I often ponder the creatures of my old habit. How it is, we can look at a track, be objective, and find within ourselves, or within the bike a mere .001 second a lap, time and time again. And, to be SO precise that we can do this; cut .001, and again, and again until we have taken a whole .10 second off our time, and maintain that precision. I liken it to the pistol aficionado who can take ANY pistol, of any type and start shooting. And make his groups better. And better. And better still, until he is making one ragged hole in paper.

And then, away from the tester side of me, was the racer side. The one that would say "To HELL with finding .001 second. We are gonna cut a second and a quarter within the next 3 laps, PERIOD!" Ahhh, yes, the ego of a Superman.

And now, we are back to the spectacle of MotoGP. And I watch, intently; as a former superbike and 250 rider. I know what fuels these men, and what their strong points and weaknesses are. And I know the bikes, by watching the different riders. I know the Honda, from watching Marquez, and Pedrosa, and from watching Simoncelli, and the rest. I know the Yamaha, from watching Rossi, Lorenzo, and Crutchlow. I know the Ducati, because No one but Stoner has been able to make it really work.
Which brings us around to the jist of the thread:

Hello, Mr. 12th place. Cal Crutchlow, 2014. Cal has been really close to taking his maiden win on the Yamaha. He has a bike with unquestionable strengths in the chassis. It's pretty easy on tires. It goes pretty fast in a straight line. It does not blow up easily- the motors are strong. And the bike adapts extremely easily to different tracks, with little need for riding style changes.
And then Cal went and signed up with Ducati for 2014........
If Cal Crutchlow has a weakness.... and he DOES... it is his inability to get a good start on a GP bike. Were he able to start with a GP pace, rather than a WSB pace from lap 1??? As I see it, he would have 2 or 3 wins this year. He finishes stronger than an elephant in a peanut eating contest. But he simply is not comfortable with rapid pace starts on a full load of fuel and the loss of feeling and tire/ front end feedback on a heavy, cold bike.
And he signed with Ducati.
To ride a bike that Rossi described as 'Having the front end feeling of a large truck; only not quite as good.'
To Cal, this is a death knell. To Cal, this bike is going to be like a plate of bacon in a mosque.
And, he will ride the bike. And the bike and Cal will not agree with each other. And the bike will throw him at the ground like he was an American football getting spiked after the big score. (Gotta be specific, as Cal is a Brit. Can't be mixing up the football analogies.)

It's amazing that a rider would walk away from a bike that IS capable of WINNING. And, he is in very good steed with Yamaha (Was) and was certain to get his share of works parts for the next season, and was being given the tasks of testing the most current prototype parts, developed for next season.
To ride the Ducati. A bike that is at best, a 5th place machine.... in the hands of a rider as great as Rossi, or as determined as Dovidsio.
Makes you wonder: Does Cal believe he can make the bike work? Does he believe that the factory can fix their chassis? Does he believe that they will make the chassis one which will be adaptable and adjustable?
Or, did they just start piling up Lira in a wheelbarrow so high, he could hardly cart it off in trade for his splitting from Yamaha and tasking himself with riding a bike that is hardly worthy of being a CRT bike? Cal would be better off riding IOM drunk with a patch over one eye, rather than ride the Ducati.

It was nice seeing you at the front. We will sure miss you.
http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/C...i+Team+in+2014

I too was surprised to see the news. Cal has been movin' on up and it has been fun to watch, but like you said, this move really makes you wonder. Yup, Mr. 12th place.

If Cal is going to Ducati, where is Nicky Hayden going? Weren't there some WSB rumors?

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

Money. Duc will try anything, anyone, any amount rather than admit that Stoner/ Ducati combo was a fluke.

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Halfway and one more step

So far, it looks like Nick might have a job over at Colin Edwards' bike ranch.
You have to wonder if he is willing to take a CRT ride. There is no factory place for Nick left. He is not a good development rider, and never really has been. If you look back at his main success, they have always been at the result of stepping onto a machine developed by a rider who was a real master at bike development. With AMA Honda, he rode bikes Miguel Duhamel developed for years and years with Merlyn Plumlee. When he went to MotoGP, he walked right in as Rossi's teammate when Valentino was simply DEVASTATING and at the peak of his craft.
Within 2 years of development without Rossi at Honda, Nick went backwards right off the podium, and was quickly upstaged by Pedrosa.

