Is american superbike really this sad?

This is racing in general though. Manufacturers come and go all the time; NHRA, FIA / WEC / American LeMans (Ford and BMW pulling out), etc.

Manufactures come and go in professional racing, and what is happening with motorcycle racing is happening in the auto world as well. What saves the car world, especially endurance racing, is the ability to use gentleman drivers to finance the operation.

 

I get that Europe sells twice as many bikes as our market, but let's be real here, nobody is losing money selling half a million motorcycles/year (except HD).

Maybe they need to sacrifice a little in the short term to grow the sport, but it needs to be done.

 

My 401k hedge fund managers called, they said no way.

 

While I get the “we want to run true Superbikes so we match other series, making it easier for riders to transition to other series” thing, how many times in the past 10 years has that actually happened?

Aside from random wild card rides at US rounds, and a few Americans getting a shot in the WSBK paddock, there isn’t many people move from (or to) our series.

So why continue to have a rules structure that affects our grids here, if we aren’t constantly sending riders to other grids anyway?

IMO make the show the best it can possibly be. Start there, then hopefully the money/sponsors/fans/riders will come. Then if/when finances allow, go back to full SBKs.

Nobody can see the electronics on TV or from the stands. What is there, about a 2sec difference between the 600SS bikes and/or the 1000STK bikes, and full on SBKs? That’s a lot of damn money for 2secs...especially at the expense of grid size.

As I’ve said before, when watching the racing, you can’t tell a difference between a bike going 150mph or 170mph on the straight...but you can see a difference between a 3-4 bike braking duel into the corner, and a 3-4sec gap between each of the only 10-13 bikes on the whole track.

 

Realistically what is being showcased right now? The talent of the rider or the talent of the electronics and data analysis engineer?

 

Why not run minibikes then?

People watch the top echelon of the sport, because it's the fastest and separates the skilled from the unskilled. Same goes for any racing, whether it's circle track up through ARCA/NASCAR, or karting up through F1.

 

No need to cite.

Proof is in the pudding.

 

20 pages easy of guys that haven't thrown a leg over a track bike in years telling guys that do it every weekend how it should be done.

Good 'ol beeb.

 

How can you tell which riders are the most skilled, when only 3-5 people in the entire country have the electronics, engineers, money to actually run up front?

While I do think the guys running up front in SBK are some of the best riders in the nation, there is no doubt they have a distinct advantage because of their bikes/teams.

But that isn’t necessarily what this thread is about. This thread isn’t about the 3-4 riders running up front, it is about the show as a whole and the fact that we only have 12-15 bikes on the entire SBK grid.

 

I'm not sure what actively racing a motorcycle or not has to do with how to get bikes to the grid, teams in the paddock and spectator money to support them. Even if I were still on a bike I doubt it would help MotoAmerica stay a solvent entity.

 

Go to superstock rules, across the board.

 

Combine the SBK and STK1000 classes in to 1 race, whether that is simply 1 class or 2 on track at the same time. All 4 classes (SBK, SSP, Junior Cup, Twins) have a race on Sat and a race on Sunday. That should up the 1000cc grids and make for a decently full schedule of racing for the weekend.

From 05-08 it was pretty much a 2 dog fight and they were both on the same bike to boot.

 

Once yamaha pulls out, that hand will be forced on MA.

 

This discussion comes up after pretty much every round and I don't have a solution, but what I can say is that the events I have personally been too have all had a great turnout and the racing in all classes, including superbike, has been entertaining all year. I would love to see more superbikes out there but at least of the ones that are out there, it has been competitive. It was a real shame to see Herrin and Lewis go out so early yesterday as they would have been in a nice battle for the podium.
I really appreciate what they have done for the sport as they brought me back after the DMG years and I want to see them succeed.
I would absolutely be curious to see Motoamerica's books; I hope the series is sustainable, but the continued rumors of manufacturer pull-out definitely has me nervous for the future.

 

In reality how many years did it take before electronics started killing off the grid and hurting the show? 6-7 years at the most?
In the grand scheme of things it is a pretty short time. Not too much different than when the top class was F1 and you had to be on a Factory bike to win. No matter what the rules are factories are always going to have a advantage simply because of resources.
I don’t think stock bikes are the answer either though. It a lot of people care about watching bikes with less done to them than their street bikes.
I think they should have absolute rules such as x valve sizes, x displacement, steel rods, must start with stock castings, must start with a stock frame and swing arm, no wheel speed sensors or data. Throttles must be opened by cables only....
JMO

 

You all need to cast aside the "costs" for a moment, it's short sighted and really irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, you need to evaluate the bigger picture. Professional racing, or any professional sporting event is marketing. End of story. The goal is to get people in the gate, and eyes on the screen. Get a full grid of factory teams in, and then consider what needs to be done to level the playing field.

Starting with "let's make the series cheaper to draw a bigger field" is something you do for club racing, not professional racing. Why would you intentionally cap your top echelon of your series to be a feeder series to the international stage? That's admitting defeat before the battle has begun.


I'd like to see the league pickup some more ex-MotoGP talent from Europe and stick 'em on some factory rides and see what happens, then maybe we can get some homegrown talent in as well.

Elias was a good start, when he retires, who's left?

If you consider what MLS (major league soccer) has done in the past decade, it's a real possibility. US Soccer has always played second fiddle to football, but that doesn't mean that it has to be a fringe sport. They existed in some shape or form since the early 90s, but about 10 years ago, they did a wise thing and the league itself + teams started importing known players from Europe. It started w/ David Beckham, and then David Villa, Frank Lampard, then Kaka, dos Santos, Pirlo, Drogba, etc., and fans who were all watching European league soccer started flooding the stadiums, and fans from Europe started watching US games as well.

The whole league is now worth 10x what it was worth a decade ago, MLS pulls a larger live audience than NHL games, which is impressive for what was once considered a dead sport in the US. MLS now is a legitimate league for international players to play in, not just some place you go when you run out of opportunities in the big leagues.

 

But, your product has to be relevant to spectators. Motorheads are a minority, so that’s an immediate disadvantage, especially in poorer/underdeveloped countries where soccer/ball sports can be relevant.

 

Awesome seeing Jake Lewis leading the Superbike race.

 

It says 3 of them crashed?

 

Your opinion means nothing...if it did, all of the classes would have small grids.