little and large

jon

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
What do you think about this combined bike and rider weight limit that some of the larger riders, Rossi, Simoncelli and Hayden are pushing for? Apparently Simoncelli is the heaviest at 72 kilos ( including the hairdo ) and Pedrossa the smallest at 51 kilos. It seems a bit unfair to me, but that is just my opinion. Pedrosa admits he has an advantage in acceleration and fuel consumption but then loses out when trying to move his weight about for braking and cornering and not having the same wind resistance to help him slow down when he sits up. Next year they will be on the bigger bikes anyway. Simoncelli has also won a 250cc title and Rossi seemed to manage okay in the past. It might just be mind games to unsettle the little guys.
 
Hi Jon I sure being in the 50-60kg has to be an advantage with less overall weight.
If you look at F1 where I think the combined car, fuel weight it around 600kg a lighter driver is known to have a advantage. However as you only operate controls in a f1 car, I would imagine the strength needed to resist the G-forces you encounter as a driver, would be relative too your personal weight, i.e. strength required to operate a brake at 4 g's of a 6kg leg has got to take less muscle than of 10kg leg. So guys with bigs heads and jaws like Schumacher would need massive amounts of neck strength relative to his own head weight to resist the forces .
However on a motorcycle you not only need to move your own weight but the weight of the machine and then you also leverage from a longer body.
So I imagine at this time a 6ft tall 65kg rider may be as competitive as a 5ft 4" 50kg guy, and probably has a advantage over race distances.

On another note, my biggest disconcert with motorcycle racing is. " Should riders aids be allowed, things like traction control, and wheelie control? In my opinion a big NO they shouldn't be allowed.
I believe the rider's skill and race craft should be the better part of making the difference to what motorcycle wins.
 
I agree with you about no riders aids. The amount of control they have over the bike is amazing. Now it is starting to filter down to road bikes and I wonder where it will all stop. I also can't help wondering if rather than have launch control, anti wheelie, three ignition maps, anti wheelspin etc etc on a road bike, it might be easier just to have a less powerful engine and let the rider learn how to use the throttle, clutch and brakes himself. I read an interview with Michael Dunlop who has been given a WSBK spec kawasaki to race on the roads this year, including the IOM. He hasn't decided whether to use any of the riders aids on the IOM as he said there are about 20+ sensors on the bike and there are lots of small stones on the circuit and if you lose a sensor in the middle of the race, then in his words, "You are buggered."
I can remember a few years back talking to a guy in our village who did a fair amount of racing and he was talking about a lot of local guys spending a fortune tuning up their R1's for the road and his opinion was that the bikes already had more power than you could use and that they should pull a plug cap off and just learn to ride them first.
 
I keep thinking about Schumaker with his big head and jaw and strong neck to hold it all up. I just hope they don't start genetically modifying riders and drivers or begin growing them in tanks. The ideal FI driver wouldn't be tall, he'd have a small head, narrow shoulders and a strong neck, not to mention a very powerful right leg for braking. Motogp riders would have long arms and legs and would be small but with a wide upper body to help with braking. Perfect motocross riders ?... I don't want to think about that. At the end of the day, it would probably be trials riders who would remain the most perfectly formed human beings around! After all they do have to stand up and prance about with everything on show in their skintight spandex suits.
 
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