Superbike hots up - I for one am staying up to watch!

The new qualifying format for World SuperBike added to an already exciting opening round of the WSB or SBK (what is it called nowadays?) at Philip Island.

Among the casualties of the format was top 4 rider Troy Corser who seemed to time his use of the precious qualifying tyres poorly. That said the new BMW superbike was visibly suffering from the dreaded chatter.

Lots of riders talk about chatter problems, but it's rare to see it so clearly effecting a bike on TV.

Chatter can effect both ends of a bike, but is most usually associated with the front end. When the front end is loaded up into/round a turn the bike's chassis and suspension will vibrate with such force that it overwhelms the damping capabilities of the suspension and therefore start to bounce - obviously making it difficult for the rider to control the bike and push the bike towards the limits of grip needed to go as fast as possible.

It's also said that 'resonant frequency' effects are involved. In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system - in this case the motorcycle rolling chassis including the suspension - to vibrate at maximum amplitude at a given frequency. Like a sweet spot if you like - making the vibration much more violent.

Chatter is not easy to solve. It's not easy to move these resonant sweet spot because there are so any variables involved it's hard to pinpoint where it comes from. Could be the stiffness of the wheels, the carcass of the tyres, the dampers, the stiffness of the chassis, the list is endless.

Let's hope for BMW it will go away tho, as it would be great to see them up at the front.

The other new bike - the Aprilia - looks like a fantastic package already. Biaggi put his on the front row and Nakano was unlucky not to make it into the final 8 qualifying session.

There was one particular clip on the Eurosport coverage of Max riding the final two turns with the bike cranked over and the rear clearly right on the limit of traction, moving sideways to the edge of the track but barely spinning. Really impressive and damn cool.

I can't see Max winning tho, unless he can get away at the front. He'll probably get duffed up a bit in the first few laps which usually leaves too much to do when the race settles down.

Jakub Smrz continued his good form, and is looking impressive as the fastest Ducati.

I wouldn't bet against Johny Rea though. He looks cool, calm, collected and very fast. A big star in the making quite clearly.

Bring it on!