Valentino Rossi vs. Yamaha bike.

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Once again, like I have said before it is the bike and not the rider that wins the race. Yamaha felt they do not need the reigning world champion to win races and replaced him with a seventh ranked American, Ben Spies.
 
Well, the rider has to know how to ride the bike and Ben Spies is an excellent rider and within one or two years could very well be the world champ. After all, he is a good old Texas boy.
 
The Yamaha couldn't win a race before Rossi joined the team.Before that everyone said he only won because of the Honda.If he keeps winning on the Ducati next year then we could be certain it's the rider not the bike.
 
In an interview with Ducati CEO, Gabriele del Torchio, he said and I quote "Nicky is a wonderful person and a great rider. This year, he greatly contributed to improving our Desmosedici racer. Next year, he and Valentino will hone the bike to its ultimate winning potential." Once the bike is honed to perfection pretty much any top ten riders can win on that bike. Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, said "Rossi unsurpassed skills as a racer and a development rider enabled him to win four MotoGP world titles to date with us and helped Yamaha develop the YZR-M1 into the 'the bike of reference' for the MotoGP class." Even Rossi said he will missed the M1. Lets not forget that Rossi won in part because of his crew chief Jerry Burgess, the man that build Rossi's bikes at Honda and Yamaha and soon to be at Ducati. BTW, Yamaha won in 1992 with Wayne Rainey.
 
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Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
If just a bike can win races, then why doesn't everyone win?


Not every bike is the same nor equal. Ducati has won many championships with different riders.
 
And I'll bet they are all better then the average guy on the street. That's why they are professional racers. They could take a average street bike, and beat a guy with a professionally prepared race bike, just because they are better riders. You can have the best bike in the world sitting there and it won't win anything, until you put a talented rider on it.,,
 
Originally Posted By: azsynthetic
Once again, like I have said before it is the bike and not the rider that wins the race. Yamaha felt they do not need the reigning world champion to win races and replaced him with a seventh ranked American, Ben Spies.

I disagree. I don't follow SuperBike much, MX is my thing. Suzuki couldn't win a championship for years. McGrath left a winning streak on Honda's and rode for them one year. The championship would have been in the bag except for a fluke flat tire. He switched to Yamaha, and racked up several more championships, until challenged by Carmichael, on Kawasaki at the time. Then Ricky jumped to Honda, continuing to win, and swithched again to Suzuki, smoking everyone in his sights. AMA and FIM attempt to level the playing field with fuel, engine size, suspension and inspections, and that has worked to a point. Bottom line, in any racing situation, there is only so much horsepower, so much fuel, and so much traction that can be obtained. If the rider exploits those variables to the best advantage, he's the winner. The bike has little to do with it. It's 95% rider, 5% bike.
 
Actually, it is widely reported that Rossi left Yamaha, he was not replaced. I don't believe I have seen any report to the contrary from the media, teams or any other informed source.

That also does not explain why Nicky Hayden has not been able to match Casey Stoner's results since switching to Ducati.
 
95% rider 5% bike....like beanoil said. Yamaha couldn't win squat until Rossi (and his crew) showed up. Nickys having trouble with the smaller (800cc) motors but has proven he can get the job done on the 1000cc GP bikes. Lorenzo is having a great year and is riding strong every race but could he have developed the bike like Rossi has???? Ben Spies has done very well his 1st year and should be much improved next season.
 
I understand Honda also felt that it was the bike and not Rossi that was winning the the world championships for them.

Look what happened to Honda (with all their money) after Rossi and his engineers left Honda and went to Yamaha.

Think someone lost their job at Honda over that.

It seems Rossi has had a bit of a slump this year. Hope he can pull it out of the bag for Ducati in his first year. You can trust Jeremy Burgess (genius) and his crew (protege genuises) to transform the Duke into a world championship contender.
 
If Burges goes with Rossi he will be successful on the Duc if not it is a 50/50 shot.

Rossi is beyond talented but with the limited amount of motors they have to use in a season and the closeness in power of the 800's the bike will need to be competitive for Rossi to be successful.

