A superb MotoGP race unfolded in Austria earlier today. Marc Marquez (Honda) took the early lead, and tried to gap the Ducati Factory riders behind him. These three riders did gap the remainder of the field.
Near the end of the race, particularly the last four laps, a close battle ensued between Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) and Marquez. The last two laps were truly superb as neither Lorenzo nor Marquez seemed willing to concede the win. At the checkered flag, Lorenzo took a narrow victory with Marquez second and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) third.
Despite losing today, Marquez still maintains a formidable 59 point lead in the championship. Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
In regard to my comments below; – The real problem here is not that I have an over-inflated opinion of my ability and falsely believe I am a really good rider. The real problem is that you, the people who are criticizing me, falsely believe that you are really good riders. The important thing is not that I explain in detail aspects of advanced riding skills, which would take so much space that many of you would not read it and would be confused by too much information. The important thing is that I make you realize that you can become much better skilled than the average rider, and inspire you to try. Many of you ride cruisers, big touring bikes and other heavy bikes, and you will never learn advanced skills on them. If that is you, stop criticizing because you don’t know what you are talking about. But if you learn on light, agile bikes you can then use those skills on heavier bikes, but their weight will always limit what you can do with them.
All y’all need to read Kevin Cameron’s analysis of this race.
‘Y’all’ already includes ‘all.’
Never been down south, have you?
Yes, I’ve been down south. ‘Y’all (you all) need to read…’ is fine. ‘All y’all (all you all) need to read…’ is just plain stupid.
hehehehe. Yeah. That’s perfectly acceptable grammar in the south.
I done heard it, I reckon.
Where is his analysis?
Cameron’s analysis is at Cycle world. One interesting tidbit of info is the recorded top speed during the race. Marquez had a faster top speed during the race then Lorenzo. This is also backed up by the data available at the Motogp website. At the end of the day what this means is Marquez and his Honda are competitive at ALL the tracks. Just think how far he would be ahead in points if it were not for the debacle in Argentina?
Decades ago, each and every one of Cameron’s articles in Cycle Magazine were little jewels. He had the rarest combination of humanity, humility, writing gift, and passion for the sport.
Dirck’s blog gets the closest, but IMO nothing since has met or exceeded Cycle Magazine’s gestalt and quality. The web killed the era of affordable, ubiquitous, ultra high quality print journalism, and degraded journalism in general.
Facebook’s recent foray from being a posting medium to publishing medium is to me, among the last straws. FB, Google, and/or Amazon must be legally separated, their individual unprecedented monopolistic powers diminished forever, exactly like the anti-trust laws did to the nation’s largest monopolies early-mid 20th C.
MSM avoids the topic of web monopolies because the above web industries financially support all or most of MSM, non-profits, and government.
Check this recent FB statement at a private meeting of journalists, where FB’s Campbell Brown (ex-NBC News) gave the journalists sum total two choices: work with (ultimately for) FB or die. FB denies the report, says the journalists took her out of context (the journalists are apparently grammar-challenged), and they misunderstood her. FB could release the transcript and/or audio/video to clear the air, but won’t: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-14/cooperate-or-die-private-meeting-top-facebook-exec-threatened-news-outlets
FB: obey your FB Overlords, or die, a simple choice.
If the medium died, it’s more a reflection on people and their priorities. I wholeheartedly agree that it’s a real shame, and I certainly don’t think FB et al are great or anything, but the real blame lies with people and their values/lack thereof.
Cameron is indeed one of special breed, and I’m glad I was around to witness these guys and their craft (car and bike both):
Egan
Yates (Brock)
Carlson (Satch)
Cameron
Setright
And most emphatically Manney.
I am sure I am missing a couple – Oh, McCluggage – dear God how did I miss her?
Wait, wait don’t leave out
Schilling
Davis
Jennings (Jean)
Jennings (Gordon)
Neilson
Thomas (Jess)
Black (Byron)
And many more!
Good read.
While I appreciate JL’s talent, his “in your face” over the top victory celebrations have always made me grit my teeth. Oi. I suppose he can celebrate however he wants. That’s one reason I enjoy watching Marc over Lorenzo. I guess he has to live up to the #99 devil horns on his fairing.
