Danny Walker is 100000% correct

Or listening to their customers and making a change. Albeit too late for RRF.

 

The assumption is that Honda wasn't going to do to RRF like they did to Ten Kate, regardless of electronics.

 

C'mon, man.

 

It’s laughable to believe that an ecu type was the reason for them to stop racing. Even with a kit ecu you still need a good data person doing something with the data from a good bike.

 

That makes perfect sense. Internet forum posting dude's opinion trumps front-running pro racing team owner any day in my book.

 

Did you read the article on them? Not very hard to read through the BS in that plus... I don't care how good the Honda kit ecu is, the bikes a pile and they didn't have an A level rider on it either. That's internet opinion with a few stats mixed in. If anything they need to be blaming Honda, not as much MM. Other people sure got the MM system working well, their poor planning got them off on the wrong foot and it just spiraled... Seems there were a lot more issues than ECU related, ya know you can pay for dedicated support for these things vs having your Honda expert fly over and lock up not one, but two ECU's.

 

I sure hope Mr. Walker is reading this and taking notes. Looks like a comprehensive "successful team" punchlist to me. Internet opinion with a few stats thrown in beats real-time experience again. SUCK IT experience!

 

they were his statements, not mine...

 

I was commenting on your statements, sir.

 

If Mr. Walker didn't want every jagoff on the internet's opinion, maybe he shouldn't have aired his dirty landury out in public?

Don't get me wrong I thought it was a cool article but on the other side of the fence I wouldn't think it was too professional. Its almost like it was a parting shot to MM and the series.

 

That’s really only reason I commented on the whole thing. My “interpretation” of that article was he didn’t set up his team for success. And to be very clear this is by no means a dig at Scott J. The MM stuff is a bitch to work with but a trip to Europe and running the stuff on a bike that wasn’t even ready for it isn’t going to cut it unless you have a very skilled data person (there’s only a small handful in the US who I’d even think of contracting / hiring), finicky software takes time. Blame what you want on motors being late, etc etc but because the OEM with a known sub par platform was your choice to go racing with, then tgey have a stock ecu that you can’t do much with, a kit ecu that calls you a p$ssy and stays on the gas for you then you don’t pony up the cash for a tech who knows the alternative to the 2 ecu’s the series allows, you may have either under estimated the complexity or over estimated your talent. Superbike racing isn’t cheap or easy. I think JU wrote an article or maybe even a post on here about the cost of sbk as far as the unit is just the small part of the cost, it’s the people to run it. He should’ve had his foot up Honda’s ass, not MM and MA. Then instead of getting an mm tech (which I’m not sure if he tried to hire one or not) he gets help from Honda who locks up 2 ecu’s.
Since he opened up the can of worms and it’s all rather tied in, why did Gagne go so far backwards on the R1 Sbk? See a pattern? I do. That’s why test plans are laid out methodically what parts to add and when, changes, etc.

 

Isn't that why Danny said he wanted more options in the rule book that they could have used?

 

The way I interpreted the article is they had three options and couldn't get any to work. Maybe they could get the Motec to work, but maybe they wouldn't have based on their previous struggles.

The narrative as I follows is:
They couldn’t get the stock ECU to work properly.
The Honda kit ECU has flaws and could kill people, so they didn’t use it.
MM is hard to set up, but the WSB teams, and others make it work.
But a Motec would single handily have turned the whole program around?




In Superbike trim, they were beaten up on by privateer Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Yamaha Superstock bikes. At the very least, they should have just ran a Superstock effort in 2017... if they could run with them then, but couldn't as a Superbike, then okay, maybe something is up. The fact is they couldn't even go as fast as Superstock bikes, that's either the Honda, the team, or a bit of both.

I just don't know what he gains by airing out dirty laundry in the open. I didn't interpret it as a positive for him and his team's organization, and I don't know if future sponsors / manufactures would either, if he ever wanted to get back into it. I don't see Chuck Graves out there bad mouthing Yamaha (or vice-versa).

 

Did the team mail a letter, airing their grievances?

 

https://motoamerica.com/2018/12/com...oShJlgZjJaorPBk9IpO2LlAZJDatwq91QggNXUk69ufaw

MA hitting back about electronics

 

Well, Festivus is coming up. Next comes feats of strength.

 

"its always been this way" is the worst justification for not working to "fix a problem". the author didnt say that, but I think its implied. and of course, MA is doing things to make it possible for lesser teams to compete. but they are kidding themselves if they think the current level of parity in MA is acceptable.

 

What is parity?

Let’s be real, what club guy is going to beat a Toni Elias on a factory bike? It’s amazing that things are as tight as they are. Mathew was in the hunt when they weren’t fighting the tire and Herrin was on fire once they got that bike developed. Last I looked, they both finished ahead of two factory bikes in the standings and both scored wins the other two factory bikes didn’t. Jake Lewis was never far behind either and I don’t really think those guys get any Yosh help.

At the end of the day, the future is now and you have had ten years (or more) to slowly develop those computer skills. Carburetors and analog bikes aren’t coming back just like no one is going to have a machine shop with a bunch of manual mills / machinists making mass produced parts. Adapt or be left behind, doesn’t matter what ECU it is.