Electronics

So, a friend has just upgraded his '12 Blade to a new '14 SP (non ABS) and is amazed how much better the bike feels

The most electronic item on the bike is the rev-counter and this really appeals to him

Over the years, he has become a very competent rider, which now helps him extract performance from the bike.

Got me thinking about the 1299....

- so now you can yank the throttle as hard as you like, thanks to wheelie control and traction control

- now you can jam on the brakes as crazy as you like, even round bends ....doesn't have anti-lift, so you could do a massive endo I guess

- bash up and down the gears, without mind for engine speed

- super light-weight


Wow..... is this the ultimate beginners bike

Feck me, all we need is lane deviation and the thing will ride itself :roll eyes:

..... and will all the electronics prevent rider skill development?

IMO, learning to ride means exactly that.

+1


i learned through crashing. yes, avoiding it is better, but your skills will not develop.

cracking wide open without risk is nice, but what will it make you? a ...... rider on all other bikes.

bragging rights go through the roof though!

like casey stoner (a.k.a. F.L.O.A.T. (final laugh of all times)) said - he'll return to motogp when there are no more electronics and bikes have 300HP - he will be the last to laugh. the rising kids will still learn to ride in moto2+3 but the PlayStation in MotoGP ruins the riders influence. (to a certain level)

I have always said to racer friends of mine that I am just off pace with... My 1199 has made me a lazy rider. The Panigale is a "point and shoot" bike for me. I am faster on it with less going on in my head at any given time.

My 2005 ZX10r with just as much (actually technically 6 "dyno proven" hp more than my 1199) tried to kill me ALL. THE. TIME. It had only a slipper clutch, no actually electronics at all.

After 2 years of riding on my Duc, I took a spin around the track on my cousins 2005 R6, and nearly looped it in the first highspeed corner when downshifting. I .... my pants a bit on that one as I have yet to be down in 14 years of riding.

I love the new bikes and the technology, but I will say it... Does not make for good riders, just makes for effective riders.

I'm all for technology, but not at the expense of wearing a tampon...

Hopefully this doesn't come across wrong.......

Just turn them off. Almost everyone at the pointy end of club racing has the electronics either off, or on the most minimal settings these days. If you can just whack anything open or closed, then you either aren't going that fast and the electronics are turned up too much. You can still high-side yourself to the moon with just about all of the current generation of electronics. Otherwise Moto GP riders would never crash.

I made it three laps on a demo day on an S1000rr before I came in asking how to turn the traction control down. I've won some novice races, but I have no illusions of taking down the current club champions. Nothing is more hilarious than watching guys on BMW's and ZX-10's on trackdays visibly whacking the throttle open on corner exit, only because their TC is dialed way up and 600's are flying past them for the first 3/4 of the straight.

That said, if someone wants to tool around with electronics dialed up to the max, I see no harm in it. Now if you didn't have the option to turn everything off, I could see an issue here.

shakazulu12 said:

Hopefully this doesn't come across wrong.......

Just turn them off. Almost everyone at the pointy end of club racing has the electronics either off, or on the most minimal settings these days. If you can just whack anything open or closed, then you either aren't going that fast and the electronics are turned up too much. You can still high-side yourself to the moon with just about all of the current generation of electronics. Otherwise Moto GP riders would never crash.

I made it three laps on a demo day on an S1000rr before I came in asking how to turn the traction control down. I've won some novice races, but I have no illusions of taking down the current club champions. Nothing is more hilarious than watching guys on BMW's and ZX-10's on trackdays visibly whacking the throttle open on corner exit, only because their TC is dialed way up and 600's are flying past them for the first 3/4 of the straight.

That said, if someone wants to tool around with electronics dialed up to the max, I see no harm in it. Now if you didn't have the option to turn everything off, I could see an issue here.

Click to expand...

I get your points, but there is something different about riding a bike with no rider aids, versus one with them - regardless of there setting.

Hard to explain.

Xbox said:

I get your points, but there is something different about riding a bike with no rider aids, versus one with them - regardless of there setting.

Hard to explain.

Click to expand...

Hmm, maybe some kind of kill switch under a plastic cover with a skull and crossbones on it? Kills all electronic aids with one switch and adds more baddassery at the same time?

Phl said:

+1


i learned through crashing. yes, avoiding it is better, but your skills will not develop.

cracking wide open without risk is nice, but what will it make you? a ...... rider on all other bikes.

bragging rights go through the roof though!

like casey stoner (a.k.a. F.L.O.A.T. (final laugh of all times)) said - he'll return to motogp when there are no more electronics and bikes have 300HP - he will be the last to laugh. the rising kids will still learn to ride in moto2+3 but the PlayStation in MotoGP ruins the riders influence. (to a certain level)

Click to expand...

Funny thing about Stoner, he said that after he quit racing. I've got an issue of RRW (the one where they were discussing banning TC in BSB) where he says quite the opposite. That TC is needed in Moto GP since the bikes are too fast. Although he felt there should be a limit and they should be simpler and done through a control ECU.

Nearly every used WERA bike I've been looking at to buy as a novice track day ride, has had TC and a quickshifter added to it.

Pretty sure my Panigale can still spit me off pretty quick at the lower settings. Just turn 'em off if you don't like them. Seems like the engine and suspension geometry would need retuned if you want to run with everything off.

As for Casey. Forget him. I don't need him to return to Moto GP to enjoy it. The other racers are getting by just fine. Every race series has rules and technology. The team that works the best within, or stretching them, wins. No point in going back to electronic-less bikes. That's not going to help the hobby or sport. Effective working TC and ABS came from racing, not street cars/bikes. Maybe Casey would like to race vintage or IOMTT.

F1 went to turbo V6's, for just one reason: V8 and V10's are pretty much obsolete in street cars. The auto manufacturers need a race series to test bed and showcase new technology. ERS could be huge for street cars, making hybrids obsolete. Nothing new is learned from stone age 1970's style rulebooks like NASCAR and Top Fuel Drag racing.

There are exactly zero Casey Stoner quality riders on this forum so I'm having a really hard time understanding what his opinion on electronics has to do with any of us. Stoner is a racer so the majority of his seat time is track time. The same cannot be said of the vast majority of the people on this forum so again what does an elite level racer's perspective have to do with the quality of the ride on the street?

Finally, I've never seen a bike where the aids can't be turned off/defeated/disabled somehow. The CBR1000RR has no electronics that I'm aware of. The BMW's electronics are included in options packages you can have removed if you're patient enough to wait on a bike built just for you. What I'm saying is there are options if a natural ride is what you want and yet here we are...

So what is this really about?

It's about ears. Giant ears. And Milk.

Pilots still start with basic flying with simpler planes.
But that does not make them any less skilful once they fly jet liner, surely you know ABS and other electronics are on-board.

Best CROSSWIND LANDINGS - Amazing landings in extreme wind conditions and storms - YouTube

I find the electronics a funny one. the panigale is the only bike I've owned with any electronics, part of the reason I bought it was to try the modern world!

My personal opinion is you learn good control modulation without electronics, once you learn that modulation it's hard not to ride that way...which is why I ride no better on any of the bikes I own, some are just easier. However, if you start your riding with "rider aids" and go back to a bit of a animal without them, that's when .... could go pear shaped if you have no respect.

on a side note on the late model blades, the chassis setup is one of those bikes that feels very easy to ride very fast....but boring as bat ....!!!