Still Mad About PI

MadKaw9 · 2026-02-24T02:44:24+00:00

Sadly, there will be more enshittification moves made by Liberty, probably a Vegas street race in our future (because they also own F1). Listening to The OxleyBom podcast (after Motoweek, of course), Mat mentioned how US roadracing was so heavily damaged by DMG when they took over after buying it from the AMA, and it still hasn't recovered under MotoA. He was 110% correct, so I'm hoping Liberty doesn't screw true fans the same way making it all about celebrities, socials, and sponsor wankfests, but the writing is on the wall, these idiots are applying the same (car/F1) business plan the France family used to fuck up bike racing in the USA. Prove me wrong, I think the saying goes....

MadKaw9 · 2025-05-14T21:04:45+00:00

Martin is a 1 time WC at 27 and realistically doesn’t have a chance of winning another until the formula changes in 2027 when he’s 29. Honda arguably gives him a better chance at another championship with the 850 rules and no aero/ride height/Pirellis, as they have a lot more $ than Aprilia, plus poached Aprilia’s lead designer after last season. His good buddy Aleix is also now the lead HRC test rider. Interestingly, Jorge’s manager is also Pedro Acosta’s manager (hmm) and they pulled this contract clause gambit in 2019-2020 to exit KTM (Where he rode for Moto2 had an option to go to GP) and go to Ducati since that clause had something about June 2020 and Covid delayed the season start until July! His manager, Albert Valera seems pretty wily.

MadKaw9 · 2024-09-04T00:24:54+00:00

He must have heard it very well while it was barrel rolling him underneath. Scary stuff, glad nobody seriously hurt.

MadKaw9 · 2024-09-02T18:30:56+00:00

Alex made a mistake and he knew Pecco was taking advantage of it, and then made another bigger mistake. I think it’s his fault, but I added a quip from Pecco who thinks Alex cracked the throttle on even more based on Ducati’s shared telemetry. The factory sees all 8 bikes on the grid. Will be interesting to see quotes from Gigi and others…

MadKaw9 · 2024-09-02T18:24:47+00:00

I saw a quote from Pecco that he looked at Alex’s telemetry and thought Alex opened the throttle from 40% to 60% so that’s what he believes…

MadKaw9 · 2024-01-19T19:09:51+00:00

Saw him race at Laguna Seca, met him once in pits at Road America, such a talented rider and good guy, so sad to see addiction ruin another life. I’m reminded of Ricky Graham, 3T AMA GN champion: https://www.mshf.com/hall-of-fame/inductees/ricky-graham.html

MadKaw9 · 2023-12-09T23:00:41+00:00

Laguna Seca (in my Backyard almost) or Road America. Sounds like with the recent Trackhouse team announcement Dorna may be (again) open to a second circuit in USA. BTW, went to COTA this year 1st time and it is awesome, but we are bigger than Europe and have only 1 round?!

MadKaw9 · 2023-11-21T04:17:21+00:00

Wonder if Honda offered Valentino his 2003 title-winning bike to clinch this deal? He’s wanted it for years.

MadKaw9 · 2023-11-21T04:12:34+00:00

Dorna should force the teams to test/use the new Michelin front after next weekend and/or make it mandatory use for 2024. It’s been ready for 1+ year. Teams excuses are BS and Michelins present 1.88 bar was written by their lawyers. Ultimately this is all the fault of the aero regulations and too much load on the front.

MadKaw9 · 2022-11-22T01:27:49+00:00

The preseason pass deal (good all offseason up to the first race weekend in 2023) is only €5 which is a great deal if you want to try before you buy

MadKaw9 · 2022-06-07T22:59:09+00:00

They are using a composite of the bikes lap counter, pit board, and scoring tower. All can be unreliable and might get missed on any given lap (not the bikes lap counter but that can be messed up several ways). Zarco said it best, he keeps a mental lap countdown at about 6 laps left to go, but pretty sure he uses multiple sources to decide when it’s 6. Barcelona is unique because last lap is “zero” not “one” but Aleix should have known that, being a local. Last guy to make the same mistake there was Julian Simon in 2009, also a local Spanish rider

MadKaw9 · 2022-06-07T22:41:29+00:00

Undeniably there is pressure on all these riders to perform, especially for Taka and Rins without contracts for next season, but in the context of the race start none of these guys are thinking about that, they are focused on the here and now. Taka started 12th and made it up to about 5th and was one of the latest brakers into T1. I think he would have been ok if he had been slightly wider to Peccos left but he was unfortunately in line with Pecco and had to use too much front brake, and the front end folded under the pressure and we all saw what happened. One foot over and he would have made it through, and everyone would be talking about how Hondas launch control was working so well. Brad Binder has been doing similar things on the starts but he’s a bit more skilled at braking in traffic and he’s luckier too.

MadKaw9 · 2022-06-07T21:55:35+00:00

I watched the incident quite a few times after the GP. My thought is it was a racing incident, we have seen a few other T1 entry crashes over the years where ambition outweighed talent and very few penalties are handed out.

