Top 10 Reasons Why MotoGP is Awesome: #10 — The Bikes

MotoGP is the pentacle of motorcycle racing. It is the best racers on the best prototype machines scraping knees around every corner of all the 18 tracks around the world that the sport visits. There are battles, rivalries, high speed and high-sides. I would say that it is my favorite sport of all time. The 2011 season is set to start with the first race under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit in Qatar on March 20.

However, even though there are two races held in the United States each year, MotoGP is still not a very popular sport. After all, we have football, baseball and basketball to occupy our time. Plus, soccer is starting to grow. In an effort to help the grassroots of getting MotoGP a little more light in the good ol' US of A, I'm going to count down the "Top 10 Reasons Why MotoGP is Awesome." I thought I would start ten days before the start of the season and count down a reason each day, just for some spotlight and preparation for the 2011 campaign.

So here are the "Top 10 Reasons Why MotoGP is Awesome," starting, of course, with Number 10.

The tenth reason why the sport of MotoGP is awesome, is such an obvious choice really, as the sport would not exist without them. I am talking about the bikes on which the riders ride.

The bikes are put forth by several factories that compete in the sport. They are strictly prototypes, with the two bikes that each rider gets being totally different, even though they could be set-up in exactly the same way.

Four motorcycle factories -Ducati, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki -have bikes in MotoGP. Each bike has their own unique characteristics and features. For instance, the Yamaha works really well in the corners, but does not have the highest top speed. It has come down recently, but the Ducati is noted for its straight-line all-out speed.

Below are some photos of the MotoGP bikes.

This is the Honda RC212V.

They certainly are works of art.



Below is the Yamaha YZR-M1 -the bike that has won the championship for the past three years (2008, 2009, 2010).


The rear muffler


On opposite end of the spectrum, the Suzuki GSV-R has not won for some time....


This is the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 and in my opinion is the one that looks the best.


The information panel of the GP11


The rear exhaust, which has that double-layer of wire mesh to prevent rocks and gravel going into the engine in the event of a crash. Since each rider is only allotted six engines, making sure they did not blow up was kind of important.


Anyway, I could probably post hundreds of pictures of the MotoGP bikes, but these convey my point. These bikes are engineering marvels built to compete and win at the highest level of motorcycle racing. They are the tenth reason why MotoGP is so awesome.