Neil Spalding's MotoGP Technology is a dense read. I got it in September and I'm still only two thirds of the way through. I read a bit, then chase down details so I make sure I've got the concepts understood. This approach isn't very efficient, but it is thorough, and I've got bugger all else to do motorcycle wise over this long, cold, Canadian winter. I've been an avid watcher of MotoGP for seven years now, including riding down to the last Indianapolis MotoGP race in 2015, but this book has made me literate in the mechanics of Grand Prix bike racing in a way that I never was before. I've also spent a fair amount of time coming to terms with motorcycle dynamics and especially how these bizarre machines move around corners. From watching Keith Code and reading Twist of the Wrist 2, I've tried to understand the inputs I need to make to control a bike effectively. Spalding speaks with great intensity about how the technical side of MotoGP serves that sense of feel when building a prototype for a specific rider. After all the team histories that kick off the book, Spalding goes after the various technical tricks that make a GP bike move like a jet plane, at least in the hands of the maestros. The chapter I just read was on reverse rotating crankshafts, which led to a look at the complex gyroscopic effects happening on these extreme machines. Spalding suggested looking up Eric Laithwaite and gyroscopic procession, which led me to this:
As Professor Laithwaite describes it, the spinning weight already has a path it wants to follow, he simple lets it follow it. In doing so, what was suddenly a difficult to lift weight becomes effortless. There are a lot of gyroscopic forces happening on a motorcycle in motion, especially at MotoGP speeds, and Spalding focuses on this in the later chapters of the book. Curiously, considering it's 2020 and we have computer technology that can accurately model complex physics, it's apparent in the book that the physics happening on a motorcycle in extreme conditions are more a matter of educated conjecture than known fact. Our best guesses are still what drives our understanding of the complexities of motorcycle dynamics, which is an incredible thing to realize. How many people can say their favourite sport isn't fully understood by science? Neil Spalding's MotoGP Technology is super current (it just got updated in the summer), written by an expert with decades of experience and insider knowledge, and delves deep not only into recent MotoGP technical history, but also into the physics that this technology is up against. If you're interested in taking your understanding of one of the most extreme sports on earth to the next level, MotoGP Technology will help you get there.
With mysterious physics happening underneath them, what do MotoGP riders do? They drift 250+ horsepower prototype racing machines... with their elbows AND knees on the deck! MotoGP Technology will take you a step closer to wrapping your head around this genius, and the technology that enables it.
I just finished watching the F1 parade in Monte Carlo. Watching the massive, modern F1 cars (so wide they practically fill the road) following each other through the streets of Monte Carlo reminded me why I've been watching MotoGP instead. It's not uncommon to see multiple lead changes on a single lap in MotoGP, and dozens of mid-field overtakings during a race. It's uncommon to see any lead changes in an F1 race and a driver climbing through the field has become a rarity. At Monte Carlo this morning the only overtaking was political. I started watching F1 during Michael Schumacher's rookie year and followed him all the way through his career. My favourite race of his was '94 in Spain where he managed second place while stuck in one gear. Spain a couple of years later was a master class in keeping an F1 car on the pavement in torrential rain. While the engineering is interesting in F1 it's not why I watched it regularly for over two decades, it was because of the brilliance of the drivers. I'm now into my second season of watching Motogp. The first race I watched had a resurgent 34(!) year old Valentino Rossi chasing the astonishing Marc Marquez (beginning a record breaking run of wins) to a one two finish with multiple lead changes in a single lap.
It's hard to see just how much a MotoGP racer works their tires.
Slow motion is the way to go if you want to see just how much
they drift on a single wheel.
