What did I do now?
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What did I do now?
Nicky is going to sub for Miller who is injured this weekend in Aragon
Caught that... most of the circus knows how NH got pushed out of honda by nieto for pedrosa.
He would have won many more times and everyone knows it. Instead he got fisted by ducati with the development year with a bike no one but stoner could ride.
the kid was always honda's man.
He probably looks like he's jumped the shark by american standards, but not by eruo
Got this shirt for my boyfriend last year from Australia.
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I get a little uncomfortable when he wears this out while I'm with him.
He's white and I'm Asian.
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It's not too very different from your avatar...Quote:
Originally Posted by nutmegchoi
Well, MM is copying me then.Quote:
Originally Posted by guroo270
Now I only wish I can ride like him!
Mighty Marc: life on the knife edge
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How does Marquez ride the way he does – apparently always over the limit – and get away with it?
All of racing – if you are anywhere near the front – is a knife edge. And the closer you get to the front, the sharper that knife edge becomes. MotoGP is a razor edge, sharpened to the point where any normal person will bleed if they even dare touch the blade. MotoGP is not a forgiving environment, no matter how easy it looks through the lens of the television cameras. Despite all the smiles, the sponsor meet-and-greets, the armies of PR people marching this way and that, it is a mean, vicious and pitiless sport. Like cage fighting, but at 200 miles an hour.
I am not a great follower of Formula 1 car racing, but I was glad to find out a few weeks ago that Nigel Roebuck, doyen of F1 reporting over the past few decades, is a big fan of MotoGP. It reminds him of how F1 was many years ago: men putting themselves out there in a wild world of risk, walking the line, because that’s what excites them.
“I never miss watching a race,” he told me when we met at a Motor Sport magazine do a few weeks ago.
Inevitably, we soon got to talking about Marc Marquez, both of us shaking our head in wonderment at the stuff the youngster gets away with, especially this season when Honda’s RC213V has been slower than most of the other bikes.
“Marquez really reminds me of Gilles Villeneuve,” said Roebuck, alluding to the swashbuckling F1 hero who won six Grands Prix for Ferrari before losing his life in a practice accident at Zolder in 1982.
So why Villeneuve? “Because Gilles had that incredible ability to take a car way beyond its limit and still make it work,” added Roebuck. “Marquez looks like that on a bike – he seems to go way beyond the limit and does things no one else can do.”
I never tire of watching Marquez. I’ll even dare to venture that I’d find MotoGP a little boring without him around. I love watching Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Maverick Viñales do their stuff; but there’s nothing like standing at the entry to a slow corner and watching Marquez arrive, back tyre several inches in the air, the rear of the bike sashaying this way and that, the front slick squashed into the asphalt like a marshmallow.
Without some previous knowledge of what happens next, you would expect Marquez to run straight on into the gravel. But no, the rear tyre finally makes contact with the asphalt, kicking the bike out of shape just a few metres before the turn and then he just goes and drops the bike onto its side. Usually the front tyre protests at such treatment, as it takes most of the load of bike and rider in an instant. But no worries, Marquez digs in an elbow to take some weight off the front, wrenches the bike upright and rockets out of the corner.
Next lap, he arrives in exactly the same way. Well, in fact he doesn’t arrive in exactly the same way. Yes, the rear tyre is off the ground again, but this time the bike is pivoting around its steering head in the opposite direction, so the bike is turning left instead of right as the corner approaches. Once again the rear tyre makes contact with the racetrack at the very last moment, the bike trying to point away from the corner instead of towards it. Surely this time he won’t be able to control the situation because the machine attitude is completely different to the previous lap.
But no. Everything is different but the result is the same. He jiggles his body a bit more that way and a little less this way and he drops the bike into the corner and lifts it out of the corner in exactly the same way. Well, in nearly exactly the same way. And this continues lap after lap after lap: different every time, but every time the same.
This is extraordinary, but more so than ever this year, when Dorna’s unified Magneti Marelli software has dramatically reduced the electronic controls that adjust engine-braking throughout the deceleration/corner-entry phase. Before 2016, data engineers could adjust all four throttle butterflies individually, programming their openings and closings through each gear change, from sixth down to second. Now they just have basic on/off control of two sets of butterflies covering the four cylinders. So most of the control is now back where it should be: in the hand of the rider.
HRC electronics or Dorna electronics, Marquez always looks out of control. But what does this tell you? That he isn’t out of control; that this is the way he rides, with the bike constantly wriggling beneath him, giving him vital feedback, telling him what it’s doing with each and every movement of the handlebars, the suspension, the tyres. And he has to react to each of these (not always) infinitesimal actions.
It should not be possible. Nobody else rides like this, not even Freddie Spencer or Kevin Schwantz or Casey Stoner; those other arch-exponents of the “make it up as you go along” school of riding, which means letting the bike do what it must do beneath you and then reacting to that. As Stoner once said, “you must subsume yourself to the bike”.
This year the knife edge is sharper than ever, due to Michelin’s front slick. Sunday proved that fact better than any other race this year: both Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo fell, the first time the Yamaha team-mates have both crashed out.
Both were caught entirely unaware: diving deep into a corner and the front simply washing away, with no warning to allow them to save a crash with their knee or elbow.
Then again, how many times have we seen Marc do just that this year: the front tyre folds, the bike tips over and somehow he averts disaster, not merely by digging an elbow and knee into the asphalt but also by subtly adjusting his balance on the bike, his load on the footrests and his pressure on the handlebars. At these moments his synapses are on fire, shooting messages across his brain, into his body and down into his limbs. The fact that he rides like this all the time, with the bike teetering on the brink, means that when it does teeter over the limit his brain and his body are entirely ready and able to deal with the consequences.
