NO. Changing the rulebook any further and diluting the class any more is just a really bad idea.
Remember when Lightweight was full of FZR400's, Honda Hawk's and EX 500's? Then came the SV650 which displaced those bikes as it was just that much better.
As I recall, the rules always allowed air cooled 2 valve motors to have up to 1200 CCS of displacement in LW - but - to compete against the SV's you really needed to go to the 944 kit put in cams and do some head work to get better breathing in the motor. As a result, while some dedicated Ducati guys would spend the bucks building their 900SS to be competitive the grids were pretty much full of relatively stock SV's that were cheap and required very little maintenance.
Then Buell comes into the mix - Eric put an innovative chassis around the old-school Harley motor and with the contingency it became very popular. Not quite as cheep to buy as an SV and they needed maintenance - but pretty much stone hammer technology and in the hands of a decent rider the contingency could easily pay for the parts and work. From what I saw they actually had good support at the track so it was not hard to get parts when the motor did go BOOM. Again, it was an air-cooled 2 valve engine and was allowed up to 1200 CCs of displacement.
About the same time Ducati released the "evolution" of the 900SS, the 1000SS. Still an air cooled 2 valve motor but with the longer stroke increased displacement to 992 CCs and the dual spark head and stock cams gave this motor the breathing that the 900SS lacked stock. These bikes did well in the class as they were lighter and could out-handle the Buel's while they had more torque and HP than the SS legal SVs. Unfortunately not as good of factory contingency suppport - although the "race only" models in 2004/2005 + an increased focus on contingency brought a number of these bikes to the grid.
All these changes seems to have brought on an arms race in the LW class -SV's went superbike and at 90 BHP the crank (the weak link) started to fail due to flexing. The 1000SS guys started dropping in 1080 kits and loading the bikes up with titanium & carbon fiber - as with all Ducati's the Desmo valves need lots of care and attention (especially with lots of heat which shortened the life especially on the exhaust valve guides). Buells riders built with more compression in the motors and lifespan of the power plant became even shorter, but again with the contingency support it would make sense for a good rider.
Now - given the complaints from the SV crowd Kevin allows the SV's to go to Ultralightweight class. I thought this was a huge mistake. A well prepared SV with a good rider is still more than competitive in LW - its just that I think a lot of the SV guys generally don't want to build the bikes to the extent this would require (cost + maintenance). OK - I see economically that Kevin needs to keep these SV guys from leaving entirely, so maybe (just maybe) from a financial perspective giving them UltraLW to dominate is logical.
Given that I was not a fan of allowing the SV's into UltraLW - my opinion is that further diluting this class by allowing other "big bore" LW bikes into the mix only makes the problem worse. Where does it end? Do we let pre 1992 in-line 4 bikes into the class next year? What about the argument of letting the 748 and 749 into LW - then to you go ahead and allow the 1000SS and Buells into UltraLW too? Rules should not be changed to give outdated machinery a new class to dominate. If you want to run up front and your current bike isn't competitive in the class you either need to buy a bike that is competitive or just learn how to ride better so you can get back up front.
I hear your pain, but, Florida seems to be the only market where the Bimota is an issue. Perhaps Chris Boy has just been too successful finding deep pocketed riders and pushing the brand? I don't know, but rewriting the rulebook to suit your needs is just not a good idea. Buy a 750/800 SS (or an SV) and right Ultra LW. Buy and 1098R and run Unlimited. I don't care what you do - but don't completely upset the rulebook for everyone just to serve your needs is not the right thing to do.
George
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