Anthony West tested the BOTT M210.

As I commented in the previous post, on Monday after the race we stayed at Jerez to test. So far Alex Martinez had been the only rider of the BOTT M210 and for this test we wanted to try with other riders.
When developing a new bike, it is very important to have information from several riders, so you can get more precise conclusions on the behavior of the bike and then is easier to define objectives and make a working line for further development.

Several teams were testing on Monday (for example Holliday Gymn, MZ, or Motorrad). We also saw in the pitlane the Ducati MotoGP 2011, because the Ducati Factory team was preparing a training for mid-week.

On Monday, the circuit had been rented by the German motoclub Rehm, so there was heavy traffic on the track, which was full of Germans riding with all kinds of artifacts, from Ducatis Desmosedicis to a Honda VFR. For this reason we knew that laptimes would not be very significant, since it was virtually impossible to make a clean lap around the circuit.

For us it was a very intense day because 4 riders tested the BOTT M210.
The best known of these is undoubtedly Anthony West, MZ rider in Moto2 World Championship. A rider with a great experience, who has raced in almost every category, including 500 and MotoGP, where he was official Kawasaki rider.

West seemed a very quiet, pleasant and polite guy. He got on the bike at midmorning. When he went out of the box with the bike, we went to the pitwall to clock him. I think we all expected that he would take it easy at least the first lap, just to know the bike a little bit, so he really caught us off guard when we heard the howl of an engine at top rpm, and when we turned our heads to look at the start of the straight, we saw Anthony turning the bike sliding the rear wheel, and going completely full gas over the track border with the front wheel in the air. That was one of those moments that get you goosebumps and make you love this sport.

The runs were 15 minutes. From start to finish West rode very fast, overtaking riders all the time. He stopped the clock in 1:48,6. When he came back into the box, he gave us very precise information on the bike behavior. Among other things he said he would like the bike to turn a little bit quicker.

We make a couple of small adjustments to achieve a little more agility and Anthony came back out on track for another 15 minutes, in which he lapped in similar times. When he returned to the box, West told us that the bike now turned as he wanted. What a shame that the track would not have been a little more empty, because I think times had been spectacular. Thank you very much Anthony for testing our bike and allowing us to publish the photos of this test. Thanks also to Pep Pujol for these pictures and for giving us the idea of contacting West!.

Throughout the morning also tested the bike Raúl Martínez, a young talent that this year has been 4th in SuperSport category in the Andalucia Championship. This was his first contact with a moto2, for us it is also important to have the opinion of a less experienced rider.

Also climbed on the bike Ismael Bonilla, pilot of 250 cc in the late 90’s and early 2000, and currently a journalist for Formula Moto Magazine (he is a really fast journalist), who gave several laps on the bike to write an article for his magazine. We will let you know when the article is published, meanwhile you can see this video Ismael recorded in one of the exits he did.

And when it was very close to six in the afternoon, and the tests were close to be finished, David Tirado had his turn to test the bike. David is an extremely fast driver with a great ability to adapt to any bike in a record time. The day before he was at the podium in the CEV, because he finished 3rd in Stock Extreme category with his Yamaha R1.
It was almost at sunset when David came out of the box. He gave four laps, stopped, we did some small adjustments while David commented that the bike was very agile and he felt that it turned “too much” (logical to have that feeling when the day before you have been riding a R1, much more awkward and heavier than our bike). Out on track again, this time he went “hell for leather” and gave another 4 laps in which we saw him overtaking 1000 cc motorcycles in acceleration (he had a much higher cornering speed and opened full throttle much earlier), overtaking people inside, outside .. and stopping the clock in 1:47,6 … in just 8 laps, without knowing the bike and the tires and with a lot of traffic on the track!.
I think David really liked the bike and enjoyed a lot the ride, because in the minutes after his entry into the box he did nothing but laugh. 😀
Of course he also gave us very interesting and useful information about the bike. Thank you very much also to you, David, for testing our bike. Unfortunately we could not take pictures of this test.
After these tests, we will spend the next few weeks working on what will be the BOTT M211, with which we look forward to be a pain in the ass for a lot of teams in the CEV 2011. Of course we’ll keep explaining you everything from our website.
And as always, you know that you will find these photos and some more, in our Flickr gallery.