MotoGP

[Graham Orm]

Number 6 in Italy of the 18 on this year's calendar. The track for this weekend has the fastest straight, where all the bikes pass the 200mph mark, (every lap :shock: ) the fastest so far in practice being 217mph. I seem to remember a couple of years ago someone went over 220mph.

Anyone been over 150mph?

Marc Marquez doing what he does best. Steering with the throttle.

 

[Bigbud78]

144mph is the fastest I've been but it was only for seconds, not been watching the GP for the last few years as I never seem to have the time but might try and catch them this year. I used to prefer the 250's

 

[ChrisR]

I do miss the Moto GP, not seen it since the BBC did not renew their contract to broadcast it, so they could spend more on broadcasting, that pointless game of twenty two men chasing a ball around a field. :evil:

No the fasted I have been on a motorbike is just over the100mph, that was fast enough on a public (A) road as things can go badly wrong very quickly. :shock:

Chris R.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

About 20yrs ago my friend's father used to lecture him incessantly on how fast 500cc Nortons and Ariels and things were and how much better they were than newfangled stuff. Father missed the bus one day so Scott offered him a lift. He took him up a road that's now a 30mph limit, as he hit 150mph he popped the front wheel. :shock: Father never again mentioned old bikes.

 

[Graham Orm]

144mph is the fastest I've been but it was only for seconds, not been watching the GP for the last few years as I never seem to have the time but might try and catch them this year. I used to prefer the 250's

They're all four strokes now. The 125's have been replaced by 250 single cylinder's and the 250's by 600cc (one make) four cylinder's. The racing is just as it was, Moto3, like the 125's 10 bikes exchanging the lead all race long. Moto2 like the 250's, serious contenders feeding the MotoGP class, but wild!

 

[Racers]

155MPH on two different bikes!

I miss the Moto GP but I won't be held to ransom by BT.

Pete

 

[Graham Orm]

155MPH on two different bikes!

I miss the Moto GP but I won't be held to ransom by BT.

Pete

We get it in our Virgin package Pete, as well as Eurosport. It's quite good coverage. Julian Ryder and Keith Heuwen do the race coms and some of the qualifying, and a mixture of other commentators covering every aspect of the practice, qualifying, morning warm up, and even a post race analysis show....I've usually had enough by then!
Neil Hodgson does a lap on a BMW and you can actually hear his dialogue! He also does the pit lane and grid walk with James Toseland and/or Gavin Emmett. All very entertaining banter and some stunning super-slo-mo shots.

They also have rotating on bike cameras now that can be turned to film an adjacent rider. Apparently these are satellite controlled and are told the code of the rider that the director wants to film and the camera turns to face his direction, eliminating someone trying to control the camera with a joy stick!

 

[AES]

You blokes are dead lucky - I've been a mo'bike racing fan for some time (though I hate the things on the road and do NOT own or ride one, and never will!) but here we only have Swiss TV Channel 2 (usually only Moto 2 covered 'cos there's a couple of Swiss riders in it, including Tom Luthi) but the Swiss commentator is awful and from his comments I sometimes think he's never seen a motorbike in his life, AND he's often not even watching the same race I'm seeing!

Or we have "our" Eurosport in German. Nothing wrong with that apart from too many ads, and except their whole approach is awful, they have Alex Hoffmann (ex racer) in the pit lane and on the start line but usually asking inane questions with a through race commentary from a couple of blokes who also don't seem to know much and certainly don't seem to bring the insights that BBC used to. So that leaves me with the "round up précis" by ITV 4 on a Monday night. Excellent commentary, often quite amusing and seemingly knowledgeable, but far too many advert breaks with a (literally 30 secs) flash summary of the Moto 3 & 2 races.

Anyway better than nothing but IMHO far superior to Formula 1, and as far as football, rugby, and tennis and all the rest of it goes "what's that then?"

Sepp Blatter? Never heard of him!



AES

 

[Graham Orm]

You blokes are dead lucky - I've been a mo'bike racing fan for some time (though I hate the things on the road and do NOT own or ride one, and never will!) but here we only have Swiss TV Channel 2 (usually only Moto 2 covered 'cos there's a couple of Swiss riders in it, including Tom Luthi) but the Swiss commentator is awful and from his comments I sometimes think he's never seen a motorbike in his life, AND he's often not even watching the same race I'm seeing!

Or we have "our" Eurosport in German. Nothing wrong with that apart from too many ads, and except their whole approach is awful, they have Alex Hoffmann (ex racer) in the pit lane and on the start line but usually asking inane questions with a through race commentary from a couple of blokes who also don't seem to know much and certainly don't seem to bring the insights that BBC used to. So that leaves me with the "round up précis" by ITV 4 on a Monday night. Excellent commentary, often quite amusing and seemingly knowledgeable, but far too many advert breaks with a (literally 30 secs) flash summary of the Moto 3 & 2 races.

Anyway better than nothing but IMHO far superior to Formula 1, and as far as football, rugby, and tennis and all the rest of it goes "what's that then?"

