Do you think it's odd that the '12 R1 is the most underpowered of the liter bikes, and yet it's cleaning everyone's clock in superbike? Not complaining...my favorite bike is the R1...actually like watching it kick as...just wish the field was more competitive is all I'm sayin.
No. The way I figure it every liter class bike can overwhelm the traction limits of their tires. We're past hp comparisons IMHO.
I'm waiting for Josh to go all Ricky Bobby during the post race interview: "Let's face it, I mean, I'm the best there is. I get up in the morning and piss excellence. I'm just a big, hairy American winning machine."
That's always been the key hasn't it!? These things are getting awfully sophisticated though. The Yamaha especially with the crossplain design. The level of integration with electronics aids really makes me skeptical that the dyno gives a good representation of the riding dynamics. Funny aside: When we were riding the Continental Divide Ride a couple months ago my buddy on a new Yamaha Tenere dang near go stuck in a pretty deep water crossing. The culprit? Traction control. When the rear wheel started to slip on rocks in the creek the engine quickly began to derate the power output to the wheel. He made it through but it was a struggle. You won't see that on the dyno! It's just pretty amazing what's going on with bikes today.
Saw the same result when Atlanta had that big ice storm last winter I think? Maybe two winters ago, but I had to help quite a few Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes owners when they could not disable the traction control so their cars would choke down and only spin the tires at 2mph and not get them anywhere.
