Lucky Phil

The primary initial cost is in making the mould. Like bespoke shoes, the cost of the last needs to be spread across the number of units produces. Ciao

Does this price include the mounting brackets and hardware? Ciao

Yes it's like picking up a large Titanium nut or bolt your brain has a hard time computing the size to the weigh after years of handling other materials. My friend surmises this is what makes these sort of things so tactile and almost impossible to not pick up and just hold and play with. Ciao

I've been around CF professionally and hobby wise for more than 40 years. I had factory Ducati carbon fairings and fuel tank on my 888 Corse race bike and they were the real deal compared to most aftermarket stuff. The fairing panels had honeycomb strengthening panels in the areas where needed to prevent oil canning and provide stiffness and it was all pr preg and hence autoclaved. At work we had big autoclave ovens to cure repairs to aircraft parts and rolls of pre preg in freezers plus all the vacuum gear to use. Interesting process and results. CF doesn't like lightning strikes I can say that. It can also take a major hit and seem undamaged until you look at the back side of the panel and find the displaced carbon filaments. Important things to be aware of on the fin of a commercial jet that's made entirely of CF. Ciao

That's a new one for the "book of excuses" for running out of fuel which I've done twice. "It's not my fault it's the circumference of my tyre" I like it To the question of wheel colour for your yellow bike I would personally go for a "bright silver" or maybe a bronze gold. Black rims are so "yesterdays colour". The correct type of Gold looks good on any bike in my experience. Ciao

Carefully watch the front forks just before he tips into the corner, maybe 50m before and you'll see them compress sharply and rebound which isn't normally what you'd expect at that point as it upsets the bike just before entry. The highside mechanism is a pretty straight forward one. The rear tyre loses grip and begins to slide which tightens the line of the bike to varying degrees and the rear suspension extends once again to a varying degree. The rider or the traction control then backs the power off and the tyre grips again, the rear suspension compresses and depending on the degree of the above mentioned dynamics plus the speed the lean angle and quite a few other factors the resultant potential energy created is released in one violent event for the bike and rider. The rest is the dissipation of that now kinetic energy into altitude for rider and bike and friction when they hit the ground. Modern traction control systems are supposed to mitigate the event well before the attitude of the bike is allowed to create the potential energy however there isn't currently any protection for an "off throttle" highside Marquez experienced. Ciao

Yes the used the old rear to cope with the expected high track temps. Ciao

I love an optimist And No. Ciao

There's nothing new here, new tyre constructions favour different bikes and riders. Stoner had the same issue in 2011 or 12 when Bridgestone released a new front carcase during the season and it was a disaster for the Honda and him on corner entry. Same in later years also a few times. The spec tyre is costly for the bike manufacturers as they need to revamp frames and swingarms to suit changes in tyres. You can vary tyre construction at the drop of a hat for pretty much zero additional costs but if they release a new construction that doesn't work with your bike then it's a frame/swingarm redesign and construction. The reality is these days that racing is now all about the "show" and money so Dorna dont care about fairness really. The more unpredictable it is the better for them if it makes the "show" more interesting and exciting. I'm more "the sport is primarily about the competitors and the spectators are secondary to that" If someone or some manufacturer dominates then that probably because they deserve to and the others need to step up. Do I want the Mick Doohan show again, No but the racings a bit of a lottery these days where the rider simply can't dig deep and make up for a less than perfect bike setting or tyre choice or poor starting position from a bad practice or qualifying. Add to that most of the races are a tyre conservation strategy with everyone riding around for 2/3rds race distance nursing tyres waiting for the last 1/3 for when the real racing begins. The more it evolves the closer it's getting to F1 which is to me the most boring motorsport around. Ciao

Something a bit weird about this crash. Did anyone else notice the front forks dip about 20mm and then recover just before he turned it in? Look at the side on replay if you still can. At first I thought he had applied a bit of front brake to load the front tyre before entry but the forks reaction was a bit too aggressive for that. Then my mind turned to a mechanical issue like it's lost a brake pad or something and caused a momentary hick up to the front end just before he turned it in. Interesting and once you've seen it side on you can notice it from the bike view as well. I'd love to get a look at the data just before the crash. https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2022/03/21/marc-marquez-on-one-of-the-biggest-crashes-he-s-had/411741 Ciao

Doesn't this represent child abuse of some sort? I mean an EV first bike, are you trying to turn him off motorcycling or something? What next, a Fender Stratocaster with rubber strings to protect your hearing. What's the world coming to. Ciao

Well if you get some Carbon seat cowls made I might be interested in one myself if they are high quality. Ciao

Don't have around 1 hour total spare time to invest? That's all it takes in total spread over 2 or 3 events. Ciao

Yea I know docc but thats all I got Ciao

http://www.fastguzzi.nl/ Look under V11 parts. Contact Paul he may still make them. Ciao

