WSB Philip Island

[Ho Lee Kau]

Wow, Honda is waaay back!
Is Hayden riding the new bike or still the old bike?

At SwissMoto his bike was exhibited, it had the front of the new Fireblade but the instrumentation of the really old Fireblade (the one with the big round analogue tachometer and small digital screen on the right bottom of it).

[moanthebairns]

Maybe it's because I haven't ridden or watched bike racing in months but fk me. That first right hander the braking into that is fking sublime.

Everytime I was like fk they carry so much speed.

[egor110]

Ho Lee Kau said:

Wow, Honda is waaay back!
Is Hayden riding the new bike or still the old bike?

At SwissMoto his bike was exhibited, it had the front of the new Fireblade but the instrumentation of the really old Fireblade (the one with the big round analogue tachometer and small digital screen on the right bottom of it).

New bike.

Check out his twitter and bradl's from earlier in the week when they were testing the bike , neither of them were impressed.

[theshrew]

Good race, hopefully this will carry on. The last few years we've only had the real picture after the second round. What happened to Brookes ?

Supercross is on tonight / middle of the night also. That's worth a watch on youtube.

[Gavia]

moanthebairns said:

Maybe it's because I haven't ridden or watched bike racing in months but fk me. That first right hander the braking into that is fking sublime.

Everytime I was like fk they carry so much speed.

Thats because it some of the greatest tracks in the world. Ive got family in Melbourne and they've got a friend with a house on Phillip Island. All I need is a flight and enough money to buy a bike over there and I'm off for a track / race weekend.

[mckeann]

everybody up and watching live i hope for race 2?

I'm glad i spent £20 on the eurosport player, as i'm sat at work on a quiet nightshift. Happy days, hope its as good a race as yesterday

[Mr. White]

Great to see Kyle Ryde up there in 4th, probably about right after he was almost nerfed off early on but then inherited a couple of places through fallers. .

Hope he keeps it up.

[WaferThinHam]

Supersport race was great, WSBK Race two was ok, but a bit of a foregone conclusion.

[abw280]

The new grid positions for race 2 seem a bit random.......4th place gets pole and the top 3 are shunted back to the 3rd row. Makes for exciting racing, I wonder though if if you're in 3rd place in race 1 will riders be tempted to drop back into 4th to ensure pole for race 2? In certain tracks where overtaking is tricky then this might be a sensible play.

Fantastic couple of races all the same. Marco is going to shake things up a bit this year - a race win is on the cards.

[egor110]

Awesome ss race , that knee save from Caricasulo ! , bummer it went tits up a few laps later.

Wsbk race , well they had to really work for that , melandri is going to shake this season up already sykes has been pushed back to the 2nd group and Lowes fighting but seems to be more patient and take the points.

Is melandri still married ? when he was on the bmw his mrs was pretty much in every shot apart from when he was riding , no sign of her anymore.

[AdamIndy]

A good start to the season, it's been a long wait!

I hope lowes can keep it up. He's the rider of the weekend for me!

[s3fella]

Philip Island never seems to disappoint.

The supersport was bonkers as normal.
I sincerely hope the "demise" of the 600 class doesn't affect the entry to SS racing, it's always been fantastic.

Was really impressed by Lowes. Could the Yam get to where it needs to be?

[FourWheelDrift]

s3fella said:

Was really impressed by Lowes. Could the Yam get to where it needs to be?

Philip Island can flatter a slower bike he was able to keep up due to all the mid/high speed corners, not too much slow down and speed up. As another example first race of 2013 and Checa put the brand new Panigale on pole at PI but was nowhere for the rest of the year.

[egor110]

FourWheelDrift said:

s3fella said:

Was really impressed by Lowes. Could the Yam get to where it needs to be?

Philip Island can flatter a slower bike he was able to keep up due to all the mid/high speed corners, not too much slow down and speed up. As another example first race of 2013 and Checa put the brand new Panigale on pole at PI but was nowhere for the rest of the year.

Didn't lowes do pretty well on the suzuki at philip island last year?

[Gavia]

egor110 said:

Didn't lowes do pretty well on the suzuki at philip island last year?

He was on the Yamaha last year.

[egor110]

Gavia said:

egor110 said:

Didn't lowes do pretty well on the suzuki at philip island last year?

He was on the Yamaha last year.

Maybe the year before then when he was with paul dennings team.

Off topic but how good is this thread people talking about bike racing without it ending up rossi's the greatest no he's st spread over 5 pages.

[graeme4130]

I'm not normally a big fan of WSBK, and generally prefer BSB & MGP, but those were two great races this weekend
Good to see Lowes in the mix too

[cmaguire]

Sorry, but I watched the Sunday races with a mate and we both agreed the Supersport was way more entertaining than the Superbikes. Melandri added the most spice to the superbikes.
I feel bad saying it but, bar the retro-attitude of BSB, I think the technology is spoiling the spectacle that is bike racing. The 500 two strokes were ace but I can accept they don't make sense now two-strokes are gone, but the first 1000 four strokes gave good racing before the 800 arrived with all the crappy electronics. And I remember Gregorio Lavilla on the Gsxr750 in WSB tracing an arc with smoking rear tyre at 120+ back when highsides were par for the course. And onboard with Roger Lee Hayden at Laguna on the ZX7R when wildcards were a highlight (the sound was something else).

[Gavia]

cmaguire said:

Sorry, but I watched the Sunday races with a mate and we both agreed the Supersport was way more entertaining than the Superbikes. Melandri added the most spice to the superbikes.
I feel bad saying it but, bar the retro-attitude of BSB, I think the technology is spoiling the spectacle that is bike racing. The 500 two strokes were ace but I can accept they don't make sense now two-strokes are gone, but the first 1000 four strokes gave good racing before the 800 arrived with all the crappy electronics. And I remember Gregorio Lavilla on the Gsxr750 in WSB tracing an arc with smoking rear tyre at 120+ back when highsides were par for the course. And onboard with Roger Lee Hayden at Laguna on the ZX7R when wildcards were a highlight (the sound was something else).

Rose timited glasses.

The racing this weekend was superb, the best in WSB for a long time and hopefully showin gtheres good strength through the field with more to come from the Aprilias and Hondas. Harking back to the good old days is a waste of time. After all, the Halwood era was much better than the 80s two stroke days and so on.

[Rat_Fink_67]

egor110 said:

Gavia said:

egor110 said:

Didn't lowes do pretty well on the suzuki at philip island last year?

He was on the Yamaha last year.

Maybe the year before then when he was with paul dennings team.

That was Eugene Laverty when he rode for Crescent, he won race 1 and then the engine blew whilst leading race 2. The Suzuki never came close to repeating that form for the rest of the season unfortunately.