Only thing about him I don’t like. Seems like poor sportsmanship. His skill is undeniable, and I love his style on the bike.
Yes, they’ve been downright silly in the past. I guess he really feels the need to celebrate himself.
Seems like everyone tries to get in Marquez’ head in their own way.. Doesn’t work though because the guy has ice in his veins.
Jorge and Marc have been keeping it pretty clean while battling hard, but I imagine there could be lots of drama in the Honda garage next year.
Agree, but the little arrogant bastard of MM deserves all he can get
Boy I’ll bet when you go to sleep at night, all you think about is Marquez dominating this year, and you just cant get over it. Living with the creepy feeling you have to retaliate somehow, using vulgarities.
Has MM permanently ceased his strange habit/victory “celebration” of sticking out his tongue at the camera? Is that much better than Jorge’s “celebration?”
I stop watching after the checkered flag. Plenty before him set the precedent for exuberant displays post race.
I’d have loved to have watched it, and last week’s race too. But it seems that Comcast and BeIn Sports have ended their relationship. So, I can’t watch it on TV unless Dorna makes an agreement with someone else in the USA. Maybe next year, I’ll subscribe to motoGP.com so I can listen to it in English for a change. The past 2 years of BeiN Sports on TV was all Spanish commentating and low-res even on the HD channel. What a pathetic arrangement they made.
Do it Bob,
I switched to the web version of racing and it’s been great. Watch all the practice and qualifying when and where you want, commercial free! We even take it on trips with an iPad or similar.
Cheers John
Anyone else think that Yamaha need to switch to a V4? I know their engine fires like a V4 but it sure doesn’t perform like one at least not one from Honda or Ducati especially with the standard ECU.
The problem it’s mechanical and it’s already identified: the crackshaft it’s TOO LIGHT, but with the actual stupid rules, Yamaha can’t change it until next year.
Sticky situation… Cost containment is one thing, seasons ruined is another (not just Yamaha/this year). I get not having unlimited warfare at the factory level and what that does to a series, but not being able to fix something like this?
I would wonder if it’s legal to make a crankshaft with some tapped blind-holes in the flywheels and have an inspection plug where they could access those holes. Then they could put weighted plugs into those tapped holes allowing them to tune the crankshaft mass at each track..
.
Maybe that could be a way of sidestepping the rules about engine freezing. I’m guessing a heavier clutch basket doesn’t work or they would have said something.
I wonder if it’s possible to side-step the engine freeze rules by adding tapped blind-holes in the crank shaft weights and providing an access hole in the case for them. Then they could fine tune the mass and inertia of the crank throughout the season as needed by using different weight plugs in those tapped holes. IMO, it would just be another adjustment, no different than swing-arm side-plates used to alter the chassis attitude and shock action.
If you’re right, that’s very interesting. It reminds of a few decades ago, when Honda discovered there’s such a thing as too low a center of gravity.
It’s ironic how we don’t know what’s too much of an otherwise good thing till there is evidence of it.
Yamaha wasn’t even seriously in the game, at least in yesterday’s race. Remember the start of the season, some guy named Zarco?…..
One easy legal fix, that might have been tried already I’m sur those guys knows the trick, is to play with clutch mass to increase flywheel effect. I played with it sometimes while ice racing at pro level here in Canada. They can and are allowed to play with the clutch and service it about every time a practice start is done, with is every session out on track. While I could only have heavier clutch pack, ie steel discs in place of aluminium (mid 90s mx bikes when experimenting) or an extra set of plates (Barnett kit then), they can use a completely different basket/slipper unit. Spins counterclockwise, like the crank so no ill effect on wheelie and braking performance but move the effect back some.
Ice racing we had no restrictions on crank and flywheel so I ended up playing with flywheel instead, they can’t until after Valencia.
For now Yamaha chop power with Tc/Wc and Yamaha is not up to Honda level with the Inertia measurement unit. That box will be Dorna issued next season, will level the playing field and Lorenzo might be disappointed then that the Honda advantage varnished as he jumped on.
