Elbows a "new" thing?

The racing world is all aflutter over Marc Marquez and his elbow dragging riding style. The announcers on SPEED were hailing this as the next evolution in motorcycle racing technique. People think that just because they've never seen something before, it's never been done.






Jean-Philippe Ruggia on his Yamaha 500cc 2 stroke GP bike circa 1992, dragging elbow with the greatest of ease. No, he never won an event at the top level, but he was dragging elbow before Marc Marquez was even born.

 

haha cool... how would you even know that??

 

dragging elbows sure makes for a sick photo.


but i prefer the style of Rossi/Pedrosa over MM.

 

And don't forget the invention of the "Ruggia Clause" in contracts!

 

Like Mr. Russell said, plenty of folks have dragged a bow, but MM does it literally the entire duration of the corner. He monkey hangs of the bike like I have not seen many do.

What's more amazing to me than that is how Hayes corners as fast or faster than everyone who is monkey hanging, but looks relaxed on the bike and seems to use half the lean angle and is at less angle for less time than the others.

We've all seen the younger Josh shadow Hayes for lap after lap....and I'm sure you guys have noticed how much more upright Hayes' bike is than his predecessor.

 

did you mean "protegé"?

 

I had grown to enjoy CS's style even more so than I ever thought, as Rossi's form always looked bad ass to me.

Personally, as cool as MM may make it look, I just don't coo over it like so many others, maybe that'll change with time. As for hanging off the way he does, I always thought it was a trade off as to not need as much lean angle, has the dynamics of racing changed?

 

speed tv is bunch of idiots. they have no clue...(except scott russell )

 

Didn't Scott Russell get "beaten" in Daytona one year?

 

i highsided my kids CRF50 trying to drag an elbow.

draggin elbows is stoopid.

 

Not taking away from Ruggia because I hardly know crap about him, but if he was the first elbow dragger the pic at the top is hardly a good representation. You can easily tell that he is dragging it against an elevated curb.....MM was dangling out mid curve.

 

+1 and on positive camber turns at that making the inside of the track even lower than parallel with his contact patch.

 

What benefit is there to completely hanging off the bike like that when the other riders at his level are just as fast without spider-monkeying it?

 

But, they weren't as fast! At least not last weekend.

 

Last weekend was a fluke

 

It's not so much that he's dragging elbows. Quite a few guys are doing that. He's dragging his hip along with his knee and elbow. Toni Elias rides quite similarly but he hasn't been getting much airtime since winning the Moto2 championship.

 

Is this going to turn into the next leg dangle move?

 

That's exactly what I was thinking of.

 

If you are running at the sharp end of MotoGP you can pretty much ride however you want. There are very few people who are in a position to criticize.