mostly in off his head

😉

Damn- no racing for a couple of weeks 🙄
Hang on- more MTB time 😀

Anyway, more Stoner speculation. Guess we have to occupy ourselves with something Moto GP related 😉

Gobert in the rain on that Bimota

I’m off to you tube for a look then!

Crutchlow signs to Ducati for 2 years http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motogp/23536326

I hope it’s a good move for him, and that Ducati get the bike sorted for next year. He clearly deserves a factory ride but only time will tell if Ducati can get back on the front end of races and be competitive.

Unfortunatly for him I think Marquez will become harder and harder to beat and Honda will consider him their No 1 rider next year. I can only see Marquez getting beat by considerably stronger bikes as he gains experience and we may see the kind of dominance Rossi once had.

Crutchlow signs to Ducati for 2 years

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo………….
🙁

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo………….

Ducati/Audi clearly want to get back on the top step and have a plan to do so, but it’s always a gamble for a rider to try and guess which teams will win the technical wars.

I am really excited about Suzuki returning in 2015, always been my favourite team, initially as a Sheen fan as a kid, and then Schwantz.

mixed feelings. He is putting in stellar performances on the tech3 and rightly deserves a factory ride. He missed out on the Duke last year and was vocal in his disappointment. He’s out performing Dovi and the Duke this year- the safe thing would be to quietly wind his neck in and re-sign with Tech3. At least he’s standing by his principles (or pigheaded stubbornness depending on your viewpoint), and better to regret something you have done than something you havent, and live a life of “what if”? Hopefully the Audi broom will mean that ducati finally listen to riders feedback rather than build the bike they think riders should learn to ride, and it’ll come on next year making him a genuine contender in 2015.

The main reason I dislike Stoner so much is that he didn’t seem to enjoy racing, it always looked like a chore

Good article about him in Bike a few months (or more) ago. He LOVED racing, he hated everything else around it.

🙁 oh dear I hope Cal hasn’t just made a huge mistake.

I will look up that article on Moaner, doesn’t ring true though. Even when he won he always had something to gripe about.

I will look up that article on Moaner, doesn’t ring true though. Even when he won he always had something to gripe about.

Yep, I get the feeling that he would have preferred motogp to be a time trial, so he could do the distance as fast as he could without actually having anyone else on track racing him.

Oh dear, I don’t think that’ll be a good move for Cal, more than happy to eat my words if he pulls it off though. **** it, I’ll eat ’em twice.

I get the feeling that he would have preferred motogp to be a time trial, so he could do the distance as fast as he could without actually having anyone else on track racing him

+1 He was always uncomfortable with other people around him.

Good luck to Cal but I think a combo of his 110% balls out style and an unsettled Ducati are going to end in pain.

Probably his only option for a factory bike, and a satellite bike won’t win the title – no-brainer really.

Yeah I’d def prefer to be running around getting 8ths and 9ths on my bling factory ride….

Yeah I’d def prefer to be running around getting 8ths and 9ths on my bling factory ride….

…. or be the one to take the title on it and do what Rossi couldn’t!*

I have no doubt though that Rossi would be the first to shake his hand!

Yeah I’d def prefer to be running around getting 8ths and 9ths on my bling factory ride…

I bet you’d prefer £5m/year rather than pocket money.

+1 He was always uncomfortable with other people around him.

Will have a rummage but having moved house last week may struggle to find the magazine, but remember he moved from Oz to UK as a kid to race competitively and sacrificed a lot. I seem to remember a comment from a manager along the lines of as a teenager he even had to force him to celebrate and physically stepping on the podium didnt interest him. He came across as a misanthrope who lived for riding and racing a bike, but doesnt like being around other people. A sponsors and media nightmare.

I liked him because he was jaw-dropping to watch, successfully wrestling with a bike no one else could fully master and winning on it.

So Crutchlow to Ducati,

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9t_KDGqOmE[/video]

Just hope they (ducati) can get the package sorted for 2014 (not likely TBH) and that he has a very good health care package with the bikes history or ruining careers. 😥

2015 will do.

If “the doctor” couldn’t help sort the Ducati out it does make you wonder what hope Cal has. Can’t see him doing any better than Dovi on that bike, and can’t really see Ducati making any real progress in the next couple of years seeing as they seem to have had the same rideability issues for years now.

If he can still walk by then.

CC and Ducati is a scary match – not known for backing off is he?

As for Stoner:
I don’t care about personality – I want to watch him ride a bike, not fantasize about being his best mate.

I hope he comes back.

I will look up that article on Moaner, doesn’t ring true though. Even when he won he always had something to gripe about.

Ugh this sort of thing is tiresome. Stoner being interviewed was far more interesting than the inane thanking the sponsors and “we make a great race” that you get from some of the more image conscious media savvy riders.

