http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Jul/e/n090704b.htm

This is the first i have heard of this rumor. Does anyone have other info on this possibility? I sure do miss the sounds of the old 990! I also believe that the 990 was a more neutral bike in that all walks of riding discipline could adapt whereas the 800 has been a bit more biased. it is my opinion that motogp will be better with the liter engine format. thanks in advance for any further info.

I'll believe it when I hear it from Dorna. There is a writer or two at superbikeplanet that know about GP, but that site is better for AMA info. To go back to 990cc would require Dorna to acknowledge an error, that is the hard part to imagine.

I like the way they say Laguna is non-250 type track but 250 style riders are at the top. It isn't odd, considering the front row consists of 3 guys that are quite probably the 3 best riders in the world.

Unfortunately with the troubles in finding money to run a competitive team in racing with the way this global economy is I can not see them making any drastic changes for the next 3 to 4 years just cost to much to change over.

They may need to go back to 990's to keep the GP bikes faster than Superbikes. I would imagine they will have to detune the 800's quite a bit to get the engines to last multiple race weekends.

i don't like the economics-dictated rules changes dorna is enforcing, just because they don't really make sense. i wouldn't mind a switch to 990cc's, but what i'd really like is the loss of traction control.

now a bunch of 990s with no traction control would just be peachy, and funnily enough, was what rossi's been saying he'd rather be riding for the last couple of years...

I'd like to see TC go away, as well, but it cannot be done now that electronics are part of the management package - who/what's going to police TC? TC packages are so sophisticated nowadays so as to be undetectable...

it would be interesting to see how the lap times change, i suspect they would be around the same.

top speeds would increase due to more power. the only thing that would go down would be corner speed.

also, if this were to happen i would want the control tire out, get michelin back in there, but some may disagree (highly doubt that would happen anyway).

I would prefer to keep the control tire rule.

i could live with multiple tire manufacturers if there was no traction control and they were 990s. i think getting rid of TC would be pretty easy, just use a spec ECU. i'd be willing to trade a spec tire for a spec ECU pretty gladly...

that article is irresponsible journalism...

look at the 990 era and see who was fighting for championships...

2002
1st Rossi- 125, 250, 500 rider
2nd Biaggi- 250, 500 rider
3rd Ukawa- 250, 500 rider

2003
1st Rossi- 125, 250, 500 rider
2nd Gibernau- 250, 500 rider
3rd Biaggi- 250, 500 rider

2004
1st Rossi- 125, 250, 500 rider
2nd Gibernau- 250, 500 rider
3rd Biaggi- 250, 500 rider

2005
1st Rossi- 125, 250, 500 rider
2nd Melandri- 125, 250 rider
3rd Hayden- superbike rider

2006
1st Hayden- superbike rider
2nd Rossi- 125, 250, 500 rider
3rd Capirossi- 125, 250, 500 rider

so... out of the 5 years that they used 990s, only twice was a superbike rider in the top 3 of the championship...

plus, the year Hayden won, 3 other riders who came up from 125s and 250s won more races than he did that year and Hayden's teamamte (another 125 and 250 rider) won the same number of races...

Compare that to the 990cc era that saw Superbike riders have some success...


some success seems to be a pretty strong term for what really happenned...

plus, i am not convinced that the control tire has really made the racing closer... i saw several statistics pre-Catalunya that showed the margin of victory has actually increased with the control tire up to that point...

i bet dean loved that article...

NDSkies - 05 July 2009 10:08 PM

i saw several statistics pre-Catalunya that showed the margin of victory has actually increased with the control tire up to that point...

Remember correlation is not causation. I don't recall which journalist noted the correlation but he also noted that the margin of victory stat stretched back past the control tire change to the adoption of the 800cc formula.