Ant West

[tha_jackal]

nice to see MZ still running as such a professional and tight unit:

Ant West
Not a good start!
Packed to go to Italy
Said goodbye to my family
Got to the airport to find..
MZ booked my gf's ticket but forgot to book my ticket.
So I'm still in Oz
And going Sunday. :-/


wow.

[tha_jackal]

Thumbs up for new MZ!

1st day on the bike was in the right direction, apart from only getting 3 hours on the bike because we only have one to share between me and Max.

We'll hopefully have another bike for the next test. The new team members are great and also the new truck box and tools make MZ feel like a real factory team, making it all a much better feeling to start the year on!

[tha_jackal]

'patriot'

[NinjaMaster]

Glad to hear it's all more positive on the inside coz the first testing times aren't all that encouraging. Early days.

[Roby44]

Thats the most positive Ants been in a long time. Lets hope it all falls into place this year for him....

[NinjaMaster]

The good news at MZ - they are getting FTR frames to replace their own in house ones. The bad new for Ant is that they are only for Max, West has to persist with the MZ ones. Apparently once (if) the MZ one starts to perform as well as the FTR frame then Max has to swap back.

[tha_jackal]

it's disgusting isn't it? MZ really are a farce..

[gids73]

We always new this - least Ant is still on the grid!

[Rod Richardson]

The positive view of this would be that MZ knows that the FTR is a better chassis than their own and want to incorporate its features into the re-design of their own chassis. However, if they find there is bugger-all difference in the performance of the bike then they will know that the lack of performance lies elsewhere.

The end result will hopefully be more competitive bikes for the entire team including Westicles.

[NinjaMaster]

it's disgusting isn't it? MZ really are a farce..

In fairness to MZ, it sounds like their hand has been forced by Neukirchner and the money he brings to the table. The difference between MZ and the rest of the paddock is that MZ wish to be a manufacturer again and thus want to develop their own bikes for production. They can't do this with credibility if they use someone elses frame. Of course they will have no cred if they finish last every race too...

The positive view of this would be that MZ knows that the FTR is a better chassis than their own and want to incorporate its features into the re-design of their own chassis. However, if they find there is bugger-all difference in the performance of the bike then they will know that the lack of performance lies elsewhere.

The end result will hopefully be more competitive bikes for the entire team including Westicles.

I like the thought but am not sure how it will work given the frames are completely different. MZ are trying to go with their traditional steel trellis frame where I believe FTR's is a more common aluminium twin-spar design. Kinda like Ducati getting a Yamaha frame to fix their carbon design. Hopefully MZ get it right. I'd like to see them competitive in their own right and trellis frames can be built to be competitive, seems to work for Ducati's 1098!