I feel bad for him, but the only guy to last as long with so little results was John Hopkins. The reason both were able to hang in there and stay employed was they are real, true life racers, and great guys who try very hard, and do not flake out or pull back. They just don't have the speed to get to the front and it's a shame, but that is what it is.

I would dig seeing Nick come back to AMA racing. If he's sick of travel, he just might. If he is looking for a World Championship, he will head to WSB. I think he will find the bikes more manageable, and there is a lot of guys who he will be able to scrap with near the top.

The GP pension plan. Just like Cagiva in the 90's.

This. My understanding is that Cal wanted a true factory deal and Yamaha wasn't willing to guarantee a spot on the factory squad in 2015, let alone next year. In other words, Yamaha doesn't see him as a 1 or 2 in their system. But Ducati does and is willing to pay him.

I think it's all about the factory ride. Agree that Yamaha wasn't going to put him on the facotry team and not sure he was willing to wait it out on the Monster squad. But as far as results, I'm pretty sure Ducati is got going to be the place to go.

Does anyone remember back in the begining of the four-strokes that Ducati WAS turning heads and looking like a true winner and all the press about it (well people seemed to think so in the press). Wow, times have changed.

I feel for Nick. A good guy. I would like to see him head over to WSB.

Cals best chance is to slug it out for a bit on the Duc and maybe hope to move over to the new Suzuki, the same goes for Spies.

Does anybody have any idea when Suzuki plans to return to Moto GP? Next season?

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

Looks like 2015

motogp.com · Suzuki Motor Corporation to return in 2015

I don't follow this as close as I should. I like motorcycle racing. We have a Suzuki T500 that I want to build the engine someday to race at Daytona bike week. I have all the knowledge to make this bike a winner. We have the rider too. I been in touch with one of the best builders in the country and he was surprised I figured what he does to make them run. I learned building dirtbike engines. It's all in the jetting and tuning. Well the cylinder port timing too. Bill

I was not really surprised, but a bit disappointed. Crutchlow has the speed to run with anyone out there right now and the Ducati is going to cripple him.

I like Crutchlow, I like his personality and his straight forward attitude. I hope it works out for him.

Thanks for the link!

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

Nicky Haden; Moto GP Champion.

WOW I really enjoyed reading the op. I, too, am a former rider and very avid motocross fan myself. But the truth for me is that I'm so many decades out of it and so much has changed in the bikes and in the riders and the tracks and the insane air the boys get these days and the stunts they do while they are up there that I'm kind of out of it.

Lemme test your knowledge of ancient history and drop a few names on ya. I rode back in the early '70s. American riders such as Brad Lacky for Kawasaki (let the good times roll), Roger Decoster for Suzuki and Europeans like Haiike Mickala (sp) Not sure if he rode for Bultaco or Mako or who..

I rode a Yamaha 125 puched out to 175 (noguchi kit) and jetted the carburator (are the bikes fuel injected these days ) up to about .125 if I remember correctly. I extended the swing arm and milled the head just a tad for a little extra compression. This bike was HOT.

I also had a Hodaka 125 Which I used for hill climbing It had a 54-tooth rear sprocket and would really scoot up those hills. It wasn't very good for MX because it didn't have the close ratio gear box and a few other things but it was fun in the woods and on the tracks on weekends where they weren't racing. We had several track in our are that were fun to ride and on weekends when there were no races you could pull your rig into the infield and ride the track all day for a dollar.

During my time several developments came along that I thought were awesome and "What'll they come up with next?!?!" Synthetic 2-stroke oil and (gotta remember and love BEAN OIL) That stuff was very popular. By eliminating carbon deposits on Piston heads and spark plug electrodes the bikes all ran cleaner better faster and longer with a lot less tear down and plug replacement. We would go to the races at the Astro dome when the boys were in town and the very distinctive smell of bean oil would fill the air. I love it!

