No, it was all Sardarov money back then.
2025 Silly Season
- Thread starter mikesbytes
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Great post.
I wonder if for Yamaha it is too little too late at this point with regards to the 1000cc formula. But I would say they've probably well positioned themselves for the 850cc formula. HRC on the other hand, well who really knows. I feel like they will be the biggest unknown going into the next formula as I can't see them being terribly interested in even spending the money to get this one right at this stage in the game.
Maybe the initial cut in HP will turn out to be a good thing for overall competitiveness of the machinery.
How much would MotoGP actually suffer if both Honda and Yamaha left MotoGP for good, and were replaced by other European manufacturers (i.e., BMW, MV for starters) ?
How much would Honda and Yamaha sales suffer as well world wide, if at all ?
When I have bought a new bike I never consider racing as part of the decision process, I go for what I like and what I can afford, regardless. If I was to buy a new bike now it would be a Kawasaki Ninja 500, MotoGP or not !
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That would make it a bit like the days when there were only Japanese manufacturers
It would make it akin to US baseball World Series to me. It needs manufacturers from different continents to give it a true flavour of a world championship. My choice would be an Aprilia Tueno 660 which brings into focus as interesting point you’ve raised. Given the vast sums some manufacturers spend on racing does it really influence buyers of sports bikes? Imo the sports bike riding era is over now bar for a few caught up in its death throes. Adventure bikes are the buzzword now. Bikes that go anywhere with reasonable speed are what real world bikers want these days. Hell, even Ducati are getting into mx now!
So why do manufacturers spend so much on racing? In the Japanese case they have seriously reigned it back and stay in it for nostalgic pride. Look at their efforts in WSBK which you’d think is more aligned with market sales than MotoGP but they’re all more or less stood still. While Aprilia are in it to sell bikes they don’t go silly with expenditure but I think Ducati do it simply because they can, it’s like a c0ck fight to them and they want us to know they have the biggest and not the ones like they sell at KFC! They are like old man Ferrari running the business to pay for the racing which unfortunately won’t end well for us aficionados I feel.
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My humble and biased (wishful?) opinion is that sportbikes are in some ways a victim of their own success. Why would I spend $15-20k on a new sportbike when I could buy a 10 or even 20 year old used bike for half the price with 98% of the performance? Most of what's missing is electronic: TC, ABS, riding modes. Personally I don't care about any of that, give me fuel injection and I'll handle traction and power delivery.
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If MotoGP goes electric, then I would expect Chinese manufacturers to enter MotoGP. (Or whatever has MotoGP's role). That could be the next major geographic change in MotoGP. I think that the motivation for them would be to establish themselves as world players, not just cheaper alternatives.
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I think it's definitely going to happen. And, it will depend on how old we all are whether or not we're likely to see it within our lifetime, or not.
Not having seen MotoE races this year, I think I'll catch up on YouTube. Race one only had seven laps, but they were seven quite eventful laps with a lot of changes for the lead and a quite suspenseful final lap. The race even included a rider crashing out of P1 for no immediately obvious reason, just like 'real' MotoGP.
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Rins: I'm still hungry to compete, but there is no offer on the table
Speaking in Mugello, the scene of his horror leg break in 2023, the Yamaha rider reasserted his determination to continue in the sport in 2025, though a deal is still to be struck
www.motogp.com
Rins angry, hungry and offerless
Rins: I'm still hungry to compete, but there is no offer on the table
Speaking in Mugello, the scene of his horror leg break in 2023, the Yamaha rider reasserted his determination to continue in the sport in 2025, though a deal is still to be struck
Rins angry, hungry and offerless
More evidence, imo, that the GPC is either positioning pieces on the board or perhaps they've finally signed some sort of salary cap agreement behind the scenes. A cap agreement could explain why Ducati stopped paying Pramac rider salaries.
The latter makes more sense, but with reality-TV Liberty entering the paddock, who knows?
Quartararo is making about 10m per year and Bagnaia around 6, so I don’t think there’s any cap.
In the case of Yamaha, I think the delay is likely because of the Pramac decision. My gut tells me that if Yamaha lands Pramac, they most likely will move Rins there and try to get either a younger guy out of Moto2 or a hyped name (Bez seems to be the last one standing ) to partner with Quartararo.
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Bezzecchi is supposedly on the top of Aprilia's shopping list.
And Bezzecchi would prefer to stay native.
Oliveira could be an option though.
In my opinion, sports bikes are still viable, but it's unclear if anyone has the motivation to utilize them on track. The superbike series was created out of thin air by manufacturers, teams and promoters with a desire to race 4-stroke motorcycles. MotoGP is 4-stroke now. Dorna owns MotoGP and WSBK. Plus, the Japanese are not responding swiftly to the re-design of Supersport, nor are they planning to meet Euro emissions for 1000cc machines. Also, in a world of limited resources, sport bikes may not compare favorably with other segments like adventure bikes or off-road bikes.
Is a rubik's cube. Production car racing in the modern era is funded by the gentleman driver. They are buying the GT3 cars and Porsche/Ferrari Cup cars and finding sponsors that keep the entire production racing pyramid afloat. Motorcycle racing is much more dangerous, and cannot rely on the middle aged gentleman rider to keep the race tracks funded. Motorcycle racing is also quite expensive with factory-spec machines costing $250,000 (?), and requiring a team similar in size to production car racing. Motorcycles also have a tendency to be totaled quite often.
These problems are solvable. Superbike could reduce performance to late-90s levels, and adopt next-gen rules to reduce emissions issues. The manufacturers could build and homologate race bikes at a lower-price point, and then function as umbrella service organizations for teams. Is it worth it? Fans are unpredictable and new rules might not satisfy Euro6.
Even if SBK and SSP are made viable, why not torch Moto2 and Moto3, and just fold superbike and supersport into the grand prix paddock? The national series riders and teams would plug directly into the GP paddock for competition and sales. GP would benefit from having manufacturer support and motivation in the lower classes. The performance of the feeder classes would increase. TV production costs are consolidated. Kalex and the rest would just be promoted to MotoGP with engine supply deals.
Sport bikes survive, imo, but I'm not convinced that WSBK will survive. I'm not convinced road-going superbikes will survive, either, but I think supersport is safe.
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Just focussing in on this point, I predict that sport bikes will survive. There are now large numbers of young people riding electric bicycles around. Frequently including, particularly where I live, illegally modified ones that function more like motorcycles. I predict that a proportion of those riders will be buying powerful motorcycles in their future. They may be electric ones, however.
CFMoto is 51 percent owned by a Chinese company (Zhejiang Chunfeng Power Co., Ltd.), a CFMoto rider currently leads the Moto3 championship standings (David Alonso).
I'm betting they will tackle Moto2 next, we shall see.
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I give you the CF Moto Aspar team of Jake Dixon and Izan Guevara
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King of the Baggers is one of the best race series that no one seems to know about. I know they are modified, but if you can throw around a v-twin HD like that, you have batshit insane skill.
