GuzziMoto

I would agree, before Marquez riders were aggressive but they seemed able to keep things balanced. A give and take. With Marquez, he brought a Dale Earnhardt sort of mentality. He would be more aggressive with his passes then he had to be as a way, it seemed, to intimidate the other riders. Sometimes he would flat out knock the other guy down, even if there was room to make the pass cleanly. That way, next time they would give him more room knowing that otherwise they could end up on the ground. Now you have a generation of racers that model themselves after Marquez. Another factor is, in my opinion, this trend of paving the runoff right up to the edge of the track. That adds an element of confidence, the guy knows even if he blows the corner he will still be on pavement and likely won't fall down. While I get paving the runoff area, I would suggest adding a strip of grass between the track and the paved runoff. Sure, a few guys may fall down in the grass, especially in the wet. But that is the risk of running off the track. Freddie has lacked consistency and has no respect from the current racers it seems. It is a hard job, you are never going to please everyone. But Freddie seems to be pleasing no one. Simon is respected among the racers, and seems to understand racing. He seems to have a decent grasp of what is legit hard racing and what is over the line. I won't be surprised if I find I don't agree with some of the calls he makes. That should be a given. But I think he will make the right calls based on a good understanding of being a racer. His biggest hurdle may be putting aside his personal relationships with the riders, and avoiding any favoritism. But he seems well known and liked by most of the riders so perhaps that won't be an issue. Harder to play favorites when they are all favorites.

Yeah, I would say Phil is in the not happy about this move camp. But many other people seem to have a different opinion of Simon Crafar, especially on the AF1 Forum I also frequent. I do not agree with Phil's assessment of Simon Crafar, but it's a free forum. We don't have to agree. Well, we do agree that Freddie is rubbish at the job and needs to go, I think. Time will tell how it works out.

Some good info on here. Especially about the difference between spring rate and preload. But I don't think spring preload has the same sort of effect on a motorcycle as it does on a car in relation to weight. On a car, if I add spring preload on one wheel of a four wheeled car that puts more weight on that tire at that corner of the car. That is in part because of the way cars distribute the total cars weight between all four corners. Of the four wheels / tires if I add preload to one to cause it to support more of the total weight of the car that one wheel / tire will have more weight on it while the weight on the other three also changes. The wheel / tire in the opposite corner will also get more weight on it while the other two will loose weight. Motorcycles do not share their weight the same way between the two wheels. With only two wheels, they can't act like the car with its four wheels. Adding spring preload to the back doesn't put more weight on the rear wheel, and it really doesn't put more weight on the front wheel. Anything that changes the attitude of the bike, how much it is canted forwards or backwards, will have a minor impact on how the weight is split front to back. But it would be a very small effect. The same as dropping the front end by sliding the triple clamps down the fork tubes. That does speed up the steering by increasing the rake, and it does reduce trail. But it is not really putting anything more than a minor amount of increased weight on the front wheel. I seem to recall docc did a test of that once with a pair of scales. That said, moving weight around on a motorcycle can indeed make a big difference. There are two ways to move weight to the front, clearly one option is to add weight to the front. But adding weight is not always best performance wise. Another option would be to either remove weight from the back, which has a similar effect to adding weight to the front, or even moving weight from the back to the front. Probably the largest amount of weight on the V11 Sport you can move from the back to the front would be the battery. Anything from just a lighter battery in the same location, to better yet moving the lighter battery forwards on the bike, would help. Probably the largest amount of weight you can remove from the back would be the exhaust. The wheels themselves would be another place you can dramatically reduce weight in large chunks. And while reducing the weight of the wheels does not reduce sprung weight, it does reduce unsprung weight AND rotating weight, both of which are good things in their own right. There is a reason why our aluminum framed Ducati racebike has a titanium rear subframe that weighs next to nothing. With the L layout of the Ducati V twin it has issues with weight distribution, making it hard to get enough weight on the front. Reducing the weight on the back of the bike also shifts the weight balance of the bike forward same as adding weight to the front. But it doesn't have the weight penalty that adding weight to the front would have. The Guzzi V11 Sport does tend to have a rearward weight balance, and in my opinion anything you do to move the weight balance forward on it would be a good thing.