Of course, his motorcycle helps. The RC213V was conceived to make time into the corners, to find an advantage where no one else can. Nowadays there is little point in building a bike that tries to find its advantage on corner exits, with excellent mechanical grip and spot-on traction control, because all the riders can use that performance to the maximum. On the other hand, very few riders can take full advantage of corner-entry performance, because it requires a deftness of control that only Marquez can use, week in, week out.
Consider Motegi. The Yamaha makes its lap times with superior corner speed, which means the front tyre has to carry a lot of load all the way into the corner, from trail-braking to corner apex to the all-important moment when the rider first eases open the throttle, reducing front-tyre load, and therefore grip.
The Michelin front can do all this: you can use 100 per cent of its grip, but if you use 100.5 per cent you are on your backside, sliding into the gravel trap, wondering what happened, because apparently you did nothing different to what you did the previous lap. Sometimes Rossi and Lorenzo try a harder compound front, as preferred by Marquez, but the way they ride the Yamaha into corners can make the tyre chatter – a high-frequency vibration that reduces grip as surely as grabbing the front brake halfway through a corner.
Both Yamaha riders and Marquez raced exactly the same front tyre: the same medium-compound, the same construction and the same profile. None of them chose the harder tyre. Rossi and Lorenzo knew it caused too much chatter; Marquez felt it didn’t offer him enough warning of an impending crash.
Rossi and Lorenzo fell while fighting to match Marquez’s blazing pace and trying to keep alive their slim title hopes. Rossi went down when he lost grip entering a corner; Lorenzo slid off when he first touched the throttle and lost enough front-tyre contact to lose control. Meanwhile Marquez rode that knife edge and won his fifth race of the year and the world title. Not only that, his 15th points score from 15 races made him the only rider across all three categories to score points each and every time. No one else knows how to walk that line.
He is back to his win or crash attitude. The guy is amazing, but he also just doesn't seem to give a shit if he crashes as long as he is in the front. Most riders seem to actually want to live.He epitomizes the "old/bold " dichotomy.
Is there some great resource to go and watch the season's archived races? Looks like I missed a pretty decent year.
Great news that Nicky has been called up. Would have loved it if Casey had taken the offer last weekend to sub, but alas.
guru you can get a reduced cost MotoGP subscription at MotoGP.com and watch through the test after Valencia. Races going back to the 500cc days to watch.
Marc is the best rider at this time and is so much fun to watch, I am calling up Fox Mulder to investigate as I believe he is truly an alien.
Screen grab, one finger leaned in stoppie
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GoPro to record the cargo??
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Dorna has a tight fist around any pirate video. The MotoGP video pass has great content, but its pricey, but worth it.Quote:
Originally Posted by guroo270
There is a clamp holding it on the box, he is likely doing a stupid video. The team should just leave his bikes in the boxes as he is just going to throw them down the track anyways. #millerneedstogo
Quote:
Originally Posted by nutmegchoi
That makes sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vt-Freeheel
I was thinking what a shitty choice of security camera cause GoPro won't last that long.
more than damp - full wets this morning
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That sucks...
I hope Nicky at least won't dump the bike...
FP1 super wet , FP2 shortened and red flagged, Moto2 FP2 red flagged from the start.
I want to see some fast riding.
Marquez showing everyone he's the boss.
Excellent showing by Nicky!
7th isn't bad.
Not bad at all!
Go, Nicky!!!
Currently.
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Well, well, well, Nicky.
The only thing I asked you not to...
Though, it really wasn't his fault. :(
See how he snaps his bike?
That's my boy!
Oh, yeah.
I'm an Insta stocker...
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Whoever played with my figure at my office isn't a MotoGP fan.
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FIFY.
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Looking forward to this weeks action. A few lower positions to be decided, the debut of KTMs bike and Mondays rider reshuffle, '17 rollout.
Hope to see 93 pin another win.
Yeah... I saw the news yesterday.
Hope he comes out okay.
Terrible terrible news. Such an engaging guy. A great American champion.
I am so saddened.
He raced with CMRA (Central Motorcycle Racing Association) before became a pro.
I heard he was genuinely really nice guy.
He just got engaged last year as well.
Such a big loss.
Just watched hitting the apex last night. No bueno
This is such a loss to the racing world. The nicest rider on the grid. I am so sad right now.
Now we don't even have a world class American racer.
Of all the crashes he survived through, cycle took him away.
Seriously what the hell...
I got to witness his first MotoGP victory at 2005 Laguna Seca.
It was such a special moment.
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A very visceral loss - such a distinct human being.
It could have been much worse. He could have survived with severe brain damage and all that would entail.
Jackie (his fiancee as of last May) has been his shadow since 2012, and an immediate family that was wholly included in all his achievements. His twitter, instagram, and facebook feeds let you into the family's life. Christmas with the nieces and nephews. All the birthday celebrations. Just a genuinely good and soulful person.
It was nice to see an American carry the torch in such a unique and widely respected way in motogp.
He filled some big shoes as our steed in the world of motorcycle racing and he did it with aplomb.
God's Speed Nicky
eta: here is a nice (short) write-up of who he really was
http://www.bbc.com/sport/motorsport/39984647
That article says it , Everybody loves Nicky.
Just hearing about this. Fuuuuuuuuck. Loved Nicky.
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Nicky's Funeral will be streamed today, starting @ 11:30am CMT if you have an inclination:
https://www.facebook.com/NickyHaydenUSA/
If you're sensitive, do not click this link. It's not particularly ugly but, knowing the final outcome adds to the impact. The realtime cctv capture of the willful disregard of other human beings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpiCMBlsqow
ugh