So can Casey ride yet?

Or is it still the tyres?

 

It's always been the tires / bike combo.... HAhaha!! just kidding!

He's the man! I can't wait to see him battling in Phillip Island next!

I would not have guessed he was this good watching him last year. He
had some good battles at the front, just no results there. Plenty of
crashed last year. He has grown alot since then! A real champion now!!

- Kyle

 

Oh, I don't know. I think he's somewhat unproven. After all, one
championship doesn't mean you're one of the greats. ;-)

That was tongue in cheek, right. Here's a big shout for Casey, 2nd
youngest top class world champ *evaaaah!* And to Ducati for bringing 30
years of Japanese domination of the top class to an end.

 

He can ride but the fact that he's not European means it must be the tires,
folks say. It doesn't help his case that last year he was inconsistent as
hell and suddenly he's Mr. Smooth.

 

I remember he showed some ability last year but to only be over
aggressive and crash out. I don't think he dumped the bike once this
season. I'd say the whole tyre bike theory was over about 5 races in.
These last few races have been promising with the other manufacturers
being able to compete with Ducatti, and something I hope we can see
next year; Rossi-Stoner battles would be awesome.

Byron

 

As much as I love the "prototype" theory (to copy Toby Moody) I'm not sure
two riders can consistently battle head to head if they are not on the same
tire. One brand will always have an advantage given the weather and track
conditions. Can anyone remember the last time we had a good fight with back
and forth passing up to the last lap between two guys on different brand
tires in dry conditions? OK, we've had maybe two this year. But that's TWO
for the year. I think the most we can hope for is the guy behind on tire
"A" at say three-quarters distance catches the guy leading on tire "B" and
there is your one pass for the lead. OK, maybe you have two passes for the
lead so it's two more than F1 but it's not the racing many people love
MotoGP for.

I don't know what to do, but it looks like F1 all over again. Bridgestone
say they like competition but as proven previously in F1, Champ car and the
IRL, they are just as happy to outfit everyone.

 

Depends what kinda mood Rossi's crybaby groupies are in

 

OK, so about the reference to Hayden's 2006 performance... Yes, the
face that he won the championship with only 2 wins durring the season,
and only 3 career wins, does say something. I'm a Hayden fan, but I'm
not going to call him the best ever or something like that. But you
have to say, in a points-based championship consistancy wins. and he
was definently the most consistant last year! I don't think I can
remember one crash or DNF other than the Pedrosa incident.

And lets not forget that Hayden was offered the very bike that Stoner
is on this season, but declined to move to a new factory and new
tires. You could argue this either way... He should have move to
Ducati; look where he might be right now. Or you can argue that he
made the right decision by sticking with his known bike / tire combo
for the move to 800cc. It must have been a VERY hard decision to
make!!

And as far as Hayden sitting back in 3rd or 4th and not getting
involved at the "sharper end"... Remember that he had those recurring
clutch problems all last year. Together with his riding style not
being the smoothest and easiest on the tires, He was probably doing an
AMAZING job to finish on the podium or in the top 5 almost every race
last year!!

On to this season... It's obvious that he has had problems with HRC
(the bike being developed for Pedrosa), along with the RC212V not
making the power to compete consistently. He has changed his riding
style to adapt to the new bike and has made GREAT improvements since
about mid season. And don't forget that Hayden is probably the hardest
worker in the paddock.

- Kyle

 

How do you know this?

 

Yeah, that is what I was referring to. Hayden's determination and hard
work ethic. Not to be taking away from any other rider in MotoGP. I'm
sure any guy that makes it to that level is already incredibly
determined and devoted to his work. I'm just say that as a Hayden fan,
he IS the hardest worker... hahaha

They are all really hard workers. Except for Casey Stoner maybe... I
don't think he even deserves to be in the top class!

- Kyle

 

I think you bring up a good point about consistency and not crashing.
here's a clip from Soup by Spies on that subject this year:

"This year I hit the ground the most I ever crashed in a year, and
that was just the fact that I was having to ride to my absolute limit
every time I got on the bike. Mat and I pushed each other farther than
we'd ever been before. There were so many times I was in the red zone
riding ... it was unreal. Pretty much every race, every lap of every
race. That's just how it was.

"I didn't really change my riding style this year. It was more that I
had to learn to ride at a pace so high the whole race. That's hard to
do. I just had to ride hard. Last year, wherever you qualified, we'd
race about half a second off that. This year, we were just drilling it
every lap. You couldn't worry about conserving tires this year. It was
just all out. I just had to ride my ass off, completely, the whole
race, and fight through little things during the race and try to come
back after mistakes and crashes in practice. Having to ride hard is
all there was to it.

