There's some argument going on as to what will replace GP125 and GP250.
One possibility is something based on highly tuned 600s. The catch with
this is the implication that they are production based and various
contracts between Dorna and Flammini.

Then I saw today that Aprilia have a 450cc V Twin engine originally
aimed at off road. They're rumoured to be producing a replacement for
the RS250 with this engine. A very small, very light, road race bike. So
how about GP125 and GP250 do exactly what the MX crew have done. Make
them no holds barred racing machines with 250-4s singles and 500-4s
twins respectively. It should be possible to make machines that do 50
and 100hp and weigh only a little more than current GP125 and 250. In
the process it might resurrect two classes of road machine that are
sadly missed; the small single and the small-ish twin.

In terms of costs, there are lots of factories world wide that could
produce prototype singles and twins due to the success of 4-stroke MX
and Super-Motard. And all the chassis knowledge should translate
straight across just as it used to do in the SoS championships.

This would preserve true racing machines with about the same performance
as now. What it wouldn't do is to teach people how to handle the GP1
monsters.

--
Julian Bond Email&MSM: (E-Mail Removed)
Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/
Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/
M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 T: +44 (0)192 0412 433

The 16-18 year old kids that are todays champs in 125 and 250 wouldnt like your plans...
The decades-proven proces is: minibikes, 50-80cc, 125cc 250cc, etc.....These kids are not grown up... they need lightweight bikes to start with....
You must have the 'aside all, i'm coming, i'm superman' mentality...

we tall and fat adults can only go turbo drag racing LOL

Leave the kids alone!

--
F r e e - echm#436 botas#1 obd#1
www.moteros.net
I get my kicks in the quick flip-flops!

> But as long as Spain runs the show I guess there will be a place for little
> wee-wee bikes...
>
>

Mark N <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>I guess it comes down to what the point of the support classes is.

>No, production-based 600
>racing, or even something like 1000SS, probably makes a bit more sense as a
>training tool - cheap, big, the factories would support them, etc

I don't think there's any doubt that 600 and 1000 production based
racing is going to be around for some time. As World and National
championships and as club racing. And there's probably going to be
variations on this from almost stock to almost prototype.

I'm just not at all sure that this is a good warm up to GP1's main
event.

And mostly I want to see more true prototype classes using pure racing
bikes.[1] I want to see 50hp,80Kg and 100hp,100kg bikes as well as
150hp,150Kg 600s and 230hp, 140Kg GP1s

>Racing just doesn't have enough of a
>cottage industry to be building their own machines from scratch, even if the
>factories could contribute the motors, although that would be ideal.

This may be true for 600-4s but I'm not sure I buy this for my
suggestion. How many groups are there world wide that can build a
250-450-650 4 stroke single? How many people are there who can build a
frame to mount it in? The answer to both has to be easily in double
figures.

Any road up, one route to this is simply to try it. There's now a ready
supply of MX based 250cc and 450cc singles. There's plenty of old 125
and 250 chassis to mount them in. A Cagiva Mito, Aprilia RS125 or a
pukka Honda 125 with a KTM 250 single or a Honda 450 wouldn't even cost
that much. All round the world we could start junior SoS classes to get
the kids involved in real (razor-sharp) racing bikes.

[1]Actually I'd like to see a few more racing formulae that really are
formula libre with only two rules. "Two wheels", "Wheel powered" But
that's another story.

--
Julian Bond Email&MSM: (E-Mail Removed)
Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/
Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/
M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 T: +44 (0)192 0412 433