BTW he rode great at the Red Bull Ring, brillant strategy by conserving his soft tires for a not too late attack. He waited a lap or two too long in Brno.
Supposedly, they’ve already addressed the power issue. Now, they mainly need to get it to hook up. I don’t think a V or inline configuration makes much difference.
They may have addressed the power issue, but they certainly haven’t remedied it. The Yamaha is still down twelve KPH to the Ducati. The blue bike routinely gets swallowed whole on long straights by the trailing red bike. More alarmingly, the Yamaha can’t even stay in the Ducati’s slipstream. In addition, the Yamaha doesn’t have anywhere near the same grunt as the Ducati exiting a slow corner.
Then there is the issue with the electronics, which prevents the rear from hooking up and staying hooked up over the course of the race.
Rossi has recently stated point-blank that Honda and even Ducati are out-spending Yamaha on the R&D front. They’re being more aggressive, taking greater risks, and reaping the rewards.
This makes me wonder whether Yamaha is playing it so conservatively simply due to the fact that with Rossi as their lead rider it doesn’t matter whether Yamaha wins or loses, because the continuing popularity of Team Tuning Fork is guaranteed before the flag ever drops.
A fairly astute observation as I’ve wondered why Yamaha is spending on VR and not R&D. I’m sure they’re doing some but holy crips(!) they’ve become the slow dogs at the back of the pack. A couple of years ago Yamaha supposedly reduced the internal mass of the engine by approximately 30%. Is this what’s causing a “too light of crank” as some have mentioned?
It could be that they have the horsepower but aren’t seeing the top speeds due to not being able to accelerate effectively because of the wheels spin. If I am not mistaken, the GP bikes are still accelerating at the end of the straight when they hit the braking zone. Losing a few seconds of full acceleration out of a corner or down the straight can easily lead to the max speed disparity we see.
I don’t know if that is truly the case or not, but it could be the issue. Rossi and Mav aren’t asking for more power (or a lighter flywheel, not that I’ve heard anyway.) They are asking for workable electronics.
Regardless though, they do need more power in the future. Maybe that means all GP bikes will sport desmo valvetrains in a few years. Because Lorenzo is right about one thing: if Ducati can deliver corner speed to the current package, the GP19 will be a hard bike to beat, even for Marquez. Staying in the slipstream isn’t a permanent solution to keep the Ducati from gapping in the straights.
Not when it comes to primary balance and firing orders. Only makes a difference of overall packaging and weight distribution. MAybe even tuning frame flex. Nothing more.
I gained a lot of respect for Marc Marquez in this race. With his huge points lead going in, he easily could have justified backing off from Lorenzo in the last 4 laps and cruised to an easy second place and collected his 20 points. Instead, he dialed up the risk and gave the fans at the track and those of us watching from home a real thriller. He has that spark to win at all costs that while sometimes getting him into big trouble and causing us to get angry with the guy, also ends up being the ingredient that makes this sport so much fun to watch. Kudos to Marquez.
While my hero Rossi wasn’t at top race pace all weekend, he certainly had an impressive outing, cutting and dicing from 14th at the start to finish 6th, on an admittedly (by Yamaha engineers) inferior motorcycle. Kudos to Rossi as well.
Oh, and certainly kudos to Lorenzo. Fabulous win, incredible riding skills, what a way to close out his tenure with Ducati. Can’t wait to see how he performs in the remaining races.
Re. MM: dig!
Told you fellas..a barn burner! What a fun season. Marquez is keeping us very entertained. And a Great ride by Lorenzo today.
What a great era to be a fan, what with incredible riders in both MotoGP and Moto2, HD, bigscreen TVs… Way back in the earlier days with Kenny Roberts and company, I had to watch on my fuzzy 19 incher and wasn’t sure who was who. Now…I feel like I should put on my helmet.
I had to wait for the weekly issue of CycleNews to be delivered on Thursdays at my local Honda shop. RIP PCH Honda in Lomita, CA
Glad I’m not the only one here old enough to remember having to wait for Cycle News for race results! I am too cheap to pay for MotoGP but a few sites offer live lap-by-lap updates with photos, website or Twitter.
