Just thought to start a thread that follows the fortunes of the new 2017 Fireblade - in its first racing season. WSBK - Phillip Island - 25/26 February 2017 Best performance from the weekend : 11. Nicky Hayden - Race 1 15. Stefan Bradl - Race 2 Manufacturers Standing 7. Honda - 6 points - (last place) Not a good start - Nicky Hayden DNF in Race 2. Hardly a mention in the race commentary, and the sponsors probably not happy that they were almost never in front of the cameras ! Come on Honda, sort it out !!
Not bad results considering the little amount of time they have had the bikes! But agree they need to do better The top guys have had their bikes for three seasons now so time will tell if Honda have tweaked the blade enough
I wasn't expecting too much - but I was hoping (expecting) them to have got around 10th. Bradl was shocking - Brookes was quicker than him on a near BSB spec R1 (???!!!??) http://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport...ife-hampers-red-bull-honda-at-phillip-island/
Bradl's got talent otherwise he wouldn't have won the moto 2 title but he seems more at ease on smaller machinery perhaps supersport might be more his style
He's an enigma to be sure. Won the moto2 back in 2011 and then moved up to MotoGP class with Honda and seemed to do well - claimed about 6 or 7th in Championship for about 3 years and then went backwards with Yamaha and Aprillia (the Aprillia was not competitive). Why Honda picked him for WSBK i'm not sure. He may prove me wrong but he doesn't come across as a fighter. Both WSBK riders are a weird choice. I can understand Haydn from a marketing point of view with the US being a BIG market for Honda (and he's not a bad rider) but both Haydn and Bradl arent exactly recent "winners".
Michael van der Mark must be pleased with his move away from Honda to Yamaha - I know it early days, but he is already way ahead of Nicky's Honda.
Looking at it, Michael van der Mark did beat Hayden in the championships. You can throw in a few iffs and butts, like Nicky actually winning a race, and did not finishing in more races. But can't argue about the championship standings in the end.
WSBK - Thailand - 11/12 March 2017 Race 1 9. Nicky Hayden +33.305 10. Stefan Bradl +35.208 Race 2 7. Nicky Hayden +20.543 DNF - Stefan Bradl Race 1 was probably the best indication of where the Honda is at, in relation to its competitors. Because the fastest guys were at the front of the grid, and disappeared off in a clean straight race. Race 2, there was the red flag, and also fallers and technical issues affected the race results. So in a straight race the Fireblade was +33.305 seconds behind the leader. On the plus side it held together mechanically - Michael van der Mark's Yamaha had oil leaking issue in Race 2 and did not make it on to the grid for the restart - so one up for the Honda there . But still, +33.305 seconds behind the leader.
New vid out today - from Honda Racing Continuing to document the new Fireblade's first season of racing....
If the road bike is anything to go by in mcn this week! It needs another 20bhp to be competitive with the other bikes
I haven't seen this weeks MCN yet - doesn't arrive here until Wednesday, usually get it in my lunch hour - so will have a read then - but you are probably right. Just about to have a read of Fast Bikes - article about the GSXR !
^^^ - Thanks for posting this picture of Jason O'Halloran's Fireblade, from opening round of BSB at Donington. Aragon WSBK & British Superbike Donington Park -- 01/02 April 2017 WSBK - Aragon Fireblade on fire !! Stefan Bradl's Fireblade caught fire during Superpole 2 - just a relatively small engine fire, and nothing like the dramatic fire that engulfed Javier Fores' Ducati. Hard to gauge how the bikes are doing, just by watching the live coverage on TV, because the Hondas spend very little time in front of the cameras - so you hardly ever see what they are doing. They hardly get a mention, and you just have to try and gauge what is going on by the numbers, and see if they make up any, or loose any places. Race 1 9. Stefan Bradl +27.488 10. Nicky Hayden +27.663 Race 2 12. Stefan Bradl +25.829 DNF Nicky Hayden 7. Manufacturer's standing (behind MV, Aprilia, and everyone else !) BSB - Donington Sylvian Guintoli crashed his new GSXR in Race 1 - so we could not gauge how well the new Fireblade compared to this new Gixer. Some of the interest was probably lost for Honda fans - and only the occasional mention and fleeting glance on TV. In the second race Guintoli stayed on his GSXR and he came in P7 - which was 5 seconds quicker than Jason O'Halloran on the Honda. So there we have our answer for now - the new GSXR is quicker than the new Fireblade. Race 1 10. Jason O'Halloran +25.395 11. Dan Linfoot +25.736 Race 2 10. Jason O'Halloran +21.291 12. Dan Linfoot +29.277 This is not meant to be a complete analysis of the races - there was a lot else that went on - Josh Brookes returned to the Podium with a second place; Shane Byrne crashed in practice and suffered a concussion; he was not passed fit to race for the whole weekend - so he missed out. Sadly there was a fatal accident in the Ducati Performance TriOptions Cup: “It is with great regret that we have to announce that, following his transfer from the circuit, Mick Whalley succumbed to his injuries while undergoing further treatment at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham.”
The new blade is not moving the goal posts for sure. HRC need to take it on because Ten Kate and Honda racing Louth are trying to promote the lad who gets picked last for the school football team.
Err....none. The racing blades don't use abs. The blame lies fairly and squarely with Honda. They have over stretched themselves with a rubbish new engine for McLaren F1 and a not much better one for the fireblade.
Still uses a Bosch imu sensors, but as you say it's nothing to do with Bosch if the engine is down on power and not competitive
