MotoGP rider Vinales critical of Supersport 300 class after latest death

[wull]

From what I can gather the SSP300 are pretty much the same power as they are from factory, reading the handbook there is very little allowed to be modified so whatever these bikes produce from the showroom is pretty much what they are on track.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Kids need to be riding racing bikes. Not lardy slow road learner bikes.

I thought you enjoyed racing LCs

[Yorick]

Kids need to be riding racing bikes. Not lardy slow road learner bikes.

I thought you enjoyed racing LCs

Yeah. Was a hobby.

But to get to the top you need to be on racing bikes

[crust]

Is it the bikes or the nature of the sport? Or even the very activity itself.

Riders dying by being hit by following riders is common across all classes, Maverick is upset because his cousin died but looking across the classes it's not just SS300 by any means. Changing the SS300 bikes won't stop it, look at Moto3.

I don't know the solution because as spectators we all like close racing and there's that stupid stock car racing phrase (I hate it, as it's bullshit, especially for bike racing) - "rubbings racing" which gets trotted out when the favourite boshes the bad guy. It's the nature of bike racing off all types, put a group of bikes on a circuit, somebody's going to fall off and there's a good chance if there's somebody following they'll hit them.

Does motorcycle racing become a time trial on circuits? Or do we as spectators or the competitors accept it as part and parcel of the sport?

[wull]

It’s a tough one, like I said before I feel that when you have a group of say 3 riders battling at the front, like you get sometimes in WSBK then that’s great, even when there’s slightly more it all seems organised in a sense, you can have them battling but you feel like it’s safe, and when they’re on the start finish it’s perfectly safe.

The 300’s on the other hand I can only describe it as madness, there is that many of them diving here there everywhere, it’s just unorganised chaos that gives me the fear, I don’t really like to watch it, especially on the start finish, that’s when they’re more dangerous imho the way they slipstream then dive across, the amount of times there has been contact on the start finish beggars belief.

[mangocrazy]

You've got a combination of young, inexperienced, adrenalin fuelled kids and dog slow, heavy road bikes that are pretty much identical in performance, so the kids will try absolutely anything to get the slightest advantage. And because the bikes are so slow, heavy and similar in performance the only way to make a difference is by kamikaze riding. And when the inevitable happens, there's a pack of slow, heavy road bikes just waiting to plough into the poor faller.

And as Mav says, they don't really learn about racing on these bikes simply because they are so far removed from 'proper' race bikes.

[Horse]

Riders dying by being hit by following riders is common across all classes,

Have these fatalities happened during fairing bashing groups crashes, or as a result of do-or-die overtaking (due to minimal differences between machines), or are they where a 'separate' bike hits a prone rider?*

* As happened in the crash that resulted in the court case reported recently?