2017 WorldSBK Silly Season - You've Got To Be Kidding Me...

Meh. I'll wait until another artical appears. Jenson Beeler is a fucking dumbass.

 

That might just be a test mule. New engine or even old engine with the new electronics in an old chassis.

Got to test your shit in steps before you roll it all out in one giant, new burrito of hondaness.

 

Lol asphalt and rubber is notorious for regurgitating shit he read elsewhere, twisting the words into his "sources" then trackday guys and coffe shop dorks think he knows his shit.

 

Why yes. The world is silly with those street legal V5 MotoGP Hondas from the 990 era like "we" were promised these past, what, 8 years? So of course Honda will just spring a new age RC45 on us for 2017, with no spy photos, no patent leaks, and an extremely depressed superbike market around the world. They're sure to dominate WSB. /sarcasm

 

My guess is a slightly updated version that's still underpowered. If it weren't for wsbk rules regarding ride-by-wire I doubt that they would even bother.

 

Honda is gonna kill off their sport bikes like they did their two strokes. 2018 will be Groms, CBR 300/500, a bunch of bikes based on a scooter and generators.

 

So what you're trying to say is that Honda is planning to do to sport bikes what Mongo has been doing to American road racing?

 

Imo Honda are screwing up. Look at what Yamaha has done. Successfully used MotoGP technology to update their line-up. The new R1's were/are selling as fast as dealers are getting them. The club racing scene is dominated by Yamahas. They have new and exciting bikes (time for a new R6 soon I hope). It seems like they're just too big now and have lost touch with the smaller segments. Cars and scooters I guess.

 

Except that Honda will be more succesfull. In Star Wars terms, Honda is the Empire, Mongo is Jabba the Hut.

 

Honda's weird about that crap. They've always made shitty street bikes but used their influence to bend the rules enough to allow them to build winning race bikes. I'm not sure how they're going to do it, but they surely have something up their sleeve.

 

I guess the most accurate description would be "shitty race replica production bikes that need a lot of modification to be proper racebikes".

 

Honda has a lot more than scooters and Groms. I believe the VFR and NCX models are selling pretty well.

 

As I understand it the 1200 VFR is a sales pooch. To heavy, to complicated, and not quite powerful enough to make up for it. The 800 doesn't have much for profit in it, and is out dated, and under powered.

They push the hell out of the NC lines, but I'm not sure it's really taking off like they want. Again, under powered, and over complicated(though the new clutchless trans is a lot better).

 

when was the last time Honda or HRC actually exerted some influence in WSBK? when did they last have a real factory team over there? i dont know WSBK history that well, but id guess 2002. Honda aint Ducati after all.

 

How involved were they when Toseland won the 2007 WSBK title on the TenKate Honda?

 

Absolutely disagree. Ducati has been way more influential in having rules changed to keep v-twins competitive in WSBK. If Honda had the powers you claim, the v5 engine would still be allowed today. I think it's silly that it's not since it's prototype racing. But I understand the desire to keep costs down by capping cylinder numbers.

 

Wasn't WSBK run by a different company back then? Now it's owned by Dorna, and Honda does have a history of throwing their weight around in GP rules meetings (Marquez and the Rookie Rule?).