Following on from Suzuki's bad luck this weekend I was wondering - in the years to come are we going to see more and more bikes retiring from races? In the past few years reliability for most of the bikes has been excellent and most races go by without a single bike giving up with a technical fault (at the front, anyway). With the 800cc bikes coming up we'll have engines that are a bit of an unknown quantity and more revs which is going to put a lot more strain on things.

I don't want to see MotoGP go down the route of F1 where reliability ends up as big a factor in races as anything else but you've got to say it's bound to get worse rather than better for in the next few years.

I guess riders will just have to make sure that whatever they do they're not on the same model of bike as Sete Gibernau. :doh: ;)

I have to mention here that from right back when the shift to four strokes was mooted, I was against it. At the time I thought we'd end up with crazily complex, expensive and potentially catastrophically unreliable bikes, and racing that would become a procession, with the big budget bikes consistently covering the podium. And that very much seems to be where we're headed.
For all the arguments over the strokers bearing no resemblance to anything available on the street, and the technology of tuning them having become so perfected that there was nowhere left to go in development, that's precisely what made the sport such a spectacle. Any of 10 riders could potentially be on the top of the podium, and you knew it wouldn't be without a damn good fight.
With teams dropping out because of the crazy budget necessary to compete, sponsors apparently becoming less enamoured with the class and riders less able to show their talent because they just don't have the right machine I'm really fearful of where it's going, especially once the 800cc law comes in.
I really hope I'm wrong, but I think in a few years the class will still exist but it'll look more like F1 than real bike racing.

Yep I have to agree that it seems likely to get worse rather than better. :( That said, the 800cc bikes could shake things up a bit and you never know, some of the lower budget teams could have really put everything into the new bikes as far as development is concerned.

I would think that it would be hard to get anywhere near as dull as F1 though, as bikes will always be able to overtake through a gap just a few feet wide and surely couldn't ever have problems like 'dirty air' from excessive aerodynamic junk. I do think though that manufacturers will be looking at just how much cheaper SBK is to run in and that MotoGP could well lose it's crown as the championship for world-class bike racing.

I have to say I've eaten my words on SBK, I thought the Pirelli rule would screw it up when it came to wildcards, and not help the racing much either.
Turns out it was the best thing that happened to the series in a long time. It's almost back like it was in the early days, excellent cut and thrust stuff. I wish Edwards would go back to it!

I wish Edwards would go back to it!

I think if this year isn't an improvement on 2005 there's a fair chance he will. :erm: