The MotoGP Sprint races, where riders can go flat-out without concern for tire life, have proven to be quite exciting and, at times, dangerous.
The Sprint race in Germany earlier today saw Jorge Martin (Ducati) begin to break away and form a gap over second place early in the race. Martin went on to win with a comfortable margin over Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Jack Miller (KTM), who filled out the podium behind him.
Be sure to check MD for tomorrow’s full GP race results. You can find full Sprint race results here.
I find it odd that they list the GasGas factory team bikes as KTM. I know that’s fairly accurate. But I think that it’s being a bit rude to KTM. If KTM wants a GasGas team, then those bikes are GasGas. They list the Ducatis as such and not as Volkswagens.
The flip side is that I have to wonder why there is a Gas Gas team. For those of you not quite familiar with the KTM Husqvarna GasGas pecking order, KTM are the highest spec if there are any differences between them and the Husqvarna. Though Husqvarna are usually full spec they may have a composite subframe instead of the steal ones on the KTM. In general the Husqvarna are a different blend of things that you will find on the XC and XCW flavors at KTM.
GasGas are the budget bikes. They will have some lower spec parts and sell at lower prices. They are being marketed to younger riders. Maybe that’s the reason for the GP team. But one would think the second brand to get a GP team would be Husqvarna.
The 2023 GasGas 125 is the last two stroke coming from KTM to have a carburetor. I seriously considered buying one for that reason. The 2024 will be fuel injected. Thus far, I’m unimpressed with the fuel injected two strokes. Some people are paying good money to convert the TPI bikes to carburetor. It’s not cheap.
Mick – Why would a carburetor be better than fuel injection ? My 1997 Triumph T595 Daytona (955cc) is one of the very first production fuel-injected bikes sold for the street (it says “Triple Fuel Injection” in large black lettering on the yellow fairing) and it runs perfectly, no choke of course, runs smooth when cold at start up and throughout the performance range, all day long.
There’s a reason carbureted bikes have pretty much disappeared from the scene and the industry (both cars and bikes) long ago moved to fuel injection.
It’s a farging mystery. Even the most basic OG MFI is better than a slobbery carb.
Ditch the slobbery carb, replace it with a good one, and get back to me on that.
Two stroke fuel injection is in its infancy. KTM started out with tuned port injection, with the injectors in the transfer ports, and has already abandoned that idea. They now use throttle body injection, basically a sort of fake carburetor like a lot of cars used to have when fuel injection was new to cars, or pretty much what Holley is selling as a retrofit for old cars now.
The issue is that carburetors for two strokes are very well developed and work very well for people who know how to adjust them. The injection systems currently available for two stroke just haven’t caught up yet. It’s likely that they might in the future. But now has a stubborn way of being now.
The names that DT 175 is throwing out are motocross racers who ride four strokes. Four stroke injection technology has been developed by the auto industry or about three decades now. But only recently has injection taken the lead from the excellent FCR carburetors that used to grace all the four stroke dirt bikes.
The four stroke dirt bikes work very well on motocross tracks. But few riders can go fast on them on the woods and almost no riders will ride them in Hard Enduro events, where they are unlikely to finish the event.
I used to always keep a four stroke dirt bike around. But I got tired of fussing with them and have abandoned them altogether. The industry has spent a lot of time and money trying to unseat the two stroke dirt bike. But they never will. They need a lot of help from the rule books to be competitive in professional racing series. But those rules quadrupled the costs for race teams. And no amount of money came make them competitive in events like Hard Enduro without banning two strokes outright.
For now, injection on two strokes only brings a lot of needless costs, complexity, and failure points. The stock carburetors on the two strokes were deleloped until the early 2000s and new ones are still showing up on the aftermarket even now. If you know how to set one up, they work phenomenally well. The current injection systems are fussy. They occasionally require you to shut the bike off and restart it, something exactly nobody wants to do while racing. And they just haven’t found a map or injection system design that can compete with a carburetor yet. They are only going to injection in the first place to make Europe happy with the emissions. Europe was going to clamp down in 2020, but they have since pushed it back to 2024. I’m not Europe. I’ll stick with carburetors for the foreseeable future.
Heck, check out Richard Holdener on YouTube. He dyno tests car engines. Normally aspirated car engines still make more power with a carburetor. Strange but true.
Mick – I see that your focus is on two stroke engines. Do you feel as strongly about carburetors being superior to fuel injection on modern four stroke engines ?
are you telling us that the bikes of barcia and stewart are not the same as the bikes of webb and plessinger?
This is another example of what we touched on in another thread. It’s just brand promotion. Gas Gas doesn’t make a street bike at all. KTM wants to field 4 bikes and they lost last year’s satellite team. This must’ve been their solution. I don’t know why they have to call the bikes KTM’s, maybe that’s Dorna’s rule.
Since the GASGAS is a rebranded KTM RC16, according to MotoGP rules it is recognized as a KTM customer/satellite bike rather than a new manufacturer. GASGAS is effectively the title sponsor.
I have a tough time with that. If KTM wants to brand those particular RC16s as GasGas, then that’s what they are.
You don’t go to a dirt track event and see the Indians listed as Polaris. It’s just not polite.
The difference I suppose is that there is no Polaris branded bike running alongside the Indian. If there were no KTMs on the grid, then they could call it a GASGAS RC16. That’s just MotoGP’s rules. By those same rules, if they classify GASGAS as a manufacturer, then they are owed concessions.
I’m not defending those rules. I personally agree with you. It seems more like a silly game of semantics. Racing is a marketing expenditure. I don’t see why they can’t just call it a GASGAS but bar them availability to concessions based on technical similarity. That would be a three-minute rule change.