EBR in World Superbike

[Hughlysses]

It will be interesting to see how much of that hot lap was due to Canepa's ability and how much was due to changes to the bike. Obviously a LOT of it HAD to be due to Canepa, but I suspect EBR didn't bring him all the way to the US just to ride the same exact bike they'd been unsuccessful with in WSBK 2014.

I wonder if they've moved onto NOLA today? It sure would be nice to see some photos or other confirmation of their efforts.

BTW- I found a screen cap pic of the original post to Facebook by the Jennings instructor. The original post has apparently been removed from that instructor's Facebook page. Maybe he wasn't supposed to let the cat out of the bag?

[Classax]

I have said all along that Yates and May are astounding riders of incredilble skill and they both really were not handed the bikes they needed to really compete in WSBk and yet manage to pull just with in a hair of scoring points when the bikes finished races, but good as they were they were never at the pace of the aliens at the front and likely were never going to be. Not to mention the fact that they both wound up having to go under the knife in their effort to score points. They litterally gave us their sweat, blood and tears. Hats off to both of them for a true grit performance. The trouble is the guys capable of top 10 pace are simply 2-3.5 seconds a lap faster than they are.

If Canepa can go out and run two seconds a lap faster than May every race that's the difference between finishing 16th through attrition and banging bars for 7th or 8th in just about every round with a superpole appearnece each and every time. Now the top 5 are still 1 to 1 1/2 seconds further up the track which may as well be an eternity but a 2 second a lap improvment would have put the EBR's ahead of ALL the EVO's and into the bottom of the superbikes on a basically stock machine. Its very exciting. Canepa is a guy who knows how to ride V twins and my excitement is to hear his thoughts on the EBR in comaprison to the Ducatis. That will be truly telling.

Jennings is the kind of track the RX was made to run on though. Rough, short, and techical. Its not really a track where being down on power would make any difference. The longer, smoother more sweeping tracks of WSBk have shown the RX's many signature design cues that make it so potent at a place like Jennings are not as relevant as advanatages.

That said I agree with you Scott if Pegram hands him a bike that can survive the entire race, they should be able to score points with realtive ease by virtue of making superpole for better starting positions and better race laps. Go back to any round last year and cut 7 tenths off all of the Yates and May times and you have EBR's in 11 superpoles instead of 1 and scroing points in all but the five rounds, with all three RX's scoring points in the Laguna round. They were that close despite all the technical problems.

Top 10s might be ideal but consistent top 15s should be a lock if all goes as planned if Canepa can deliver and stay healthy. He may even tow Pegram into the points as well.

[Classax]

It will be interesting to see how much of that hot lap was due to Canepa's ability and how much was due to changes to the bike. Obviously a LOT of it HAD to be due to Canepa, but I suspect EBR didn't bring him all the way to the US just to ride the same exact bike they'd been unsuccessful with in WSBK 2014.

The bike they had in WSbk was down on power true but still only about half a second per lap out of 14th in all but 5 rounds. They missed superpole with that bike by less than .7 seconds 11 times and by less than .4 seconds 7 of those 11. So yes the bike is down on power, they do need to come up with a new pad matierial which they seem to have licked in the last two rounds, and they could do with a less green more race freindly porting of the heads and they certainly need to go to TI rods to pick up some reliabilty and 500 or 800 more RPM, but the bike wasn't exactly a total bust either. I actually would have had him ride the exact bike to get his thoughts and then turn him lose on a machine with any improvements.

As for NOLA its getting a ton of rain today and tomorow. No testing I would think there today, Monday looks great weatherwise though.

[Diablo1]

The bike they had in WSbk was down on power true but still only about half a second per lap out of 14th in all but 5 rounds. They missed superpole with that bike by less than .7 seconds 11 times and by less than .4 seconds 7 of those 11. So yes the bike is down on power, they do need to come up with a new pad matierial which they seem to have licked in the last two rounds, and they could do with a less green more race freindly porting of the heads and they certainly need to go to TI rods to pick up some reliabilty and 500 or 800 more RPM, but the bike wasn't exactly a total bust either. I actually would have had him ride the exact bike to get his thoughts and then turn him lose on a machine with any improvements.

As for NOLA its getting a ton of rain today and tomorow. No testing I would think there today, Monday looks great weatherwise though.

WSBK rules don't allow changing rods to titanium if the production bike uses steel. Rods must be similar material and same weight. EBR would need to homologate new production - can they afford to build the new number of bikes required? Were any of the DNFs in 2014 caused by rod failure? In 2015 WSBK, you can change cams, but pistons and valves must remain as production.

[Hughlysses]

Posted to Niccolo's Facebook page this morning:



(Traveling to Disney Orlando) "After 4 days of test, the track record in Jennings and many positive feelings, is Holiday time!"

[Hughlysses]

One more pic...

[Scott]

One more pic...

That's great!

So we've got a hot of the bike - looks like one of Pegram's AMA bikes - but no way to see what brakes they're using.

[Hughlysses]

Ha! I just struck gold- a post-Jennings test interview with Canepa:

http://paologozzi.gazzetta.it/en/201...merica-ebr-ok/

One big highlight- They tested both dual disk and ZTL front brakes; the record was set with dual disks BUT he sees the advantage of the ZTL and they are still working to develop it.

[Scott]

Ha! I just struck gold- a post-Jennings test interview with Canepa:

http://paologozzi.gazzetta.it/en/201...merica-ebr-ok/

One big highlight- They tested both dual disk and ZTL front brakes; the record was set with dual disks BUT he sees the advantage of the ZTL and they are still working to develop it.

Nice! I hope they give both set-ups a real try and go with what works best. From my reading of the 2015 rules, I believe they're allowed to use a dual-disk set-up without first adding them to the street bike. I just hope Erik doesn't let his pride get in the way. What works works. The goal has to be winning above all else, and if 3 years from now EBR's are fitted with dual disks and winning races, oh well.

If the ZTL was a big selling point, I'd be a little more reluctant to change, but at this moment, it seems like any advantage the rim-brake might offer in performance is offset by a general perception by consumers that it doesn't work. If there were absolutely no difference between the two set-ups, I'd be going with a dual set-up just because of the marketing advantage. If the dual-disk system really works better, then it's a no-brainer.

[Scott]

Roadracing World Article: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/...and-louisiana/