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MotoGP from LeMans, France Sunday May 20th – Watch at O’Malley’s at noon 0

Posted on May 19, 2012 by acruhl

MotoGP is on from LeMans, France this Sunday May 20th. We’ll be watching it at O’Malley’s at noon as usual.

This is the first race after Casey Stoner stating that he will retire at the end of the year. It hasn’t affected his riding much since he was in the lead for most of the sessions up until qualifying. Daniel Pedrosa qualified on pole in a mixed wet/dry session about 3 tenths ahead of Stoner.

Stoner and Lorenzo must remain the favorites to win, but there are a few riders who usually do well at LeMans such as Rossi. If we get a top three which is not Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa, I think we’ll be lucky. Those guys are the fastest right now.

More info on the Club Activities page.

World Superbike from Donington Park, England Sun May 13th – Watch it at O’Malley’s on Sunday at noon 0

Posted on May 10, 2012 by acruhl

World Superbike is on again this Sunday, this time from Donington Park, England. This is one of the best tracks for motorcycle racing in the world in my opinion, there are so many good places to pass. Kelly and I went there in 2000 to watch a British superbike race. This was the year that Steve Hislop put in a quicker qualifying lap on his Ducati 996 for the WSB race than Valentino Rossi did for his pole lap on the Honda NSR500. Any bike which is set up well with a confident rider can go fast, so it’s hard to predict the result.

Meet at O’Malley’s on Fourth at noon as usual. I don’t know if we’ll be in the back room or not yet, we’ll find out when we get there.

More info and a map on the Club Activities page.

MotoGP predictions after Jerez 2012 – a sad state 0

Posted on May 07, 2012 by acruhl

(Image from www.crash.net to illustrate riders who are not Stoner or Lorenzo.)
 
(I wrote this after the 2nd race at Jerez, but the 3rd race at Estoril helps my conclusion.)
It’s early in the season, but I’m going to stick my neck on the line a bit and predict that only Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo will win races regularly, and they also will spend the most time in the top 2 or 3 positions all year. Daniel Pedrosa will be just behind them. You might see a few people running in the top 3 once in a while that don’t “belong” there such as Nicky Hayden, Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow, Ben Spies, or Andrea Dovizioso, but they won’t be there regularly. It gives me no pleasure to say this. Actually, it’s quite annoying. I was hoping for better MotoGP racing.

Am I qualified to say this? I don’t know. See note [*]

Lorenzo and Stoner have similar backgrounds. Both came through 125 and 250 two stroke racing. Both were well known for crashing a lot, Lorenzo especially during his early MotoGP career. But Stoner also had his fair share. And both are not crashing much anymore, if at all, while mostly running at the front. I think this last point about crashing is particularly significant.

Valentino Rossi and Pedrosa could almost be considered part of this “club”. Rossi won regularly when he was on the Yamaha, but he was having trouble with Lorenzo toward the end of his Yamaha run. Pedrosa can win once in a while, but it’s increasingly looking more like a statistical anomaly. And then we had Ben Spies and Andrea Dovizioso win recently, but those are definitely anomalies.

Ironically, Rossi’s current situation tends to influence me to favor Stoner over Lorenzo. Rossi and Stoner are the only riders in recent years to switch from one factory bike to another. Stoner was able to win regularly on 2 different bikes, and nobody else has in the last 5 years or so, or since the control tire rule was implemented. Rossi’s switch to Ducati with misearable results illustrates this point quite vividly. Stoner seems to have some extra ability to adapt that Lorenzo might have but hasn’t been able to prove yet, and Rossi clearly doesn’t have in the current control tire era.

So, why are Stoner and Lorenzo my picks to be at the front? The answer must be that they are the only ones who understand their respective motorcycle/tire/electronics combinations well enough to ride them at the limit for more time than the rest. And it probably had a lot to do with their propensity for crashing earlier in the control tire era. They were the only ones willing to push the motorcycles, tires, and electronics right to the ragged edge and beyond in order to understand their motorcycles. I think they were both able to do this because they both have an intense belief in their own abilities. A crash was perfectly acceptable to them because they know it wasn’t their fault. It seems like the rest of the riders just aren’t willing to go this far (crash regularly) in order to understand the motorcycles for all kinds of good reasons: They don’t want to end their careers, they don’t want to be dismissed from their teams for crashing too much, they don’t want to miss races for being hurt, etc. These are the same things going through 99.9% of all other motorcycle roadracers heads, at least the ones older than about 19 or 20.

Marco Simoncelli might have been on his way to join the Stoner and Lorenzo club. His big problem was that he had no problem putting other riders’ safety at risk for his own gains, which is not a good way to win favor in motorcycle roadracing. But he seemed to be following the same path as Stoner and Lorenzo: He was crashing a lot, and then gradually going faster and faster without crashing as much. He also seemed to have a similar intense belief in his own abilities.

Based on my observations, it seems that Yamaha and Honda are the only teams who have been able to develop motorcycles and electronics to work with the latest Bridgestone control tires. Ducati hasn’t been able to do it (without Stoner riding), and Suzuki and Kawasaki just plain gave up trying.

