Tech Talk - The Speed of Superbikes

 Here's MotoGP. Here's World Superbike. Quickly: what's the biggest difference?

Speed, of course! Or at least that's what the answer would have been at any point in history. But here we are, at the threshold of the biggest rule shake-up in the history of the sport, laying down new regulations on aerodynamics, ride height devices, fuel and engine capacity. All to slow down the machines to a level where squishy humans won't get turned into goo when their bike flips out on a track that was never build for this kind of velocity. 

That this might end up bringing them below the top speed of a World Superbike machine was NOT the intended outcome - but it is a very real possibility that now confronts the sport. 

So, what's really going on and what is the new management going to do about it? Well, since they own both tournaments they've got plenty of options. But before all that, we might want to ask what's really going on here. 

Are superbikes faster than MotoGP-machines? Yes, sometimes, in very specific contexts. And to understand how that works, I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Mat and Peter. 

Take it away, boys! 

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