Motorcycle Forums

edwards and capirossi

The answer wosi is either that rossi was a lot better than edwards and stoner was a lot better than capirossi , or that their bikes weren't the same. I tend to the former myself.

Surely you must realise all this top speed stuff is nonsense if you have been watching motorport as long as I have which would seem to be the case. Yes, the story of modern F1 has been the constant search for straightline performance at the expense of grip/handling, and the Aprilia cube has won the last 10 motogp championships.

Setting aside that  Stoner's unconventional riding style particularly on the ducati influenced his corner exit and hence his straightline performance on subsequent straights, apart from a tyre durability advantage on some tracks straightline performance was all the ducati had, and the engine characteristics which gave that performance may well have been a strong contributor to the poor rideability of the thing. If you listen to  rossi himself  whilst at ducati he said from the get-go that the power delivery/focus on ultimate power even from the big bang engine current during his tenure was too extreme. For that matter, a very significant part of  the whole  story of recent yamaha success  has been the cross plane inline 4, which you have correctly lauded valentino for going with, hardly an engine designed with brute power as the object.

You pays your money and you takes your choice as they say wosi. One thing which is true is that having a straightline advantage means overtaking can be done fairly simply on the straights, if in range. Basically no-one else other than stoner in the whole ducati 800 era was able to get the thing through the corners with sufficient rapidity to be in range for the straightline performance to be of any utility.  

From the mouth of C Edwards

Do you really think me and Vale had the same motorcycle?

Can't compare the performance of team mates because Colin was riding a satellite Yam with factory stickers.

Sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong...

but wern't Edwards & Rossi on the very same bike (Edwards bike in fact) at Suzuka 8 hr race and Rossi lapped consistently quicker? When hopping onto a Yam R1 to try and ride with a broken leg; didn't Rossi lap quicker than the WSB boys had the day before? Wasn't he the winner of Monza rally in a Fiesta? Did he lap within a second of Schumacher in Ferrari F1 test? Think he did pretty good in some WRC event too if I remember. Reckon there's plenty of general evidence , the guy is quick!

marciano

hard to do better than retire undefeated

it's true

When Rossi tested an R1 at Brno he lapped faster than Biaggi had during the race. Demonstrates yet again what pitiful opposition he had pre-2007.

If straight-line speed was all that mattered then motogp bikes would look like this.