<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (is200 @ Oct 27 2008, 12:00 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Just came across this forum and it seems like a knowledgable place to help me get through my quiet days at work.
There are quiet clearly 2 distinct groups on here (in this thread at least)
The Rossi fans and the Ducati fans. Mind you most people have an affinity with Vale.
I for one am a big Rossi fan, have been lucky enough to meet him, but being an Aussie follow Casey, and also am lucky enough to actually know him, and am close friends to his inlaws.
So Ill give you the perspective from Case's side of things.
Forget about Leguna, Rossi was too good there, Casey had the pace and Rossi just did what he did best and won. Iv never heard Casey say anything about the tyres there. However the next two races, both front end losses were completley unexplainable, he took the corner the same as he had every other time all weekend and it just folded.
At that level of motorsport they demand perfection, their quality assurances and systematic approach to anything (in this case tyre design) is such that its almost impossible that they would produce a faulty tyre in 2 subsequent races. Make of it what you will.
Casey is pretty hard on himself and that can come across as 'bruptness' at times, but if he made those errors on his own he would own up to it, as he did in Leguna.
If Case had won those two races Vale still would have won the championship and rightly so. He was the best rider this year on the best bike. That M1 was such a smooth sweet ride.
The other night I was speaking to Malcom Pitman who was Gary Mcoys Technical Pit manager back at Red Bull Yamaha, and then moved on to work further with Peter Clifford at WCM Yamaha back in 02 I think it was, he was saying how the tech department just made such a ridable bike this year.
Also some earlier posts questioned why Ducati have gone for Carbon Fibre with the chassis and weather it was weight reduction or whatever. Also have rightly pointed out that its been trried and failed in the past.
My understanding of why they avhe gone for it is for its damper qualities. Basically when a bike is at full inclination the suspension really does not work all that well. So what happens is the fram acts as a secondary suspension but flexing. However as there are 2 distinct parts of a shocker, the spring and hydrolic damper. Well aluminium or steel are both fine acting as a secondar spring suspension but lack the damper component.
Where as Carbon fibre can be made to differing thickness' to gain the desired 'spring' but it has a higher intrinsic dampening ability. Stated simply, and if done correctly, it will actually do the opposite of what everyone will say is its shortfall. It will dampen more effectivley than any other chassis out there and result in less chatter.
Combined with the above is also the fact that carbon fibre also allows the designer to improve the dampening absorbtion further as it is made with layers of fibre. Ducati will be able to insert other materials in between the layers of carbon. These viscoelastic materials can help to further the chassis ability to dampen viabration and still maintain the 'sprung' element of the chassis similar to that of steel (or similar).
Well that was a fair bit of a mouthful for my first so i should just leave it there.
Nice post, welcome to the forum.
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