848 legal for middleweight supersport?

[123user]

I want to be a jockey. Handicap that. I'm 220. I want to pole vault. Weigh those fuckers down. I want to fight the champ. Blind fold that prick. I'll foot race Carl Lewis. Think his back will break with the piano on it?  Everyone one has to date fat chicks cause I do.

Or we can let the best do what they do.

I actually see more skinny guys climbing on top of fat chicks.  Instead of implementing weight/power restrictions, how about this.  At the race conclusing, all riders will be held at pit out.  The marshall will lead them over to a tug-o-war pit with the losing half of the grid vs the winning half.  If the winning half wins the tug-o-war, the results will stick.  If the losing half wins the tug-o-war, the results will reverse.

That's fair right?  Its like this, skinny guys with talent will finish first while fat nerds will be lucky to finish at all.  All of this is crap... leveling the playing field turns it into something other than racing... It becomes like NASCRAP... a made up soap opera where somehow 50 year old men can be competitive at the professional level.

[JDog]

OK, while we're imposing something as ridiculous as minimum rider weights for bike racing, lets include some others on the ballot using the same logic:

-Since I'm short, I don't think anyone 6' or taller should get to jump in basketball!!!  Because their physical attributes lend them better to the sport they have an unfair advantage!  How daft!
-Since I don't weigh as much as a linebacker, I think everyone in football should have a maximum weight!
-Strap sandbags to the leaner baseball players, they can run faster -- way too unfair!
-Lance Armstrong is too lean and fit, and missing a family jewel. handicap him for "equality" as well.

Among several dozen other idiotic examples one could come up with following the same line of thought

Maybe you ARE better off playing golf.

[Team Spalding]

Sometimes I think if I was just smaller, I could go faster. But, I've been wrong in my thinking. I don't need to make myself reach my full potential. No,  that isn't the answer. I have to slow them little bastards down by throwing weight on them.

Robby, why stop at 150lbs?  Let's make the fattest bastard on the grid the minimum weight. That would be fair. Why stop with motorcycles?

I want to be a jockey. Handicap that. I'm 220. I want to pole vault. Weigh those fuckers down. I want to fight the champ. Blind fold that prick. I'll foot race Carl Lewis. Think his back will break with the piano on it?  Everyone one has to date fat chicks cause I do.

Or we can let the best do what they do.

Well said. I am short and want to play basketball so all the tall guys should play on their knees so I can be competitive. The guys winning expert races train hard, stay in shape, and spend big money to make sure they have the most competitive package because they are very serious about winning and being a champion.

I can't believe how many of you guys want to change the rules so that you can be competitive with these guys just so you don't have to get your fat ass in shape or keep racing with your old bike. Unbelievable.

[hamurobby]

First of all , no one said minimum rider weights, its total weight for bike and rider combined, just like they do now in the usgpru, so no its not rediculous, in fact its the norm for motorized racing around the world. Motorcycle racing isnt the same as field sports, your analogys holds no water.  You might as well have said we dont need any rules to govern the sport.

As far as nascrap, they are mighty successful in filling grids with uber expensive race teams BECAUSE of the rules that make it more about driver skill than machine prep or giving someone an advantage by the grace of God other than driving tallent. and their races are alot more exciting than most mc events. WE NEED MORE PARTICIPATION AND CLOSER RACING ESPECIALLY AT THE CLUB LEVEL. Are you all really going to quit because you have to add weight to your bike to meet a minimum weight? As far as having to govern a weight rule, are you kidding? hell there are more superbike engines out there in ss than we could tear down! It takes one minute to roll a bike on and off the scales, and you only have to weigh the top three, novice and expert would take 5 minutes total to check. It takes a hell of a lot longer to look at a damn air filter in tech!!!!! Im sure they would make the scales available all weekend to check to see if you have enough weight strapped to your bike. If anyone here is afraid of a big old man smoking your ass on the race track because you had to strap 40lbs on your bike, maybe you need to go buy a horse.

You are sounding like the winers, not us old fat guys.

[Team Spalding]

It is not a matter of being worried about getting "smoked". It is how you want to make your fat old self competitive with guys who are very serious about racing when you are not. Handicaping fast guys with top notch equipment so you can keep up with them. Are you serious? You call that good racing? If you think so you just do not get it.

[123user]

As far as nascrap, they are mighty successful in filling grids with uber expensive race teams BECAUSE of the rules that make it more about driver skill than machine prep or giving someone an advantage by the grace of God other than driving tallent. and their races are alot more exciting than most mc events.

Stock car racing is expensive because of all the rules.  It takes millions in research dollars to find another 5HP or to reduce aerodynamic drag.  As the teams are willing to spend more and more to find the 1% advantage, tech inspection becomes more expensive to catch them.  And if you haven't figured it out yet NASCAR makes new rules when their "pet" teams have lost an advantage to a smart upstart.  Its not racing, its a show.  The truth is that there's lots of young dirt track talent out there, but they don't have the right last name or (GASP!!) they're not from south of the ol' Mason-Dixon

If your assumption is that increased media visibility is always good... then we are totally on different wave lengths.  Club racing is, and should be run-what-you-brung.  I just don't understand the interest in mandated weight/power.  In CCS and WERA, racers still win on talent.  In contrast I can see that many of you whiners would rather win on protest.  If you're big and convinced that's why you can't win then you're totally delusional. 

I sounds like there's going to be a run on extra large helmets this year.  If we did equalize the grids, I forsee the entries eventually decreasing...  when all these big ego's really find out that it's their talent level, not their weight/power there will be a lot of hurt feelings.

[d-wire]

some are under the assumption that Hamurobby is a 240lb fat ass that sits around bitchin about rules.  In fact, he is around 168lbs, faster than 90% of the people in this thread and spends most of his time working on his bikes.  He has been both heavy and light and tells me there is a considerable advantage to being lighter.  He has won races at JGP with AMA liscensed guys finishing behind him.

