Honda Production Race Unveiled

[dan]

http://motomatters.com/news/2013/11/...racer_03_.html

Only 0.3s off the Factory bikes (both times with Stoner). 0.17 on the soft compound 'open' tyres. Will be interesting to see if that is actually the case.

I'm pretty excited for these and I hope Hayden has a good season in 2014.

[Mr.Ed]

I find that veeeeeeery unlikely to be true... and if it is, it won't be after 4-5 races 'cause there's no way Honda Factory will allow privateers to beat its riders. It was the case before and I don't see that changing now.

[dan]

Also leaves the satellite teams in a weird place paying 3 times more for a 'factory' bike that isn't as fast as the proper factory efforts anyway.

[Stu23]

yes its the satellite teams that will be in an interesting place !

[Jashdown]

Casey Stoner could ride it fast, but he could also ride a Ducati fast... Just because it's that quick in his hands, doesn't mean it's going to compete against the satellites or factory bikes, still has to have an exceptional rider, and I don't think any of the riders on CRT's at the moment or even on satellites are at the level of Pedrosa, Lorenzo or Marquez...

[Mr.Ed]

Hard to say... Espargaro was consistently putting nearly a 1sec/lap on his teammate, you don't see that happening on any other team in MotoGP. Even on Tech3 where Smith got his ass whooped left right and centre the difference was never that big.

[Baddie]

One sexy Honda....cant wait to see Nicky riding one of these....

[chubb]

Can Nicky come back or is he heading down the Rossi path?

[Negrogrande]

Can Nicky come back or is he heading down the Rossi path?

already there.

really like Nicky, but he only had 2 race wins in 2006 when he won the title 1 the year before and zero since then (2 of those years on the Honda).

he might be able to snare a podium if one of the aliens crash, but other than that 4th will be all he could hope for

[dan]

already there.

really like Nicky, but he only had 2 race wins in 2006 when he won the title 1 the year before and zero since then (2 of those years on the Honda).

he might be able to snare a podium if one of the aliens crash, but other than that 4th will be all he could hope for

Agreed. Wish he went to WSBK.

[Mr.Ed]

I reckon 2006 Nicky won mostly because the Honda was a better bike for most of the championship. If Pedrosa had the speed he has now he would have won it too... Rossi handing Nicky the title when all he needed to do to win it himself was to get 8th place was unbelievable. Just can't see any of that happening again these days...

Don't get me wrong, I like Nicky and wish him all the luck on the Proddy Honda but he was never consistently fast like the top4 riders are/have been... In many ways, I wish Crutchlow had gone that way instead 'cause I think he's way faster than Hayden but will be stuck on the career killing Ducati for 2 years. Even Aleix Espargaro got a better deal by switching to the M1 powered bike, I reckon.