beansbaxter
Needs a life
Posts: 5911
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posted January 24, 2006 11:44 PM
Mladin's words
pretty good article!
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2006/Jan/060122a.htm
A Moment With Mat: My Shiny Round Black Ones Are Better Than Yours
by mat mladin
Sunday, January 22, 2006
As most readers know I have just completed a testing schedule at two of Australia's premier racing facilities, Phillip Island and Eastern Creek.
The testing went very well and we completed everything we set out to do. There were a number of items to test and Dunlop stacked up the tires to boot.
Eastern Creek is one of my favorite race tracks anywhere. It probably has more to do with the fact that I always had good results there and the track seemed to suit my style of riding. We got two out of the scheduled three days in at Eastern Creek. Some unusual January weather rolled into the area and the last day was too damp to do anything serious.
I have to admit I am surprised how Troy handled his comments with the media. For a World Champion to have to belittle someone else's efforts is not the way to go and very surprising. I did not expect for Troy to be so uptight about not being the fastest at the test. His post test comments about me sticking in a qualifying tire to go fast showed that he placed a high importance on being faster than us at the test. It will take a lot more worrying about his own performance to beat Troy Bayliss this year.
Phillip Island, on the other hand, I always believed was better for a summer holiday than it was for racing. My results in the early to mid 90's were mixed at best around the Island. I think time has helped in the 'sorting things out' department. My first few laps of the circuit were interesting and having a look at the data after those laps was even more interesting. I believe I have certain things in my riding that are my strengths and Phillip Island certainly doesn't lend itself to my strengths. Actually that doesn't sound quite right, as my third lap of the test was only just over two seconds slower than I went for the rest of the four days. I got up to speed reasonably quick, but a look at the data showed up some interesting things that we are not used to seeing in the States.
The wind plays a big part in the overall setup of the bike at Phillip Island.
The first day wasn't bad, shame I spent most of it on my back in hospital cleaning out a hole in my elbow and getting a bunch of stitches in there to close the mess from a 150mph crash, after which, I can say I now have crashed at all of Phillip Islands fastest corners.
The second day was OK in the morning and windy in the afternoon, shame again, as the crash left me as stiff as a Daytona race tire.
On the third day the wind stayed away for the whole day. People started to lay down some quicker times as the temperature quickly started moving north. Around 2 pm the track temperature hit 50C, rising just slightly more to 52C or 125F later in the afternoon. When track temps get this high it is a great time to go and test tires for durability, but terrible to try and match your 25C track temperature lap time.
The fourth day we awoke to very strong winds blowing in completely the opposite direction to the earlier days. I have only done one day at Phillip Island in the past 10 years prior to this test and I forgot how much the track changes when the wind blows from the opposite direction. Phillip Island circuit sits directly on the Southern coast of Australia and cops all the wind that Bass Strait can offer. I have ridden at a few tracks around the world and obviously in the States and there is not one that changes so dramatically when the wind comes up.
There were obviously many people eager to see the match up between the World Superbike Champ and the AMA Champ. I was asked a lot of questions that led down this track in the lead up to the test.
As I said before the test and after it, the lap times are a gauge of nothing when comparing the two of us. The fact that I ended up quicker, for me, personally means that I have learned to deal with Phillip Island much better than I used to.
Troy Corser has won many races at the Island on a World stage and the fact that I was right there made me realize that I am a much more complete racer than I was ten years ago, or for that matter, I would say three years ago. It presented its problems whilst I was there and I was happy that I was far better equipped to handle it than I was 10 years ago.
I have to admit I am surprised how Troy handled his comments with the media. (Corser told reporters that Mladin's fast time at Phillip Island came on a qualifying tire-Ed) For a World Champion to have to belittle someone else's efforts is not the way to go and very surprising. I did not expect for Troy to be so uptight about not being the fastest at the test. His post test comments about me sticking in a qualifying tire to go fast showed that he placed a high importance on being faster than us at the test. It will take a lot more worrying about his own performance to beat Troy Bayliss this year.
