| Author | Message | ||
     2kx1 |
I think BMW will be on the podium in the next two races. | ||
| Jaimec |
In Vermeulen's defense, Kawasaki pretty much abandoned ALL of their racing programs EXCEPT World Superbikes, and he was told that Kawasaki would be using all of their resources to concentrate on that series and that series alone. Was it really that long ago that Kawasaki was such a dominant force in Superbike with Eddie Lawson aboard? They've fallen a loooooooooong long way, haven't they? When I first started riding in the early 80's, if you wanted to win races, you rode a Kawasaki or you settled for second place. | ||
| Gaesati |
I think that Vermeulen signed on the basis that Kawasaki promised a new bike for 2011 -maybe a bmw beater? On another note if you saw his fall at Phillip Island, which happened in front of me, you would not be surprised that he has ongoing leg problems. His recovery will be fairly protracted as there was fairly major knee damage. It seems he is trying too hard on a non-conpetitive motorcycle. Maybe Kawasaki should have hired Tardozzi. He seems to be making a substantial difference to BMW. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Tardozzi is a real guru. I think he won same races in WSBK for Bimota 20-25 years ago. Chris Vermulen...........what a waste of a rider !! 2011 proves to be too far away for Kawasaki , the present is bad for Kawa and there might not be a 2011 for Vermulen. On the other hand , just look at Checa. He was considered finished in WSBK , he joined a satellite Ducati (slow ,but 100% proven handler)and now he looks as good as anybody , and all he seems to need is a little more power to win. Nevertheless he has impressed experts and fans , which is all it matters. I would like to see Checa aboard a factory Ducati next year , together with a top young&fast rider. Checa looks good at setting up bikes , which seems to be the real problem at the factory Ducati team after they lost Tardozzi. | ||
| Trojan |
On the other hand , what can anybody say about Vermulen ??? It seems that people that were saying that he is finished after he signed for Kawasaki, were absolutely right. The new Hopkins ??? Why signing for a crap factory team , and not for a proven&good privateer team , and then move forward ?? Vermuelen & Sykes signed for Kawasaki on the basis of next years new ZX10 rather than the current model, so are having to endure a bit of a torrid season this year despite kawasaki ploughing more resources into the team. However Sykes has shown that he is faster than Vermuelen even before he was injured, so Chris needs to up his game a lot just to be best Kawasaki let alone competitve with the rest of the grid. With all those Brits , I think that it would be a good finacial move for FIM to organise more races in England. +100.000 spectators maybe ??? Exactly! If they had 6 Spanish riders in the top 10 they would have 6 races a year! The UK has lost Donington Park as a top class venue so now only has Silverstone and brands Hatch capable of hosting WSB really (although it would be fun to see them try and cope with Cadwell Park!). Brands Hatch, despite being the most popular WSB round in terms of spectator attendance, refused to pay the Flaminni brothers the ridiculously inflated price they wanted for hosting the WSB round there so it was cancelled leaving just one UK round unfortunately. It is more annoying that, despite both podiums being a Brit shutout at the weekend, there hasn't been a single mention of the WSB racing on national TV news this week. We have had loads of coverage of snooker (cheap TV) and massive coverage of a UK gold medal in the European gymnastics championship (how many people watched that?) but nothing for bike racing  | ||
| Gaesati |
I think as you pointed out, Matt, Sykes had/has a lot more talent than he was able to show last year. I am not surprised that he has done very well this year when allowance is made for his machinery. With the two irishmen excepted, something must have gotten into the english water supply in the past 10 years. There is an amazing crop of English talent coming through. | ||
| Trojan |