On the flip side Stoner is going to tear it up on the more stable and easier to ride Honda.
 
A courageous and talented rider will make the difference. All race machines are very closely matched. After all, they're mechanical devices that are closely regulated by the governing authorities. The degree of advantage that a particular machine may have, is insignificant to the amount of talent/experience/courage a particular rider may have over the next best competitor.
 
boraticus, I beg to offer an alternative view here.

When Yamaha did some work on the engine management computer systems, IIRC start of this season or sometime during last race season, Rossi said it was so much easier to ride fast it was like cheating. That was when you would see Rossi and Lorenzo clear off from the rest of the field and you had two races, Yamaha and MotoGp. Apparently the changes made the bike easier to ride on the throttle transition.

Also, the big difference is in settings.

Doohan and Criville was a perfect example of that and a reason Doohan wanted secrecy within the team. Obviously that was in conflict of what the factory wanted.

Doohan would work hard getting good settings and would post really good pole times. Crivile was going no where until they put Doohan's settings in his bike towards the end of qualifying. Then all of a sudden Criville was dicing with Doohan for pole and sometimes out qualifying him.
 
Originally Posted By: azsynthetic
Once again, like I have said before it is the bike and not the rider that wins the race.


So with that logic place "Joe Rider" of the street on a championship winning factory bike and he will be the World Champ huh? Not in a Billion years.
 
Originally Posted By: heavyhitter
Originally Posted By: azsynthetic
Once again, like I have said before it is the bike and not the rider that wins the race.


So with that logic place "Joe Rider" of the street on a championship winning factory bike and he will be the World Champ huh? Not in a Billion years.


Apparently you know nothing about racing or just can't read. I said any top ten riders can win, not Joe Rider. Ben Spies is ranked 7th and he ain't no Joe Rider. Unless Burgess and crews go to Ducati, Rossi is not going to do any better than he is now with Yamaha.
 
Originally Posted By: Qwiky
boraticus, I beg to offer an alternative view here.

When Yamaha did some work on the engine management computer systems, IIRC start of this season or sometime during last race season, Rossi said it was so much easier to ride fast it was like cheating. That was when you would see Rossi and Lorenzo clear off from the rest of the field and you had two races, Yamaha and MotoGp. Apparently the changes made the bike easier to ride on the throttle transition.

Also, the big difference is in settings.

Doohan and Criville was a perfect example of that and a reason Doohan wanted secrecy within the team. Obviously that was in conflict of what the factory wanted.

Doohan would work hard getting good settings and would post really good pole times. Crivile was going no where until they put Doohan's settings in his bike towards the end of qualifying. Then all of a sudden Criville was dicing with Doohan for pole and sometimes out qualifying him.


It is tough to convince a person like boraticus that uses tack oil on a foam filter to save money why the bike is the key.

When you talk to the racers and the crew chiefs that they will tell you it is the bike and not the riders. All factory teams know that once the bike is dialed in pretty much any top ten riders can win on any given day. An example of this is Ben Spies (7th ranked) just beat MotoGP title leader and 2011 team-mate Jorge Lorenzo (1st ranked) for the pole position. All the bench racers believe that it is the riders.
 
Ok, I am with you now, top ten riders.

Yes, they are pretty well matched. But when it seems like they are giving 100% and not much in it and someone needs to pull that bit extra, Rossi seems to do it and not fall off. Laguna Seca battle with Stoner was a good example.

I have been to Phillip Island GP about 6 times. Last of the 2smokes, first year of the 4 strokes. Last year of the 990s. First year of the 800s. What amazed me about Rossi was his lines were so consistent. Every lap was like clock work, you could have put a dime on the apex and he would hit it everytime. The other riders were a little bit less precise.

That's what Burgess said about Rossi, he is consistent and that is hard to beat. His lap times were always very tightly grouped.

Looks like there might be a new king with Lorenzo. I just feel that Rossi may have lost his edge, interest waining???
 
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