legend – Member
Intermittently doesn’t really fit with a bike that won the championship by a country mile.
That would be the 2007 bike with a steel trellis frame, the frame they’d used with success since their debut in 2003….a frame that Stoner won the championship on that year, that Capirossi took to 3rd in the championship the previous season….the frame that even Checa got podiums with in 2005!….the frame that allowed Bayliss to rock up for a one off ride in 2006 and decimate the field….even Barros on a satellite Ducati in 2007 managed a podium on that bike/frame.
The problems with its front end occurred when the class went to a single tyre manufacturer in 2009 meaning Bridgestone were no longer making bespoke tyres for only the Ducati team….and the introduction of the carbon monocoque frame which seemed to exacerbate the lack of front end feel and despite the switch to aluminium recently they have never found the magic they had between 2003-07 again.
Impossible to compare the myriad versions of that bike that have been tried since the halcyon days of 2007….its now a mess and i think even Stoner would struggle on it.
Finally… some brain-cells.
Comparing Stoners championship bike to this one is like comparing a 999 to an 1198. They’re simply different machines.