reduce cost if they get an engine claimed by the MSMA (Ducati).