<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ May 7 2009, 01:15 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Interesting Geo. Actually, Marco mentioned that he felt like he had not grip, as if it was "wet all the time" aboard the bike. Wht does this mean? Can we take something from marco's experience and learn something? Interesting because when you have some odd frequency (as you put it) it makes the rider feel like nothing is under them (in the feedback sense)
Thanks for bringing that up, Jumk. I had forgotten that Melandri complained that he felt like he was riding in the wet. After China, he said it was the first round he had a good feeling with the bike.
I think everything boils down the black piece of mush located at the front of the bike.
After listening to Mamola last year and reading various ramblings by MotoGP guru on the internet, it seems that harder carcass tires were necessary at the front b/c trail braking and high corner entry puts enormous strain on the front wheel.
The control front is soft to reduce corner entry speeds. Long story short, Stoner's ability to trail brake by using the rear brake and his ability to load the front by turning the bike are key.
Trail braking with the rear is somewhat counter intuitive but Nicky does know how to use lots of rear brake so Nick already has 1 necessary skill. However, I think what's holding the Ducati riders back is corner entry without using much front brake.
When the front end goes vague your instincts tell you to tease the front brake so you can get a bit more weight over the front on the way in. The riders are tempted to squeeze the front lever but they find when they do, that they've maxed out the performance of the front tire. They run wide or they are very hesitant to lean the bike over for fear of losing the front.
Like Geonerd said, when the let off the front brake and start to tip it in they look like "what's going on with the front". It goes vague because the Ducati has a rearward weight bias. They grab the front to get feeling, but then they can't turn the bike and their lap times suffer hugely.
It would seem to explain why they say the bike is extremely sensitive to set up. If it feels to vague at the front so you change the weight distribution via the ride height or offset or whatever, but the next time you go out and ride it you find you've cooked the front wheel going into every turn and you lose 1.5 seconds a lap over your previous setting.
Nicky looks really slow into the bendy sections and there seems to be reports that he can't get heat in the rear tire. I think he is too far over the front both with his body position and the weight bias b/c he trying to maintain good feel in the front.
Stoner combats the vague front end in a completely different way----instead of using the front brake he simply turns harder at higher speed. The harder he turns and the farther he leans the more cornering forces are absorbed by the front. He gets feeling in the front while spending less time in the corners. The Ducati turns better and feels better the more you lean it which is opposite of most bikes. Remember when Loris went to Suzuki and he chided them because the bike didn't turn well at full lean?
I think that is the tough bit. Only Stoner has the skill and the comfort level to trail brake heavily with the rear while chucking the vague front end into a corner. He knows feeling will come back on the way to the apex, but other riders (Honda riders especially) can't break the habit of reaching for the brake lever when the front end starts losing feel.
They need to get Nicky to a private test and remove the damn front brake and have him go out and do the best laps he can. You can't back it in without a front brake on tarmac b/c they front is always outrunning the rear. At some point, Nicky will have to learn to turn the bike in and wait for the feeling to come back. Gradually work him towards the optimal rearward weight bias. They should have a helicopter medivac team on site just in case.
