Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1545985
ing showroom models, so rather than addressing development, you must deal with what you've already got. You can't speed up the slow ones. So you have to slow down the winners. Rather the antith - esis of what racing is about. There are three basic ways of doing this: adding weight, re- stricting fueling or cutting revs. Adding ballast is controversial to say the least, largely for safety reasons. And there are further complications with riders of dif - ferent weights—you have to go for combined weights. VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P129 Fueling also has problems, whether done electronically or (more old-fashioned) by physical restrictions to the inlet tracts. Not least because it can upset the fine-tuning balance of a high-per - formance engine. Bluntly, it can mar throttle response, making a bike not only more difficult to ride, but potentially even dangerous. WorldSBK use fueling anyway, with a sophisticated system that possibly ameliorates these prob - lems. This controls flow rate, mea- sured in kilograms an hour and changed in half-kilogram steps. It was introduced last year, and this year alone, Ducati and bimota have both been hit by reductions for being too fast, Ducati twice; while Yamaha has been granted extra. All without making any discernible difference to results. Ducati's Nicolo Bulega has won every race but one, which went to his teammate, Iker Lecuona. BSB uses revs for the Super - bike class and fueling for the support classes. So far this year Ducati's V4-R Panigale has been docked from 16,000 rpm to 15,750, without altering the results in the slightest. But in the Supersport class, "Next Generation" rules offer a completely different way of find - ing parity. Instead of being based on cubic capacity as is traditional, the class is open to a wide variety of bikes, ranging from 600cc fours to 955cc twins, via 765cc triples. They are further manipulated by throttle controls—Ducati currently on 80 percent of full opening. And it works. For example, at the most recent BSB race at Brands Hatch, the top six all finished inside 1.5 seconds and spanned the range: Triumph triple, Honda and Yama - ha fours, and Ducati twin. It's intriguing to think that new thinking might add variety to Superbikes as well, not only to the grids but also to the results, making it all less predictable and more fun for the riders and fans, and more commercially attrac - tive for the manufacturers. But there are philosophical questions here about the mean - ing and value of racing. Is it just entertainment, making it fair game to slow the fast ones down? Or is it a genuine sport, giving the participants—engi - neers and riders—a chance to achieve and then demonstrate excellence? And there's the matter of rid - ers. The very best of them are able to overcome machine weak- nesses—indeed, to use them to display exceptional talent. For example, Ducati is dominant in WorldSBK, but Toprak Razgatlio- glu was able to beat them, riding both Yamaha and BMW. Racing is different for every stakeholder. For the manufactur- ers, it's a high-pressure show- room. They race because they want to sell more motorcycles. For the riders, it's personal. For promoters and circuit owners, it needs to make money. And for the fans, it must be entertaining. But when you have to slow racing down for the lowest com - mon denominator, it feels as though something is wrong. CN Iker Lecuona (7) led from start to finish in race one of the British WorldSBK. His teammate, Nicolo Bulega (11), has won everything else this year. Should MSEG do more to make it less predictable? PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE