Yeh its an interesting one and it was only a matter of time before someone pushed the boundries in that direction, I wouldn't trust Larry Brooks as far as I could threw him. but traction control could mean alot of things including the rev limiter on bikes from standard (mentioned in this RacerX article- http://www.racerxonline.com/2011/01/18/traction-control-the-slippery-slope) or even just retarding the ignition while the bike is wheel spinning just enough for it to get traction again.

Im not sure if it would be a help or hinderance in supercross though, I know my wifes car has a traction control that uses the brakes to slow the wheels, so the harder you push the throttle the slower you will go until you back off the throttle enough for it to get traction and drive off without wheelspinning, imagine turning around a tight turn on a SX track with a triple in front of you in this situation.

The other thing I dont like about it is that it makes the distance between the have's and have nots even bigger, the best thing about MX and SX is its 90% man and 10% machine, unlike most other motor sports. Lets keep it about whos the better rider not who's got the best engineers.

I'd like to hear other peoples thoughts???

In my opinion, electronic aids detract from the sport.
I am all for safety, but I think that when the riders input is limited by a computer, enough is enough.
TC should be a riders wrist, not when some software tells you.

I fully understand the advances in modern technology, but we need to realise that the drawcard of motorcycle racing, is the spectacle of the public being able to see the pilot man handling the bike and manipulating its actions...

Otherwise, stick a pedrobot on it, and let's go and have a beer, because why the hell are we watching?

Unfortunately, the modern age of motor racing requires some short little fukka, who weighs half a piss-fat, sit on board and let some science geek control what is going on.

Hey Alex.... I guess you still have a future after all..... hahahahahaha

Oh and before anyone takes offence, I am not detracting from JS7 or CR22 skills.... these guys are truly the best in the business....

Stick 'em all on YZ490's and let the fun begin..... hahahaha

Launch control..... WTF... OK everyone, here is a forum challenge....

Jump on a 1000cc sportbike....

Click it into first......

Crank the gas wide open...... I mean pinned....

Dump the clutch......


Anyone who does not loop it like Pedrosa at PI, gets to play with my wifeys boobs.

Nuff said.

I know there are a few systems out there that are capable of adding traction control and all the similar rider aides that you see in road racing, and it would be really interesting to see how it works exactly on dirt bikes.

Not only that, but they are starting to introduce suspension telemetry (they may have been doing this for years at the test tracks?) and that kind of thing as well. I guess motocross was behind the eight ball in getting EFI compared to sportsbikes, so everything else must be too!

I'm not really for or against it, as long as it eventually trickles down to the public. Now we are starting to see the top sportsbikes released standard with all of these electronic assists, and to be honest they probably wouldn't be anywhere near as good unless teams and developers tested the waters with the world's best.

Here's a video of the guys on the Phoenix broadcast speaking about it in case anybody missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ySSSXDDGSw

From what i have read the electronics and software that Bubbas team have been running in practice, has GPS and data acquisition properties and is available to everyone who has $6500 us dollars, this allows the team see what the bike is doing in all areas of the track and has the high posiblity of having the tuning done on the fly by some tech with a laptop sitting in the teams pit area.

I also think its a big advantage for them if they have the information prior to the main event, that they then can look at what position the bike is in, in certain areas of the racetrack, this will allow them to tune the bike via the software ie, throttle position , revs, gear position, and mechainicly adjust the suspension to suit.

this may not be traction control as such, but its a really big advantage.

Will be interesting to see what comes out if ths in the coming weeks.

Thats the other thing, if they start using it in racing now it will be stock on the production model in a few years and drive up the cost even more. I dont know about you guys but I dont want to be spending $20-25000 dollars on a standard production dirt bike every year or so

data aquisition has been happening on mx bikes for quite a while, back in the 2-stroke days the factories had data bikes in the USA that their test riders and factory riders were using.. those bikes were never raced though..

tcr183 wrote:

data aquisition has been happening on mx bikes for quite a while, back in the 2-stroke days the factories had data bikes in the USA that their test riders and factory riders were using.. those bikes were never raced though..

TC has been on production MX bikes since 1997, CR250's had gear position sensors on them for the 3d map the cdi used to change the curve depending on what gear you're in. YZ400F's have the same right thru to the current model. CRF450's have had it since 08. So its nothing new. In 2001 when honda had Ryan Hughes riding the CRF450 preproduction model it had telemetary sensors on the forks and shock along with heaps more sensors.

Things will happen as the technology (& rules) evolve. As 4 saying I wont be buying a bike with traction control in the future. Go back 12-13 years and see how many guys where going to be buying EFI four strokes for 11-12 thousand new. Nobody.
San Manual didnt break any rules, they may have pushed them but didnt break them. As for the GPS tracker being $6500. Check out THIS http://www.racechrono.com/ with a regular Nokia phone and a bluetooth gps 70-100 anyone can have a gps lap timer.

Good Find. like Krusty said Traction control should be restricted to the riders wrist.

many ppl like to think that traction control does all the work for you but it doesnt. That traction map must be customised to the riders needs weather it be moto GP wsbk, bsb or MX it is there to suit each rider no different to a turn of pre load on a spring.

Show me where I can buy a bike for $25,000 that will turn me into an overnight US Supercross star and I'll buy one.

A small investment like that, followed by a big reward - girls,cash,girls,good times, girls - I think you get my point (it aint going to happen!)

iKapture wrote:

Show me where I can buy a bike for $25,000 that will turn me into an overnight US Supercross star and I'll buy one. A small investment like that, followed by a big reward - girls,cash,girls,good times, girls - I think you get my point (it aint going to happen!)

krusty74 wrote:

Launch control..... WTF... OK everyone, here is a forum challenge....Jump on a 1000cc sportbike....Click it into first......Crank the gas wide open...... I mean pinned....Dump the clutch......Anyone who does not loop it like Pedrosa at PI, gets to play with my wifeys boobs.Nuff said.

Dont you love how a 'new' device gets into some guys heads and they think that Bubba has some kind of big technical advantage over them? While the information gathered may be useful, the psychological advantage is awesome!

KIWImxer wrote:

Dont you love how a 'new' device gets into some guys heads and they think that Bubba has some kind of big technical advantage over them? While the information gathered may be useful, the psychological advantage is awesome!

I think just putting down a heat race lap time 1.2sec faster than anybody is enough psychological damage for any racer, except RV2 he doesnt seem to care how fast or slow he was in practice or heat races.

Ashman96 wrote:

I think just putting down a heat race lap time 1.2sec faster than anybody is enough psychological damage for any racer, except RV2 he doesnt seem to care how fast or slow he was in practice or heat races.

I think Villopoto and Canard are riding way closer to the edge (awesome to watch!!!) then Bubba, Reedy and Dungey. Bubbas running RV's pace but looks like he's doing it alot easier, Im tipping RV and Canard to crash out of the series before the end, Bubba winning and Reedy and Dungey to battle it out for podium positions, I dont even need a coin to tell me this one Ashman!!!!

KIWImxer wrote:

krusty74 wrote:

Launch control..... WTF... OK everyone, here is a forum challenge....Jump on a 1000cc sportbike....Click it into first......Crank the gas wide open...... I mean pinned....Dump the clutch......Anyone who does not loop it like Pedrosa at PI, gets to play with my wifeys boobs.Nuff said.

Send photo of your wife's boobs and we may well try dumping the clutch!