With the two irishmen excepted, something must have gotten into the english water supply in the past 10 years. There is an amazing crop of English talent coming through. I think the talent has always been there, but the opportunities have been limited in the past. Every so often a rider would manage to break out of the UK system and into world series racing (Fogarty/Hodgson/Toseland) and into the European focussed WSB teams, but there have been few opportunities open to the rest of the Brit pack. Now it seems that BSB has become the foremost national Superbike championship in the world and WSB teams are looking for good riders from that championship instead of Spanish CEV or AMA racing. The UK has for years concentrated on production based racing, which is why you can see 6 Brits in the top 12 at WSB but not a single British rider in MotoGP (and just one in Moto2). Hopefully a burgeoning 125 national class and a future national Moto2 championship will redress this balance and we'll see more Brits in GP racing. I've jumped on my soapbox about this before, but UK/USA national organisers really do need to grasp the Moto2 concept and introduce national competitions very quickly before the class becomes just another Spanish dominated series. The Spanish CEV championship has already shown that Moto2 not only works but is very popular at national level, so we need to jump on the bandwagon now rather than in two or three years time. | ||
| Jaimec |
Matt, you think British coverage of motorcycle racing is poor??? Try over here. How else can you explain Valentino Rossi in New York's Time Square walking by almost completely unmolested and unnoticed? In 2006 when Nicky Hayden won the World Championship, less than 1 out of a thousand people would have even recognized his name if they heard it. Last year, with Ben Spies setting the World Superbike grid on fire, your average American had NO idea who he was. Pitiful. | ||
| Blake |
Go Brits in WSB! I like Johnny Rea; gotta jeer Honda though. I'm cheering for Toseland to repeat for the Yamaha team. The other bloke is too little. Would be nice to see Checa win a race or two. Gotta like Camiere (sp?). Sure hope Corser can get on the podium this year for BMW. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Jaimec , please stop this repetition of the Rossi and Times Square example , you have made your point , but I think that motorcycle racing is a relatively small sport worldwide. He would not have been recognised nowhere except Italy. The problem of zero British riders in motoGP , is that while they are great for WSBK , they are not good enough for motoGP. Spies finds motoGP much harder than WSBK that he dominated , so they are 2 completely differerent levels. As soon as a superfast British rider shows up , he will race sucessfully in motoGP. I personally think that Sykes is racing in WSBK , due to his passport at the moment in a British team. | ||
| Blake |
The departure of Ben Spies from WSBK seems to have had the same effect on that series as Mladin's departure had on ASBK. Suddenly a host of competitors are challenging for the win. | ||
| Blake |
"He would not have been recognised nowhere [sic] except Italy." Dude. Are you kidding me? | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Have you shown Rossi's picture in a public street anywhere ??? How many out of 1000 people you think that will recognise him ?? Try the same with Osama Bin Laden's picture and figure out the difference. | ||
| Jaimec |
Rossi gets mobbed ANYWHERE he goes in Europe. It's only in the United States where he's an unknown. ALL of the GP stars say the same thing about the States. In Europe, they're major celebrities. But in this country, they can go about wherever they want completely anonymously and unmolested. I use Rossi as an example because of all the GP stars, he's the MOST well known. The sad fact is, the vast majority of Americans don't even know Ben Spies, Colin Edwards or Nicky Hayden... and they're all AMERICANS. Other people who were superstars in Europe but unknowns here are Greg Lemond and Lance Armstrong (though most people have heard of Lance because he dated Sheryl Crow). In this country, if they don't play baseball, football, basketball, or race NASCAR, they're NOBODY. | ||
| Trojan |
The problem of zero British riders in motoGP , is that while they are great for WSBK , they are not good enough for motoGP. Not necesarilly so. There are (and have been) plenty of European riders in MotoGP that are just there to make up the numbers but have the correct passport (I.E.Spanish or Italian). Some of the younger British riders such as Crutchlow, Haslam, Chaz Davies and Johnny Rea (plus Laverty and Gino Rea - no relation) are very very talented indeed and could probably make a go of it in a decent MotoGP team given time to test and adjust. Most of the Brits that have gone to MotoGp recently with the exception of Toseland have gone into underfunded and uncompetitve teams, so can't really be compared to the likes of Ben Spies who has gone into a top team straight away and is