Put on your helmet? I have to watch what I’m doing, or I’ll put my knee out to go around the corner, and may knock the lamp over… again. 🙂
Of course, also adding to the enjoyment of watching on a big HDTV are all the cameras mounted on the bikes looking forwards and back, and even sometimes to the sides. They certainly didn’t have THAT technology back in the day. Add in the super-slow-mo, replays, helicopter shots, etc. and I agree, it’s a great era to be a fan.
Yes. You gotta hand it to Dorna. They are NOT skimping on HR video angles. And the ultra HR slo-mo is absolutely insane! I shall never forget the HR slo-mo of MM turning his 300+ lb bike in, at the end of a 170mph straight, going God knows what speed, whilst doing a brakie, a tiny smidgen of air visible between the asphalt and the contact patch of his rear wheel. Absolutely unknown feat minus that slo-mo ultra HR image.
You think you’re hot on two wheels? Le’me see you turn into a corner on a 330 lb/250 hp unicycle at 110mph!
Tiny girl-face MM deserves a nickname. I vote for Titanium, as in you know what.
I get the value of Moto1 and Moto2. They’re fun and all. But being at a race, especially the start line, comparing MotoGP to Moto2 is like comparing Godzilla to a moth.
Does anyone know, exactly at the apex/slowest corner point, how do the speeds compare between the three classes?
I can’t say I’ve ever seen any data on corner speed between the classes. I remember reading somewhere that Moto3 bikes take the turns about 7 mph faster at Phillip Island than the GP bikes. Don’t quote me on that though. I couldn’t find the reference.
A lot of people think that small bikes can corner faster than big ones, but it really comes down to how certain bikes go fast around a track. With gobs of power available for braking and acceleration, GP bikes are maximized by spending as much time upright as possible. They’ll usually take the same turn much tighter than a Moto2 bike who in turn takes it tighter than a Moto3 bike.
The GP bike is better off sacrificing corner speed for the opportunity to stay full throttle longer before the braking zone and get on the throttle again as early as possible after the turn. A Moto3 bike in contrast takes more time to regain the speed it scrubs off and so benefits from retaining as much speed as possible through a turn.
That is all grossly over simplified and will of course vary turn by turn for all three classes as to what the fastest way around it is, but that is the gist.
“You think you’re hot on two wheels? Le’me see you turn into a corner on a 330 lb/250 hp unicycle at 110mph!”
Yes, it’s all a big mystery to you, Provologna. Riding motorcycles, that is. You make it obvious that you have little skill and little understanding of how to do it. There is no difference in skill required to ‘back it in’ at 110mph or 50mph (as I do). The only difference is the consequences of getting it wrong. Marquez does it in the smooth, safe conditions of the race track. I do it on the road, where it actually is dangerous, in places where there is only a small margin for error. A MotoGP bike is light, about the same weight as the Husqvarna Vitpilen, which is why I recommend bikes like the Husky for people who want to learn advanced skills.
Here is the main point of my comment. I seriously dislike people like you because, instead of improving your own skills and becoming a good rider, you try to drag everybody down to your level so you don’t look so bad. You’re probably one of the people who say that everybody needs ABS just because you do. You put Marquez on a pedestal so far above everybody else to make his level of riding seem out of reach. I do the opposite. I encourage people to become much better riders. If they choose the right bike, and have determination and the right attitude they can become highly skilled riders. However, people like me can never succeed at MotoGP. I’m a big, solidly built man. Only skinny little boys win MotoGP. You will just have to learn to accept reality. Some people (most people) can ride better than you.
“Marquez does it in the smooth, safe conditions of the race track. I do it on the road, where it actually is dangerous, in places where there is only a small margin for error. ”
You’re not skilled, you’re stupid..
So, Onto, the only reason you aren’t a MotoGP star, never mind being a Marc Marquez, is because you’re a “big, solidly built man.” Also, other than the greater risks involved if you get it wrong, your “ability” to “back it in at fifty miles per hour on the street” is no different from Marc’s ability to stuff a 270-hp missile in sideways at the very limit beneath Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.