It must have slipped his mind that we don't use Q's in AMA Superbike and I am against them in general. They are a necessity when there are more than two tire players in the class and it is the reason they are used in the Superstock class in AMA and not Superbike. They are a waste of set-up time for the real show on Sunday. The fact that I did about ten laps in the 32's must also mean I used 10 qualifying tires?
The reports from one of the WSB regulars and Troy's comments about me using Q's seems to show that they are a bit touchy about an outsider going quicker than some of their boys.
WSB are allowed to do what they please with the cams and gearbox in their machines. The AMA are allowed only duration to be changed on the cams with cam lift to remain standard and either standard or one other specified gearbox. For the test we ran the same ratio gearbox that anyone gets in the 2005 GSXR 1000 street bike. Most other stuff would interchange directly from bike to bike. The speed differential between our bike and the Alstare Superbike at Phillip Island was around 10kmh quicker on average in favor of them.
I also had an interesting conversation with a lady from the Flammini Group (Flammini run WSB). On Thursday morning a lot of press arrived as there was a press conference scheduled for lunch time. I got to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in a long time. This particular lady I have seen at Laguna and is high up in the Flammini group I believe, her exact role I am not sure of. I have spoken to her before on occasion.
She approached me about a few things to do with a venue in the United States that maybe they will run a WSB race in the future. My crew chief obviously knows this lady very well also as Pete spent a lot of time in Europe up until the mid 90's. Pete entered the conversation and then the whole line of questioning completely changed. He was asked when is he going to bring me to the WSB series. She continued down the path with "You don't need anymore money, so you should come to WSB". "You have many AMA titles but you will never be a World Champion". You see it was at this point that I realized how many people get caught up in their own self importance.
For all the people that cherish their kids you will understand what I mean when I say things get put into perspective when you have the little buggers and they look into your eyes and without words make you know that all they expect is to be taken care of. When they fall off the bicycle for the first time and just want re-assurance that they will be okay. For the people that don't have kids, I wish for you to experience it one day.
I would have enjoyed the chance to have gone back to GP (not WSB) 5 years ago to give it a shot, but the right opportunity wasn't there. I have had a saying that I repeat to myself frequently these days and have done so for the past few years. "If there is a judge when my time is up, I certainly hope I am not judged by the way I could ride a motorbike and if I am, then I want out". I couldn't care less about what Rossi or Corser do. I will always support the sport, but at this stage in my life, my future interests lay far away from the race track, but that is for another time.
I am 34 years old on March 10 and am completely comfortable with the fact that my shot at being MotoGP World Champ is over. I am also glad that some of the old boys of GP racing are being shipped out for younger guys. The fact that Hopkins and Vermeulen are riding for Suzuki, to me, is exciting and right! Two young guys to push each other, in turn pushing the development of their motorcycle further. Whether or not I think I could beat them if riding that bike is a moot point. I am too old for the development of the class.
Rossi is the latest in a long list of stars of the GP series but he is not bigger than the sport. It will survive and prosper when he is gone, especially seeing that the manufacturers have finally realized that the young guns are what they need. There is not one old guy on that grid that can beat Rossi, so why not give the young guys a chance?
I hope it is not far away when I see the Suzuki GP program rivaling the others week in and week out. I think it is right that Nicky Hayden and Marco Melandri now have the pressure on their shoulders to fly the banner for their sponsors. I think it is right that young Casey Stoner is in the GP field.
GP in 2006 will be fun to watch, because I won't have to sit there and watch the old boys do their normal and put in a couple of good results but basically stink it up for most of the year only to have the big money at the end of the year to buy some more time in GP.
I will be sitting on the edge of my seat when one of the young guys is being pressured by the doctor near the end of the race and waiting for the young guy to make a mistake and let the doc through only to turn to Marty or my wife or whoever is watching with me and say "The boy did a great job and would have learnt heaps from that race". Not "Typical".
