The Official 2020 Silly Season Thread

He went to WSBK and chased the same carrot Honda was dangling in front of their riders ever since Reading was there.

 

Was just about to say why would Dorna keep paying for a underperforming Moto2 champ but Dave beat me to it.

I’d think they’d want a nationality that isn’t represented well, like Zee German.

 

what actually dictates this? ambiguous vision? or some money reason i'm not seeing? or some kinda other non-sense? there's a bunch more moto2 bikes, why can't we have more here too? if anything it'd probably get rid of some of the parading we see sometimes no?

 

Dorna.

It came into place when the grids were dying and they tried to add the value to having a spot. Could and should they go back to 4 riders per wave? 3 better and safer? Chicks like guys in purple velvet leisure suits? Shit if I know.

I'd like to see 30~ 36 riders come into a weekend trying to get down to 26 spots and then the 26 riders go racing. Not 26 riders, 26 starting spots and everyone holds hands, tongue kisses and sings Poison songs.

 

Drastic changes to the KTM frame

19 chassis



20 chassis

 

And away we go:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/...e=emailCampaign&dm_i=4DIP,POWE,37977Z,31URE,1

 

And Cal being Cal:

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/934582/1/crutchlow-they-took-my-guys-not-giving-them-back

 

That is why you want to be on the factory team. You generally get all the best factory techs. That is as a good as you can get unless you have Herve on your team, and even then he is only one person not a full team of the best.

 

I like Cal he speaks truth

 

Wonder how long until they go to twin spar aluminum like everyone else.

 

I wonder if they switch to Ohlins before they switch to aluminum frames.

 

Is the WP forks and shock worse than Ohlins?

 

I’m surprised they haven’t already. Just slap a WP sticker on the shock and forks and call it a day.

 

KTM own WP so I don't know if that'll happen. They have a vested interested in developing it.

I'm not smart enough to answer that but they're at least behind. Ohlins has been in the game for a long time so anyone else is playing catchup.

 

WP is good shit and has won lots of Moto2 races.

 

This ^^^. I just picked up a 19' SuperDuke GT and the WP electronic suspension is surprisingly already well set up and the quality appears as nice as Ohlins. I would imagine the GP spec follows suit. Pretty sure I heard Neil Spalding saying WP snatched Dovi's Ohlins technician towards the end of last year so I'm not sure the suspension is the issue finding that last little bit.

 

I'm just going off from the announcers during the Valencia test, but Pedrosa told the team that they need to switch to Ohlins to make a step forward with the front end. I guess he was the driving force in their new frame design as well.

KTM/WP also poached an Ohlins tech a few months ago to help with the WP development.

Moto2 =/ MotoGP

Honda owns Showa, yet HRC dumped them in 2009 and switched to Ohlins even though Honda could have kept dumping cubic dollars into developing the Showas.

 

I like that KTM is forging their own way. The engineer in me likes seeing the different tech, and approaches to puting a bike on the grid. If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you've always got. This new frame looks like a more oval cross section for the main spar. Should allow more lateral flex without giving up braking and accelerating stability. I think Dani Is bringing a bit more fineness and refinement to the package which will hopefully allow a wider variety of riding styles to saddle up instead of being on the ragged edge. Too bad Zarco is a instant gratification millennial and couldn't stick it out for another year (or even one).

 

WSBK schedule posted, no US round and they moved Qatar towards the begining of the year.

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/2020/2020+MOTUL+FIM+Superbike+World+Championship+Calendar

 

Not a word about dropping the US round. Maybe there's still hope like this year but there doesn't appear to be an opening on the calendar.