http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/9168568.stm

It will be intresting to see his development within Ducati. Ps, thanks for website tips going to have another build/upload session when I have time. Hopefully at the weekend.

It’d be interesting to see ANYTHING happening there at the moment!!! 😉

Has Rossi taken Jeremy et al with him?

Yes, Burgess and the rest of his crew have gone red too.

Has Rossi taken Jeremy et al with him?

Yes, Burgess and the rest of his crew have gone red too.

For a moment I thought you ment TJ from this forum, imagine TJ preaching about how to ride a motorbike to Rossi!!

Thanks iDave didn’t know they were gonna show it.

It’ll be great to see Rossi on the Ducati. I wonder if they’ve already changed the HUGE picture on the wall of the Bologna Factory from Bayliss to Rossi?

I hope Rossi/Burgess and crew will develop the Duke in the same way that they turned the M1 from also-ran to winner in a few months. They’re already starting from a better point although it’ll be intriguing to see how much/little Traction Control they employ as only Stoner has been able to master the 800cc machine and he did that with minimal electronic trickery.

imagine TJ preaching about how to ride a motorbike to Rossi!!

You don’t wanna do it like THAT!

For a moment I thought you ment TJ from this forum, imagine TJ preaching about how to ride a motorbike to Rossi!!

DON’T do that! My tea almost spurted through my nose when I read that 😆

High lights on Eurosport later?

Highlights for the two days are being screened on Eurosport on Friday, not sure of the time though.

They’re showing the last 6 races from 10:45 and the 30 mins of test highlights are at 16:45 on Fri.

Thanks for the live link!

With the M1 Rossi was king in the eyes of Yamaha, he and JB (and his team) had the scope and leeway to make substancial changes. I wonder if Ducati will be willing to allow such changes on thier baby. I think It will either become a stubborn stand off or a dream combination.

Black and fluoro yellow! Interesting colour combo! (yes, I know why…)

Interesting point, Catflees46. In Italy, Rossi is regarded as somewhere between Pope and President and he left Honda because he wasn’t allowed his own way. So I’d think Ducati would be happy to let him make changes and would want him to have as much input as possible, given his record. On the other hand, Rossi is well aware that Ducati don’t have resources like the Japanese factories and the bike he rides today is pretty much what he’ll start the season on.

Clubber – why is Rossi in black and yellow? Is it because he’s not officially signed over sponsors or something?

Between racing seasons bikes are generally plain becasue the sponsors and colourschemes for the next season aren’t finalised, I believe….

Not quite PP – contracts are typically for the whole calendar year. Yamaha kindly agreed to let VR test with Ducati before the end of the year (when he was contracted to) but typically to avoid upsetting sponsors, they’ll insist on them testing with no logos/brand colours.

Yep Yamaha let Rossi out of contract early to test for Ducati, iirc he’s going to have his shoulder operated on shortly, so won’t be able to test again until early next year now.

Clubber – why is Rossi in black and yellow? Is it because he’s not officially signed over sponsors or something?

The season hasn’t ended, he’s still a contracted Yamaha rider. If he appears riding anything other than a colourway that could be described as something that would be normal on the Yamaha (and he’s worn fluoro yellow before) then he would be breaking his contract. The plain black bike is allowed as it’s what they all look like in pre season testing…

Pissing myself @ PeterPoddy! Soooooo funny 😉

With the M1 Rossi was king in the eyes of Yamaha, he and JB (and his team) had the scope and leeway to make substancial changes. I wonder if Ducati will be willing to allow such changes on thier baby. I think It will either become a stubborn stand off or a dream combination.

Ducati have hired Rossi cos they want to win again. A few years ago, they knew they had a bike that could win in the right hands (Capirossi then Stoner), now they don’t. They could afford to be arrogant back then, now they’ll be prepared to do whatever is necessary

You DO NOT employ someone with the God like abilities of Rossi to sit down and do what he’s told. You mark my words, Rossi in combination with Burgess and the rest of his team will make a dominant bike out of the Ducati. Maybe not the first season, but it will happen. He has the rare ability not only to be a fast rider, consistently, but to be able to move the game on with his technical understanding and his ability to work with the engineers. He’s like Ayrton Senna was in F1 in that respect, he understands the bike and can fault find and problem solve and work with the engineers to make it significantly better. Only he’s also more consistent on track than Senna!

The off season will give him the chance to fully recover from his injury too (IMO he got back on the bike too quickly, but that’s Rossi for you, he bloody lives for riding a bike!), pre-season testing in February/March is gonna be VERY exciting…

Next season is going to be Awesome! (sorry)
How will Lorenzo fair without JB and Rossi to help with Yam. development?
How will Stoner Gel with the new bike?
Hope Rossi and Burgess sort the Ducati and kick arse again!
Keep an eye on Simoncelli (sp?) too

Next season is going to be Awesome! (sorry)

Is Smurf Matt going to be racing?

I heard that TJ told Rossi not to bother with a helmet 😆

Test bikes-vehicles are also traditionaly black to offer some animosity to the manufacter, obviously nit so much in recent times, it’s also more difficult to identify subtle changes if it’s all black, in White for example is easy to see differences. Due to these traditions and as a result of the other reasons People have mentioned above, all test bikes are most commonly black, it also denotes a test vehicle and won’t necceserilt offer the performance of the completed product. Another angle is sponsers don’t want thier names on something that’s going in the gravel… Unless they used to sponser Chris Walker

Stoners Honda looked nice and Capirossi’s Ducati to. Lorenzo looks like he will be riding with no 1 on his plate next year. Nice to see it back on a bike!
Bradley Smith didn’t seem to like the Moto2 bike but he had just stepped off the 125 the day before, so it would come as a shock.
Stoner went quick from the off but no surprise there. The guy is VERY talented.
Should make next year interesting. It needs it though as this year MotoGP was a let down but Moto2 was awesome!