obviously super talented. Toseland is of course the exception and it may just be that he couldn't adapt to riding the GP bikes and is better suited to a Superbike. However the current situation isn't helped by British riders being brought up on a diet of production based machines rather than 'pukka' GP bikes like the Spanish and Italian youngsters get. Add this to the fact that although most GP teams are British based none are actually British owned, financed or run and it is little wonder that British riders don't get the chance to ride in GP. The Brits in 125GP onlygottheir rides by moving to Spain (as did Stoner) and racing in the CEV championship in front of the GP teams. Bring in national Moto2 classes and we'll see more Brits and Americans in MotoGP before long without a doubt. Stick to domestic production racing and we'll just have to dominate Superbikes instead  | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Who is Greg Lemond and Lance Armstrong ???? | ||
| Jaimec |
You're kidding me, right? I can understand Lemond, but Armstrong?? Greg Lemond Lance Armstrong (Message edited by jaimec on April 27, 2010) | ||
| Davegess |
Road racing of any sort but particulary MC road raicng is pretty much unknown in the USA. Michael Schumacher can go anywhere in the USA and no one will look at him twice. Rossi is far below even that level. AS far as 99.99% of the US public is concerned GP racing in cars or bikes is simply a small time sport engaged in by a bunch of wimpy foreigners. No one here pasy attention unless somebody dies. | ||
| Jaimec |
Dave: Or gets involved in some kind of juicy scandal! I figured a lot of people know of Lance Armstrong NOT because he won seven consecutive Tour de France contests, but that the French were CONSTANTLY accusing him of steroids despite the fact they never had any hard evidence. They just couldn't accept that an AMERICAN could beat all of their star cyclists year after year without cheating. Lemond was the FIRST American to win the Tour, and won it a couple of times consecutively but he was never as dominant as Armstrong. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Forgive my ignorance of bicycle racing. | ||
| Firstbuell |
hey Trojan, what a Brit-fest SBK has become! - it must be lotsa fun to see em all up there in front, battling away.... myself, I just wanna see Danny & Jeremy going at it, bar-to-bar, in the 1st-ever XR1200 World Finals !! | ||
| Jaimec |
Vagelis: No worries. Even here in the States where the only sports that matter are the ones I'd mentioned above, most people have heard of Lance Armstrong. I'm just surprised to hear someone hasn't heard of him. My point being, it doesn't matter how well Americans do in sports overseas... if it's not football, baseball, basketball or NASCAR your average American doesn't know the athlete from a hole-in-the-wall. Worse if the athlete in question isn't even American. Max Biaggi lives in California in the off-season and, other than his neighbors, I'm sure no one there knows who the heck he is either. | ||
| Blake |
Golf is pretty big here and elsewhere. Biaggi lives in Cali during the off season? I did not know that. Jaime probably has pictures of them both along with a host of pretty girls. | ||
| Jaimec |
I think golf is big here mostly because of Tiger Woods. If I ever ran into anyone else on the PGA tour, I wouldn't know him from Adam. Never met Signor Massimo, but I've read his blog... that's how I knew about his off-season. I'm sure he has homes in other locales too. But he likes California for the anonymity it allows him. | ||
| Hootowl |
Motorcycle racing is not big in America, outside of the sportbike crowd anyway. We all know these names, but as other have said, they're no one to the average Joe. | ||
| Jaimec |
So... will this be the weekend Corser puts it in the box?? | ||
| 2kx1 |
I would be surprised if he wasn't on the box. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Dunno about that one. Corser seems to fade. WOnder if that Beemer chews up the rubber? Boy, they sure loved that bike in the Masterbike competition. Just read it in Cycleworld(?) | ||
| Vagelis46 |
The journos always rate the latest released superbike as #1. Selling bikes is what keeps their jobs alive. They are part of a "dirty" and "unfair" system. Do you remember the reviews the 1125 got from the journos ?? Very negative reviews that pushed Buell sales down , and never helped the survival of Buell. F#@@\ them !!!! | ||
| Jaimec |
Fresno, Corser admitted in an interview that tire life is an issue with the Beemer. The penalty for all that horsepower, I suppose. |