Ummm…okay.
“You’re not skilled, you’re stupid”
In 46 years of riding I have never suffered a serious injury, despite riding harder and wilder than most people.
If you don’t have the ability to do it, then it is not surprising that you have no understanding of how it is done.
I have no desire to insult anyone, but that is how lesser skilled riders will react because it exposes their deficiencies. I am simply trying to get people to realize that a much higher level of skill is achievable if you buy the right bike and put some effort into learning.
So you’re presumably somewhere between 50 and 65 years old, and yet still this obnoxious. Quite the achievement.
Sorry, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have tried to say something intelligent on a website where many of the readers get upset about the shape of a radiator cap, but have little interest in a bike’s performance and handling because, even if it is good, they don’t have the skill to make use of it. If you shut up and listen you might learn something.
Sheesh, don’t even know where to start with this a**hole. You feel you have to diminish people’s opinions for some reason and even degrade the hugely skilled riders in the sport in which you claim to be highly skilled…..”skinny little boys”…. compared to your big, solidly built man body. You have a huge ego problem. And by the way, I have been riding for over 45 years and can get around the track pretty good for an old guy.
“In 46 years of riding I have never suffered a serious injury, despite riding harder and wilder than most people.”
Stupid and lucky, then.
Do you believe that you’re more skilled than Norifume Abe or Marco Simoncelli? Because in the “in the smooth, safe conditions of the race track”, these supremely skilled athletes died.
How about you ease off the gas a little and spend some effort figuring out that you don’t know nearly as much as you think you do, before you do get seriously hurt, or worse yet, hurt someone else.
Onto, Onto, Onto…. You, sir, are a legend in your own mind. Let me guess, your were Special Forces/SEAL/MARSOC/PJ all at the same time!? I have seen some supremely arrogant and stupid people on the web before, but you just earned yourself a special award for…. being special. Here ya’ go…..
And as I said, lesser skilled riders will feel insulted and react badly to what I have said. The more badly you react the more you demonstrate your lack of ability and understanding of how to ride a motorcycle. If you listen you may learn something.
The only thing that demonstrates the proficiency with which one can operate a motorcycle is actually riding a motorcycle.
Since only an idiot would truly believe he can determine someone’s riding ability by reading comments on a motorcycle forum, you clearly are just having some fun here. Please stop baiting these poor bastard so we can move on.
Onto, uh, maybe you should get a flavor of a site and its regular commenters before wading in with your insipid verbal diarrhea. Pretty basic stuff, man.
I get a great deal of satisfaction from the negative comments here because I know they are from people who can’t do what I can do on a motorcycle. Keep them coming! You’re just letting everybody know that you are not highly skilled riders. If you listen you may learn something.
Onto, you said three time “if you listen you may learn something”. I’m all ears, I want to learn to ride just like you, please enlighten me!
Beatrice Kiddo, I certainly can give you a lot of information on how to become a good rider because, not only have I spent a lot of time practising manoeuvres, I have also spent a lot of time analysing them. But to do so would take up more space than all of the comments on this page. So I suggest you do what I did. Buy a light, agile, good handling bike. Ride it hard. Keep pushing the limits a little more at a time. When you get home, sit down and analyse what happened. Many manoeuvres won’t work with ABS and traction control, and if you are dependent on them you will have to switch them off, and go very carefully at first.
Probably the most important thing for me is that as well as a vast amount of road riding experience, I also have a vast amount of dirt riding experience. Riding on loose surfaces teaches you to control a bike when the wheels are spinning, sliding and skidding. Sliding and skidding a bike on tarmac is more predictable and consistent than on dirt. But the consequences of getting it wrong are much worse. Riding on dirt is the best way to learn the correct reactions for braking without ABS. I don’t know if I would have learnt to do it if I had only ever ridden on tarmac. If you don’t have access to dirt riding areas, go riding on dirt roads. Nobody has taught me anything other than the basics of riding a motorcycle. The rest has been learnt from experience. And I never said that it is not dangerous. But for me, facing and overcoming danger is exhilarating.
