Yooperbikemike's 2014 MotoGP Thread

I can't picture Yamaha letting Lorenzo go anywhere and he's a good bet over Rossi for the next couple seasons anyway. I don't quite understand his present struggles, but it surely can't be a permanent problem.

My guess for part of Lorenzo's issues are maybe some undisclosed injuries. Old hardware flaring up. Something on that level. Plus his not liking the tires.
He won't be going anywhere.
Even in his current state of floundering he can't possibly become so jaded to consider Ducati or Suzuki.

How are Dorna going to twist the rules to parity with the "Open/ Open Factory" bikes and the "Factory" bikes?
My guess is that eventually there won't be complete factory bikes. There will only be the constructor bikes. Or something so restrictive initially that the factories stop playing.
What happens if Yamaha and Honda take their hardware and go home when that happens? Where do you get race-worthy motors for a constructor bike? Does it all dissolve into some morph of WSBK?
Is that bad?
The next few years will be interesting. Might be fun and parts not so much, but it will be interesting.

It's the tires, him and Dani have had more trouble adapting to them compared to Marquez and Rossi. This years tire has a stiffer carcass and is better suited to hard braking. The 250 style of Lorenzo and Pedrosa has been marginalized and has cut their corner speed due to a lack of feel now.

It seems that Moto 2 was a good training ground for the necessary riding style needed for this years tire, and Rossi being the only guy to have ridden the 500's has this ability in his riding.

Pedrosa is coming around more quickly than Lorenzo and gradually narrowing the gap to Marquez.

Marquez just adapted to the '14 tire better than anyone else so far. Can Dani and Jorge catch up? Maybe, but they may also be too set in their ways to truly adapt riding styles to match this tire. We may have to wait for the Michelin tire for things to reset to zero.

Pedrosa has been sliding and standing up the Honda many years now; it doesn't look anything like 250 style.

Lorenzo's jump start at Austin was mental, not rubber.

Not like Stoner or Marquez do. Who said anything about Austin?

Pedrosa doesn't have a 250 style. I'd just go with the simplest explanation -- Marquez is just more talented (than Pedrosa and everyone else). It doesn't seem like much of an explanation when every year that Marquez wins it's chalked up to "adapting" to the tires. With Pedrosa even with Rossi on points, it seems a stretch to say one has "adapted to the tires" more than the other.

I mentioned Austin because Lorenzo's problem this season isn't about tires, it's about confidence.

I think it would be bad. MotoGP needs to be the top, like F1. Mfgs need to develop technology. Like the TZ 750. I don't like the idea of a spec series deciding world champion.

Who said anything about Stoner?

They all have to adapt if they want to go faster. Marquez is adapting fastest. Riding the curb, steering with the back wheel in the air, swapping bikes in Q, learning new tracks quicker ...

F1 is very close to a spec series. Le Mans is the only real 4-wheel prototype series left.

Now that's funny.
oseroseroser

Even Le Mans has some very restrictive technical regs.

For GP bikes, there is still a huge underexplored world in funny front ends. As a design, forks suck, but they're a very well-known quantity. Everyone is afraid to be the first to try something else though.

You want innovation and cutting edge, start following the electric world. The fastest electric car was just two seconds behind the overall winner at Pike's Peak this year (and 40 seconds faster than last year's top electric time). Overall winner next year? The FIM e-bike series seems to have fizzled out for now, but it'll be back...

The TZ750 made the F1, and preceeding F750, motorcycle classes a default spec series. So, not sure how that plays with your preceeding sentance about developing technology.

Crash, on why Lorenzo wants a short contract.

I know my post didn't make much sense. Must have been in a fog. No, not pui.

I'd like to see innovation and different bikes. I'd say MotoGP does that now with the factory bikes. Love to see Suzuki and Kawa get involved.

I thought the TZ750 was a successful gamble for Yamaha.

You may hav been thinking of the TZ500 and RGB500. Not to mention the YZR500 and Honda's various, and variously successful, attempts to compete with them.

The interesting thing there was the period of radical engine innovation with no change to the relevant rules. We haven't seen much of that for a while.

But it's probably because the traditional engine problem - making enough power reliably - is essentially solved. What innovation remains is much less visible. Pneumatic valve springs, for example.

It would be good if someone could make a non-telescopic front end work. Bit I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: of course restricting the entries to four-stroke engines has meant no-one has done any work on big direct-injection two-strokes. That might have been interesting.

This is valid but doesnt take into account the difference in bikes. Rossi is arguably on the lesser machine, as suggested by most. Closing the gap on the top three suggests that he is doing something better than the others ('cept Marc). Acclimating to the tires might just be it.

Chicken or egg? There have been various attempts at unconventional engine and front end configurations that have inevitably led us to where we are. If any manufacturer had seen real commercial possibilities in a two stroke future, I am sure they would have pushed for rules in that favor. Let's remember there has been, and no doubt continues to be, much experimentation in the labs of the big manufacturers on fuel type, aspiration, transmission and chassis development. Honda in particular doesn't seem to have any problem throwing a million bucks at any idea that might lead in a new direction.

I think its reasonable to assume that as the current designs on the grid converge, you are approaching the most efficient way to scoot around a race track. Ask Ducati, BMW.

Are there any restrictions on chassis design other than the ban on active suspension?

*cough* Erik Buell *cough*

Exactly.
One reason there are only tele-forks is that is what data exists for suspension tuning. As an example of how all this works is those brakes of Buell's. Got Brembo or Nissan brakes and you got lots of options for rotors, calipers, master cylinders and pads.
Erik's not so much. You get what he's got. And you're creating your own data on the fly. Tends to swill cubic money, while viewing the pointy end of the event as it comes blowing past.
A very good way to make a small fortune out of a large one as the saying goes.
Two engine configuration options, narrow V-4 or Inline-4. The Wider V-4 seems to have wandered off the plot a good bit.
MotoCzysz, tired the steepest curve approach, different everything. Basically a blackhole of development as far as the appetite for cubic money is concerned. Now it is electric with conventional sliding fork and rear shock.

But a gushing fountain of self-promotion.