Word is Simon Crafar will be taking over from Freddie Spencer as the head steward next year. That seems like a good thing. It is a hard, thankless, job. But I feel that Simon will be better at it then Freddie. https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/07/24/simon-crafar-to-become-chairman-of-fim-motogp-stewards-panel-from-2025/504347

The newer CARC Guzzi's are funny. The ECU monitors the voltage it sees from the battery. If the voltage it sees at the battery is too low it will not allow a start attempt or it will abort a start attempt if the voltage drops too low when a start attempt is in process. When you push the starter button on a newer CARC Guzzi you are requesting a start. The button does not directly send power to the starter relay and then to the starter. It logs a request with the ECU, which then either engages the starter or not. That is also why on the newer bikes you only have to push the button for a moment but the starter will run until the motor starts or until the timer expires. On newer CARC Guzzi's holding the starter button down should override the ECU and its abort process. But on the earlier CARC Guzzi's there was no override option I am aware of. That can make starting with a Lithium battery problematic when it is cold out. If the battery doesn't provide enough voltage it will abort the start. And if it aborts the start attempt it can be hard to get the battery warmed up to where it has enough voltage to start the bike.

That can happen, but it is usually more from having children then a wife in my opinion. I got married and it did not slow me down, but it can slow some people down. Children tend to be a bigger effect, though. But even there some are able to have children and not loose their edge. For me my wife helped me concentrate and go faster. But then she liked racing.

If you hit the rear brake and there is no brakes there, the first thing I would do right then and there is pump the brake pedal to see if the brakes come back. Having to pump the brakes can happen because the brake pads get pushed away from the disk. That can happen for a few reasons, including what Phil mentioned of having issues with the wheel bearings. If the wheel has enough wobble in it from loose bearings the disk can push the pads away from it when it wobbles. It does not take a massive amount of wobble to do that. It only has to push the pads a tiny amount away from the disk. Anything that causes the pads to be pushed away from the disk will cause the brakes to not be there when you next push on the brake pedal. But if that is the issue successive pumping of the brake pedal will normally restore brake function. Other things can also cause brake issues, like the hole between the master cylinder (the part pushing the brake pedal acts on) and the reservoir. That hole must be open when the brake pedal is in its normal position. Improperly adjusting the brake pedal can cause that hole to not be open when the brake pedal is not being pushed. Or you could have a small piece of debris clogging that hole, as mentioned. You could also have issues inside the master cylinder. There is a small spring inside it that pushes the piston back when you release the brake. If that spring can't or won't push the piston back when you release the brakes you will experience brake issues.

Scary anytime someone says "oil was empty". That is bad. But what does "empty" really mean? was there some oil? or no oil? Where did the oil go? It is a closed system, the gearbox doesn't "use oil". Probably the most common shifting issue with a V11 Sport is the simplest. The shift linkage itself. It can bind in a couple ways, including binding on the frame if the shift linkage is mis-adjusted. I would certainly start with the basics, make sure the oil level is right and the oil is the right oil. Next I would make sure the shift linkage moves freely with no binding. The throw from one gear to the next is not always exactly the same, so make sure the linkage moves freely between all gears. If the lock nuts come loose for the linkage that can cause the linkage to drift out of adjustment over time. Next thing to check might be the internal linkage for the trans. And there is a shift spring that can break, as well as some other aspects of the shifting mechanism just under the back cover. If the issue is there you do not need to fully disassemble the trans. The gearbox is just a gearbox. It is not that complicated. But getting it out can be a pain if that is required.

Word is he signed a seven year contract with Yamaha. They provide the bikes, current spec Yamaha's, for free. Yamaha will also pay his riders salaries. So it is a good deal. No word on how much say he will have in who his riders are, but based on an interview he did recently he seems to think he will have a lot of say. But the way he said it seemed to say that it is not up to just him who his riders are. It sounds like it will be a group decision between him and Yamaha. Still, a sweet deal. He just needs to find the money to run the team, but no doubt his sponsors will less keen to spend the same amount of money to sponsor the team when they are no longer getting the exposure the team currently gets. I don't think he could have got that deal with KTM, but I suspect he could have come close. And with KTM he would get a more competitive bike. But it is water under the bridge, now.

I get leaving Ducati after such an insult / slight. But I don't get going to Yamaha. They could have talked to KTM, a team that wants two more spots on the grid desperately and would no doubt have made them a good deal. Perhaps not as extreme as the deal Yamaha made, but then the bikes KTM would provide are worlds better and KTM is more serious about racing then Yamaha will ever be. Yamaha always has been and always will be a street bike manufacturer that races, while KTM is a race bike manufacturer that sells street bikes to fund their racing. Plus they have a long term relationship with Red Bull so their pockets are pretty deep compared to their size.

Perhaps. But it looks like Pramac was going to stay until he insulted them and then Ducati snatched him away from being their number 1 rider next year, moving Marc to the factory team over Pramac's rider whom they had been grooming for that same factory seat. A double insult, maybe a triple insult, and it seems enough to stop Pramac from renewing their contract with Ducati. That was a racer showing who is boss. Besides, it would have been likely that Marcs contract would have been with Ducati, not Pramac, and Pramac would simply have been the team he rode a factory Ducati for. Until he blew up that deal, and with it Ducati's relationship with Pramac. The end result from that one decision by Ducati to sign Marc Marquez is only six Ducati's on the grid next year, only three of them will be current spec bikes. That will be fewer current spec bikes then any other manufacturer, although arguably that is on them as much as it is on Marc. Also, their number two team is no longer their team, and several of their best riders have left their fold. On the positive side of the leger is they will have Marc Marquez, but arguably they already had him. Where was he really going to go if his expressed desire was to be on the best bike? They lost much to gain what they already had. And it will likely only get worse, as Marc will surely bring tension to the factory team.

