Holes appearing – Honda out, Hodgson without ride

[mattr6]

MotoGP is in trouble. Last season, bar one race, was the most boring I've seen and when the current world champion comments that WSB is more exciting, things are wrong.

The Kawasaki pull out isn't official but, as its on so many sites it must have some strength. As Deej says, Suzuki is for sale and they've pulled their team out of the WRC so can't see the bike team carrying on without some strong sponsors (no word from Rizla as yet). As for the BSB team, its been dropped to a one man team and I don't think it was that well supported by the factory so Crescent may be ok with that one.

Pramac have lost Alice as a sponsor and have dropped to a one man team (Kallio). Canepa has moved to the Onde2000 team alongside Gibernau. Latest rumours seem to be Aspar wanting to buy the Kawasaki or Suzuki setup- not sure how that would work without factory backing.

Definately a dire time for MotoGP. I remember when they went to 4 strokes and people said cost would escalate- they were laughed at then and look where we are now.

[Bladerunner]

I think it'd be a real shame if Moto GP folded, I actually enjoyed the racing this year and thought there were some well fought battles, better than last year when Stoner just buggered off and won by miles, and better than the previous year when eveyone either fell off or broke down, meaning Hayden was gifted the championship without really winning much at all.

As for WSB; I think letting Ducati have a totally unfair capacity advantage will bring it to it's knees again like it did when IL4's were limited to 750cc, bad move I think.

[deej]

is suzuki motogp still sponsorsed by rizla as theyve stopped backing the cresecent bsb team ??

all aspar would be buying would be the engines and frames as everything else is external ie ohlins,akrapovic,brembo. what it would do though would put 2 extra bikes on the grid without kawaskai or suzuki having all the running costs, just producing the engines and leave aspar all the hassle but can he get the budget ?

[deej]

I think it'd be a real shame if Moto GP folded, I actually enjoyed the racing this year and thought there were some well fought battles, better than last year when Stoner just buggered off and won by miles, and better than the previous year when eveyone either fell off or broke down, meaning Hayden was gifted the championship without really winning much at all.

As for WSB; I think letting Ducati have a totally unfair capacity advantage will bring it to it's knees again like it did when IL4's were limited to 750cc, bad move I think.

at least the engine cc rule will allow the ktm and the aprillia bikes in to play giving it a very healthy line up of factory supported bikes all with top riders onboard

[mattr6]

I think it'd be a real shame if Moto GP folded, I actually enjoyed the racing this year and thought there were some well fought battles, better than last year when Stoner just buggered off and won by miles, and better than the previous year when eveyone either fell off or broke down, meaning Hayden was gifted the championship without really winning much at all.

As for WSB; I think letting Ducati have a totally unfair capacity advantage will bring it to it's knees again like it did when IL4's were limited to 750cc, bad move I think.

Didn't really affect the racing last year. Apart from Bayliss (who really is a one off!!), you had quite a selection of riders/ bikes claiming victories/ podiums. This year we have british interest, new teams and new manufacturers entering. WSB is on the up.

Re Rizla sponsorship. As far as I know, Rizla/ Suzuki haven't made any announcment. Sure I've read somewhere that they're about to pull out (Rizla that is)

[Bladerunner]

I think it'd be a real shame if Moto GP folded, I actually enjoyed the racing this year and thought there were some well fought battles, better than last year when Stoner just buggered off and won by miles, and better than the previous year when eveyone either fell off or broke down, meaning Hayden was gifted the championship without really winning much at all.

As for WSB; I think letting Ducati have a totally unfair capacity advantage will bring it to it's knees again like it did when IL4's were limited to 750cc, bad move I think.

at least the engine cc rule will allow the ktm and the aprillia bikes in to play giving it a very healthy line up of factory supported bikes all with top riders onboard

I agree it'll be good to get Aprilia & KTM in and add to the diversity of manufacturers competing, will hopefully help develop their road bikes aswell, I just fear that a 200cc advantage will make it unfair for IL4's. I figure Ducati were competetive on 1000cc V2 so what's the problem? IL4's produce more power, but V2's make more torque and deliver their power far more easily, so where the IL4 has the advantage on the straight, the V2 has the advantage in the corner / exit.

I can't help thinking that the rules are there, and everyone knows them, so Ducati go and build a bike that is outside of the spec for the series, then expect the series to change to suit them, it's not right. It's like if a manufacturer decided to make a 350cc 2 stroke single and wanted to race it in the Moto GP 250 class, they'd be told to go forth & multiply, so where's the difference?

[deej]

ah but wsbk is supposedly a series for road going bikes to race unlike motogp which is a prototype class. if ducati/ktm or whoever build a 1200 v2 sportsbikes then it should race especially if its proven to reduce running costs,likewise if yamaha build a bigbang 1200 il4 that should be allowed to race

i dont think that its the ducati cup it was in 03/04 when toseland and hodgson ran away with it,this year it was down to bayliss's awesome talent and although im a big haga fan i cant see him gelling with it asap so it will make wsbk more interesting next year, shakey will be there or there abouts on his duke but not enough to run away with the title. its going to be wide open to start with,if checa can get a good start to the season on a already developed bike then it could become a honda runaway depending on haga

[Scotty]

As for WSB; I think letting Ducati have a totally unfair capacity advantage will bring it to it's knees again like it did when IL4's were limited to 750cc, bad move I think.

I can only point you towards the facts and let you draw your own conclusions...
WSB Series owners: Italian
Ducati: Italian
One-make Tyre company: Italian

Off you go Sherlock....
I heard a rumour that Ducati went bleating to SBK/ FGSpurt or whoever runs WSB now and asked if the WSS capacity limit could be increased to 850cc for twins (hmmm... I wonder who makes an 850 twin cylinder sportsbike....) It's just like it was around 1988 when the old imbalanced capacity limits were introduced, and which manufacturer had just developed an 851cc water-cooled twin with four-valve heads that could easily be bored out to 999cc....? no prizes for guessing...