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!

Smrz takes WSB pole in QP1

My Czech is not that great, but I understand the Czech for "where did he come from" is something like "Odkud přišel"

But that might be Russian...

The performance from Smrz to top the time sheets is outstanding, and what is more exciting, it's often the case in racing that those guys who go fast straight out of the box are those who keep going fast.

Meaning Nakano's performance on the new Aprilia is also great news for the series. If Shinya has finally got over OJ out dragging him to the line he'll be right up there.

But with only 1 second covering the top 14 riders combined with the nature of production based Superbikes - the racing is going to be Superclose and only those who can scrap as well as go fast are gunna win.

So that rules out Biaggi then.

Green light for green bikes - Kawasaki is go

Kawasaki has officially announced that they will be racing in 2009.

I picked the news from BikeSport news - it must have been lunchtime at the other place.

A one rider team will take to the grid using Dorna money.

Marco Melandri is confirmed as the rider.

No news about Hopper - shame.

But this isn't particularily good news. Whilst Dorna will doubtless claim this as a victory it is really nothing more than (as Kropotkin says) flogging a dead horse.

Eurosport coverage confirmed

BREAKING NEWS!

After much speculation surrounding Eurosports MotoGP coverage, it will now be confirmed to the press tomorrow that Dorna has reversed it's decision to stop the MotoGP coverage on Eurosport for 2009.

The news of the confirmation was leaked by a jubilant but anonymous source close to the negotiations a few minutes ago.

This will be a popular move with fans, many of whom complained bitterly about being forced to watch MotoGP on the BBC and not having the more in depth coverage that Eurosport has so far provided.

It is expected that Eurosport will broadcast all the practice and qualifying sessions live, and the 125 and 250cc races live. The only compromise is a delayed broadcast of the MotoGP race to honour Dorna's exclusive agreement with the BBC.

Honda to launch superbikes in India

Honda will launch it's two flagship SuperBikes in India later this month, as the local market prepares for more interest in leisure motorcycling.

The Indian motorcycle market is huge - second only in size to China, and Honda's launch is hot on the heals of major pushes by both Yamaha and Suzuki.

With India being the celeb culture to end all celeb cutures, and the motorcycle being the mode of transport for much of the population, surely it is only a matter of time before India becomes a major market for motorcycle racing.

If only we had some clever people in charge.

More on Edwards and Toseland

I've just caught up with the interview by Dean Adams of SuperBikePlant with Colin Edwards - where he elaborates quite frankly on the Toseland fall out.

It's does seem that JT has bought some Bull**** and may well suffer as a result.

Edwards explains the goings on behind the scenes over the crew chief swap quite frankly, and amusingly explains his nickname for Toseland:

"I call James the Wonder Boy. That's just kind of a nickname I gave him, because obviously, I don't know why, but I think it's Wonder Boy as in "I wonder what the hell I'm doing over here?" [Laughing]"

It's a great interview. Read it.

Gábor Talmácsi loses all but one of his sponsors for 09

Former 125cc champ Gabor Talmacsi could be in trouble for the 2009 season after all but one of his personal sponsors has pulled the plug on his backing.

I'm sure Gabor will still be racing in 2009, but it will doubless effect his performance if money is a big worry off track, and the team have to struggle to make ends meet in the garage.