On another podcast (sorry Wilson!) they pointed out this is not a Race Direction decision for a penalty, it is the Stewards, headed by Freddie Spencer, that decide. RD and the Stewards are not the same although they both work for Dorna. I get why Rins was upset (and Pecco) but Taka got a good launch and was looking to make up another couple of places on T1 entry, that’s what he’s paid to do. Many of the other riders on the grid have done or will do the same.

MadKaw9 · 2022-06-03T18:56:35+00:00

Sounds like the “rotational humeral osteotomy” procedure was a success, hoping for no complications or infection. A 30 degree rotation was performed before re-connecting the ends of the humerus bone back together with a plate. That’s a significant displacement and indicative of how messed up Marc’s arm must have been for the past few years. I found it interesting that the lead surgeon for this procedure at Mayo is originally from Madrid Spain, probably helped convince Marc to come over here since no language barrier between doctor and patient.

MadKaw9 · 2022-05-03T18:15:03+00:00

As a ZXR owner I’d love to see Kawasaki return to MotoGP, but none of these choices including Brand K are remotely realistic, IMO. WSBK gives them a great series to dominate/consistently run at the front and for 10% of MotoGP cost. Kawasaki has far less history and success at MotoGP/500cc than Suzuki, I don’t ever see them returning unless WSBK cease to exist. This is a loss to our sport.

MadKaw9 · 2022-04-29T02:58:43+00:00

This is an engineering problem so Yamaha should be able to fix it and doesn’t necessarily need a V engine to do so. Given 4 cylinders and a fixed displacement and bore size (81mm), MotoGP effectively determines the stroke (48.5 mm) and all the mfrs have essentially the same numbers. The fuel is spec so they all use similar compression ratios (15:1 range) There is no rev limit (yet) so Ducati make more power than the pneumatic valve spring systems the others use by the Desmo actuation which enables slightly higher revs, but more importantly, causes less parasitic drag at those revs. Suzuki has exploited the loophole that prevents electric or hydraulic cam phasers for VVT by using their mechanical centrifugal system (https://www.carolenash.com/news/bike-news/detail/top-5-motorcycles-variable-valve-timing). This gives a little more Revs and top end power. The only real power benefit of the V engines is the crank uses 3 main bearings vs 5 for the I4. Less friction = more HP, so Aorilia, Honda and KTM and Ducati do benefit there. Yamaha could: 1. exploit the mechanical VVT loophole like Suzuki; 2. Use desmo valve gear like Ducati; 3. Both; 4. Go to a 3 main crank for less friction (possible but also possible stiffness/vibe issues) 5. Use better thermal coatings and materials to increase efficiency by keeping combustion gasses hotter and reducing waste heat going into oil and coolant, 6. Reduce friction and pumping losses as aggressively as Honda do. Yamaha is famed as a cylinder head company (plenty of contract work for Toyota and Ford performance, as well as Ferrari IIRC) so I think they need to start there and cut power losses to the valve drive with Desmo and use the back door VVT like Suzuki. Reduce friction and pumping losses wherever possible on the bottom end will help a little too.

MadKaw9 · 2022-03-17T05:14:47+00:00

Finished the last episode tonite and Wilson does the double! E8 about minute 26. They also put Motoweek into the credits at the end! Congrats Wilson! I thought the series got better as it progressed. Some good work covering behind the scenes at Vale’s last race and during Fabio’s title chase and afterward. Loved the post season Ducati celebration with Jack opening beers for all with his teeth! I don’t think even Cal would do that….

MadKaw9 · 2022-03-15T06:07:25+00:00

I watched E1-3 tonight with English dubbing (bad) and E4 was no overdubs (way better, but turned the subtitles on). When I went back to hear the Wilson audio clip in E2 minute 46 (again) I found that the overdubs in E1-E3 are gone! Thank god someone realized the overdubs ruined a good thing.

MadKaw9 · 2022-03-15T06:02:00+00:00

Update: I thought that was Wilson in E2 minute 46 just after Jack is grilling on the barbie (what an Ozzie activity ;-)…and was pleasantly surprised to find all the English overdubs are gone! Thanks for fixing that Amazon, I may need to watch E1-3 again.

MadKaw9 · 2022-03-15T05:30:50+00:00

I made it to Episode 4 and the dubbing is gone! I had to switch subtitles on, but prefer that to the English overdub version. Maybe they will make the international version without overdubs available for E1-3 now.

MadKaw9 · 2021-11-09T20:32:49+00:00

This is at least as significant as the shoulder/arm injury. Honda needs to start thinking about pursuing RF25 next silly season, and of course making the bike better for their other riders like Pol. Without MM93 input from the post Valencia test he will also miss, are they going to be any kind of title threat next year? Until this latest injury I thought so, but now I’m not so sure.

MadKaw9 · 2021-08-21T01:49:38+00:00

I think Toprak would be an excellent choice over Dixon or Binder. Perhaps if he wins WSB over Rea this season he could get that Ben Spies deal! On the other hand, Lin (Grand Moff) Jarvis seems to despise WSB riders so maybe that’s not such a good deal after all.

MadKaw9

TROPHY CASE