In one of the early races an announcer mentioned how in Formula One the car is the majority of the equation whereas in Motogp the rider is the key component. From that moment on I made an effort to understand the complexities of riding a race bike. Motosports that are decided by operator skill over engineering prowess (and budget) are what I'm into. Schumi got that second place in Spain driving a second tier car. When he started winning championships with a massive budget I was less interested. Watching the parade around Monte Carlo reminded me of why I enjoy the bikes more. With the rider such a big part of the equation, you'll see human excellence much more clearly on two wheels than you will with four. There is much less between a rider and the road than there is between a driver and the road. While one is wrestling with their machine the other is setting suspension settings and adjusting engine maps. With the Isle of Man TT coming up I'll also be able to see bikes battling on public roads just as the F1 cars didn't do on the streets of Monte Carlo. You see a lot of precision in Monte Carlo but you don't see the breath taking bravery that you'll see in the TT. If you've never watched one before, give it a go. This has me thinking about vehicle dynamics and the differences between motorcycles and cars... fodder for my next post...
Those people paid to watch very highly paid drivers parade around lap after lap and throw fits if anyone upsets the tedium.
I just watched the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix. I used to be a huge Schumie fan and watched F1 religiously, but I've wandered away since I starting two wheeling. It was an historic race with Max Verstappen being the first Dutch driver and youngest ever driver to win a GP race, but it was tedious. Sky Sports' announcers tried to rev it up with one of the few attempted passes, which was then followed up by Sebastien Vettel complaining about an attempted pass. Daniel Ricardo, the driver who attempted the pass said after the race, "I know no one tries to pass any more in Formula One, but I did, and it didn't work."
When you're working the air around a car that hard,you make a lot of turbulence, which makes it hard to pass. If you clip another car with wings on it like this, you've probably just done a million dollars in carbon fibre damage. No wonder they all drive around worried at being passed.
Having not seen an grand prix in a few years, I was surprised at how complex the wings have become. The new normal isn't a front chin wing and a rear spoiler, it's layers upon layers of carbon fibre. Thanks to complex 3d modelling the wings now consider wind flowing over them in all dimensions, so the wings have become these origami type pieces of industrial art. You can only imagine what it costs when one gets clipped by a wheel. The upside of all this aerodynamic black magic are cars that can corner like they're on rails because they have tons of carefully managed air pushing them into the pavement. The downside is all that down-force creates huge turbulence, making passing next to impossible. MotoGP doesn't produce passing stats, but based on any criteria I can imagine passing is orders of magnitude greater in MotoGP.
MotoGP has played with aerodynamics before, but because motorcycles change their angle of attack (they lean) when they corner, it isn't a relatively static shape that is always facing the oncoming wind blast. As a result the benefits of consistent down-force while cornering aren't there for motorbike wings, but that isn't stopping MotoGP from pushing deep into it this season.
The vestigial wings on MotoGP bikes don't do much to glue the bike to the ground in corners (the main purpose of F1 wings), but they do provide some stability while under acceleration (keeping the front wheel from rising). Turning a wing sideways makes it fairly useless, so acceleration is the only place it's facing the wind properly. Even with these modest wings, riders are complaining that the amount of turbulence coming off machines has increased, making passing more difficult. Between that and worries about wings clipping people in an off, there are obvious dynamic concerns around winglets. Another problem with aerodynamics is that they're incredibly expensive. You can only go so far with computer simulations before you wind up in a wind tunnel testing your designs, and wind tunnels aren't cheap. Developing aerodynamics mean many models and constant refinement. That the end results aren't that significant begs the question: why do it? What I'd like to see is MotoGP ban wings. The aerodynamic costs limit other manufacturers from considering entering the fray. A strong multi-manufacturer competition is a big part of MotoGP's success. That they create turbulence that makes following bikes unstable at speed and reduce chances of passing is another strike against them. The aesthetic argument that they turn the simplistically elegant racing motorbike into a warty toad also rings true; winglets aren't pretty. I love the high tech nature of Formula1, but aerodynamics have made the cars fantastically expensive with no real benefit beyond the race track. Improvements to engines, transmissions and safety have a clear connection to the evolution of automobiles in general, but massive wings and tons of down force don't. Watching a film like Rush reminds me of a time when drivers drove. Today's races are more like a Moon shot, and the drivers astronauts. In the last race Hamilton couldn't compete because he couldn't get his car to reboot, and Vettel is probably still upset that his carbon fibre wings might have been touched. If I wanted to watch people who can't work computers I'd go to work, I hardly want to watch it in an F1 race. If I wanted to watch people worried about how perfect their cars looked, I'd go to a concour d'elegance. A Formula 1 with physically smaller cars and reasonable down-force limits could still explore the technical boundaries of driving on four wheels while encouraging something that looks less like a parade lap and more like racing. Without the wings dripping off them and huge turbulence, passing could become a part of an F1 race again, perhaps so much so that drivers don't complain about a single attempted pass. If F1 wanted to explore a more functional aspect of aerodynamics they should limit the massive wings but allow small, adaptive aerodynamics. That's something that would once again be relevant to the evolution of the automobile. I can only hope MotoGP doesn't follow F1 down this evolutionary dead end of aerodynamic inflation. A bike festooned with wings wouldn't just be ugly, it would be irrelevant.
Can you imagine if the wings knocked each other, or got locked together? I like my bike racing frenetic, fast and side by side.
Four abreast heading into the first corner? The beginning of another frantic pass-fest in MotoGP.
Riding to Indy was a blast, one of the highlights of my summer. I was all keen to sign up for the whole weekend next year, but then this happened. With no Indy on the calendar any more, the chance of me riding south to see Valentino and Marc do their thing has just gotten quite a bit more extreme. If Indy was level one, here is what more commitment would look like.
Level 2: THE RIDE TO TEXAS
Riding to Texas, ironically, takes us right past the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This one's a bit tricky. The Texas race next year is in April. We can still get snow in April so it would have to be a weather permitting exit and then get south as quickly as possible to get clear of impassable roads.
Indy was a ~780km ride, Texas is over three times further at 2564kms; it's basically a diagonal trip across the majority of North America. The IBA has a Bunburner 1500, and the ride to Texas just happens to be 1593 miles. Could it be done in 24 hours? If it could, it would need some recovery time afterwards, and some serious physical and bike prep beforehand. If the race is on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of April 8-10, 2016, I'd leave on Wednesday, April 7 (very) early morning, aiming to cross the border and be out of Detroit before anyone wakes up. Baring any major traffic problems I'd land in a hotel in Austin Thursday morning early, and pass out. Friday, Saturday and Sunday would be practice, qualifying and race day, and then I'd begin the trek back at a more sedate pace. Five hundred mile days would mean a stop in Arkansas and Indiana on the way back, leaving Sunday afternoon and getting home late on Wednesday, April 13th. Could a ride to The Circuit of the Americas be completed within a week from Southern Ontario? That would be over 3000 miles or a touch over 5000kms in seven days. Boo ya!
Level 3: THERE IS ANOTHER!
There is another MotoGP even I could ride to, but if you thought Texas was a stretch, this one is something else entirely.
The Argentinian MotoGP event takes place the week before Texas at the other end of the world. If you thought the exit for Texas might be tricky, this one is downright diabolical.
This is a 13,655km (8485 mile) odyssey that would mean riding across two continents and crossing one of the highest mountain ranges in the world (not to mention the rain forests and dozen or so international borders). Nick Sanders managed three trips up and down the Americas in 45 days, but he's crazy, and legendary. John Ryan, introduced to me through Melissa Holbrook Pierson's fantastic book, The Man Who Would Stop At Nothing, did Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the tip of Florida in an astonishing 86.5 hours, but he too was crazy, and legendary.
The ride to Argentina would have intention. This wouldn't be a wishy-washy wandering around the world ride, it would have Terra Circa like intent. I've thought about riding the Americas before. Riding to Rio is about 16,500kms and I thought it would take 60 days (275kms/day - higher in North America, lower elsewhere). Riding to Termas de Rio Hondo would be marginally shorter. Pushing the average to 340 kms a day, it might be doable in 40 days.
