I'm a huge fan of the KOTB race series! And while there's plenty of naysayers on the subject, I think it's nostalgic to have an annual series which pits two ancient and historic rivals against each other.

Now the Bagger racing world is about to expand yet again to the H-D World Cup series! And though all the bikes will be Harleys, the riders from across the pond will be giving the Saddlemen riders some stiff competition.

For those who are interested, the qualifiers and the races can be viewed "free of charge" on the
Harley Davidson Bagger World Cup YouTube channel.

 

They are fun to watch!

 

And now for some qualifying lap times for all four classes of bikes - the Baggers, Moto3, Moto2 and Motogp. For those that aren't up to speed on the Motogp classes, Moto3 is the entry level. They are 250cc single cylinder machines and produce somewhere around 55hp. Moto2 is the next step up. These bikes are 765cc triples and they have around 145hp. The top class, Motogp, is in its last year of 1000cc displacement. These machines produce around 250hp and will down size to 850cc next year. So, what kind of pole qualifying lap times and top speeds are these machines producing? Here ya go:

Baggers - 2:12.387 couldn't find top speed
Moto3 - 2:13.929 233.8kph
Moto2 - 2:05.847 279kph
Motogp - 2:00.927 341.3kph

As you can see, the Baggers are just a bit quicker around COTA than the Moto3 bikes. And all of them are really only a few seconds apart from one another. What I find amazing is how much money it costs for man and machine to only drop lap times by a few percent. And I can sure see why Motogp is dropping their displacement from 1000cc to 850cc. Their top speeds are well over 200mph at COTA. Makes me wonder how fast they would go at Daytona?

 

Helpful comparisons! Puts it all in perspective!

 

12 seconds at 340kph is not a small gap.

 

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