My darkhorse is everybody on the H&H Team!

Gotta give it up to Villopoto, he spanked everyone. I was pretty disapointed in Stewart.

Ryan is on rails. Full of confidence and healthy. That was a good showing last night.

How about Cole Seely? Silky smooth!

Osaka what happened to you racing supercross?

quote:

Originally posted by Paul 061:
Gotta give it up to Villopoto, he spanked everyone. I was pretty disapointed in Stewart.

Yup...much disappointment with the James show. Twas a couple hundred feet off of 1st turn sweeper all night. Something seemed off with JS.

That's cause james rather be a celebrity not a racer anymore.

I don't know how you could say js7 was off..he was fastest in practice and Won his heat race, I think it got slick and he pumped up like wilson

I think after the start of the main and the top guys were way ahead, that he kinda gave up. Then there was the small battle and he tried but just didn't have it. Heard the the JGR team got their hands slapped for getting a Dunlop factory tire(he is sponsored by Pirelli). Sounds like JS was not happy with the Pirelli tires.

News from a little closer to home. Word from south is that Josh Hill broke leg in the A1 race. Story/rumor is that they x-rayed foot to check but not leg,went out in lcq but every time he dabbed his foot pain got worse so pulled off.
Tech stuff for motoheads. PC has been changing our Ing. Map every other day,also get to try different not as yet sold stuff. Guess paybacks for the clutch nut thing last week?? JR

Did you guys watch the same race I did? RV killed everyone. Heats, practices, whatever, they mean nothing. He lead bell to bell, and finished in a different time zone.

Those dudes are in trouble this year. Period.

Villopoto was spot-on at 2012 A1. I caught an 11:30AM flight from LA to Seattle and landed in time to catch a TV replay of 2012 A1 race. TV angles had it way off. Bike lean was radical in turn one sweeper where, in real-time, it looked like Villopoto was dragging footpegs, and in moist-damp soil. Air temps were 50's and it was the "crisp" kind, felt like NW air. It had a bite to it. Dungey was the hot ticket. The dude was making the new KTM roll. His rear suspension looked top-notch and was hook'n up almost as good as RV's and he had a new "sense" to him, he looked-rode "angry". Watch out for an Orange-Dungey dude in 2012 is my take-away. Tires! These made a HUGE diff. RV's tires hooked up GREAT like "where can I get tires like that" great, Dungey's were good, and Stewart's well he had to run back to the pits in order to get his "best" heat time of the night. Villopoto did same but ran outta time.

RV's on fire, Dungey too. Alessi (the 800 one) was looking much-improved!

2012 looks like another great season and welcome back EUROs and KTM!. I put some time in on those Green Bike things in my time down south...pretty impressive, almost makes me wanna $buy one. Wonder what the Orange thing does?

KW on those prototype tires. I tryed real hard to get a set "NOT FOR SALE" was as far as I got. Watching live I told friend to put money down on RV after watching second practice. JR

quote:

Originally posted by TRA-742:
I don't know how you could say js7 was off..he was fastest in practice and Won his heat race, I think it got slick and he pumped up like wilson

Yeah, JS7 was fastest on one lap of practice. However, if you look at the consistency of his laps they were not even close to that of Villopoto, Dungey, or even Brayton. As most of you saw, he pulled a triple over that camelback and cut a bunch of time. He did it only once, and after that his practice times dropped by nearly two seconds. If one looks at best lap and second best lap times, the other top riders had consistently faster lap times than JS7.

Also, by the end of the night, nearly all riders were doing the same triple that he made up all of his time on (I think I saw a Lites bike piloted by Seely do it, also). I like the guy, but James Stewart does have a lot to prove...and it is extremely competitive this year.

I know I didn't say anything not already known here, but just wanted to weigh in on this conversation.

Cannot wait until tomorrow to watch the next round.

I hear ya JR (MX Family) I do. Word-on-the-street is that those prototype tires melt away in a week-maybe-two and crack-n-breakup. Humm!

I can sum up A1 2012 like this … (1) Pro-Motor-HP is significantly different than Privater HP, (2) Suspenders (forks-n-shock) “clicker” delta-setting-values matter huge. Much more so than Privateers, as in flex in-da-metal-stack (a click-or-two) made a HUGE diff in Villopoto’s rear-end handling in turn #1 2012 A1 race, so much so that he and only he was the “smooth” guy hitting turn #1 triple. Finally third (3) TIRES!...It’s become abundantly clear to me that the tires I $buy off-the-shelf are not the same as those used by factory teams. It's not fair.

“Constraint Management” about sums up tires in my household. I tend to purchase tires that will hookup-n-last-for-a-long-period-of-time and that aint what seems to be going on at the highest levels of SX. Post 2012 A1 event it seems clear to me that the branding war has moved from HP and Suspension to Tires. Weather it’s clear enough to others is of no concern to me, it is clear to me that that is whats happened. Tires are king. If one cannot get the power to the ground then what go is it to have power.

In as much as I’m not going to change, I’ll always have to opt for a long-lasting-hook-up-tire, getting power to the ground is my suspension guys job. Not Mine!. I just wonder what Villopoto has in that Shock body of his by way of metallurgy in his Shim-Stack that had him hooking up so well? I know he's got the tires!

I don't think there is anything magical in the suspension of the factory guys (perhaps Dan knows). What I do think is the key is the time and resources available to tuning and testing. I'm sure the tolerances are tighter and maybe some extra clicker adjustments. I'd bet when Villo is testing he has 10 sets of suspension valved just a bit differently and it can be changed while he is testing. I'd bet they have slow motion video cameras watching everything. In the end though MX is dynamic and always changing. One thing I heard about A1 was that is was no where near what their test tracks were like and so most team were unprepared. The other thing is I think the top factory guys put so much time into the bikes and have so much tutoring from the suspension guys that they are really good at explaining what the bike is doing and what needs changing. They can feel little nuances in the bike during practice, are able to accurately communicate those to the suspension techs and changes get made. The privateers just don't have those resources.

I think that the single most important component, part or program with all teams combined is Aldon Baker. If you seen how gnarly villo was putting power to the ground between jumps you might think that's superior tires, motor, suspension and overall bike package but I think it was superior trained Villopoto on Aldon Bakers 100% program. That might be the single biggest deciding factor of this championship.. We will know tonight.

I spend time with sus guys and most of the riders even at higher levels need tec at practice watching what the bike is doing. I tryed hard to watch bike,but always end up watching rider.
See practice down here with exactly what you talked about,rider at practice with several tec guys and switching forks/shock,ect.
Funny riding with the roof closed,at least so far. JR

I think that should put the "Dungey is not as good as the other top three" and the "KTM is not as good of bike as the others" clan to rest!!! Dungey & KTM! What does 2nd place Wiemer & come from 18th to 3rd place Villopoto have in common besides Kawi...Aldon Baker!

After last night I have to retract my prediction. Villopoto is an animal. He will win. I really like Dungey but he doesn't seem to have the aggression of Villopoto. Stewart is becoming a head case and I don't think his bike is as good as the others. Nascar is carburated pushrod old style motors, perhaps JGR needs a different motor guy.

That's funny Paul.