I may not contribute much (if any) to this website in the future. I am sick of wasting my time on incompetent idiots.
Can you take WSHart with you when you leave? That’d be great.
What do all of you who said Lorenzo should pick a hard tire, think now? (Lorenzo won a soft soft, reeling in Marquez, leaving Dovi)
TV announcers make a big deal of hard/medium/soft, but the riders say the difference is subtle and felt mostly in a straight line. Word at the track is Ducati had a pow-wow with Lorenzo and told him to go out slower to save the tires. The soft/soft in the past allowed Lorenzo to go like a rabbit early. Now he went slower and saved more tire for the last lap. Frankly, I wish the TV guys would shut up about the tires. These are pro riders at the highest level with the best crews in the world, so if Lorenzo and his team choose the soft/soft combo, it’s because they beleive it’s their best shot at victory. Also, please recall that early in the season when JL was running soft/soft, he’d get the lead for half the race and then drop. It was the TV guys blaming the tires, when in fact it was a bike fitment problem that was wearing the guy out.
Interesting post, thanks.
I’ll say this about the announcers. I was of course surprised this year to see the entire last year’s crew fired and replaced. Now after adjusting, I definitely do NOT miss last year’s primary play by play guy with his horrifically strong British accent, and every other word screaming “AB-SO-LUTE’-LY” this and “AB-SO-LUTE’-LY” that…Dude, I absolutely get you like the word!
If you replay the last couple laps from today, I think anyone would be happily shocked and surprised at the incredible command of language in describing the death blows exchanged between the two protagonists Marquez and Lorenzo. I was highly impressed. Last year’s crew would not hold a candle in the same circumstance.
I liked Dylan in the pits last year, but don’t miss him at all.
One of the world’s all time best races today. Somehow, today, during MM’s interview, I finally started to really warm to the guy, and am getting what makes him tick. Which is of course that he’s one of the most competitive humans on the planet.
Seeing those two with elbow contact at a little under 190mph is pure epic.
MotoGP didn’t replace the entire announcing crew. They simply replaced the retired Nick Harris with Steve Day. Matt Birt remains the second guy in the booth.
They also replaced the pit-lane announcer, Dylan Gray, with ex-MotoGP star Simon Crafar.
Thanks.
Was Harris’ retirement totally voluntary or all/part forced? Ditto Q Dylan.
How do you compare Harris v. Day?
I’m almost positive Birt had the stellar narration at the end of yesterday’s race. Very glad they kept him.
Nick Harris’s retirement was 100% voluntary, and definitely not at the behest of MotoGP’s Powers That Be. He was a truly beloved figure, throughout the entire paddock.
I don’t know if you saw his final pre-race press conference at Valencia last year following the formal announcement of his retirement, but I think it’s safe to say that nearly everyone in MotoGP loved the guy…
https://youtu.be/qV-aQlUoc24
For better or worse, he was the voice of motorcycle Grand Prix racing. I loved the guy. Yes, he was repetitive, with his “CLASSIC Assen overtaking maneuver” and “he’s ABSOLUTELY riding at the limit” and “this is a MASTER CLASS performance,” etc., but Sunday mornings are simply not the same without his iconic “Welcome to a glorious day here at Assen, the cathedral of Grand Prix racing!” greetings, and his hyper-British apoplectic paroxysms of joy whenever there was a good last-lap clash between titans…
http://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2017/11/09/motogp-s-tribute-to-nick-harris/245403
Steve Day is perfectly fine. He’s a lot more frank than Harris, much more willing to call a spade a spade. His voice is fine, as well, but the guy looks like a doughy little fop, especially when standing alongside the still-ripped Simon Crafar.
He and Matt Birt make a fine duo, and I like Amy Dargan quite a bit as well, who now fills the roles (asking “social media” questions to the riders during the pre-race pressers, and providing general over-the-top effusive enthusiasm) Steve Day occupied last year. I don’t mind Simon Crafar either, except for his lisp, but I preferred Dylan Gray as the pit-lane reporter. The thing there that I don’t understand is why they don’t have Crafar, a former 500 GP racer, continuing the on-board video laps of each track that Dylan Gray used to do for each telecast.
