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Danny Walker is 100000% correct

Discussion in 'General' started by Robby-Bobby, Dec 4, 2018.

  1. Tortuga

    Tortuga Well-Known Member

    In reply to vfr#52's last (post too long to copy). I have been working professionally in the MC industry for most of the past 3 decades as a mechanic with ample swaths of that time spent at race tracks in one capacity or another.
    Still having a passion for racing and motorbikes, but no longer having any interest in crawling around on the ground of a paddock garage, I decided to pursue the electronics side.

    So how am I learning about it? This dark and unknowable magic? Well, at almost 50 I've gone back to school for a degree in electronics engineering. Also when a team called me looking for a mechanic for this season I told them they couldn't afford me as a mechanic, but if they were willing to train me up on the computer stuff I'd do it for free. They agreed.
    With any luck, my existing experience combined with learning a few new skills will one day translate into being a halfway decent "data guy".

    The point being; if a person wants to learn new technology there are ways to do so, it just may take some time, effort, and sacrifice.
    Or you can fight against it, ignore it, refuse to utilize it, and complain about those who do while waxing fondly of the "old days". That is, of course, everybody's right, but don't be surprised or complain when you get left behind (figuratively and literally).
     
  2. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Yep. It is learnable. As with the old days some people will have the ability to grasp it quicker than others but there is nothing impossible to learn.
     
  3. Pitmom42

    Pitmom42 Active Member

    Electronics used with data for a rider reduces human physical error possibility and weaknesses. It is vital to have a knowledgeable person programming it and communicating closely with the rider for total performance. This separates the Men from the boys and elevates the electronics programmer to be just as important or maybe even more important than the rider. Will be interesting to see how it plays out this season. Of course as a rider gets dependent on the system, that will play into when it stops working or glitches as well and can they revert back during a race weekend to 'old school ' racing!
     
  4. SPL170db

    SPL170db Trackday winner

    Man so many take aways from this thread lol...

    -VFR, you need to get your head out of a 90's way of thinking...we're nearly a 1/4 century removed from the 90's...do you also not use a cell phone because they weren't around when you first started calling people? Are there different ways of doing things (your stance on tire warmers for instance)? Of course....but a better question is, are there optimal ways of doing things? If you'd like to apply that way of thinking to club level and vintage class racing then by all means go ahead, but you can't honestly expect that rationale to apply to leading edge series competition in the current year, where the racing's very nature is about pushing the boundaries of performance and technology. If you don't keep up (both literally and figuratively) you don't win, and those teams aren't there to just have fun, its their JOB. Your position almost sounds like "racing socialism" lol, rather entitled and penalize those who work harder to make it easier for those who can't or won't. I prefer "capitalist racing" myself. BTW, if any guys out there want to name their team that, you can have that one gratis :D

    -whether advanced electronics are employed or not, the big budget factory teams are always going to be the ones winning the majority of races and the championship. They can afford to pay for the best riders and at the end of the day they have more money for more resources.

    -having a racing series that doesn't allow for advanced electronics doesn't give the riders a very good springboard (at least from a technical experience standpoint) to move up towards an upper echelon race series where its very much relied on like WSBK and MotoGP (and now opened up to Moto2). Don't we all want to see the next Ben Spies move up and do some damage on the world stage. Limiting the scope of their knowledge and skill set is not going to do the US any favors in trying to make that a reality.

    -if Honda was giving shit support then that's probably a good reason to scrap using their equipment for your choice of bike. There's probably a good reason why the MA grid is dominated by R1's, or as someone else said perhaps the Honda would have been a good contender for the SSTK1000 series. Look at the CSBK, ASBK and some of those South American series where their "Superbike" race series are essentially Superstock and Hondas have done reasonably well there. Hell, even on the RRW team, Gagne was doing much better on his SSTK1000-spec R1 than he was on his SBK-spec one. I've not really looked at lap times to compare and obviously he was up against stiffer competition in SBK, just looking at the overall result. But that being said, if you are going to bring a knife to a gun fight.....perhaps you should rethink that choice and take it to a knife fight instead.


    EDIT: interestingly, as I'm typing this I'm watching the Moto2 coverage from Argentina right now and they are doing a little piece talking about the new Triumph engines they are using this year and a big part of the piece is them talking about the addition of the new electronics package. They are talking about how it brings more technical expertise to the series (obviously out of necessity to some degree) but also as I mentioned above, narrowing that gap of disparity between the Moto2 series and the transition into MotoGP so that the riders and teams are better prepared for what is required from them to be competitive in that series etc etc.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2019
  5. badmoon692008

    badmoon692008 Well-Known Member

    He's been writing since before paragraphs were thing... He doesn't suggest that other people don't use them though.
     

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