jwfzr

Pretty uneventful race. I did enjoy watching stoner turn in lap after perfect lap. The Duc did not have a speed advantage and Stoner dominated. Too bad about Hayden running off the track, it looked like he would have easily caught Rossi.

RVFR

Speed advantage? no reason to push his luck, he had it in control. Notice how he settled in going faster and faster, set a new track record he did on the 17 lap. what can you say about Hayden.... Sad season, makes ya wonder whats really going on.

liv4thekill

Turned into 200mph parade laps after lap #3

Tdawg

Slides were pretty cool though, surprised the T/C would allow that.

250's FTW. good job by those dive bombing ktms

tokin

No speed advantage? Stoner's bike was consistently 4-8 km\h faster then the rest, and he was even really pushing it, he said so himself.

GixxerPete

TC isn't quite what you think. It does not allow the rider to simply pin the throttle on corner exit and have zero wheelspin. It could be set up that way, but racers need to be able to spin it up to some degree, and TC still allows that. It just won't spin as much as easily, and also helps a lot towards the end of races when tires are shagged. But if you watch closely, you can still see bikes spinning up, sliding and laying darkies out of corners with TC enabled.

jwfzr

Serious question Pete. Would a slipper clutch be considered traction control?
Do the TC systems they are using allow more controlled spin or do they go about that by creating a really flat torque curve?

GixxerPete

Well I spose one could consider a slipper clutch "traction control" but in the other direction. A slipper clutch keeps the rear wheel from locking up under engine braking, but does nothing to prevent wheelspin under acceleration.

As far as actual traction control, different teams use different methods, retarding timing, adjusting FI ratios, etc to achieve a more controlled spin. You can actually hear the system working at times, it can sound similar to a bike hitting the rev limiter, but more subtle than that.

late apex

I read something a while back that Ducati is using an ultra-fast servo to control the intake butterflies. They have a screamer motor that has numerous peaks and valleys in the power curve but huge top end power. The servo controlled butterflies are so fast that the ECU can change the intake and give the perception of a flat torque curve. A very innovative way to make amazing peak power numbers but still yield a ridable bike.