Rutter: Byrne, not bike, is dominant factor.

Rutter.... someone in the know - with experience!!

I agree totally

Quite agree with Rutter.

Take the top four Ducati riders (Byrne, Camier, Rutter, Laverty) - Total points = 590
Top four Japanese bike riders (Crutchlow, Haslam, Sykes, Ellison)- Total points = 576

The whole weight thing is a nonsense, driven by pressure from HM plant because they expect to win.

Rules should be as simple as possible, 1000cc x 4cyl, 1100cc x 3cyl, 1200cc x 2cyl, minimal modifications, same weight.

as if its in his interests to admit the bike is the difference ... he's on almost the same machinery!

Where was Rutter last year ... struggling to make the top ten?


& Trig ... should those simple rules also allow the Honda's, Yamaha's, Kawa's & Suzuki's to use Titanium & other exotic materials in their engine parts?

Trig - nice convenient use of stats though. Clever to use the top 4 (incl 1 privateer cup rider).

Why dont you just keep it simple & look at the top Ducati vs the top 1000cc 4? If you could add the top 2 jap manufacturers point the chapionship would be closer than it is now!

yeah I agree with Dice, Rutter hasn't won in over three years and now this year on the 1098 look at him go ! Now I'm not knocking Rutter as I think he's a great rider but it really does look like Ducati have a considerable advantage this year and the weight penalty is not an over reaction at all.

Woah Dan you can't have it both ways :-)

(i) Agreed Rutter is an excellent rider - But since he left HM Plant which prioritised Kiyo (and Rutter spend a fair amount of time helping Kiyo too) he hasn't been on the most competitive machinery, plus he's carried more than his share of injuries.

(ii) IF it was the Bike he'd have been on the podium since the start of the season.

I'm not so sure his bike is quite on a par with Airwaves'.
A big part of the reason he did well last week was a bold, canny tyre choice.

That said, bit or a non-sequiteur for 'im to argue the rules worked well for ages so they shouldn't have been changed .... If they hadn't been changed then no 1098s.
.. I wonder?

I think Rutter is hard core,simple as that.Isle of man and NW200,takes balls of steel,i have the utter most respect for that man

If its not the Bike what is it Byrne couldnt do anything in 2 years on the 4 cylinders apart from demand huge wages
Because of the weak BSB rules and structure which was built around over the counter bikes which Airwaves or Northwest 200 have not got then they are not playing to the rules or spirit of the sport Which is why some teams will walk away in 2009

Manager - what makes you think Byrne didn't do anything in 2 years on 4 cylinders? He did extremely well considering the bikes he was riding.

Another reason Byrne is doing so well this year is that the top talent left i.e. Kiyonari, Lavilla and Rea.

The teams walking away from BSB in 2009 will probably be Airwaves / GSE Ducati who have been wanting to get back into World Supers for a long time - it will depend on the sponsor and what equipment guarantees they get from Ducati. HM Plant Honda are also looking to leave - their operation in BSB was a test bed for the Suzuka 8 hours - now that they can't run prototype Michelins or highly tuned engines it makes more sense to switch to World Supers.

Losing the GSE and HM Plant duopoly may not be a bad thing - you'll see Suzuki and Yamaha winning again and Kawasaki won't be so far back.

Manager - The reasons Byrne didn't win in 2007 have been thoroughly discussed in numerous different threads. I'm not running through it all again in detail. Suffice to say that Byrne finished 5th last year as the highest placed non-factory Honda, bagging a race win, 9 podiums and 18 top-6 finishes out of 26 races. And all on a non-competitive Honda on crap tyres (as opposed to HMPlants super grippy Michelins and factory support), and run by a small / semi-private team (Paul Bird) with limited experience of racing Hondas. Compare that to what Ellison is doing in 2008 in Bike-Animal's 2nd BSB year. Quite an achievement on Byrne's part.

Losing GSE and HM Plant a good thing???? Are you for real????
BSB will become nothing more than a backwoods event, no TV coverage anywhere, minimal crowds. Pointless.

Trig you talk of keeping the rules simple, well the simplest solution is to have the bikes all competing with the same cc, weight and tuning modifications. If the V twin engine is so good as a racing engine then it shouldn't need cc and/or tuning advantages.

If twin cyclinder engines keep getting these concesssions then the racing will never be as fair as it should be and arguments about whether a rider using a twin cyclinder superbike is any good or not will continue for a long time to come. This is where MotoGP has it right as far as bike specifications go - all using the same cc and tuning but we still have the different engine configurations.

Slick Cylinder
The only reason Byrne won the champoionship in 2003 was because Reynolds was injured at the Silverstone round and carried his injury till midseason, who then became top points scorer in the second half of the season and as for Nitro Nori saying he had a **** bike and tyres in 2007 he had the pick of the chosen few NTR range that Dunlop gave to there chosen riders which not everyone where able to get and by the way Camier was doing alright on his private Honda untill his accident wasn't he and they had the same support

Reynolds outscored Byrne by an awesome 10 points in the second half of the 2003 season, and was beaten by Byrne by a lucky 130 points. It's called "how to win a championship", Reynolds would know and respect that.

What do they say in racing? To finish first, first you have to finish.

Byrne has a proven record on Ducati, Suzuki and Honda, not many can say that.

"The championship has been run so well for many years they should have just left it alone"
Does that include allowing 1200cc bikes in as well?

Mind you, I do agree that riders & bikes weight should be combined as they are in F1.

Yeah, let's go back to the rules that guaranteed good racing. That means 4 cylinder 750s and 1000cc for the twins.

if rutters sayin that he nos **** all wer was he last year now look at him on the ducati up with the front boys and the same for bryne no wer last year and winning this year