Number don’t lie……..

[wull]

Or do they????????

Numbers are fact, well top speed figures are fact, what we see with our eyes can be subjective…….bear with me, it will make sense shortly, maybe!

I keep hearing “JR’s bike was underpowered”……..”lacking top speed”………or “not as fast as the rest”……..

Now in comparison to the Ducati and Honda yes, but that doesn’t matter as the only bike that should be of any concern is the Yamaha, and at not one point did I ever see the Yamaha power it’s way by like the Ducati or Honda. I personally feel that people either see what they want to see or have their opinion influenced by what the commentators say, which was constantly “Kawasaki lacking on the straights” and the likes.

Now there is so many variables to take into consideration here, corner exit and drafting. These can affect top speed greatly on the long straights. That in itself can warp someone’s perception of what they’re seeing. Let’s say JR has poor corner exit but someone else has great corner exit then they will carry much more speed onto the long straight, and vice versa.

Then there is drafting, this can cause visible difference in top speed between bikes, but I think it’s safe to say that during a race that the majority of the bikes and riders will have the benefit of drafting, so in theory it should all balance out in relation to the bikes potential.

It’s also safe to say that during a 20 lap race or whatever it may be that any one of the bikes and riders will manage a great exit onto the long straight where they experience top speed, or the highest speed during that race………..

So on that basis I decided to look at all the top speeds reached for every session and race between Toprak and Jonny, hopefully to finally put to rest the pish I keep hearing about JR’s bike being slow. Now I don’t think JR’s bike was slow in comparison to Toprak’s bike, what I believe is they struggled to set the bike up and have it working well at certain circuits. I also believe that because JR had to ride so hard to compete with Toprak it caused new problems to arise with the Kawasaki, problems they couldn’t deal with and essentially issues which caused JR to crash, crash way more than he ever has.

So what I did was take the top speeds from all the sessions and worked out the average, I also took the top speeds from each race and worked out their race average. I’ll put the results down below.

Overall average top speed for the whole season for every session was

JR -293.14. So a difference of 0.28 kph or 0.17 mph
TR -293.42.

Overall average top speed for races was

JR - 292.36. So a difference of 0.77 kph or 0.48 mph
TR - 293.13


So in my opinion that difference is negligible.

So the final conclusion is JR is pish

[weeksy]

It's not all about max speed though is it, it's how and where it makes that speed that influences races. Look at the Yamaha which has struggled (mostly) for a while and the Ducati which has dominated the top speed for years... but Ducati are not champions. Top speed made in the right way can make the race easier, but it can also make things a lot harder too.

[Pgm]

Jeez Toprak is world champion and you still won’t let it go

[KungFooBob]

Did JR jilt your sister at the altar of something?

[wull]

I’ll never let it go

100% agree Weeksy but that doesn’t marry up with people complaining about the rev limits and them being reduced.

What you say boils down to mapping and how well a bike is set up, the rev reduction won’t really affect the low down and midrange pull.

Also, what you say which I agree obviously because I’m a Toprak fanboy clearly but it’s the rider as well as the bike, Toprak this year has been far too good, but his bike was not better in the sense of top speed which so many try to say.

I think I say in the original post that I personally feel that JR hasn’t struggled with top speed, but other areas of the bike with regards to set up.

[wull]

Did JR jilt your sister at the altar of something?

Exactly it

[Pgm]

Torak has been awesome this year, his corner entry and exit on the Yamaha couldn’t be matched.