MOTOGP » Stoner stoned in Brno

Re: no of carbs. Answer: 0. It's fuel injected! It's perfectly possible for a stone to have jammed the linkages for the all four butterflies. I'm a Rossi fan, but as he seems prepared to accept Stoner's post Laguna reaction was heat of the moment, why can't we give him a break? It's become obvious this year that the Ducati isn't just a get on it and win bike!

Saltbush: the answer to your question "How many carbs does the Desmosedici have?" is zero - it's fuel injected. It is perfectly possible that a single stone should block the linkage for all four butterflies however. As they're connected, you only need to jamb one, and with fly-by-wire there's probably less chance of releasing it than there would have been by yanking on a throttle cable. Vale has accepted Stoner's post Laguna reaction was heat of the moment, so why doesn't everyone lay off him. This season has confirmed the Duke's not a jump-on-an-win bike, so give the guy some credit - and I'm a Rossi fan!

moto- great posts. Blocked butterflies is real - I was once racing (cars) and flicked up a small bolt on the track that went down the throat of the guy next to me's car and jammed his butterflies (dual webers) wide open, he hit the wall next corner in a bad way. I ended up off the inside avoiding him: after we were both draggged back at the end of the race he thanked me for missing him and since his car was badly smashed, helped me get mine back ok for the next race - a real nice gesture, typical of club racing. As for the numptys - I'm a huge admirer of Rossi and for me his comments that 'if you are a fan because you hate someone else, I don't want you as a fan' is the best comment.

num: I'm not sufficiently literate in the finer points of the physics involved but it's really worth reading this article: sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motogp_ducati_yamaha_honda/fiat_yamaha.html (add the www at the beginning, obviously) which is Alan Cathcart's test of the Duc, Yam and Honda 2007 bikes - I don't think there have been major changes for '08, just tweaks.

As I understand it the 2008 Honda is very different as they went the wrong way by trying to concentrate the mass in the center of the bike last year - it had a disastrous effect on weight transfer, reducing it, that is. See the comments on the 'set up' discussion for just why it's better in many respects to have weight for and aft like a dumbbell (relatively speaking) to enable the bike to load its tyres without standing on end.

Sounds like Stoner is now trying to copy Rossi's set up i.e. high centre of gravity...
Stoner is a good racer but even his fans boys know that the magic of him and ducati came about by pure luck, that's why they wanted Rossi so badly, and not as a second string rider. Either ducati know what they are doing or they don't...

God bless that stone, I wonder if Ducati will let me have a copy of it to put on my mantlepiece, so that everytime I walk past it I can have a good old laugh!!!

To the last comment: Ducati are ruthless...they know what they are doing and are harsh and cut throat about it! As Rossi explained in his book, they share a similar philolsphy as Honda, which is one of the reasons he left Honda and didn't join Duc. Just look back at their treatment of Loris, who developed Casey's bike!!! Look how they treated him! And Sete! Casey takes Sete out in a race, then signs for Duc right after the race!!! That's heartless on Ducati's part. Ducati would sign the devil if they could...hell why not they already have the colour scheme. Doesn't surprise me that Stoner and Ducati work well together.

WooHoo - the Stoner-slagging commentary has gone beyond the pathetic to the theological. Only patriotism - the last refuge of the scoundrel - is left. There's a sort of awful fascination watching the fanboy (Stoner / Rossi, both as bad as each other) bile spew forth, it makes common sense and rational thought into a precious commodity. Salty, if you are out there mate, this is what I meant about fighting a sandstorm...

To alaywa,

I was being sarcastic! I know exactly what the teams and riders are like. I have read Rossi's book, as I am a huge fan, and I know about all that you commented on as I have followed motogp for years.

I think you need to take a chill pill and calm down as you must have been well overheated by the time you finished typing that comment.