That would mean a departure date of February 18th. If you thought leaving in the first week of April might be weather problematic, leaving in the third week of February is positively terrifying. I'd aim for a leaving 'window' between February 15-20 looking for clear roads to make a quick break south to get clear of the hard water.
This happens to fit nicely into a semester at school so it would be an easy absence to manage logistically. With that in mind, I'd find myself in Argentina in the first weekend of April. The end of the world is in the same country south of me, so hitting Ushuaia before coming back north and seeing Machu Picchu would be a nice idea. Going down that way is a few hundred extra kilometres out of the way.
At this point do I have to return the bike? If so, the ride back could take place over 18 weeks. If not, the flight back happens in just under one day (though coming back via Texas would mean I'm on a plane with a whack of MotoGP types!
What to take? Honda, Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki all have factory presences at MotoGP and they each offer a viable choices:
Honda's African Twin is being resurrected next year. Rumours have this bike being off-road capable and more than able to manage anything Central and South America might throw at it. Canada to Argentina would be a solid way of proving the new Africa Twin's metal, whatcha think Honda Canada? I'd get mine in Marquez colours.
Ducati's Multistrada is a long distance beauty with lots of tech thrown at it. It doesn't have the dependability rep of the two Japanese bikes above, but it appears a very capable all-rounder that would have no trouble managing the variety of roads to Argentina. It's so pretty and I haven't heard of any epic treks made by one, so it's a bit of a risk, but what's a trip like this without some risk? This ride would give the Multistrada that world beating rep.
Suzuki's V-Strom is a road focused adventure tourer, but it has some off road cred after BIKE Magazine took one from the UK back to the factory in Japan where it was made. Anything that can ride across Asia can manage Canada to Argentina. Suzuki has only recently returned to MotoGP, it'd be nice to remind everyone that they're there by riding a Suzi through all those countries. Whatcha think Suzuki Canada?
My opportunity to ride to a MotoGP race hasn't ended with the death of Indy, it's just taken on a higher level of commitment.
I just finished Matt Crawford's latest book, Why We Drive. This challenging read unpacks how we've backed ourselves into an intellectual dead end under tech driven surveillance capitalism. Crawford comes at it from the big-tech push to colonize one of the last moments in our lives where human skill is tested and judged by reality rather than marketing expectations, vehicular operations. Advertising companies like Google aren't trotting out self-driving cars for safety or efficiency (though that's the marketing), they're trotting them out so they can take all that consumer attention wasted on driving and advertise to it. Even with this problematic impetus and misleadingly media spin self-driving vehicles are imminent and this leads Crawford to (quite rightly) question the intent of the companies pushing them. The assumption that self-driving cars will somehow be better for us is undressed in many ways in the book.
Seeing where Matt's head is at in 2020 encouraged me to reread his first book, the bestselling Shop Class as Soulcraft, which came out in 2009 in response to the market crash that everyone seems to have forgotten now as we're increasingly told we need austerity to pay back the predatory organizations who caused the debt in the first place. Running the economy is a good gig if you're one of the 'financial class' who maintain the fiction. You can crash the market and make billions of people poorer and then profit from it indefinitely as you charge interest on the loans you handed out to 'solve' the crisis you caused. It takes a special kind of stupid to buy into this.
Looking at Shop Class now years later it has historical context to it I didn't see in earlier readings where the response to the market collapse wasn't as obvious. Back then it was just timely. One of the themes that follows Matt's thinking through all three of his books is his dislike of automation. In Shop Class he talks about situated knowledge and the importance of having an intimate relationship with reality. Fundamentally, Crawford believes this vital to human beings fully developing their abilities. When we're devalued by monied interests into simplistic consumers we are unable to fully develop our human potential. Surveillance Capitalists intent on monetizing every moment of everyone's existence for their own financial advantage have coupled with safety and efficiency movements in government and society to create a brave new world of atrophied people.
