Comments on: Motorcycle Racing – What Rules Make Sense?

By: Kenny

Kenny — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:04:12 +0000

Hmmm.
Hoyt’s comment got me thinking. What if instead of teams getting their favoured manufacturers bikes, each track is “sponsored” by a certain manufacturer Laguna Seca will have say Honda CBR’s, Valencia will have MV Agusta’s etc. The manufacturer in question for a certain track gives each rider a bog standard bike. And each team has a set amount of “points” and are given a catalogue of parts upgrades. Uprated suspension, monobloc brakes, turbos……..each part costs a certain amount of points (determined by the race orgainiser). Tire’s would be standardised.
The aftermarket parts manufacturers would help cover the costs as well as traditional sponsors who would do the same as well as help pay for the teams costs.
Logistics for such a series would be hell, but everybody would start off on the same peg the rest is up to their skill, aftermarket companies would have direct competition for development and if the track each manufacturer was assigned to was changed there would be top times competition.

By: hoyt

hoyt — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:46:52 +0000

Todd – good questions, but those types of things (particularly in today’s world) seem to generate “buzz”, which advertisers love.

By: Morpheous

Morpheous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:30:09 +0000

…and so goes the problem with democracy LOL Paul, Your opening “rules” comments could aptly be applied to our current government’s struggle with the failing auto/financial industires here in the states. Maybe you can solve both rules issues!

By: todd

todd — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:31:31 +0000

Interesting concept but I wonder how sponsorships would work out – how would riders get paid? I can’t imagine Marlboro wanting a rider on their bike wearing Lucky Strike leathers.

-todd

By: hoyt

hoyt — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:58:50 +0000

WSB does seem to be the best currently for both teams & fans.

My comments above describe a crazy idea, but I put it out there anyway as something to think about for a *new* series. I don’t think the current series need to change that drastically. After all, one can argue the only thing wrong with a team like Mladin’s (who goes out and shows that he is the best for the better part of a decade) is that other teams have not stepped up to the challenge. Is that due to the rulebook, money?

Do these series still give a clear indication of who is the most talented road racer and which is the best machine? Or is the winning team just a reflection of the best money spent on tweaking a given bike to a given rider? That’s all and good, but fairly narrow result.

In regards to my comments above, I can see some people thinking “no way in hell will someone race my bike”. True, but is there merit in a new series that looks at “my bike” differently than it is today?….i.e. it’s your bike so far as the current race, but it is the manufacturers’ bike. Points will be awarded to the OEM (or contracted builder of the OEM’s bike) as significantly as they are to the rider/team, in parallel.

The bike “setup” component is still a question as to whether or not professional riders would buy into this different approach…. It seems there are some teams who battle all year with setting up the bike to fit their rider. Is this part of the problem with some racing, particularly a series that tries to project a “stock” form of motorcycles? (if it is “stock”, something that any consumer can buy, then there shouldn’t be so much setup effort because thousands of consumers are expected to ride the bike. Go race after some track adjustments).

The whole paradigm for this series would be setup differently…there would be riders/teams and then there would be the participating manufacturers’ bikes (or race teams contracted to build/maintain the bike). The assignments of teams-to-bikes is highly variable every race. Who can go out and win from one bike to the next on one track to the next? What company can manufacture a bike to be able to race on a wide variety of racers with little setup? What team can be most efficient with racetrack setup?