MotoGP

edgelett

edgelett

Well-known member
kiwi dave said:
Just curious, did your Dad ever do any motorcycling in New Zealand before he moved to Australia?
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yes he did a fair bit actually. Would tell me stories about riding around Taupo, and riding right through winter on ice roads & sleeping next to his bike to keep his head warm.
did a little bit of racing too.
 
FTR London

FTR London

Well-known member
edgelett said:
yes he did a fair bit actually. Would tell me stories about riding around Taupo, and riding right through winter on ice roads & sleeping next to his bike to keep his head warm.
did a little bit of racing too.
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That's brilliant and those stories and anecdotes are to be cherished. He must have some incredible pictures of his rides. Such a beautiful, beautiful country.

Around the Taupo region, to be fair you could keep warm next to one of the fumaroles in the pavement.
 
edgelett

edgelett

Well-known member
Testing for 2022is underway with riders out on their new bikes, testing various things from engines to aero kits and in the case of HRC a whole new bike.
Marc Marquez is still out of action but it is good to see Pol Espargaro back.
what was cool is Taka Nakagami is on top of the time sheets.

www.motogp.com

Nakagami puts HRC on top as a busy Day 1 ends

The brand-new RC213V was back on track as every factory roll out updates on a windy day at the Jerez Test
www.motogp.com www.motogp.com
 
FTR London

FTR London

Well-known member
edgelett said:
these new really long exhausts look weird on the MotoGP bikes though - I wonder why the new design?
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Increase torque I would think - to extract more power at lower rpm. Suzuki did something similar in the past. That's an entirely new engine on the Ducati. Pecco has not only topped the timesheets, but he's enthusing over it.
 
edgelett

edgelett

Well-known member
Remy Gardner going in to Sepang testing with a fractured wrist, and Marc Marquez back on a MotoGP bike.
Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
 
Wayne

Wayne

Active member
I'm looking forward to attending COTA in April. Moto 2 will have three Americans this year which will make it a little extra special.
 
Helge

Helge

Well-known member
Yeees...MotoGP is back on track :)
Excited looking forward to ALL listed riders (y) also hope that the Honda for SB6 is arrived now after delay in the customs.
I´ve read that COTA resurfacing is done 🤔
 
FTR London

FTR London

Well-known member
I'm confident that Raúl Fernández is an upcoming multiple world champion - but not with KTM. Couldn't tell from that brief clip. but surely they haven't reverted back to a screamer? - exhaust note sounds different. Frustrating thing about the mass move to big/long bang is that all the bikes sound the same...there are no longer any Aprilia Cubes or ZX-10rs. The loss of KTM's technical concessions last year seemed to hit them, together with the ban on private testing. May have been what's prompted a massive overhaul of structure devolving development from the works team and replacing Mike Leitner with Francesco Guidotti - his focus being performance as opposed to the technical responsibility. Pedrosa and Kalio are still the test riders as far as I know. The RC21 seemed to struggle on the soft front, whereas the harder tyres allowed heavier braking and more aggressive cornering. It's the fastest motor out there alongside the GP22 - hell of a lot of work to be done to get that power to ground though. Really want to see them put a title challenge together, but I don't think that's possible with the current bike and works riders.

Have to say, my favourite memory of last season was served courtesy of KTM - Binder's escapades on slicks in the rain at Austria :LOL:. Of course, his errant brother is joining him in the class this year which will likely be equally as entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons.

Good to see the gutsy Ana Carrasco back in Moto3. I recall some years back when a sombre and coy Nikki Ayo was dejectedly sat on the perimeter wall having taken her out during the last lap at Sachsenring and you could see her marching menacingly up to him in the background. The director promptly cut away.
 
edgelett

edgelett

Well-known member
FTR London said:
Good to see the gutsy Ana Carrasco back in Moto3. I recall some years back when a sombre and coy Nikki Ayo was dejectedly sat on the perimeter wall having taken her out during the last lap at Sachsenring and you could see her marching menacingly up to him in the background. The director promptly cut away.
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Yeah really happy to see that - hopefully she has some better luck this year.
 
FTR London

FTR London

Well-known member
mark.lb said:
I have been attending MotoAmerica races at Pittsburgh International Race Complex for the last 3 years. Cameron Beaubier and Sean Dylan Kelly were something to see on Superbikes. Hopefully they can represent the US well in Moto2. This is a huge step up.

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2022...ly-presented-as-american-racing-riders/403953
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You've also got Joe Roberts to route for.

For a nation that has produced more world champions than any other - it's sad to see the lack of talent that has been fed through since Nicky. I loved the American invasion of flat track pedigreed riders post Roberts. The absence of convincing Japanese riders is also dismaying, where once there was at least a wealth of early talent wild carding through the factories and amusing test riders materialising to deputise. The great white hope was the late great Daijiro Kato. Nakagami doesn't have it and Ayoama similarly failed to make an impression in the class.

Hard to see the series favouring much outside the nurturing of Spanish riders with Spanish backing I'm sad to say. I certainly won't see another British World Champion in the top class in my lifetime...nor I hate to suggest, an Australian one....because, politics and passports. We have seen some influx from Supers I guess, (notably Cal and Petrux), which really wasn't possible in the two-stroke era, but it's alway going to favour the Spanish national route.

Stoner did admittedly get his break through Alberto Puig and the Spanish 125 Championship - but it was competing in the UK national that gave him his break. I recall going to the last British 500cc GP at Donington in 2001 and there was this huge buzz about this Aussie rider wild carding - which reminds me, Kato won the 250 race that day in wet conditions by ten seconds.

Always liked Beaubier - seems to have been around forever. I remember him in 125s back in 2009 and in the Red Bull Rookies some years prior to that.
 
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