<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gaz @ Jul 14 2008, 08:16 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Agreed.
There is a damn site more to riding a bike that jumping on and twisting the throttle to stop.
It is my understanding that thus far TC is not advanced enough to turn the bike, stop the bike, take evasive action as required and any other myriad of things. If/when this were to happen it would be the death knell of the sport, but at the moment we still require human input, actions and decision to work with the other technology. Thus, IMO it is not all about TC.
Garry
I am sure you can speak much more knowledgeably than me given your background in the sport, but I have some fairly detailed thoughts on this matter, some of which I will post. I am definitely speculating; I am no engineer nor a race bike rider.
I actually think that the law of unintended consequences has operated, and that the 800cc rules have produced the reverse of what was intended in terms of close racing and expense, and more particularly safety . These bikes are more dangerous than 990s in my opinion.
As I understand it, the rules were developed by dorna who are accountants and purveyors of media content, with a large input from honda who are basically engineers in their orientation. I think the intention was for the bikes to be powered down 990s with more rider aids so they would be slower and safer, which suited dorna for tv purposes although I am also sure that they and everybody else of course did not want to see any more katoh incidents, and honda because it allowed them to demonstrate their engineering prowess and would make riders less important, prima donna nuisances that they are.
I think powering down a 990 and increasing rider aids would have had the result that the proponents of the easy tc bikes theory claim. I may be speaking from ignorance, but to me it seems likely that 990s were designed to be stable without rider aids, and to be progressive as they approached their limits, and chuckable/slideable/correctable/ whatever.
As is often the case particularly in motorsports, the rules have been rapidly circumvented by human ingenuity, and as is also usually the case in motorsports this has involved the expenditure of bucket loads of money. I think ducati in particular have designed a bike which is not inherently stable and only rideable with tc/rider aids, like a modern fighter plane with the avionics (not an original thought by me). It is probably reasonably easy for a relative novice like michael schumacher to ride 5 seconds off stoner/rossi pace, or to ride 3 seconds off the pace like marco since he gave up, but at the limit it seems likely to me there is a knife edge between having traction and the electronic aids failing and chucking you off the bike. Hence having hair trigger reflexes, and being extremely brave have become even more important. These have always been part of traditional riding skills, but I don't think near suicidal bravery should be encouraged even unintentionally as the predominant talent; I think jorge lorenzo would probably now agree with me.