I've come at this digital prejudice from an educational technology point of view on Dusty World, but it bears examining from a motorcycling perspective too. Crawford is a physicist and mechanical and electrical technician, but he seems to have drawn a hard line between digital technology and everything else. It's probably an age related thing. Matt's about five years older than I am. As I was getting into early home computers and figuring them out he was already through high school and working in his trade. I ended up heading towards IT because when I was working as a millwright I was the only one willing to take computer controlled systems on in a department full of older people who couldn't be bothered.
The idea that digital technology is opaque and unknowable is a continual professional frustration for me as a computer technology teacher. Other educators, students and parents all buy in to this opacity even while they embrace information and communication technology in more aspects of their lives. I understand the reluctance to make ourselves literate in this emerging technology, but if we're all going to use it I'd suggest we're all responsible for having at least a basic understanding of how it works or else we're going to all end up illiterate in a digitally powered world.
A bunch of smooth talking sociopaths have taken over the face of digital technologies, but I can assure you that Google, Facebook and the rest are not the limit of what digital technology can do for us. Thinking that is dangerously reductive. There was a time when the internet was newly birthed from academia and the people on it were exploring a new frontier rather than leveraging it in an Orwellian attempt to monetize our attention. I'm a digitally literate person and I have no love for them, but I get the sense that Matt truly despises computing to the point of lumping any digital tech in with the sociopaths. It's a hard distinction to make, though John Naughton does a good job of coaxing it out of author Shoshan Zuboff:
"While it is impossible to imagine surveillance capitalism without the digital, it is easy to imagine the digital without surveillance capitalism. The point cannot be emphasised enough: surveillance capitalism is not technology. Digital technologies can take many forms and have many effects, depending upon the social and economic logics that bring them to life. Surveillance capitalism relies on algorithms and sensors, machine intelligence and platforms, but it is not the same as any of those."
Another motorcycling angle to come at this from might be Neil Spalding's MotoGP Technology. This technical manual charts the evolution of the top prototyping class of MotoGP motorcycle racing over the past twenty years. These have been years of digital integration and management in terms of rule making and deciding how much of an influence computer assistance will have in the sport. Unlike Formula One, which many have suggested has gone too far down the technology path, MotoGP has evolved to focus on enhancing rider abilities rather than replacing them. Spalding mentions the estimate that F1 is an 80% car engineering 20% driver skill equation, where as MotoGP is the opposite. Marc Marquez winning championships on the third best bike would certainly suggest the humans operating MotoGP bikes matter more than the tech, and yet these are digital machines.
There is a point in the book where Spalding has to re-orientate the reader on how electronics work in MotoGP. Unlike what a consumer is used to, racing electronics have nothing to do with safety. Their only intent is more speed even if it means more effort and skill is expected from the rider. While everyone watching a race has only ever experienced electronic interventions (anti-lock brakes, traction control etc) as a safety blanket thrown over their incompetence, a racer only experiences them through the lens of performance. Electronic intervention on a race bike make it more extreme and harder to ride. That alone should make the true breadth of electronics and digital technology in riding a bit more clear. They are only self-driving us because someone wants them to for their own reasons, not because the tech is inherently focused in that direction.
Crawford often speaks of the mechanical work he's doing on various machines, but mechanical work doesn't end where a computer is involved. There are some parts of vehicular evolution where automation is a much needed advance. Crawford does make a point of mentioning this, but grudgingly. Reading Classic Bike Magazine a few weeks ago I came across a great article about Dr Desmo, Fabio Taglioni, the Ducati engineer who spent his career continually looking for advancements for the brand. His quote about computer controlled fuel injection is much like a MotoGP team's fixation on performance rather than protecting a rider from their own incompetence and is yet another reminder that electronic and digital technology does not have to replace human agency but can in fact enhance it.