"It's tough when everybody says, "Oh, the Suzuki's such a great
motorcycle." The Suzuki is a great motorcycle, but if you look at all
the other Superbike series in the world, ours is the only Suzuki that
completely dominates. I think it's the team and it's the riders. If
you watch Mat and me in practice, the bike is always wobbling,
shaking, backing in, sliding, doing something. And when you look at
other bikes, they're not necessarily doing that all the time."

I think how hard someone contending for a championship has to ride
comes down to their equipment and what their sutuation is in the
points, and crashing is an indicator of that. Last year Hayden was
really still in a development phase on his bike when he found himself
with a solid championship lead, and then he wasn't going to go too far
out on a limb in races and jeopardize that lead, plus he's just not a
guy who's going to push so hard to risk crashing on a regular basis
(more of a Lawson type than a Schwantz type). He really only made two
notable mistakes all last year, running off track at Donington when he
was pushing toward the front on a bike set up poorly because he'd
tried that new chassis on Friday, and at Assen trying to win that race
in the last corner. And he was pushing very hard at Estoril and
Valencia when he had to, but in both cases that only lasted about five
laps because of circumstances outside his control.

Regarding Stoner, I think his lack of crashes and consistent good
results reflects his equipment more than anything, although I'm sure
he's matured and learned from what happened last year. Last year he
was down on equipment, probably more tires than bike, but also had a
less-experienced team in MotoGP that likely knew the bike less well.
So he had to push harder to stay in contact, and crashed a lot. This
year he hasn't had to push nearly that hard, so hasn't really made
any mistakes. But I don't see a guy who crashed out of the last three
races last year suddenly becoming a whole different rider in less than
six months. It's gotta be the tires, Mike.

So both Hayden and Stoner won championships largely based on mistake-
free consistency; obviously they both have talent and desire beyond
that. That Stoner won his earlier and with more wins is largely based
on him being on relatively better equipment. Had Hayden been on
Stoner's bike this year, he might well have been just as dominant, or
maybe not if it didn't fit his style as well, which Capirossi's
experience suggests. If Stoner was on Hayden's bike and tires of last
year (and he almost was last year), he probably would be crashing more
and making other mistakes, and therefore probably wouldn't be winning
the championship. At least that's my opinion.

 

"Well, we almost had Motegi to ourselves - there weren't a lot of guys
going around out there. We did a lot more work today, testing the new
fairing and some clutch parts. It was not so much parts we might be
using this year but more likely some items for next season."

It looks like the only other guys out there were Vermeulen and three
Japanese testers.

Well, there were plenty of brilliant MotoGP team managers who would
have agreed with you 2-3 years ago...

 

They are all really hard workers. Except for Casey Stoner maybe... I

I was only joking to get a response... but I think you're right about
that.

- Kyle

 

Err. 2 years ago. Stoner is 2nd in the championship getting consistent
podiums, won 5 races that year and was frequently beating Pedrosa. So it
may have been lucky that he was riding for a team that was in both 250
and MotoGP but Ceccinello clearly thought he could ride and took him to
MotoGP. So who were these brilliant MotoGP team managers that didn't
think he could ride then? Luckily for him that's all irrelevant now.

 

My understanding of the path that got Stoner to MotoGP:

1) Stoner was trying to get a seat with Yamaha, with Tech3. Yamaha
finally didn't come to the table on the contract, saying it would be
up to Poncharal to find the money to pay him. Assumedly because Rossi
had left the cupboard bare, and had also driven away Herve's sponsor
(Altadis). Herve apparently was getting enough support from Dunlop,
Dorna and Yamaha to hire Ellison and Tamada, classic nationality-based
hiring by an underfunded team.
2) Honda wanted Vermeulen, and intended to place him on the Pons team.
But Pons also wanted Biaggi, Honda wouldn't have that, Camel/JTI also
wanted Max and then split for Yamaha and Rossi once they learned Honda
had vetoed Max. Pons also bailed once he'd lost his budget when Camel
left; Honda failed to notice because they were too busy chasing Max
out of GP via their Showa suspension on the Suzuki GP bikes. That left
Vermeulen without a defined seat and he signed with Suzuki instead.
3) No Sito and no Chris created the opening for Stoner and
Cecchinello, and Honda brought in a new team complete with rider.

So if that little soap opera hand't played out like that Stoner may
well have been back in 250 last year. And had he not been able to beat
Lorenzo last year, he'd probably still be there. Or now off to WSB, or
the AMA...

 

Sorry, meant Checa and not Tamada...