Now to the shiny round black ones. As most avid readers will know, Michelin and Bridgestone make up the majority of the GP grid. Dunlop have a few riders but none of the top established guys. For many years I have found this a little weird as I have used Dunlop tires for a lot of my road racing career and at times tested on the same track as some of the GP bikes including some of the top ones and found the lap times to be not that far apart between us on a Superbike with Dunlops and them on GP bikes with Michelins and Bridgestones.
I have found myself talking to my crew about the fact that it would be nice to see Rossi on Dunlops as I believe the result would be similar. Of course, many people would argue this and whilst compiling my beliefs I have had to do something I don't like to do and that is compare class against class.
It was just that at Phillip Island this past few days, something happened that made my beliefs seem at least true to me and the Dunlop technicians at the track looking after us. As I said earlier in this piece it took to the third day for me to get it together after the crash etc but when I did we entered territory that Dunlop haven't been before. At around lunch time when we finished testing a block of tires, I was getting changed when Pete mentioned that with the same tire that Rolfo used at the GP three months ago we went about 1.5 seconds quicker than him. On the same run we were 1 second better than his qualifying time where he used a qualifying tire.
I was a little stunned, so I did some investigating into the lap times from the GP. At the GP just a few months ago the conditions were not that far removed from Thursday morning or the third day of the test where most people laid down their best times.
Conditions for the GP race were, Air temp 16C (61F), Track temp 27C (80F) and not much wind.
Conditions for the third morning of our test, Air temp 23C (73F), Track temp 32C (90F) and not much wind.
Both of these days are ideal for lap times, so let's call the conditions comparable. Jerry Burgess will be onto me soon saying no way are they comparable, but I will have to deal with that. Let's say they are comparable for the big diesels which a lot of GP folk call Superbikes.
The fastest Dunlop race tire at our test produced a best time of 1:32.2 on a Superbike.
The fastest time of the GP race was a 1:30.3.
The average time for the race winner was 1:31.3. It is actually 1:31.43 but I took out 4 seconds for the standing start so it dropped approximately 0.15 seconds a lap overall.
The fastest Dunlop tire time was a 1:33.8
The average Dunlop tire time was 1:34.6, adjusted for standing start.
Now, if there is anyone that wants to tell me that if I put those Dunlops on Rossi's bike and he couldn't lap at least 1.5 seconds quicker than my Superbike time I would tell them they are crazy. With Rossi and his crew, Dunlop would be winning MotoGP races in no time. The last time a great rider rode on Dunlops in GP was Wayne Rainey, and he won.
Not to mention the improvement we would see in the tires because of good feedback. It is very difficult to improve anything 3.5 seconds off the pace. I do realize that the Ducati Rolfo was riding was not Rossi's Yamaha but it certainly must be faster than my Superbike in outright lap time.
The top speed of the bikes were 317kmh (198mph) for the Duc' and 305kmh (190 mph) for mine. Take into account the acceleration of a prototype 1000cc engine where almost anything goes coupled with a weight limit that is 25kg or 55lbs less in weight.
Maybe Rossi's next test for himself if he cleans up another championship in 2006 will be to switch to Dunlops. Funny thing is, if he did and won, everybody would be complaining about the Dunlop's are just too good.
It is an interesting argument and, as I said earlier, comparisons are very hard to do between two different classes on 2 different weekends, three months apart, but the conditions were close enough to get a general idea of what the Dunlops on my bike would be capable of doing in the hands of Rossi and his crew.
Maybe someone can convince the Doc to take five to read this column and maybe, just maybe, he will be up for the challenge.
Ride smart and stay safe.
Cheers
Mat
ENDS
   
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harryzx-12
Needs a job
Posts: 3643
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posted January 30, 2006 02:10 AM
Mladin tested on diferent tires. If the other bikes would have been on the same spec tires they would have been faster acording to MCN over here in england.
I'd like to see him in motogp, so i could watch him get his ass handed to him. He does have talent but i don't like an egotistical cocksucker like Mladin'
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways- Body thoroughly used up, totally worn out...Screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride !!!"
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