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My Moto2 ride....

Discussion in 'General' started by Gino230, Feb 9, 2020.

  1. Sweatypants

    Sweatypants I am so smart! S-M-R-T... I mean S-M-A-R-T!

    How much it end up costing you? Been eyeing that thing for a minute.
     
  2. Gino230

    Gino230 Well-Known Member

    A long time racing buddy of mine has developed a relationship with a company in Spain that buys these bikes from teams and markets them to collectors. That is the website where the pics are. www.GPmotorbikes.com. We have been talking about selling my 749RS on his website and he wanted to do the photos himself, so we agreed to pit together at PBIR. Out rolls the Moto2 bike. He has a couple of Moto3 bikes that he races personally. I knew they were pretty trick, but those bikes are so small for me I never paid much attention. But the Moto2 bike.....now that got my blood pumping.

    As you can see from the detailed pics on his website, the fit and finish on these things is MotoGP quality- everything is carbon, aluminum, titanium, and just looks really PIMP. About what you would expect. My initial thought when sitting on it is that the seating position is very comfortable, and I was even able to scoot pretty far back on the seat. The footpegs are a little high for me, and the ground clearance is crazy. When I'm going good on my R6, I can drag my toes. No way on this thing. The chassis feels a little long- probably because the European tracks that it's set up for have a lot of fast sweeping corners.

    The bike feels very compact, kind of like a 250GP bike. Of course, I'm 5'11 and 195 so I'm not exactly your average Moto2 rider. It also feels very LIGHT. But not in a flimsy, buzzy way I was expecting. Light, but solid. I was also expecting a softish setup, because again, I'm heavier than the actual GP riders, but that wasn't really the case. The suspension was so good, you really didn't notice it doing anything. Just a very connected, solid feeling between the bike and the track.

    One thing I was surprised about is the electronics are non existent. Saying they suck would not be a fair comparison, because there just aren't any, except for a pit lane speed limiter and quick shift. The quick shift was horrible, I don't know why. I'm probably only the second person to ride it since it got stateside, so there's a chance that the module was a spare that the team just threw on there or something of that nature (the ECU is spec and those are all the same). Someone who knows what they are doing could probably get it going right in 10 minutes. The intervals were very long and it required a very positive push on the lever to get it to change gears. No autoblip. The dash is very compact and just has timing and shift lights. No tach. There's a couple of buttons and you can mess with them and see coolant temp, etc. I didn't screw with any of that.

    On to the actual riding. It has no starter, so you have to bump it. That is pretty easy, because compression is not very high. I don't know what the transmission ratios are like, but it feels about the same as a standard 600. The power is quite good, the engine is in the last 1/3 of it's service life, so I was gentle with it. The power band is a little more aggressive than a standard 600, especially the last few thousand revs where it really takes off. That, plus the crummy shifter, made me have a tendency to short shift a little to avoid blowing it up. But it really goes once you start revving it. I have ridden a stage 4 Livengood R6, and this felt a lot like that.

    With this particular setup, the first 1/2 of the corner is where an average Joe like me can feel the biggest difference. The brakes are so good and the bike is so light that you can brake unbelievably deep and still make the corner. It just slows down without any drama. Turning it in and trail braking is almost like a video game, it just goes where you imagine it going. It is extremely stable once leaned over, you can put it anywhere. Tighten the line, or brake, or accelerate slightly, all with you knee planted and no change in the line. I don't know what the clutch setup is, but I think it's like the R6- you can have the mapping help you out on decel, combined with the slipper there is no drama at the entry. The exits are good too, the bike holds the line beautifully on the throttle.

    One thing it does not do as well is transition quickly. There are probably 2 reasons behind that- the setup is #1. #2 is that the riders who race these things are probably putting a lot more force into the suspension than I was. It probably needs to be ridden a lot harder to really get working.

    So overall, I would say it's like stuffing a Livengood stage 4 R6 engine into a 250GP chassis. Or, imagine an R6 with badass brakes and suspension, and subtract 80 pounds.

    Of course you will have to take my review with a grain of salt, as it is a $45,000 bike that is not mine, and I'm not an Ulrich who can get away with crashing test bikes- so I didn't go as hard as I would have liked. However, I can tell you that the bike is very confidence inspiring, and begs to be pushed. It really is everything you would expect from a Moto2 bike! For me the best part was coming off the long back straight at PBIR, braking deep, grabbing 4 downshifts, and ripping into turn 9 with the exhaust howling and popping like an Aston Martin. Did I mention it sounds incredible??
     
  3. SpeedWerks Racing

    SpeedWerks Racing Well-Known Member

    Tom wins the coolest friend award....good on him! they are made to be ridden, not sat about...
     

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