This is a no brainer seriously. Repair the cracking with some fibreglass repair kit if it's minor and possible on the back of the cowl. So a fibreglass repair patch to regain it's strength and fill any slight issues on the visible face with the glass resin and the sand it back with wet and dry carefully. For the matching matt finish buy a can of matt clear 2 pack and spray it. Quality carbon will always have a clear coat to protect the resin from the sun and all the differences are is if it's clear or gloss matt. I've done several carbon repairs this way and even patched carbon parts with carbon cloth scraps. I bought a set of carbon side covers from a member here and he had cut out a keyhole section of the L/H cover for a rear shock reservoir hose. I repaired it with some fibreglass resin and some scrap Carbon cloth I have laying around. I just put a patch on the back of the panel and let it dry then cut out a couple of keyhole shaped piece of carbo matt and resined it in place to fill the cut out and level it up. I didn't even bother with getting it perfectly flat with resin and sanding it back and shooting a bit of clear over it as it was so good I didn't bother. I've taken an image in the worst possible light and angle to show the repair and then a general shot of what you'd see from a foot away fitted to the bike. 99% of people wouldn't even spot it when fitted unless I pointed it out. Another hour of messing about and it would be nigh on a perfect repair. Almost no skill required and a $12 fibreglass repair kit and some give away carbon matt offcuts. Ciao

Thats not a full seat but a seat cover only. Looks quite nice. Ciao

Well, factory riders have always historically had to do the bulk of the "real" parts testing. For all the hype and focus on Factory test riders not one of them is genuinely fast fast enough to offer the factory racers any assistance with setup for getting genuine pace and qualifying class speed out of a GP bike. Mick Doohan pointed this out years ago when he mockingly mentioned it for the Japanese testers in his day. He considered them as parts endurance testers and he was right and it's pretty much the same today. Dani Pedrosa is about the quickest from recent races and qualified .8 seconds slower than pole which wasn't a bad effort and was 19 seconds down at the end of the race in Austria. He knew the track like the back of his hand though with a mountain of testing he does there. Pirro in his last outing was 1.2 seconds off the pace in quali and a massive 28 seconds down in the race. Broadly speaking even these top testers are around rookie class speed and you don't go to rookies looking for information for the factory guys setups. The truth is testers are there to endurance test parts and ensure new componentry actually works reliably and does what it's supposed to do. Then it's handed over to the "racers" to see if actually translates into faster lap times or other advantages. Testers simply aren't fast enough to determine major development directions and modifications. It's the last 2-3 tenths that determine the winning bike from the also ran machines and as Doohan pointed out back in the day unless the test riders are within a few tenths of his lap times then their feedback on bike development and speed is pointless. You notice in the last few years the testers are doing a lot more PR type stuff for the manufacturers simply because they need to try and get maximum value out of them because their impact on bike speed is pretty lame. They have a genuine role to play but lets no overemphasise their importance. Ducati fell for the backlog of 2 years worth of development waiting to be tested and overloaded the factory riders with new parts and options to sort through. It's happened before. Then again Pecco has been hyped to the sky in the off season and I've been waiting to see if he's actually up to it. Personally I think he's a sook compared to Miller who's just sucked it up and then kept his head down even after the factory Ducati team messed up his entire race for him. Ducati have gone "all in" with their choice of Pecco and are now in the position of needing to either blame themselves for poor management or allow the commentariat to question their total commitment and hyping of Peccos chances for the championship. I notice lately that the hype in MotoGP is getting to F1 level which is sad. I see hardly any sensible information coming from any source these days it's 99.9% hype based on speculation. Even the new commentator Fox has is a pain and my wife said she won't be able to watch the GP's this year if he continues with his 5 words/second speed babble which is just too much. Last years pair were good but only 1 remains. One things for sure this year, nothing would surprise me and I'm strapped in already. Ciao

I'm all for that but it's not going to happen in our lifetime. Being from the aviation world I'm totally fine with automated control systems, BUT, you'll always have the driver as the responsibility holder just like a commercial pilot flying on auto pilot. There won't be any sleeping or watching movies while at the wheel and the driver will still be in a monitoring and control role. I'm a massive fan of active cruise control but I have friends that hate it. I explain to them that it's purpose is to relieve the driver of the mundane tasks of driving and reduce the fatigue that those tasks create so their concentration is more acute for controlling the more important aspects of being in control of a ton and a half of moving metal. Most don't see it though. Ciao

I wouldn't worry about the added complexity of the shimming the Loctite will tolerate that gap from memory and has the psi rating to deal with the loads. Ciao

Italians, probably ran out of Ohlins dampers and used what they had. Ciao

I would expect some variation due to the distortion created by frame welding but yours seems to have more than I've experienced of would expect. Has it ever had a front end crash? I'd just use some Loctite bearing mount and if you ever need to remove them then you can just run a bead of arc weld around them on the inner face and they'll fall out even with the loctite. Ciao