official pics – ‘09 aprilia rsv4

official photos of aprilia’s revolutionary superbike, the rsv4, have recently surfaced on the forums. this bike marks the return of aprilia to world superbike racing next season. i like the styling. it’s safe – more of an evolution of the rsv-1000. it seems like all manufacturers are going to the stubby one piece rear subframe.

i wonder what the pricing will be? will it be inline with ducati’s 1098 ($16k) or 1098s ($20k)?

back

after a month on hiatus, things haven’t changed much on the personal front. let’s just say i have more free time on my hands. so i thought i’d try to keep myself busy and restart posting.

i went for a ride this afternoon after enjoying some french toast and oj for brunch when a testy storm system barged through the cleveland area. i was heading down I-71 to medina to meet up with phil to christen my new babolat but it was all for not. as i approached middleburg hts, the ominous dark clouds unleashed a deluge. unfazed i road through until i passed strongsville. there things went from bad to worse with fat raindrops turning into ball bearing-sized hail. let me tell you, it stings. i pulled to the berm to recover and wait for a break. the hail dissipated and i returned to the highway looking for refuge under an overpass. the weather gods mustn’t like me because it started hailing even larger ice chunks. luckily, i made it to the overpass in brunswick. i waited there for 10 mins soaking wet and mildly irritated.

after the weather let up, i rode to the next exit turned around and made my way back home shaking my head the whole way. funny thing was it was perfectly dry with blue skies in lakewood.

i guess this puts things into perspective. enjoy the nice weather because sometimes it’s not going to be nice.

moto-vation on hiatus

i’m going to put the blog on hiatus until i sort some personal matters. i’ve got a lot of things on my mind at the moment and i can’t think and let alone write about motorcycles. i’m gonna regroup and hope to be back soon…

great balls of fire: sepang preseason test – day 1

who brought the marshmallows?

w00t bitches!!! the 2008 motogp has commenced and what a drama-filled day it has been. there were several crashes that included valentino rossi imitating a fairy (literally and figuratively) and dani pedrosa hitting the deck and his bike going up in flames. most riders walked away unscathed but dani fractured his hand and will probably be out for some time (the next test is at phillip island next week). liam from motoliam.com speculated that the crash was caused by a rear suspension failure.

the day went to lcr honda rider, randy de puniet, with the fastest time of the day. one thing to remember about preseason testing is that it’s difficult to interpret the results. motogp.com reports only the fastest time of the day and the number of laps completed. but u don’t know if the rider went out on race tires or super-soft qualifiers which dramatically skew the times. i’d like to see avg lap times with a standard deviation along with the fastest time. dropping a single fast lap using qualifiers doesn’t say anything. being consistently fast does.

TIMES:

Pos. Rider Bike Time Fast Lap Total Laps

1 Randy de Puniet Honda 2′01.377 65 68
2 Dani Pedrosa Honda 2′01.864 19 47
3 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 2′02.074 47 57
4 Loris Capirossi Suzuki 2′02.416 53 61
5 Casey Stoner Ducati 2′02.457 21 36
6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2′02.490 44 44
7 Colin Edwards Yamaha 2′02.549 17 29
8 Nicky Hayden Honda 2′02.558 64 85
9 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2′02.563 38 43
10 Shinya Nakano Honda 2′02.622 62 63
11 John Hopkins Kawasaki 2′02.628 61 62
12 Andrea Dovizioso Honda 2′02.783 38 52
13 James Toseland Yamaha 2′03.264 41 45
14 Alex de Angelis Honda 2′03.301 47 47
15 Anthony West Kawasaki 2′03.387 30 51
16 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 2′03.863 39 53
17 Toni Elias Ducati 2′03.954 48 55
18 Marco Melandri Ducati 2′04.414 43 52
19 Niccolo Canepa Ducati 2′05.580 17 48
20 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati 2′06.00 17 36
21 Tamaki Serizawa Kawasaki 2′23.590 6 6

some interesting notes:

-the top 3 riders were probably on qualifiers. the majority of 02’s were mid to high

-capirex was probably the fastest rider on race tires. looks like he’s adapting well to the suzuki

-stoner started the day slowly but is now looking fierce

-6 out of the top 7 are on bridgestone rubber

-rossi is right behind stoner (due to tires??? edwards is behind him on michelin)

-melandri doesn’t look happy so far down the field (almost 2 s off stoner’s time)

but take these observations with a grain of salt. this is the first day on new machinery. all this is assumption and u know what they say about that… can’t wait for day 2 and the rest of the year. hope it’s not a rerun of last years tepid racing.

dorna/apple partnership blossoms

dorna sports, commercial rights holders of motogp, picked apple (no fucking pun intended) to produce the motogp experience – from video editing to web site creation and management. they using final cut studio to create a highlight reel of the race for tv stations moments after the checkered flag is waved. 

but i’m most interested in apple’s contribution to the motogp.com site. currently, the website navigation is completely based on flash and sucks the life out of ur computer while video is streamed via windows media or realplayer, two horrendous apps/plug-ins. it’s rumored that motogp.com will be revamped using quicktime technology to stream live video. furthermore, we could be seeing an hd (h.264) feed as well as distribution on itunes and portable playback (ipods and iphone).

this partnership benefits most the viewers. video will be higher quality, easier to watch and go with u anywhere.

read

can u spot the differences???