I can’t tell if Lorenzo and Stoner are why Yamaha and Honda are so far ahead, or if Lorenzo and Stoner are so far ahead because of Yamaha and Honda. It seems to be a chicken and egg problem. We don’t have any other riders winning regularly to provide context.

Is this what we really want from MotoGP racing? It’s been twisted so severely that only 2 riders and bikes really have a shot at winning regularly. Do we really want to force other riders in to crashing regularly in order to understand their motorcyles? Does this need to be the price to pay in order to watch the “ultimate” racing motorcylces on the track? There must be a better way… …(World Superbike, Moto2, British Superbike)

In my opinion, the first step is probably to switch control tire manufacturers. Or possibly allow tire competition again. Then after that there is probably some room for improvement by controlling which electronics are allowed and which aren’t in some fashion. It could probably be controlled relatively well with inspections and precise analysis of engine sound on the track. Or control electronics as British Superbike has.

Something must be done to improve the show. I’m becoming dis-interested in a big hurry. And meanwhile, there are other series which are exciting as can be (alluded to earlier). Fix it Dorna and manufacturers!

[*]Note: I’ve been a keen motorcycle roadracing observer in the last 2 decades. I’m a former expert club racer so I have some rudimentary understanding of how motorcycles work. And I’m sort of a natural statistician. I don’t always come to the same conclusions as others based on observed data, I’ll freely admit. I can’t hope to understand all of the complex interactions occurring in MotoGP racing. Can anyone?

Ducati 1199 Panigale showroom premiere Friday April 27th 4:30-6:30PM 0

Posted on April 25, 2012 by acruhl

After months of waiting since the 1199 Panigale was announced, it’s finally here!

Renaissance Motorcycles sent this email on April 19th:

—–
Join Us for
The National Premiere of the Ducati 1199 Panigale

The long awaited national premiere of the Ducati 1199 Panigale is finally upon us. We invite you to join us on Friday April 27th, 2012 as we celebrate this exceptional new model from Ducati.

Please join us at Renaissance Motorcycles, Inc. on Friday April 27th, 2012 at 4:30pm for light refreshments, free two-sided 1199 posters (that look great), and the unveiling and presentation of the new 1199 Panigale.

The premiere event for the 1199 Panigale will run from 4:30pm to 6:30pm on Friday April 27th, and will take
place at:

Renaissance Motorcycles, Inc.
4411 E. Speedway Blvd.,
Tucson, Arizona 85712

If you can’t make it in on Friday evening, the 1199 Panigale will also be on display all day Saturday April 28th, from 9:00am until 5:00pm.
—–

I will be at Renaissance Motorcycles for most of the day Saturday to meet people and talk about the 1199.

See you there!

Audi buys Ducati – business as usual for Italian motorcycling 2

Posted on April 19, 2012 by acruhl


I don’t write a lot of opinions on this site, but this is going to be one of those times. I apologize in advance for the miscellaneous ramblings…

Audi confirmed it’s purchase of Ducati late last night. There’s no need for me to replicate the news, it’s all over the internet. There are many reputable news sources which are saying mostly the same things.

Historically, this is business as usual for Italian motorcycling. Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta, Cagiva, Piaggio, and Ducati have all been purchased at one time or another, and all remain fairly true to their brand names to this day. It’s not a big deal.

The real news for me is related to possibilites for the future. I’m not afraid of wild speculation, so you’re going to get some.

Some news organizations are saying that this is really a “halo” purchase for Audi (really VW) and is intended to “stick it” to BMW. Imagine, if you will, Checa’s 1198 showing up with the four rings (Audi’s logo) on the bike at the next WSBK race (this weekend at Assen!) and beating the pants off of the BMWs as usual. If this is the type of playground style taunting Audi wants to do, hey, more power to them. BMW should be able to win the WSBK and MotoGP championships if they were serious about it. BMW is doing pretty well in Superstock style racing and in showrooms, which Audi should and probably will take note of.

Hopefully Audi can do something about the MotoGP debacle. To be fair, it’s not 100% Ducati’s fault. Part of it is the single tire rule which seems to be forcing everyone into building almost the same motorcycle, which is getting quite boring. And the organizers seem to be incapable of fixing the problems. But Ducati does need to decide if it’s really serious about MotoGP or not. Their only real clout left in that championship appears to be to threaten to pull out as Suzuki and Kawasaki have already done. The question is if Dorna cares. They might not.

I hate to be an “I told you so” kind of person, but I had a pretty good idea this would happen. Livio Suppo had said over and over again that the Ducati MotoGP wins were all down to Stoner, even as the press kept asking what they were doing to the bike to make it into a winner. It seemed obvious when you look back on it because Melandri and Hayden have never been spectacular on the bike, and they are both former MotoGP race winners. As soon as it was announced that Stoner was going to Honda and Rossi was going to Ducati, I told anyone who would listen that 2011 would be a Stoner cakewalk. Even Livio Suppo went to Honda. It wasn’t so clear to me that Rossi would be as bad as he has been, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy. It has to be killing him.

