Launch control!

[chunder]

Did anyone else watch the practice session form Jerez today! Was pretyt good but the best bit was at the end!
Vale had set pole time and was doing a practice start! Randy was telling everyomne to watch his hand ont eh clutch as you were in front of the bike watching, Vale held the clutch in and then just yanked the throttle back to wide open! He actually wound it right back to the stop and the electronics did everything!

Randy'd comment was summat like "can you imagine being the first guy to actually test that! hell you must have had 8 weetabix for brekkkie!"

Cant say i actually think its a good thing as getting good starts is a skill really, ask Barros or Chris Walker or Ron Haslam in the old push start days, the amount of times Rocket Ron led into the first corner was amazing!

[Schummy]

It's a pity more and more driver's skills are removed by technology in motorsport. It seems a general trend in all high profile sports (even chess is partially ruined by computers!).

The way to go is Minardi. They certainly didn't help their drivers!

[asha]

Was launch control banned in f1? I think it should be in motogp, everyone that rides a motorcycle knows that clutch control off the line is a whole art in itself.

[djb]

saw a spanish version of the 1st gp (sort of understood if, enough anyway) and am pretty certain they didn't mention launch control but they did mention TC.

Excuse the ignorance, but how long has TC been around, I haven't been able to see motogp for a few years and so am behind the news.

in any case, especially with bikes, I am really against this sort of thing, cuz its clutch control and right wrist control that makes these riders so impressive for me, backing them in and spinning em up in drifts on the way out.

[Hazza]

The commonly held belief is that they didn't focus much on the electronics untill two or three years after the 990c rules.

Supposidly they slid the bikes more in 2002 but they've massively done up the TC and things so that they can ride them differently nowadays as the electronics kick in. Even saying that they still can't fang the guys out of them without getting chucked off.

In short: I don't know

[djb]

thanks Hazza, (a bit late, but thanks the same) I was able to watch the ch10 Aussie coverage of the Qatar race and there was definately no mention of it at the start. I imagine its inevitable that it will become more of a factor (tho like you said, you get a bit too right writst happy at the wrong moment and wingo, off you go mate.) You can see how electronics will change the style of riding to an extent, with perhaps easier 'hanging out" for more people as some of the wheelspin could be easier to manage, but I imagine (with no real experience of course) that too much controlling could be slower than without, although most likely there is a lot of trying this and trying that going on, also depending on the individual rider and what they are more comfortable with.

I for instance have never ridden a bike with anti-lock brakes, although i gather this is more common nowadays, and so my old instincts of feeling for a lockup and modulating would be old-hat and slow compared to someone used to being able to more ham-fisted with mucking about with either end braking.

ps, as per your little clip of the flying bike in the crash sequence, I once made a very stupid move on the street, highway actually, weaving around construction cones, only to come upon a deep cut out section of the highway, maybe 2 feet deep. I knew I couldn't swerve in time or stop so I braked as hard as I could and then prepared myself to go off the bike in a controlled fashion. At the last millisecond, got off the brakes (to give the forks a chance) and did my preplanned superman fly impression, I always remember landing and sliding and hearing my bike do its presumed endo up into the air, waiting for it to crash down and hoping to hell as hard as i could that it wouldn't land on me! It didn't-and boy was I grateful!!!

your clip makes me remember that (man was I a doofus)

cheers