Simon Crafer may be a former top level rider who therefore has insightful perspectives, but he is painful to listen to. Sometimes I feel like he couldn’t put a smoothly delivered, coherent sentence together to save his life, not to mention the screw ups he has had like last weekend when he turned his mic on for a while accidentally and interrupted the regular announcers with a bunch of pit noise.
Announcers are the reason I just wait for the race reports. Can’t STAND them and muting the TV means not hearing the bikes (such as it is what with the announcers prominent in the mix).
This may be of no consequence, just tossing it out there because I’m a full time audio industry professional.
I suspect the quality of the playback chain correlates to your complaint Re. the obnoxious quality of the announcer’s voice on MotoGP. I usually view on this $170 laptop > directly powering my $450 SRP headphones (used value now only about $150). I have not noticed anything obnoxious about the announcer’s sound quality, which indicates Dorna’s “processing” is not obnoxious, ie. high magnitudes of EQ and compression. The worst sports sound track I can think of is NFL broadcasts, with horrific, obnoxious, bordering on criminal effects, including mixed in artificial fan noise just prior to the snap (for excitement), and magnitude of crowd noise intentionally added (more “excitement”) so as to mask announcer’s intelligibility.
You might just hate the announcer’s voices, even if you heard them in a “clean” playback system. But it might be that your playback system’s noise, compression, and distortion contributes to the offense.
IMO it’s at least worth it to audition a good set of cans (headphones) to see if that minimizes the offense.
Note that sensitivity differs, and some headphone outputs lack current and voltage to properly drive certain cans, so technical advise may be required for valid audition results.
Personally, I love to hear the different sounds of the bikes, and would miss it sans audio.
Interesting take but I’m talking about what they actually have to say and the fact that for whatever reason it’s required that they are saying something the entire time.
Also, just FYI, the “quality of my playback chain” is well beyond anything most people are even aware is possible.
I’d say, wait until the end of the season and better yet, let’s see how he goes on an orange Honda. He’s only become competitive in the past couple of months, after 1.5 years at the back. I doubt the tires or a gas-tank pad are the whole explanation.
Jorge is wishing the season started about 4 races ago. Rossi will not finish 2nd or 3rd in the championship.
Marc will claim the title with only one race to go. He’s going to bin it at one race between now and then because he can’t help but push all the time.
Loved Marq’s hard charge at the beginning. Couldn’t believe Jorge reeled him in. Imagine them as team mates next year. Wow!
I wonder if Spain-headquartered Dorna had any personal input in getting Spaniard Lorenzo to join Honda’s team with Spaniard MM next year.
One can not deny that those two racing on bikes with virtually identical performance potential shall be racing quality likely unmatched in any other venue. I suppose I’m not the only one anxious to see it. I just may have to fly to Austin COTA next year. I doubt MM shall ever be beaten at that track, but still, just seeing these two stalwarts in person might be a rare tweet.
It’s amazing to see the combative personalities in humans of such tiny stature. Their strength and determination reminds me of those tiny little Sherpa mountain climbing aides. One particular Sherpa who scaled Everest a couple dozen times (no O2 of course) carried on his back the last leg down Everest a climber who wore a prosthetic leg that wore down to his bone and made him unable to walk. Of course, the injured Caucasian weighed more than the Sherpa.
“One can not deny that those two racing on bikes with virtually identical performance potential shall be racing quality likely unmatched in any other venue.”
Since he’s managed to find the way on the Ducati, I am optimistic that he’ll do well on the Honda, too. After last season, I didn’t believe he’d ever be competitive again without the Yamaha or Suzuki.
Still, this could be difficult. He and Maq are still pretty different riders so I expect he’ll be asking for different things from the team.
“It’s amazing to see the combative personalities in humans of such tiny stature.”
Why? Humans are the apex species on this planet for intellect alone. We’re otherwise physically feeble compared to many other species. You should watch cycling or boxing if you want to see smaller athletes really explore the limits. Crazy what they’ll go through to win.