If you look in isolation at Suzuki's performance with their twin-spar aluminum frame....
you could conclude that twin-spar aluminum frames are crap.

Wait...no...they've got a V-4 in a twin-spar aluminum frame.
That V-4 must be the problem.

Whoops...that V-4 seems to work really good on the Hondas.
Well, except at the start of last season....when Pedrosa's bike was trying to throw him off 24/7.
What was it? 4 frames? 5? Before they did one that he could ride fast?

Ducati's biggest liability in MGP seems to be that their R&D 'department' is 1/100th the size/experience of either Yamaha or Honda.

They're probably gonna be chasing the others for quite a while...

well the other options is now that the SBK is going to the stressed airbox framless design, they can use an experimental full trellis design for MotoGP 

Quote from: Speeddog on July 28, 2011, 02:14:20 PM
Whoops...that V-4 seems to work really good on the Hondas.
Well, except at the start of last season....when Pedrosa's bike was trying to throw him off 24/7.
What was it? 4 frames? 5? Before they did one that he could ride fast?

just for the sake of argument the 2007-2010.5 V4 honda mostly sucked 

Quote from: gm2 on July 28, 2011, 03:08:43 PM
just for the sake of argument the 2007-2010.5 V4 honda mostly sucked 

Yeah, that's the thing.

Folks talk about a twin-spar aluminum frame as the magic bullet that Ducati needs.

Yet plenty of those don't seem to work very well at all.

maybe they need an inline 4

Quote from: gm2 on July 28, 2011, 04:10:01 PM
maybe they need an inline 4

Quote from: lazylightnin717 on July 28, 2011, 04:24:00 PM

...with a reverse-rotating crank

Quote from: desmoquattro on July 28, 2011, 04:32:52 PM
...with a reverse-rotating crank

Yep, Valentino and Jerry should have those drawing packages in a file folder somewhere.

I'm thinking patent problems. They should just steal a M1 and slap Duc decals on it!

Quote from: Raux on July 28, 2011, 01:54:45 PM
yeah no kidding, he's placing third in MotoGP races in the WSBK!

i saw that mentioned the other day... i'm curious, was that based on lap time or race time?

which race was that statement in reference to?

I saw that too.  I *think* they're talking about Assen, where GP had shitty weather conditions.  Checa's qualifying at Assen would have put him 5th on the GP grid if the conditions had been the same.

Quote from: Raux on July 28, 2011, 01:54:45 PM
yeah no kidding, he's placing third in MotoGP races in the WSBK!

Yeah keep in mind that the MotoGP conditions were damp/drying track, 10 degrees Celsius lower track temperature and around 50% more humidity.  You can't compare the times in any shape or form.

I agree completely.  That said, let me do a 180:

One of the more controversial topics of debate raised at Silverstone has been the times set by Carlos Checa. The Althea Ducati rider has been faster than Valentino Rossi aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 MotoGP bike in every session, even besting Rossi's qualifying time (2'05.781) in every session except for FP1. This despite a 40+ hp deficit to the GP11, and obviously at a track that the seven-time MotoGP champion had never raced at before. Silverstone marked the point at which Rossi and his crew gave up on the GP11 - the old bike that he started the season with - deciding to switch to the GP11.1 at Assen, the very next round. Carlos Checa demonstrates there is very little wrong with Ducati's ability to build competitive racing motorcycles. They just need to be 1200cc, V-twins and shod with Pirelli tires.


From: http://motomatters.com/analysis/2011/07/30/2011_silverstone_world_superbike_saturda.html