The sad fact is, you likely won’t ever ride a MotoGP bike in your lifetime. Even the best of us, those who become professional motorcycle racers, have such a slim chance of riding these ultralight fire-breathing race bikes, which make north of 250hp.
When you start doing the math on the number of people who have ridden a MotoGP machine, the number is certainly less than the number of people who have been into space (533 have reached Earth’s orbit, by our last count), and this is fairly remarkable.
So with that woeful fact in mind, today we bring you an experience that is likely the closest you will get to riding a MotoGP bike, courtesy of some basic VR technology.
Virtual reality hasn’t quite taken off yet for the average consumer, though the offerings from companies like Oculus and HTC are becoming very intriguing, and more affordable with each revision.
I am convinced that the future of sport will be streaming it in live VR feeds. Just imagine watching a MotoGP race from the pillion position of Valentino Rossi, for example – it will be a game-changer in consumer media, that much is certain.
To give us a taste of that future, the ECSTAR Suzuki MotoGP team set up a couple VR cameras on their Suzuki GSX-RR race bikes, at the recent MotoGP test at Valencia, with riders Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins at the helm.
If you don’t have a VR headset, your cellphone will work just as well, as most modern smartphones have IMUs built into them, and thus can track your motion.
You can also create your own VR headset experience, with Google’s cardboard-made goggles, which are appropriately named Cardboard. Enjoy!
On-Board with Andrea Iannone
On-Board with Alex Rins
Source: ECSTAR Suzuki
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