Sepp Blatter? Never heard of him!



AES

Am I right in thinking that motorsport is illegal in Switzerland?

 

[doorframe]

I miss the Moto GP but I won't be held to ransom by BT. Pete

Wise up bods!!

I don't have a TV package that includes any sport channels, but I still see ANY sport I want, including all the Arsenal games, boxing world title fights, motor sport (if I thought I could stay awake long enough), and any other sport.

It's NOT illegal, before you PC brigade get on your high horse. It's as simple as watching youtube.

And AES, it's available is Switzerland, as I was there in Feb/March this year and watched Arsenal beat QPR on Sky Sports on my laptop in the hotel bar. At home, I have a PC linked to my 20 yr old TV and watch any sport I want on the (reasonably) large screen.

All you need is a half reasonable internet connection. Do a bit of Googling and find out for your selves, and stop missing the stuff you want!!!

 

[Bale]

I remember a race a few years ago when Shinya Nakano had a rear tyre blow out at the end of the straight at Mugello, essentially catapulting him over the handlebars. The bike was estimated to be doing 212mph at the time and the rider was still travelling at 197 when his helmet hit the tarmac. He made it onto the grid at the next race a week later and an interviewer asked him how he was feeling. He said he was "a bit sore"! Found the clip on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW-umIKLzWQ

I've never been over 125 myself. Too old, too wise and too scared.

Pete

 

[Ghengis]

I had 1050st sprint doing 150 on the clock at the Nurburg in 2012

 

[MMUK]

Managed to get my Thunderace up to an indicated 188mph on the Antoniusbuche section of Nurburgring back in 2009 and a lap time of 7.58:42 :mrgreen:

 

[Graham Orm]

I remember a race a few years ago when Shinya Nakano had a rear tyre blow out at the end of the straight at Mugello, essentially catapulting him over the handlebars. The bike was estimated to be doing 212mph at the time and the rider was still travelling at 197 when his helmet hit the tarmac. He made it onto the grid at the next race a week later and an interviewer asked him how he was feeling. He said he was "a bit sore"! Found the clip on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW-umIKLzWQ

I've never been over 125 myself. Too old, too wise and too scared.

Pete

I remember that. Marc Marquez crashed on the same corner at 200mph and also walked away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnCfmq199iw

 

[Graham Orm]

Just watching the Moto3 race. Half distance and 16 bikes in the leading group. Because of the incredible slipstream opportunity they are moving from 10th to first in one corner.

 

[lanemaux]

As far as speeds go , I admit nothing that my wife might yet use against me. I will admit to trying to look like Agostini on my RD400 Daytona special in the good old days. I wore that poor thing out and sold it off a year or 2 before I met my wife , so she was not to blame for prying me off it . Just after the wife and I got together my rat racer partner came over and tossed me the keys for his RZ 500 as he felt sorry for me. Go for a ride he said, you look like you could use it. I returned an hour or so and 4 or 5 heart stopping moments later with sweat matted shirt and a visible heartbeat. My at that time girlfriend asked if I was OK with a bit of fear in her voice. I FEEL F@%%ing GREAT!! was all I could say before taking a few minutes to regain more composure. She still rolls her eyes when she sees me looking at sport bikes in the classified ads.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not a sports bike, but in this beautiful weather I don't half miss my 1900cc V twin Yam.

 

[AES]

Had a good afternoon watching Moto2 & MotoGP on Swiss TV yesterday (but no Moto 3, will have to wait for that until ITV4's 30 sec recap tonight). There was a super slo-mo of Valentino Rossi on one of the corners yesterday - I often wonder if these blokes, as well as being super-skilled, are just plain lunatics or are so competitive that they just do not care - pity Crutchlow came off in GP and Luthi in 2, but didn't Aegerter do well?

@Graham Orm - you're sort of correct about motor sport being illegal here. There was a circuit near Bern but that closed down after motor sport was made illegal here because it's "too dangerous" following that awful crash at Le Mans during the mid '50s. But in the mid/late '90s the lower house of parliament here OK'd a bill whereby it would be allowed again but the upper house refused to ratify it (we have a 2 house system here, a bit like UK). It looks unlikely that they will ever change that stance now though, and there are no tracks here.

But taking motor sport in it's widest sense, they do still allow (a few) hill climbs and mountain pass runs for vintage and modern cars and bikes, which involves closing public roads for a while, and of course bike racing (pedal) is very popular here, and that involves extensive closure of public roads for things like Tour de Suisse (like the Tour de France). So I suppose proper road racing is always a possibility in the future. But with so many "proper" racing circuits relatively close to us in France, Germany, Italy, etc, I doubt we'll ever have a circuit set up here again.

@doorframe - would you care to share the link about watching sport on the PC please? I Googled and found several but am not sure which to choose - and am not sure about value for money because basically I'm only interested in motor bike racing. Also being a computer illiterate I get worried when someone puts "No Virus Download" on their website! TIA.

Krgds
AES