Obviously the bike Don't get me wrong as I absolutely love my 1199 and not about to change it, but I don't think he would have been that much quicker on the 1199 than the 899 despite how much better the engine is. It really brought home to me how much it's about skill rather than bike. It's easy to pull away on an 1199 if you're on a straight road and feel a hero but when the straights are down to racetrack lengths then it's so much more dependent on rider skill for drive out of the corners and so on that it doesn't make much difference being on the bigger bike. I wasn't hanging around and I could only marginally pull away on the straights if I'd managed to match Daves corner speed and get a good drive out. One area I did definitely feel a difference was the brakes on the 1199s. I could break much deeper than any of the other non 1199 bikes that were there including the racebikes. It's taken me until now to really get the hang of just how well the 1199 Panigale can brake ( and be comfortable with the crazy tail wag when the back end goes in the air) and I was feeling much better at it than previous trackdays, but the bikes capabilities definitely played a really big part in that. I reckon if someone was to put the 899 against the 1199 that they would make up more time on the brakes than they would on the power? That might just be my inexperience but that's how it seems to me at the moment.
One of the magazines datalogged a load of bikes under braking and found the 899 stopped in the shortest distance. This surprised me. I dont think they lack power so to speak. I think they lack feel and just have a wooden feeling, hopefully the Brembo SC pads i've got to go in will help a bit. Brakes on the new 675R were brilliant. Like you said i found i could outbrake a lot of bigger bikes on it.
