Sepang test musings.

Paul B <Woofmix.DeleteThis@gmail.com> Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:44:25
>Edwards often practiced and qualified well last season then they gave
>him 5 forward and one reverse gear for the race, thats how it seemed
>so I'm not geting too excited with him being fast.
>Lorenzo seems to be adapting well, whether that will turn into race
>pace remains to be seen.

While Toseland seems to be just quietly getting on with it.

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Lemon Scented
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On 24 Jan, 08:59, Champ <n....TakeThisOut@champ.org.uk> wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:44:25 -0800 (PST), Paul B <Woof....TakeThisOut@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Do people in the US *really* refer to these tyre (heh - sorry - 'tire'
> for you guys) company names like this?  Do you go to the bike shop and
> say "I want a new 'Lin for the rear"?  Cos it seems a bizarre and
> strangely annoying (to me) abbreviation.
>
> --
> Champ

Heh Heh, I'm a Kiwi living in Scotland and call them Stone's and Lin's
with toungue in cheek. There was a thread last year and someone
commented on on the Bridgestones been called "Stones" saying next
thing Michelins will be called "Lin's" so I decided to try it for a
laugh, it is naff though I admit.

Paul
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On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:44:25 -0800 (PST), Paul B <Woofmix DeleteThis @gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 23 Jan, 15:30, Chris Paine <c... DeleteThis @ist.co.uk> wrote:
>> Yes I know it's only early days[1], but it's interesting to see De
>> Puniet doing well in the Sepang test.
>
>> Has Rossi been over hasty in ditching Michelin ? Perhaps he'll end up
>> forever chasing the best tyres, and always be one season behind
>>
>> Melandri is only ahead of Guintoli and test riders - that can't be
>> good for him.
>>
>> Edwards 2nd fastest - perhaps there's life in the old dog yet.
>
>It really is too early to be drawing any conclusions. We don't know
>what tyres are been used or what parameters each team is focusing on.

This is of course true. Plenty of teams through a qualifier on at
some point just to muddy the waters.

>Same with Stones vs Lins, this is only one track and even if the Lins

Do people in the US *really* refer to these tyre (heh - sorry - 'tire'
for you guys) company names like this? Do you go to the bike shop and
say "I want a new 'Lin for the rear"? Cos it seems a bizarre and
strangely annoying (to me) abbreviation.


--
Champ
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On 23 Jan, 17:44, Paul B <Woof... DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:

> It really is too early to be drawing any conclusions.

I agree entirely. About the only definite thing I would say is that
Melandri is struggling (relative to what might be expected of him).

> Still it's great t have the season upon us again and give us all
> something to speculate over.

Indeed. And on the final day Hayden took the top spot (on qualifiers).

Cheers,
--
Chris Paine <cmp DeleteThis @ist.co.uk>
"I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy ...
and I'll punch the man who says I'm not."
 >> Stay informed about: Sepang test musings. 

On 24 Jan, 15:46, Julian Bond <julian_b....TakeThisOut@voidstar.com> wrote:

> It's not just Melandri struggling. So are Elias and Guintoli.

Yes, but they're in the D'Antin team, and you'd have to put Elias and
Guintoli behind Melandri in terms of rider talent. Is D'Antin running
2008 Ducatis, or are they using last years bikes ?

> Guintoli
> must be gutted to be 18 on 2min 3.628s when Jorge is up the other end in
> 3rd with 2m0.766s

Is there some friction between Guintoli and Lorenzo then ?

Cheers,
--
Chris Paine <cmp.TakeThisOut@ist.co.uk>
"I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy ...
and I'll punch the man who says I'm not."
 >> Stay informed about: Sepang test musings. 

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:24:45 -0800 (PST), Paul B <Woofmix RemoveThis @gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 24 Jan, 08:59, Champ <n... RemoveThis @champ.org.uk> wrote:
>> On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:44:25 -0800 (PST), Paul B <Woof... RemoveThis @gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Do people in the US *really* refer to these tyre (heh - sorry - 'tire'
>> for you guys) company names like this?  Do you go to the bike shop and
>> say "I want a new 'Lin for the rear"?  Cos it seems a bizarre and
>> strangely annoying (to me) abbreviation.
>>
>> --
>> Champ
>
>Heh Heh, I'm a Kiwi living in Scotland and call them Stone's and Lin's
>with toungue in cheek. There was a thread last year and someone
>commented on on the Bridgestones been called "Stones" saying next
>thing Michelins will be called "Lin's" so I decided to try it for a
>laugh, it is naff though I admit.

Ha! Well, you got me
--
Champ
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Chris Paine <cmp DeleteThis @ist.co.uk> Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:24:34
>On 23 Jan, 17:44, Paul B <Woof... DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It really is too early to be drawing any conclusions.
>
>I agree entirely. About the only definite thing I would say is that
>Melandri is struggling (relative to what might be expected of him).
>
>> Still it's great t have the season upon us again and give us all
>> something to speculate over.
>
>Indeed. And on the final day Hayden took the top spot (on qualifiers).

Toseland said he'd get into the 2m1s on the last day and he did.

It's not just Melandri struggling. So are Elias and Guintoli. Guintoli
must be gutted to be 18 on 2min 3.628s when Jorge is up the other end in
3rd with 2m0.766s

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Don't Let Other Motorists Surprise You
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On 2008-01-24 03:59:08 -0500, Champ <neal DeleteThis @champ.org.uk> said:

> Do people in the US *really* refer to these tyre (heh - sorry - 'tire'
> for you guys) company names like this? Do you go to the bike shop and
> say "I want a new 'Lin for the rear"? Cos it seems a bizarre and
> strangely annoying (to me) abbreviation.