Sorting out the Triumph's fuel injection system by finding a modified fuel map and installing it on the bike's FI computer was one of this year's most satisfying repairs.
I like getting a bank of carbs sorted out as much as the next person, and sometimes I make a point of working on bikes without electronics to distance myself from what I do at work all week (mechanical repairs offer a more immediate kind of satisfaction), but I've also had great technical satisfaction from the hybrid mechanical and electronics repairs I've had to make on the Tiger. I realize that electronics and computer based repairs are often out of the comfort zone of the home mechanic, but that's based on the kind of anti-digital prejudice Crawford carries through his philosophy. If we could all get passed that prejudice perhaps we could reclaim the digital tools we've surrendered to the attention merchants.
It's critically important we don't romanticize old technology for the same reason we shouldn't romanticize previous time periods. If you think the 1960s were some kind of magical time in human history odds are you're a heteronormative, neurotypical white male. From the point of view of the vast majority of the people on the planet the nineteen sixties were fucked, and so was much of the technology we were using back then. That time of excess and privilege has led us to the brink of disaster fifty years later. Longing to go back to it or recreate it is a kind of insanity.
This is distinct from respecting culture and engineering from a certain time period when it showed us a better way forward. I greatly enjoy working on older machines in order to keep that history alive, but if you're putting on rose coloured glasses that make you blind to the possibilities of today's technology then you're just as manipulative as the sociopaths who are destroying society for their own gain.
Crawford talks about technology that is locked and closed, like Mercedes without dipsticks to check your own oil, or electronics that are sealed to prevent 'tampering'. Corporations are able to do this because people have been convinced that digital technologies are something they can't comprehend, but this is bullshit. The companies offering to do everything for you aren't technology companies, they are advertising companies. Ignore them and ignore authors who dismiss digital technology as inherently nannying. Modern technology can just as easily be used to enhance human ability and force us to be smarter, stronger and faster as it can be used to make us stupid, docile and compliant. The issue is the intent of the people peddling it, not the tech itself.
If I can't convince you maybe Kenneth Clark's angle in 1969's award winning documentary 'Civilisation' will highlight things:
Clark's concern is that automation plays to the hands of authoritarian regimes. He couldn't see the emergence of multi-national corporations that we're now under the yoke of back in 1969, but he isn't wrong about automation playing to fascists. Crawford shares the same concerns, and they're well founded, but one of the best ways to take back control for more people is to make them literate in the technology being used to enthrall them.
All that to say don't be afraid of the digital aspects of motorcycle maintenance. This tech was made by people so you can figure it out, and in doing so you will also teach yourself to author the technology the attention tyrants are using to snow you under. From that point of view of self sufficiency and understanding of technology Matt Crawford should be on board.
After roughing it out we've finalized plans to ride down to Indianapolis to see the practice day of the Indianapolis MotoGP race. It'll be a chance to see a legend like Valentino Rossi in the flesh doing what he does. It'll also be an opportunity to wander the paddock and watch everyone setting up their machines. I'm aiming to come away with a Sam Lowes t-shirt and some Rossi paraphernalia. We couldn't do the whole weekend due to other commitments, but hitting Indy on the Friday means it isn't as busy and costs almost nothing (twenty bucks to get in!). We're going to ride down Wednesday and Thursday and then stay in a Hampton Inn by the track on the Thursday and Friday nights before heading back on Saturday. We should be home Sunday afternoon.
Since we're in town Thursday and Friday night we'll be looking for some bike related magic happening around the day at the track. Downtown Indy's Motorcycles on Meridian is happening on Friday night and we'll be there. I'm looking forward to a brief wallow in American motorbike culture before heading out on Saturday morning. I'll watch the qualifying and the race when I'm home the week after, but I'll also know what these bikes sound and smell like, which is magic!
The 2014 Indy highlight reel
My son Max and I are all set to go on my '94 Kawasaki Concours, but it got me wondering about what I'd take out of the new batch of Kawasakis, so here's a list!