So the real question for Audi is where to go from here? Can Rossi still win? Can they pay someone else enough money to ride the Ducati if Rossi can’t win? (Imagine what it would take to get, say, Pedrosa or Lorenzo to ride it.) Ducati is no longer a “marquis” MotoGP brand, they are something more like Suzuki or Kawasaki in terms of winning potential. If Suzuki or Kawasaki come back next year, it’s going to be that much more difficult to find a top level rider. Things are going south in a hurry. The only short term answer is to do whatever it takes for Rossi, and hopefully Hayden to make progress forward to keep everyone happy. From there they might be able to build a real solution. But if no progress is made, and soon, well… WSBK is where they belong anyway in my opinion… I’d put money on Rossi or Hayden to win the WSBK title on a Panigale. I wouldn’t miss MotoGP at all, especially in it’s current state.

But anyway, back to Audi (really VW) buying Ducati. It’s probably a good thing. Bentley and Bugatti are owned by VW, and they are doing quite well. Ducati’s products are doing well without Audi’s involvement, that will probably continue. I’d expect to see Audi buy a dirt bike brand soon to match BMW’s Husqvarna (ironically, formerly owned by Cagiva who owned Ducati). Maybe KTM? Heh.

World Superbike at Assen, The Netherlands Sunday April 22nd – Watch it on TV at O’Malley’s 0

Posted on April 17, 2012 by acruhl

World Superbike is on this Sunday April 22nd from Assen, The Netherlands. This is a track Ducatis have usually done well at, and was a favorite of 4 time WSBK champion Carl Fogarty.

We will meet up at O’Malley’s at noon as usual to watch the races and have lunch.

More info and a map at the Club Activities page.

See you there!

DS members win 3 prizes at the 2012 TVMR bike show 0

Posted on April 15, 2012 by acruhl




The TVMR show was really great, there were some really nice Vintage bikes out there.

3 DesmoSouthwest members won prizes today. In order from above:

Charlie won Best in Show for his vintage Ducati 250. The grey one was the winner, but he had another black one.

Scot won best Italian with his ’73 Ducati 750 Sport racer.

Bob won Modern Classic with his ’91 Moto Guzzi 1000 LeMans.

And we had some other great bikes that club members brought that you might get to see once in a while if you go on rides with us.

Thanks for coming out! This was the best year for the TVMR show yet.

April 2012 meeting: Barrio Brewery Wednesday the 11th at 6:30 PM 0

Posted on April 09, 2012 by acruhl

The April 2012 club meeting is this Wednesday the 11th at 6:30 PM.

We’ll be meeting at Barrio Brewery for a few reasons: We haven’t had a meeting here for a while, the TVMR (Tucson Vintage Motorcycle Riders) bike night is that night, and the 3rd annual TVMR bike show is this Sunday at Barrio.

Barrio has good food and drinks, so bring your apetite as well as your bike.

There will be a few club related topics to discuss if we get around to it.

Check the Club Activities page for info and a map to Barrio Brewery.

See you there!

MotoGP 2012 season opener: Losail, Qatar this Sunday April 8th 0

Posted on April 05, 2012 by acruhl

The first MotoGP race of the 2012 season is at Losail, Qatar this Easter Sunday, April 8th.

This is also the return of 1000cc engines, and the debut of the “CRT” (Claiming Rule Teams) bikes based on production streetbike engines.

The usual characters have been leading testing so far, but there are a few underlying questions that can’t be answered until the racing begins such as:

Has Rossi been sandbagging during testing to not show his hand to Stoner?

Will the bigger engines tip the balance toward former Superbike riders such as Spies, Hayden and Crutchlow?

Will the smaller riders (Pedrosa, Stoner) have the stamina to wrestle with the heavier and faster bikes for the entire race distance?

The results at Qatar aren’t necessarily indicative of what might happen for the whole season since it is a night race (lower surface temperature) and the track is often very slick due to dust and sand. But these conditions can also produce quite an exciting race.

We will be meeting at O’Malley’s to watch the race from the DVR as usual, but this time at 6 PM instead of lunch time. This is so everyone can do their Easter Sunday activites without the race getting in the way.

Check the Club Activities page for a map and more info.

See you there!

WSBK at Imola Sunday April 1st – Watch it at O’Malley’s at noon 0

Posted on March 29, 2012 by acruhl

WSBK is back to Europe at Imola, Italy this weekend. Carlos Checa on the Ducati 1198 and Max Biaggi on the Aprilia won the races in Australia and are expected to fight for the championship.

Carlos Checa has done well at Imola, and Max Biaggi has been known to run off a lot at this particular track if my memory is correct. So it could be good for Checa and the Ducati 1198.

This is also the first round of the Superstock championship where the 1199 will compete. Ducati has a good record of winning races with new bikes in this class, hopefully this year will be no different.

Meet at O’Malley’s on Fourth around noon, and we’ll watch the races from the DVR. Don’t forget, O’Malley’s has a nice menu so plan on eating lunch there if you want.

There is a map on the Club Activities page.

See you there!



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