I DON'T NECESSARILY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING HE SAYS.....but a lot of you assume he is much different than he is.  He is a racer. 

Just wanted to clarify that. CARRY ON......

I'm off to do my 30 mile cycle ride.

[123user]

I don't care if he's Matt Mladin.  More rules = more problems.  I think we can all agree that this banter is not about fat dudes vs. small dudes.  Its about some fantasy that if bike+rider weight were mandated that miraculouly some guys would start winning.  As Rev. Sharpton would say:  "That is a falsity"

If you're fat and it bugs you (and it should) don't eat, and exercise.  But don't do it just because you think you'll start winning.  Over the years I've come to the realization that the guy in 1st place is really good, and he's probably not riding at 100%.  If you go faster, he'll go faster.  So, it doesn't really matter, it just makes more work for the officials.

[Graham]

Wow, I just wanted to know why the 848 had the same cc for supersport and for superbike.That was answered.All this other stuff sounds crazy to me.I just want supersport to be supersport....do what ever you want in superbike.I get beat buy small guys and big guys and sometimes i beat them, am 5'11 155lbs in pretty good shape have decent bikes but lack a little talent compared to some others....but i love racing and give it my best everytime,win or lose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hamurobby]

"If you're fat and it bugs you (and it should) don't eat, and exercise.  But don't do it just because you think you'll start winning" Well I DID, and It worked for me, Im 6'1"+ and have dieted and exercised and won expert mw races, rain or shine. I cant beat Jensen or Jeff Wood, but I can and have beat lots of talent, and it had to do with loosing weight. I have proven it, and you are merely speculating how things would be. I know there is better talent than me, the above guys, Josh Day,
Josh Herrin, Geoff May, I have rode with them around JGP and they can do things I will never be able to do with a motorcycle, but what the hell does that have to do with ALL of us paying to ride on the weekends and having fun. If you think you are going somewhere in this sport, think again. We are all PLAYING, seriously, and when I play a game like this, I like the rules to be fair. Sorry you dont agree.  If the guy is really good in first place, I have found if you can put presure on him and show him a wheel every lap, he will make a mistake and loose, even if its for money in an expert solo 20, I have proven that as well. So your argument has no validity, and more work for the officials? They love their job, and trust me, reading two scales and adding the weights together, is not going to ruin their weekend. Why do we have ANY RULES? for what? the best riders always win, so why bother with lw mw hw ulimited, gp, sb, ss, f40, Whats the point? we should just practice, line everyone up and have a 10 lap shootout and go home, or maybe we could do it twice and then go home, because if another rule is too much, then we already have way too many rules.  

I never said we needed more media coverage like nascar.  I guess that was a way to dissimilate the point I was making, and make me look like I want to make club racing some sort of national series, I really dont know where you got that from pointing out how weight is so important to them, and how their rule structure actually make it more about the driver. Dont take what I say out of context and run with it.  You can tell everyone that physics dont apply to motorcycles, and you will be full of shit. I guess when Europe goes completely to weight rules, we will think its a great idea. If every guy who feels there is disparity of the rules regarding weight would speak up , and not be afraid of the old Napoleon guard naysayers who call big guys winers, we could have a more level PLAYGROUND, for us weekend pretenders who wish we were going to somehow make a living at this, instead of just spending a fortune.

All im saying is...put your money where your mouth is, put weight on the smaller racers bike, and lets see how much skill you DONT have, if you say no to it, you are admitting there is an obvious advantage to being lighter, because all it would really take is about an hour of work to add the weight, throw two scales on the ground and find out. I would gladly add the weight to my bike if we could get the weight rule implemented. I have asked this question to many expert racers in the past two years, I have noticed the lighter the rider, the less interested they are in this idea, The heavier the rider, the more interested they are in this. The guys who are around 155lbs, dont really care one way or another.

If you subtract the weight I have removed from my bike(s), from my bodyweight, its like I weigh 130lbs, trust me, weight, or the lack thereof, is a huge advantage. There is no gain for me in this, in fact, it will cost me all the hard work I have done to lighten my bikes and myself, and I hope somehow the rule makers will see that it is the right thing to do, because no one should have to do what I have had to, to just become compeditive because of a lack of a simple rule.

Its just plain wrong. 

[tzracer]

First of all , no one said minimum rider weights, its total weight for bike and rider combined, just like they do now in the usgpru, so no its not rediculous, in fact its the norm for motorized racing around the world.

As far as the USGPRU rules,

250 class is bike weight only, ISTR 220 lbs or so.
125 class is bike and rider, 300 lbs or a maximum of 25 lbs of ballast. That is once you add 25lbs, you then do not have to weigh 300 lbs.

[Over-ReActor]

Robby,
Let me get this straight. At 168 you're one of the heavy guys complaining about the light guys?  That's funny to me.

I'll go along with your minimum weight theory. I know lighter is better. I don't like your rider+bike weight limit though.  I'll be spending a fortune on my bike to get down to weight while your spending on go fast parts and tires.

I want you to have to strap a 75lb backpack on you. Struggle tossing that around. See how tired that makes you.

Seriously, why can't there be an over 250lb rider+gear class?  Sounds better than the over 40 class. Think about it. A lot of new people would fit my proposed class. People that will never give it a try at racing cause they have no chance. In over 40 you end up racing a guy with tons of experience.

This isn't like softball where you aren't able to play anymore cause you're  slow and broke down. Your knees hurt and you are slow. You can be fast as hell at 40 on a bike. You can also be fat at 25. We (fat people) need a fat bastard class. I would race all the time.

Leave the other non-handicap classes alone.

I somewhat joking, mostly not.