I agree that really consistent readings are all that is needed. If you have that you can adjust your speed accordingly. That said, if you really want a second opinion on vehicle speed I would recommend adding a GPS. It will not only very accurately tell you how fast you are going but it will also help you know WHERE you are going. They offer a number of motorcycle friendly GPS options. You don't need a motorcycle friendly GPS but it does make a difference. Motorcycle friendly versions tend to be better able to handle wet weather and their screens tend to work better while wearing gloves.

Yes, it seems clear that Ducati were expecting Marc Marquez to go to Pramac, and even Marc seemed on board with that saying all he wanted was a current spec bike. When Marc switched tactics and declared that Pramac was not an option for him it clearly caught Ducati management off guard. And Marc did it in such a way that he also insulted the Pramac team, that along with the factory shafting their current rider. That led to Pramac leaving as well, which Ducati was clearly not ready for. The whole things could be a poster child for how NOT to run a racing team. And as much as they try to say Marc did not cause all those events, anyone watching knows who really made all that happen. And I suspect that was all done by Marc to establish who the number one rider at Ducati is. The way he made them bend over to sign him to their factory team made it clear who the most important rider at Ducati is. And yes, it is interesting that Ducati may be the only brand on the grid next year running last years bikes as well as next years bikes. Although I am not sure LCR has the current spec Honda bikes for both their riders. When Cal was there Honda gave them one current spec bike for Cal and one of last years bikes for the other rider (originally Jack Miller back in 2015 when they added the second bike). I don't recall them ever getting upgraded from that deal, and I would actually guess that when Cal left they reverted to both bikes being last years bikes as they only gave Cal a current spec bike so he could help them test. After Cal left I do recall hearing a number of riders at LCR complaining that they were not being utilized to help develop the bike. No doubt in part to how little development you can do when you are riding last years bike. But maybe LCR now have a pair of current spec bikes. Some would say Honda need the extra current spec bikes to help them develop the bike. I am not sure I buy that, seems to me having to build four new parts every time they want to try a new part would slow down building new parts. Easier to build two, see if they are better, and if they are build more like that.

Marc Marquez is clearly a special talent. I don't like him, he races like he doesn't give a shit about the safety and well being of the other guys on the track with him. In fact he has shown a tendency to go out of his way to make contact with other guys on track, likely to establish his dominance over them. It is something that the late Dale Earnhardt perfected. But that aside, you can't deny his talent. He can do things other guys can't do. I don't think we will ever see him dominate like he did in the past. Put him on the same bike as everyone else, a bike that is not as hard to ride as the Honda was, and he will only be as fast as the other top guys. I don't see him able to go that much faster then someone like Pecco when he is on the same bike as Pecco. But he will certainly give Pecco a run for his money. And if Pecco is able to beat him on the same bike that will say a lot about the skill of Pecco. But if Marc beats Pecco everyone will say "of course he won, he is Marc Marquez". Everyone will put all the credit on Marc if Marc wins, so I don't see why Ducati wanted him on their bike. They would have had the potential for much more credit to them if Marc went to KTM and Pecco still beat Marc. Pecco beating one of the all time greats on a KTM would have made Ducati and Pecco look great. Now no outcome will really make Ducati look good, if Pecco wins, Pecco looks awesome. And if Marc wins, everyone says that Marc is one of the all time greats, of course he won. The biggest question now is where does that third current spec bike go and where does Fermin Aldeguer go. I would assume they are going to the same place, but at this point I don't want to assume anything. Prior to Pramac leaving Ducati the word was Fermin would go there and take one of their current spec bikes. But was Ducati really required to give him a current spec bike? If so, he would have to go where ever that third current spec bike goes. And so Ducati would need to sweeten that pot to get someone to take the rookie AND put the rookie on their only current spec bike they get. That would be, I would think, a hard sell.

You can get one way valves that go at the bleeder, some of them are even a replacement for the bleeder with a one way valve built in. The ones I have used in the past were inexpensive one way valves from a tropical fish store that I throw away after I am done. They are not made to withstand brake fluid, so it tends to destroy them. But they last more then long enough to do the job. With a one way valve you can pump the master cylinder all you want, just make sure the reservoir doesn't run out of fluid. But it is easier then cracking the bleeder and tightening it, then cracking it, then tightening it.