MOTOGP » Canepa plans weight loss for speed gain

This is very interesting. Maybe that is why Mika was faster than Hayden? Cred to Ducati for doing this. Hope the others will follow.

great to see that the Duc is providing same spec for all teams but not sure if Canepa is right about Yamaha. didn't they offer same spec for both factory and tech3 starting last year? or were the electronics different in yamaha's case?

Been mentioned before and already law in 125, Pedro and bike won't make minimum by about 40 pounds (Calif dude..Don,t know stone, kilogram, or midget) if 2010 rule includes machine and RIDER. Happy to bet that Dani boy couldn't tip the scales at 100 without helmut, leathers, boots, gear, and at least half a tool box in his LOAD.

Can't help thinking it's a little short sighted blaming the lack of top speed on just aerodynamics and weight.

If Mika Kalio is exiting the corner 12kph faster than Canepa it stands to reason that alongside the extra 5 or 6kg and frontal area he could be 16kph down.

If both had the same exit speed I doubt Kallio would pull out a 10mph advantage solely on mass, even though I'm sure it contributes.

As for Dani Pedrosa, yes he's light, but well over 100 pounds- around 125 I believe?
None of the racers are heavy, I think sometimes people over estimate the difference between Pedrosa & Rossi/Capirossi etc etc

Ducati are giving the same bike to everybody, because they learned from Yamaha last year.
This way you have more chances to be with more riders at the top (Yamaha was on the podium in all races, in one of them the only Yamaha on the podium was CE's) and also gather more data.

This guy is really to big for the bike, apart from his weight he has shoe size 44 and can't operate the rear brake pedal properly, especially in right hand corners.
So they now fitted a hand operated brake lever to the left side of the handlebars that he will use throughout the season.

DAMN IT - there goes my dreams of being a MotoGp rider? I weigh 270 pounds, am 6'5" tall and wear size 48 shoes.
O'h well will just have to stick to PS3/X-BOX then..

I wish people would stop using weight as an excuse. There will never be exact parity. Yes he benefits from being small but Pedrosa also has some issues caused by his light weight. so to make everything fair for the little guys are they going to require that the bigger guys to make their bikes handle worse to offset the possible strength advantage they have over guys like Pedrosa?

I'm sorry it just seems no body ever simply gets beat anymore. There is always an excuse why one person has an advantage over someone else. They should just clone rossi and put everyone on the same equipment run by the same team....geez

Bring on a combined rider/bike weight limit...

This would have never been or was an issue with the 990, fat or skinny, tall or short...that torque would move your A$$.... 800s suck...Pedro sucks...Homda sucks...Bring on a combined rider/bike weight limit...

Morgue... im not sure how being a shoe size 44 would cause an issue? thats only about size 8-8.5 uk! I would be very surprised if any rider was below a size 8 except maybe Dani. and lets be honest, if it was that much of an issue they would just make a different lever! i agree he most probably is not as aero friendly as Kallio/Stoner but shoe size will make a difference so small that we probably cant even measure!