Old Concours New Concours
I have a '94 ZG1000 Concours. The new ones are monsters by comparison, but it'd be interesting to ride a team-green bike down to the MotoGP race, even if they aren't involved any more. The new Connie is a massive 1354cc machine. It would be interesting to see what Kawasaki has done with my beloved Concours over the past twenty years. What do you say Kawasaki Canada, got a new Concours you'd like ridden?
Ninja Redux
A small part of me misses my Ninja. Riding two up down to Indianapolis means looking for a Ninja that can handle Max and I, fortunately Kawasaki makes just such a Ninja! The Ninja 1000 is a capable long distance sport touring bike with the emphasis on sport. It would have no trouble getting Max and I down to the Speedway, and it would do it in MotoGP fashion.
A few years ago we rode down to the last Indianapolis MotoGP. It was a great few days in Indiana and it was pretty close to us. At a push the ride there could be done in a day (we took two because I had my ten year old son with me). This year's only North American MotoGP is in Texas and happens the weekend before Easter. How few days could I do it in? It just happens that Austin is a Bun Burner Gold away, just over 1500 miles south west of here. I watched a couple of fellow motorcyclists from the Lobo Loco long distance rallies pull a Bun Burner Gold off in the fall. If I could get to COTA in 24 hours I'd be a rockstar! If I left on Thursday evening I'd be down there Friday evening or a bit later if I missed it (BBGs depend a lot on construction and delays to pull off). Either way I'd be up Saturday morning with some kind of Iron Butt ride (if I missed the BBG there are half a dozen other, easier ones that I could still aim for) under my belt to catch qualifying. Early to bed Saturday night and then another day at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday for the races. After a good dinner I'd be back on the road again making tracks north to home. If I missed the Bun Burner Gold on the way down, I could attempt it again on the way back! Either doing a Sunday night to Monday night blitz to get the gold, or breaking it into two long days and going for a plain old Bun Burner 1500 (1500 miles over 36 hours). In a perfect world I'd do the BBG on the way down, enjoy the weekend and rest up again before getting a Bun Burner 1500 on the way back, riding Sunday night after the race as far as I can, having a sleep and then getting up and finishing the ride within 36 hours. If I'm back Monday night I would have only missed two days of work while getting to watch a MotoGP live and picking up multiple iron butts! That'd shake the rust off after a long, cold, Canadian winter. Does two Iron Butt rides around a weekend of MotoGP sound extreme? From the dark depths of February after weeks and weeks out of the saddle, it sounds like a brilliant idea! When you're trapped under a polar vortex and some truly grim, neverending Canadian winter, the thought of trying to cross much of North America twice in five days on two wheels scratches an itch.
Slow motion through the esses at Indianapolis...
COTA has all sorts of pretty views for video and photography...
THE GOAL: a taste of motogp on a road trip with minimal freeway miles and a five day timeline. TARGET: Friday, August 07: practice day
Practice day runs from 9am to 3:50pm
PRACTICE August 7, 2015 PRICE: $20.00
FRIDAY PADDOCK PASS Not good for gate admission. Good for August 7, 2015. Limited to one (1) per Reserved Seat. PRICE: $125.00 MOTORCYCLE TRACK LAP
Motorcycles Only. One Lap. Controlled Speed. Limited to one (1) per Reserved Seat.
PRICE: $40.00
But the Paddock Pass or track lap don't seem to be available if you only buy Friday tickets. I'll have to dig in further.
In any case, twenty bucks US to get into Friday's practice is pretty accessible, and we might be able to find our way into paddock passes once we're there.
Other events (bike shows and many other satellite events going on in Indianapolis that weekend):
This isn't that hard to arrange - practice and qualifying are super cheap if cost is an issue, and the whole thing happens over the weekend, minimizing time off work. If you're in Southern Ontario it's a straight shot down to Indy to see a legend like Valentino Rossi fight for a championship in his 36th year (!) You should go.
