Riders? Who needs them?
 

I've just watched the Indy MotoGP on I player and following on from a conversation I had a week back, Whats the point of the riders any more?

Looking at the black stripes left in (some of) the corners, they are all the same length. The traction control is giving the exact result each lap on the same corner.

Not only that, the bikes are now programmed to give a certain amount of power for individual corners.

So, combined with the ABS, electronic suspension control, Anti Wheelie and anti spin, with the simple addition of a counter steering device, the bike could travel around the track completely riderless. Just plug in the telemetry data from the practice sessions and off it would go.

Give it a quick shove out of the pit lane and it could quite happily make its way round for 30 laps and it would save the team 20 million for the riders.

That way they could spend more on electronics and the bikes would be lighter so the lap times would come down!

I bet you could get a bike with no rider to come in the top ten now.

Sad really!.

C

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

you have really thought about this havent you?

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

Rossi had a rant yesterday about this....which means it will probably get sorted sooner rather than later! :)

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

now that would be a science/engineering degree minter, imagine if you beat the lap record with the resulting final outcome

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

a rant about not being needed? wow there going to get rid of Rossi that might make the racing less interesting :D

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

Very valid point but they don't have ABS!!!

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

So a little like that track-training BMW 3 series they had on top gear, I guess...

For me, theres still a lot that the rider does to get it round a track, so you couldn't do it just yet... perhaps the aim of Hondas Asimo is to replace the riders in a few years time ;)

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

This may be one of the reasons the Moto2 races are starting to be more fun to watch.....
On a serious note you do have to appreciate that this is a cutting edge class and lots of the clever developments you see here find their way onto production bikes, eg: traction control for example. This does have a direct benefit for us as it helps a mere mortal use the power the bikes can now provide...... but eventually, much like F1, I suspect it will go full circle and we will end up with a back to basics class.

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

What will ABS help when you're leaned over at 50 degrees plus?

Re: Riders? Who needs them?
 

I don't think this is fair.

If you pagger the throttle on a 1000cc bike, it should f***ing terrify you! It's why you buy a thou in the first place!