MotoGP vs. Superbikes

''Like comparing Formula 1 to touring cars, no one realise the massive step it is up to MotoGP*''
- Cal Crutchlow (*paraphrased)

The way Cal described it in the interview made it sound a lot bigger than I thought it was.

Well Cal might say that, and it may feel like that for the racers, but their lap times are damn close. There are even cases where Superbike laptimes have been on par with MotoGP. I don't think that will ever happen between touring cars and F1....

Yer probably was Cal being a tad over-the-top hey. Lap-time difference was around 2 seconds at Misano and Phillip Island (comparing WSBK 2012 to MotoGP 2011).

Having said that though, Moto2 are only 2 & 3 seconds off WSBK on those two tracks respectively too.

Indeed, and I remember when the 250 had similar lap time to the MotoGP bikes at Sachsenring. I believe the top 250 would have qualified mid-pack of the MotoGP one year.

As much as I love the MotoGP prototypes, I do believe the WSBK and something like the Moto2 is the way to go to reduce costs and make it more popular.

I suppose the good thing now though is we get twice the action since we have MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3, WSBK, WSS and Superstock. Throw in the amazing BSB and there is good bike racing almost every weekend!!

MotoGP bike's are severely limited on a fuel for one. The other point I'm curious about, is has anyone looked at total race time or distance for the two classes?

H8R wrote:MotoGP bike's are severely limited on a fuel for one. The other point I'm curious about, is has anyone looked at total race time or distance for the two classes?

Must admit no didn't consider those aspects. Now that I have a spare few minutes I'll see what I can find.

Phillip Island
MotoGP, 42'02 mins, 27 laps (171.4 km/hr)
Moto2, 39'44 mins, 25 laps (167.9 km/hr)
WSBK, 34'20 mins, 22 laps (170.8 km/hr) (average of race 1 and 2)

Misano
MotoGP, 44'11 mins, 28 laps (160.6 km/hr)
Moto2, 43'08 mins, 26 laps (152.8 km/hr)
WSBK, 39'00 mins, 24 laps (156.0 km/hr) (average of race 1 and 2)


Two different circuit layouts. But can't take into account conditions unfortunately (for instance the Island in March is very different to October!).

PLAYLIFE wrote:Two different circuit layouts. But can't take into account conditions unfortunately (for instance the Island in March is very different to October!).

Yeah, the Island can be very different between Sunday at noon and Sunday 3PM!

Still, from a spectator point of view, you can't really tell the difference in speed between a superbike and a MotoGP, but you can tell the difference between the action on track...

Henrik wrote:

PLAYLIFE wrote:Two different circuit layouts. But can't take into account conditions unfortunately (for instance the Island in March is very different to October!).

Yeah, the Island can be very different between Sunday at noon and Sunday 3PM!

Still, from a spectator point of view, you can't really tell the difference in speed between a superbike and a MotoGP, but you can tell the difference between the action on track...

Yeh that's true. I was down at the Island last week and it was effing freezing!! We were getting the southerly Antarctic winds, bloody hell the wind chill factor must have been -20°C lol. For a local Melbournian, we don't see any winter temperature lower than ~8°C during the day let alone breaking 0° at night so it was a bit of a shell shock for us!