Nowadays, most riders tend to
stick, and not just in the inter-
ests of a post-racing career. The
dumb-down rules restricting
such crucial
matters as tires,
cylinder numbers and bore
size make the bikes ostensibly
more similar. Paradoxically, this
emphasizes the differences in
detail. And detail is where the
devil resides.
Riders frequently talk about
the difficulty of switching
marques. Tangible differences
affect the crucial feel.
Most critical is engine archi
-
tecture: V4 or L4—the latter now
exclusive
to Yamaha with Suzuki
gone.
There are differences in throt-
tle response and the way power
is expressed, though these can
be minimized by
tuning and
electronics. What cannot be
altered is crankshaft width. An
inline engine is unavoidably
wider than a V and potentially
taller, depending on how the V is
disposed in the chassis. It must
be mounted higher for ground
clearance, which affects weight
transfer in braking and accelera
-
tion but it's not necessarily for
the worse.
It is
also shorter fore-and-aft,
potentially another advantage.
Most significant, however, is
the gyroscopic effect of a longer
(wider) crankshaft.
Again, there are pluses and
minuses. Broadly, the Yamaha
can hold sweeping lines for
higher corner speed; the V4s are
more agile. At the limit, however,
they feel completely different.
Even among the V4s, subtle
W
e are looking ahead at
a 2024 season of tran-
sition. Some changes
have
already begun, others
brewing, as yet in abeyance. By
the end, there is the potential
for far-reaching rider swaps and
machine exchanges.
All but a handful of riders'
contracts are up at the end of
2024: the exceptions being Brad
Binder at KTM until the end of
2026, Johann Zarco and Luca
Marini at Honda at the end of
2025, and possibly the sole
rookie Pedro Acosta, whose ex-
act arrangement with GasGas/
KTM
is not clear.
It throws a greater focus on
the five riders who have changed
bikes from last season to this.
Five is not just an unusu-
ally large number. It's a rarity.
P102
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
WILL MOTOGP'S
TRAITORS
SHOW THE WAY?
