The Suzuki

Anyone else think that the Suzuki is better than given credit for? Aleix is certainly not an alien but he does pretty well against the competition. Vinaeles is riding well but I'm not convinced that the Suzuki is so much worse than the Yamaha that the moment he switches he will be a title contender. By all accounts it's the best handling bike on the grid and they've got their power sorted for the most part.

p4p1 said:

Anyone else think that the Suzuki is better than given credit for? Aleix is certainly not an alien but he does pretty well against the competition. Vinaeles is riding well but I'm not convinced that the Suzuki is so much worse than the Yamaha that the moment he switches he will be a title contender. By all accounts it's the best handling bike on the grid and they've got their power sorted for the most part.

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I think its a great bike, I really like what they have done with the chassis, rather than try and re-invent the wheel like i feel KTM are trying to do using a steel trellis frame (that i don't even think they could make work well in Moto2). They have taken the aluminium frame and tried to evolved it with tuneable carbon fibre engine mounts to quickly changes it flex characteristics.

There approach has been really good since they returned, they have made it clear that the development of the bikes direction is handling. They wont give it extra power if its at the expense of how it rides. They have improved well from last year to this this year. If they could improve on the bike by the same margin again next year it will almost be a front running contender.

I have posted this article before and you may have read it but for anyone who hasn't see it, its an interesting read.

HYBRID MOTOGP SUZUKI - Australian Motorcycle News

p4p1 said:

Anyone else think that the Suzuki is better than given credit for? Aleix is certainly not an alien but he does pretty well against the competition. Vinaeles is riding well but I'm not convinced that the Suzuki is so much worse than the Yamaha that the moment he switches he will be a title contender. By all accounts it's the best handling bike on the grid and they've got their power sorted for the most part.

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IMHO Yamaha has underachieved this year. Partly due to the petty politics in the garage. They have come a long way in 2015 to overcome the phenom called MM93 and Honda's advantage over them in 2013-14. 2016 machinery too was not a revolutionary one and both the riders were able to comfortably cruise their way to victory, way more comfortable than they did on 2015.

Now, coming back to suzuki, I would say the gulf wrt Yamaha was greatly reduced this year due to open ecu and quality of Michelin tyres. We should also consider that the practice at Silverstone, where the data collection for the race set up was all in wet. So all the riders mostly went with the setup they feel comfortable than the ultra optimised settings, we would normally expect.

The mere fact that for the past eight races were won by non-yamaha riders. Even on the odd day for the factory riders, Yamaha satellite riders were not able to mount a challenge, clearly shows there is a huge problem in Yamaha side.

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Don't forget that Suzuki is still operating under "concession" rules.
Lax test limitations.
9 engines with no homologation requirements.

After this weekend I think they are on 4 of the 6 points that will remove the concessions.

That said, they should be pretty pleased with themselves with their performance this year.

Dr No said:

Don't forget that Suzuki is still operating under "concession" rules.
Lax test limitations.
9 engines with no homologation requirements.

After this weekend I think they are on 4 of the 6 points that will remove the concessions.

That said, they should be pretty pleased with themselves with their performance this year.

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How do you think they will go next year, I haven't really heard rumors of anything new they have in the pipeline. All I've really heard was that Honda are switching to a big bang configured crank.

Would be nice to see some improvement in the Suzuki to bring it a little closer to the others and see it mixing it for the win, if Iannone can keep his spurs from digging in and binning it into the other riders.

I think Iannone being on a bike that's easier to ride will make him less likely to crash all the time. Dovi and Iannone have spoken about how physically demanding that bike is mostly because of the wings. It was an interview someone posted here where Nakamoto explained that bikes can be faster over a lap with lots of great aero but the rider is completely ducked after a couple of laps.

Dr No said:

Don't forget that Suzuki is still operating under "concession" rules.
Lax test limitations.
9 engines with no homologation requirements.

After this weekend I think they are on 4 of the 6 points that will remove the concessions.

That said, they should be pretty pleased with themselves with their performance this year.

Click to expand...

Yep, and this is the reason why I feel that judgement is best reserved at this stage until such time as they are competing on as even a playing field as mechanically possible.

I may seem negative but there is just something there that for me has me 'shrugging the shoulders' at Suzuki at the moment, may be the concessions but for mine this has been a very strange year in a number of ways and so I am reserving judgement until mid way or end of 2017 to see how they perform. Can they repeat this year when HRC/Yamaha etc have moved on and developed their bikes or will they stagnate?

Have the concessions been that which have assisted their performance in 2016 or are they genuinely competitive?

IMO only, but it will also help Suzuki with the riding changes next year as with Vinales going to Yamaha people will get an impression of him and by extension his Suzuki performances, and likewise with Ianonne people will be able to judge his 2016 performances against the 2017 and that of Vinales.

Yes I admit that their year has been somewhat exciting but again, I tend to mark based on consistency so will reserve judgement a little

Gaz said:

Yep, and this is the reason why I feel that judgement is best reserved at this stage until such time as they are competing on as even a playing field as mechanically possible.

I may seem negative but there is just something there that for me has me 'shrugging the shoulders' at Suzuki at the moment, may be the concessions but for mine this has been a very strange year in a number of ways and so I am reserving judgement until mid way or end of 2017 to see how they perform. Can they repeat this year when HRC/Yamaha etc have moved on and developed their bikes or will they stagnate?

Have the concessions been that which have assisted their performance in 2016 or are they genuinely competitive?

IMO only, but it will also help Suzuki with the riding changes next year as with Vinales going to Yamaha people will get an impression of him and by extension his Suzuki performances, and likewise with Ianonne people will be able to judge his 2016 performances against the 2017 and that of Vinales.

Yes I admit that their year has been somewhat exciting but again, I tend to mark based on consistency so will reserve judgement a little

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Thats what I'm looking forward to seeing, Vinales performance on the Yamaha will be a bit of an indicator as to where the he is and where the Suzuki is.

Your right, with the tyres and electronics changes this year, its hard to know if their performance has really improved to what it appears or if the Honda and Yamaha's have dropped off somewhat making the Ducati and Suzuki appear to have improved a little more.

AJV80 said:

Thats what I'm looking forward to seeing, Vinales performance on the Yamaha will be a bit of an indicator as to where the he is and where the Suzuki is.

Your right, with the tyres and electronics changes this year, its hard to know if their performance has really improved to what it appears or if the Honda and Yamaha's have dropped off somewhat making the Ducati and Suzuki appear to have improved a little more.

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Ditto.
Good point, Gaz.
I am just glad they're seemingly competitive enough to encourage the big boys in the corporation to keep paying the development bills.

(I have to get onto a laptop sometime to read that AMCN article properly (pics won't play ball downloading)...but given it's Spalders, my first inclination is to snort derisively, let's see)

I've always been a Suzuki fan since I was 14. I was very happy to see them come back to Moto GP last year. I myself don't follow a rider I follow a team. Suzuki is my team.