Innovative?
OK, so let's look more closely at the innovation:
The handlebars are horizontal. Put your hand by your sides, relax, then lift to a riding position. Oops, nearly vertical, aren't they. That's one of the reasons for `arm pump` - the tendon and ligaments are stretched, then stressed. One or the other would be preferable.
Next, position of the engine. Excellent for mass centralisation - apart form the fact that modern engines weight less than the riders that ride them. Outdated thinking again.
Next, chain run and `narrowness`. INteresting concept - looks prone to all sorts of squat and lift side-effects. There is good bicycling reasons for keepiong the chain and sprocket run in a fairly level plane, close to the attitude of the bike. Just think about the torque effects. The back end will be compressing and unloading all the time with power application or reduction. No rear shock currently made can adapt its damping that fast. A nightmare to set up, and that's providing the top sprocket never comes into contact with the seat pan, or the riders arse will be gaining an extra crack.
Next, so the front has been designed to lower aerodynamic drag? Since when was the sahpe of the exterior the major drag factor in current motorcycle design. It's not the wetted area that needs to be better controlled, it's the airflow underneath the fairing, though and around - and most importantly of all, away from the engine and chassis. Why is slipstreaming still so important in bike racing? Becasue no-one has yet acted to minimise the wake drag by designing the package to actually allow as much air as possible to pass straight through, unhindered. Simple as that, and nothing whatsoever to do with the front fairing. Big riders have more impact than the shape of the fairing. Rossi would be 20 klicks faster with an ass-reduction, judged by the on-bike shots. And that's not say it's a fat ass, just the wrong shape. Leather designers should attend to this issue, not bike designers.
Ironically, none of this would be an issue if race bikes were designed as proven by Craig Vetter, Royce Creasey, Malcom Newell and the other Feet Forward designers more than 30 years ago. The information is out there and clear for all to see. If F1 wants to poke its nose into MGP, then let them use real aerodynamic processes, real design innovation and some real lateral thinking. Why can't a MGP rider sit in a carbo-fibre bathtub? Who say he has to straddle the frame? Who says he has to prostrate himclsef across the top of a howling engine?
Million - billions - of dollars have been spent studying human phyisiology and ergonomics in military and civil aircraft. NOT A SINGLE ONE has concluded any advantage to having theuser head-down, arse-up, with has hands stretched out horiozontally in front of him.
So why is it that someone can use two chains on a motorcycle and it be called `innovative`..? It's not innovative, it's boringly conventional. Now come on F1 boys, you can do so much better than that...