This article was from the start of the year but it seems to me that the fundamentals of sorting the front end grip and feeling might not change. 😕

http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_13010_new_ducati_corse_boss_gobmeier_sees_two_year_project/

One thing he was adamant about was that he wasn’t going to abandon the character of the Ducati in favor of a Japanese clone. It would mean completely chucking out everything they’ve done, including the Desmodromic engine, which is the heart of Ducati. But Gobmeier does want the machine to be more rider-friendly and wants to retire the belief that it’s a bike that only Casey Stoner could ride.

Hope it’s wrong!

On a possible plus side, Cal did win a world championship on a seemingly impossible to ride 600cc Yamaha so hopefully he might be the one other rider to be able to tame the Ducati.

😆 Interviewer: Casey great race, you won by (insert seconds minutes hours days weeks years of your choice) you must be very happy.

Moaner: Look the tyres werent working well and I had a lot of problems with chatter, engine, handling, lack of respect form the crowd, marshalls, other riders, the sun was out, too many clouds, an insect hit my visor, my leathers are a rubbish colour, there is a woman prime minister in my country, that idiot Rudd is back, forest fires, sharks in the water, solar flares, etc etc etc

Interviewer: Uh ok where is someone like (insert name of rider who seems to enjoy racing a motorbike for vast ammounts of cash) and get me away from this humourless midget.

Pigface 🙂

Stoner may have been a moaner but his job was to win races and not to make people like him. He was very good at that and no other rider in the paddock could ride a bike the way he could, and for that he was a major reason why I still watched MotoGP during his time. Would much prefer to have characters like him than the media trained emotionless riders such as Pedrosa and Lorenzo.

Lorenzo emotionless???? I guess you must of missed all the Lorenzoland shenanigans 😆

Little Dani doesnt set the world on fire that is true.

No other rider????? How many times has he been a world Champion? he has won it twice, wasnt a 250 champ or a 125 champ where with out doubt the racing is far more intense.

I want to see people race, he was very very quick but IMO wasnt a great racer.

I guess you must of missed all the Lorenzoland shenanigans

Rossi wannabe but without the humour! 😉

Leaping into that lake was funny. I thought he’d drown.

Wouldnt disagree with that and he was an obnoxious brat, I do like him now though.

One thing is sure thought is that Marquez is a great addition to the Paddock and will spice things up for years to come. And with the addition of Redding and Espargaro, hopefully getting works rides in the near future the class has the potential for some great racing.

Wouldnt disagree with that and he was an obnoxious brat, I do like him now though.

He’s a very good rider but similar to Stoner he isn’t the best at mixing it elbow to elbow. He’s never really been tested in a season long dual with other riders. Both his title winning seasons came at the misfortune of others. Fist one Rossi was badly injured and second one Pedrosa was injured. I know it’s all about consistency and hopefully this season will see a worthy champion in terms of proper racing.

References to Stoner and the Ducati arn’t really relevant now as it was quite a few years ago and everything has moved on, it just happened that year with a bike & rider that were good enough to win, not sure any other riders could have won on it that year, but the ‘yeah it was Stoner on a terrible bike’ just isn’t correct.

Factory rider – yay!
Ducati – Boo!
Loads of money – yay!
Never win a race – Boo!

The Ducati could come good i suppose but it’s unlikely they’ll ever have the best package again. Cal isn’t WC material imo so may as well follow the money.

Cal isn’t WC material imo so may as well follow the money.

Really? Constantly mixing it with the aliens on an underpowered bike! I guess will might not ever find out now. 🙁

References to Stoner and the Ducati arn’t really relevant now as it was quite a few years ago and everything has moved on, it just happened that year with a bike & rider that were good enough to win, not sure any other riders could have won on it that year, but the ‘yeah it was Stoner on a terrible bike’ just isn’t correct.

Last race for Ducati Stoner came 2nd (with 9 podiums including 3 wins that season).

Last race for Yamaha Rossi was 3rd.

The next day in testing Stoner was 1st, Rossi was what? 16th?

It’s relevant. Stoner was another level.

Ah, but now you’re comparing ducati V honda (very sorted) and Yamaha (lovely handling) V ducati. Was the ducati the same package too?

I am not sure what your trying to say with those “facts” but if anything it shows that Rossi is a racer and Stoner is fast on a clear track.

Another level of whinging 😉

The Ducati was that good in 2006 that Bayliss won as a wild card. 2007 it was unbeatable, since then it has been down hill.

How many iterations has the Ducati gone through since Stoner rode until the 2014 package Cal is going to get, is another way of looking at it they’ll be completly different bikes. Also how many changes will have been made to all the other bikes in that time.

Edit: yes that Bayliss win was superb 😀 almost as good as the race with Edwards (in in WSB) in the wet when they both kept falling off and getting back on again 😉

Completely disagree about Cal not being WC material, he can’t do it on a Ducati but I reckon he’d mix it up with Lorenzo/Marquez/Pedrosa on Rossi’s bike no probs.