Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Motorcycle racing/Archive 1

Created 1967 motorcycle Grand Prix season summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Grand_Prix_motorcycle_racing_season Orsoni 12:53, 18 April 2006 (UTC)Orsoni

What should we start first?

I was hoping someone would start a project for Grand Prix. I don't have intimate knowledge of early GP racing but I'm pretty familiar with the late 1980s era to the present. I have a couple racer biographies (Rainey, Doohan, Rossi), a Motocourse (1993-94) book, and a thick copy of Who Works in MotoGP from the 2001 season, to use as reference guides.

Is there any plan of attack you want to start with first? Maybe start some stub articles (e.g. different classes [500cc, 125cc, etc], all the riders, all the tracks, all the bikes) then flesh each one out over time. Create some templates for rider stats and bikes. I'm sure there's a ton more.

Anyhoo, I'm Wadems and I'm ready and eager to help. ♫ Bitch and Complain Sooner ♫ 04:11, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I have a copy of "50 Years Of Moto Grand Prix." It has all the results from 1949 through 1999. I've entered the 1967, 1975, 1978 & 1983 season reviews. It's fairly time consuming. I think Formula 1 has all the seasons entered. It's a lot of typing but I'm willing to plug along as time allows.Orsoni 09:46, 22 April 2006 (UTC)Orsoni

How about scanning (optical character recognition also?) and sharing the pics so that other can read/edit? --Matthead 20:57, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Templates, etc.

I've been working on the Isle of Man TT results pages and trying to add some commentary about each year, so have added the Isle of Man TT template I made to the project page and well as signing up. I know the Isle of Man TT was not always a GP event and no longer is but IMHO should be included.

I also made a new template for the Grand Prix motorcycle racing season and have put it on all the results pages. I was unsure if the top or bottom seemed best so decided the top would allow users to quickly see what pages were available and what is red inked. If you think it should be placed elsewhere, just move it. I feel a template like this is a much easier way of navigating related pages instead of having to first go to the category and then find the appropriate year if it has been linked properly.

Other motorcycle related work has been some biographies, like Stanley Woods and Artie Bell as well as minor editing of other related pages. I see that Orsoni is doing some good work on the GP results but Readro seems to be doing some earlier GP work though he is not signed up here. Cheers ww2censor 18:32, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

He is now :) I made a Race report infobox a while ago. Readro 16:28, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Isle of Man TT course

The locations listed for the Isle of Man TT circuit were all linked to the same topic page, so they are all linked now to the actual Snaefell mountain course article. Perhaps someone can help out with a circuit infobox though someone will have to draw or find a suitable circuit image. TIA ww2censor 19:12, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

While the actual course is named Snaefell Mountain Course, I believe the location should be termed "Isle of Man" with the link being directed to the Snaefell Mountain Course page. Much the same way that the Autodromo Enzo Ferrari is simply known as "Imola".Orsoni 07:46, 29 August 2006 (UTC)Orsoni

That sounds like reasonable logic to me. So, I will change them. ww2censor 13:25, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Rider Biographies

Some of the recently created rider biographies do not comply with the Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons standards. May need some work.Orsoni 07:46, 29 August 2006 (UTC)Orsoni

Are you referring to any in particular, like some of the ones I have started? If so what are the problems you see? ww2censor 13:25, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The Tetsuya Harada page for instance. It's broken down into several categories such as "Early Years" and "International Emergence". Maybe I'm nitpicking but it seems as if this could be covered with a simple paragraph. It also uses the Harada-san monicker which is normally a sign of respect but it wouldn't be something you'd see in an encyclopedia article.Orsoni 14:16, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I've found a biography template to use as a reference. Here is a list of core biographies for use as reference.Orsoni 14:42, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The Template:Infobox_Biography does not seem to fit too well as it exclude much data we might like to include. Perhaps we could modify the Template:Former F1 driver template to suit our requirements. What do you think? I will look around some more. IMHO, whatever we choose should be usable by all motorcycle racers, not just Grand Prix racers. ww2censor 15:12, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The F1 driver template looks good. The F1 pages really seem to be very well done. Here is the page for Alain Prost for example. Particularly impressive is the chart at the bottom of the page showing Prost's results year by year and race by race.Orsoni 03:31, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I've modified the F1 driver template to Hugh Anderson to see what it would look like.Orsoni 04:25, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

My only concern with this template is that its content requirements exclude many other non-Grand Prix racers and some information may not be easily available either. I would prefer to develop a new template, based on this one, that could be used for all motorcycle racers so giving it greater usage. If you are agreeable I can try modifying this to suit. Let me see what I can come up with. BTW, I see you use the US English spelling of encyclopaedia and I should have left it as you wrote it though I prefer British English spelling. Cheers ww2censor 04:19, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I thought I had mis-typed :) Feel free to modify the template to include non-GP riders.Orsoni 04:25, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I've added the complete career results for Kenny Roberts, Jarno Saarinen, Renzo Pasolini and Santiago Herrero to the same standards as Formula 1 drivers.Orsoni 06:40, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Project scope too restrictive?

I've been wondering if the scope of this project is too restrictive for the following reasons:

• There are very few contributors or members
• Some editors who do some work here, like me, have other and often greater interest in older motorcycle racing
• There is no general motorcycle project and it took me 9 months to stumble onto this project

All, or some, of these reasons effectively exclude editors, who may have other motorcycle interests, that would be better served with a project of broader scope and appeal. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to stop or restrict this project in any way but would hope that as part of a wider motorcycle project it would then get more notice, especially if a portal was started. I see others making new pages for motorcycle manufacturers and non-Grand Prix riders; these people are outside of this project.

Does anyone think this is a good idea? I think we should consider developing more interest in motorcycling in general and as a knock on effect I am sure we would get more interest in the Grands Prix. I would suggest starting a Motorcycle project and rolling this in as a part of that project and not in isolation from it. Thought anyone? Cheers ww2censor 14:09, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

On 10 October a motorcycle task force was initiated with User:Seasalt/Project_Motorcycles and Wikipedia:WikiProject/List_of_proposed_projects#WikiProject_Motorcycles for that purpose, without knowing of this task force. I found I liked doing marque histories.Seasalt 11:50, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't know my way around Wikipedia well enough to comment. I stumbled upon the Grand Prix project myself.Orsoni 18:10, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The new Motorcycling WikiProject has been started and we hope you will all join as there is much overlap and much to be done. In fact the Grand Prix motorcycle racing project is really a sister project to the wider one just started. ww2censor 03:18, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

NR500 Article Deleted

There was a nice article detailing Honda's exotic, oval-cylindered 500cc GP racer but, it has suddenly vanished. Perhaps a sensitive Honda employee deleted it?Orsoni 14:27, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

According to the deletion log it was a copyvio. Maybe you can start the article again. Prolog 19:07, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Maybe I will. Definitely an interesting bike. I didn't know about a deletion log. Thanks for that!Orsoni 05:29, 28 October 2006 (UTC)