2008 yamaha yzr-m1

2007 yamaha yzr-m1

over the weekend, yamaha unveiled the 2008-spec yzr-m1 that they’ll campaign this year in motogp at press event in turin, italy, the hometown of title sponsor fiat. furthermore, it was the official debut of valentino rossi’s teammate 250cc champ jorge lorenzo.

no information was given to the changes to the new bike but as u can see in the above photos there are subtle aerodynamic differences. the 2008 bike appears to be sleeker than the previous iteration. the front fairing has a smoother and more rounded shape along with a slightly taller windscreen. the angle may also be a little steeper. the rear fairing has been dramatically reshaped. there is more curve to the underside making it look like the backside of a hornet. these aero updates should help increase top speeds. no mention of any changes to the engine but then again i don’t expect yamaha to reveal those details. but it is interesting that the exhaust is exposed this year. i can’t figure out why – cooling?

we’ll see if yamaha has stepped up their game when motogp resumes testing in sepang, malaysia this week.

cannondale "ON" concept

it’s not exactly motorcycle news but cannondale did dabble in dirtbikes (big mistake) a few years back and it does have two wheels.

debuted at eurobike last august, cannondale’s “on” concept city bike pushed the design envelope one notch further. the project was in development for 3 years and takes the styling cues of the iconic raven and apply it to an urban bike. it incorporates a revolutionary drivetrain that is a single-sided stressed member combined with a carbon fiber main frame and “righty” fork. a pivot hinge in the middle of the frame allows it to fold onto itself for easy storage/transport.

cannondale teamed up with sram to develop the “case closed” drive system. basically, a cnc’ed aluminum single-sided arm completely houses the drivetrain. a custom i-motion 9 9-speed hub with integrated disc was used instead of a conventional cassette to complete the transmission. although only a concept, it showcases the strength and talent of cannondale’s r&d dept.

i’m hoping to pick up a new bike. i’m thinking cannondale rush carbon…

outlaw showdown: 848 v 750 v 675 v 600

cue the western music.

the feb issue of superbike (uk) pits several outlaw bikes against each other on the track and street. they took ducati’s all-new 848, suzuki’s revamp’ed gsx-r750, a triumph daytona 675, and honda cbr600rr to hit some spanish twisties. i haven’t gotten a chance to read the full article but here’s a preview:

“We’ve been analysing the datalogging results from our Ducati 848 vs Suzuki GSX-R750 vs Honda CBR600RR vs Triumph 675 test last week in Almeria. And we’ve found some pretty interesting results. Here are the fastest apex speeds from each of Almeria’s 13 turns, by bike:

Turn speed(kph) bike

One 91.9 GSX-R750

Two 128.8 675

Three 100.6 GSX-R750/675 (joint)

Four 107.6 675

Five 129.2 CBR600RR

Six 109.2 675

Seven 94.9 GSX-R750

Eight 104.9 848

Nine 98.6 848

Ten 93.7 GSX-R750

Eleven 77.4 848

Twelve 94.3 CBR600RR

Thirteen 65.2 675

So – the 675 had the most top corner speeds, at five (including a joint one with the 750). Suzuki’s ‘old’ GSX-R750 still manages four top corner speeds, Ducati’s 848 manages three, and the Honda gets two.

Does that mean the 675 was the fastest bike at Almeria? You’d think so wouldn’t you? But it wasn’t the case… The 848 lagged a bit behind our expectations to be honest…”

so the 675 didn’t come in first but it didn’t come in last. here’s my guess to the outcome of this test:

1. gsx-r750

2. daytona 675

3. 848

4. cbr600rr

with 3/4 maybe switched. 

the suzuki has a power advantage over the 675 that is esp useful down the 900m front straight. however, according to last year’s performance bikes (uk) endurance test the 675 lapped almeria close to a second a lap faster than the 750 (before an engine meltdown). also, remember that the triumph hasn’t been changed since it’s debut in 2006 (a 2009 update is rumored). anyway, the biggest disappointment is the 848. ducati will not be happy with this result [/understatement]. 

more to come…

last call down under

yukio kagayama of wsbk team alstare corona suzuki eeked out the fastest time of the 3rd and final day of testing at phillip island. under hot conditions, yukio blazed a time of 1:32.1, a tenth of a second ahead of xerox ducati troy bayliss. bayliss wasn’t able to improve on his time as he had a rough highside at the bottom of mg breaking his collarbone in the accident. he should just barely be healed by the time the 2008 season kicks off in qatar in early feb. another rider making noise in the paddock is ruben xaus, who posted the 4th fastest time on his sterilgarda 1098r. ruben has been recently struggling and looks to be in good form.

despite electrical gremlins on day 2, triumph-sc was again able to drop their times a further 0.2 sec with gary mccoy grabbing 8th fastest time of the wss testing session.

wsbk @ phillip island

a lap around phillip island

this week marks the second session of preseason testing for world superbike and supersport teams. it’s taking place in the land down under at phillip island. ducati dropped its 1200cc bomb on the competition with troy bayliss leading the first day. the new 1098r looks to be a force to be reckoned with this year. also of note, the triumph-caracchi 675 put the 5th fastest time in ahead of several veteran supersport riders.