Lin's Lop's Li's and 'Stones, I occasionally hear that at tracks, but
it's mostly just shop talk...
 >> Stay informed about: Sepang test musings. 

Julian Bond wrote:
> Chris Paine
> >Paul B wrote:
> >> It really is too early to be drawing any conclusions.
>
> >I agree entirely. About the only definite thing I would say is that
> >Melandri is struggling (relative to what might be expected of him).
> >Indeed. And on the final day Hayden took the top spot (on qualifiers).

What I found interesting was that Hayden didn't start using the pneumy
motors until the afternoon of the 2nd day, and then talked of power
deficit and older springy motors that don't seem to match well with
the new chassis. Today it was back to the old motor again in the
afternoon. That suggests Julian was right, Honda is behind on their
factory team motor development and may not be ready with it by the
start of the year, and certainly will still be trying to squeeze out
more power at that point, if not all year long as in '07.

The other thing is that it seems like Michelin is showing promise, and
at a track that should favor Bridgestone (although Pedrosa had a good
race there last year). But if correct, Stoner doing a 2:00.9 on race
tires is very quick, a second faster than pole last year. Seems like
most of the faster guys did mid-01s on race tires.

> Toseland said he'd get into the 2m1s on the last day and he did.

On qualifiers...

> It's not just Melandri struggling. So are Elias and Guintoli. Guintoli
> must be gutted to be 18 on 2min 3.628s when Jorge is up the other end in
> 3rd with 2m0.766s

What those three have in common, other than being on Ducatis and being
250-bred, is that they're new on the bikes. Given the peculiarities of
that machine, I think it's too early to judge much. But if neither
they or Ducati can make the changes necessary, it could be a very long
year. Well, for Melandri anyway, I really don't think anyone is
expecting great things from D'Antin, are they?
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Chris Paine <cmp.RemoveThis@ist.co.uk> Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:53:19
>On 24 Jan, 15:46, Julian Bond <julian_b....RemoveThis@voidstar.com> wrote:
>
>> It's not just Melandri struggling. So are Elias and Guintoli.

>Yes, but they're in the D'Antin team, and you'd have to put Elias and
>Guintoli behind Melandri in terms of rider talent. Is D'Antin running
>2008 Ducatis, or are they using last years bikes ?

There was talk about how now D'Antin had Alice sponsorship, they'd be
closer to the factory. But as usual it seems that all the satellite
teams are step behind the factory teams.

>> Guintoli
>> must be gutted to be 18 on 2min 3.628s when Jorge is up the other end in
>> 3rd with 2m0.766s
>
>Is there some friction between Guintoli and Lorenzo then ?

Only that he left Yamaha to join Ducati. And the 2nd string Yamahas with
Michelins seem to be doing rather better than OK. See above, the
Edwards-Toseland (and perhaps Lorenzo) Yamahas seem to be much closer to
Rossi's than say De Puniet's Honda to Hayden's.

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Julian Bond E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
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Don't Let Other Motorists Surprise You
 >> Stay informed about: Sepang test musings. 

From Sepang, the Spanish press reports that a Rossi technician
"accidentally" got into Lorenzo's garage. Lorenzo posted better times than
Rossi, so they were probably curious about setup information, but lo and
behold, Lorenzo's men chased him away. Seems Lorenzo is no longer overly
fond or reverent when it comes to Rossi.

Excellent ride from Hayden, nice confidence booster, and perhaps Rossi shall
regret not riding Michelins now that Michelin is likely to throw the kitchen
sink into things! Moreover, Pedrosa was in Spain trying to make people
believe the new bike has issues and that his falling off was due to bike
error. He now claims that Hayden is taking full advantage of being the only
one interfacing with the Japanese engineers. Wow, Hayden surely is effective
if he turns around bike development in a week or so. Perhaps they're better
off without your input, Dani? It's kind of funny when riders talk too
much and proceesings make them look like sore losers...

Also, from Spain's Jerez - not only did Bradley Smith top the charts in
125cc , setting a circuit record by .1s! Awesome to see him progress like
this.

Kalio and Aoyama topped the 250cc on KTMs, the Aprilia armada led by Barbera
behind them.

....pablo
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pablo wrote:

> Moreover, Pedrosa was in Spain trying to make people
> believe the new bike has issues and that his falling off was due to bike
> error. He now claims that Hayden is taking full advantage of being the only
> one interfacing with the Japanese engineers. Wow, Hayden surely is effective
> if he turns around bike development in a week or so. Perhaps they're better
> off without your input, Dani? It's kind of funny when riders talk too
> much and proceesings make them look like sore losers...

This is what Hayden said about the bike after day two: "I set my fastest
lap, and then we started using the pneumatic-valve engine after about 25
laps. With that engine the bike did feel more like the prototype I rode
last November, I guess because the bike was designed to have that
engine, so maybe the extra weight makes it work a bit better." Hayden's
best-of-test time on day three was with the old motor, but this suggests
that the new chassis stuffed with the old motor is somehow a detriment
to the handling of the bike, and it was, I assume, the old motor Dani
was using on day one.

The English translation of what was said that I saw was Dani was a
little worried because "he [Nicky] has not been very beneficial when he
has had that responsibility in the past." But if you think about the
differences in their size and riding style, one might conclude that the
issue isn't incompetence, rather is a matter of preference - it would
seem quite unlikely that Hayden is remotely the best guy to develop a
bike for Pedrosa, and vice versa. It's awful hard to blame Nicky for
last year's bike, more a conceptual abortion than a natural evolution,
and one gets the impression that Nicky was a lot happier than Dani with
the new machine's basic design. So maybe just a consequence of having
two so poorly matched factory riders.

You know, like Rossi and Lorenzo...
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