I love Green vs. Red threads
Seat of the pants claims such as "It feels faster" can be really misleading.
Case and point, my Brother was helping out program a traction control device for a Pro rider.
They worked on the bike for two days dialing it in.
He improved the riders lap times from 1:41 to 1:39.
But the pro rider was upset because his lap times for the same track and the same bike were 3/4 of a second faster the previous year.
He said that the traction control was preventing him from getting good drive out of the corners.
So, they looked carefully at the data.
My brother told him that he was already spinning up the back tire out of the corners and that if he dialed back the intervention any more he would slow down because he would be spinning more.
With the mapping my bro made he was running higher top speeds down the straights then ever before so why the slower lap times?
So they overlaid this years data with last years data and discovered that last year the rider was braking later into the corners then this year.
But the rider wasn't accepting the raw data because of how the bike felt.
So the morning of the race the head mechanic uploaded the same mapping that they won with the previous year at that track at the insistence of the rider.
He ran 1:41's for every lap and took third.
After the race the Pro rider called my bro and apologized for not running the maps he made and asked him if he would be willing to go to their next race and customize the maps again.
True story that happened very recently.... I just can't mention who it was for.
So, is it possible your buddy is right?
Sure, there are many things that could cause this to happen.
But to have a fair comparison both bikes would have to be compared side by side to eliminate the "Feel" factor.
You drag race his bike and he drag races your bike.
Who wins?
Then switch bikes and race again.
Who wins?
If the same bike wins then you eliminate feel and know which is faster...
Now, if his red bike is faster then your green bike something is amiss.
If both bikes are stock and both bikes are in equal condition then your green bike is gonna win.
If his bike has been modified and yours is not then there is the difference.
If his bike is in a better state of tune then that's the difference.
It's all in the details...
