25 years of sportbike development

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by smileyman

Tigger you forgot one thing, hi HP machines in a much higher state of tune require rigorous maintenance or they explode. The OEMs have more than doubled the service intervals for these newer better performing machines and that would definitely decrease if they go to the edge of durability to get the big HP numbers...

Hmmm... you're the last guy I want to debate this type of argument with BUT.... Considering the types of engine mods that are done now, I don't believe that it is quite as big of a concern as before. Swapping the cams, reprogramming the FI, porting/polishing the head, lightening the crank doesn't make the engine quite as unreliable as the old mods did. Shit, back in the day, race teams expected to go through 2 or 3 engines a race weekend. Now engine failures are a rarity and DNFs are more likely to be caused by electrical gremlins rather than blown motors. Heck, there used to be blown motors every race, now it's only once in a while and usually involves a privateer/backmarker. I'm not sure that even the top teams rebuild their engines after EVERY race anymore. Besides, a street bike would never see the kinds of stresses a race bike does.