Also during my time we saw the emergence of the mono shock. I think Can Am was the first bike I saw with it and it did look weird to me. But perhaps the most dramatic development of my time was the Honda Elsinore. It was blowing everything else off the track. It was the "pipiest" bike I ever rode. You wanna talk about close ratio gears.... The only problem with it was that if you did ever fall off the pipe you might just as well pull into the infield and kick back and enjoy the rest of the race. I never did get to ride one enough to get really good on it but I was able to feel the muscle when I was in the power band.

I got started in MX because MY new wife's brother was afraid I'd get us killed on the road bikes and he introduced me to MX. He told me that I might get a few bumps and bruises but neither his sister or I would get killed.

I loved it IMMEDIATELY! Something about going 60 MPH 10 feet off the ground with 225 lbs of hot throbbing steel between your legs that will really help you dump a lot of stress. Altogether different from road bikes. I was an instant addict.

Alas and alack, my BIL's comment turned out to be most prophetic. Had a wreck and when the dust settled the bike was 10 feet away and the engine was going full throttle and I was sitting in the dirt looking at my legs. The right leg looked okay. The left leg didn't. It seemed odd that the femur was extended straight down but then it turned outward at the knee just at the top of my MX boot.

That put the quietas on my MX career. The tibial plateau was shattered. I was just 30 years old and too young for a knee replacement so they put me back together with machine screws and sent me packin'. 20 years later I got a knee replacement with a bone graft. I blew that out in 3 years and had it re done. I resumed my road bike riding but let the MX stuff go.

Did I love it? Yes sir! Do I have any regrets? No sir. Would I do it all again? In a heart beat! If you don't ride MX no one can explain that thrill to you and If you DO ride MX or ever have ridden MX then no one NEEDS to explain it to you. It's some of the best times of my life.

I don't have any pics (unbelievably) of the Yamaha but I do have some of the Hodaka. Can't find it right now but I'll run it down a little later and post it up. We bought 3 of them at the same time and the bike shop threw in fee plastic tanks and fenders and Dyno-tuned 'em for us.

Okay, found the pic. That's me on the right on the yellow bike, My BIL on the left on the gray. This was taken, For all those in the Houston area that might be familiar with the area, at a track in Friendswood off I-45 South Circa 1974. Clover Field. There was a small airport out there by that name so that name also stuck to the MX track. No official racing that day just buzzin' 'round the track tryin' to stay out of the way of the 6 year olds on their Honda 70s.

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Real men love cats!

I did a lot of racing too, none of it on pavement. Mostly hare & hound and enduro - back when timekeeping was an art and a science. District 37, So Cal. Started in 1978 and ended in 2000, my last the Elsinore GP.

Good times.

In the beginning......... The Ducati was blessed with 3 things, distinct and very uniquely necessary for them: 1. Loris Capirossi. He always was a spectacular bike developer. And, flat out FAST. Being Italian helped tremendously, because the engineers and Loris were like best friends. They each bent over backwards to get success. 2. The original chassis. Yes, the motor was a bullet! But the chassis was a trellis chassis, and they had not slit their throats playing around with stuff they knew nothing about (Aloominium!!!) The tube chassis are VERY forgiving. And, easy as pie to adjust stiffness. Add a gusset, cut a gusset. I rode a 916 for 1.5 year; the chassis was just so much easier to deal with than almost every other bike I ever worked with, sans the TZ250U. 3. Bridgestone tires. In the good ole days, your GP rider said "I want THIS, and less of THAT. And, Michelin would whip it up on Wednesday, and ship it out on Thursday, and he would qualify with it on Saturday. Seriously, that was how it was. Well, everyone else in GP was on Michelin, and Ducati took a chance with Bridgestone. And, with carte blanche treatment, and one off tires made specifically for the bike and rider, the Ducati could compete.
Now, the tires are spec tires. And, they are made for the Honda and Yamaha base chassis parameters. You can not escape this, it is a fact. Had Stoner stayed on Ducati as champ, they might have made a tire that was closer to what the Duck needed, to feed the champ. But when he bolted, you had the Yamaha with Lorenzo, and Stoner and Pedrosa on the Honda........ How does that go???

"Hello, Bridgestone? Uhh, it's me, over at Ducati, Fillipe Preziosi. Hi, yeah- can we get a tire made for our bike please? Hello?? He-hello....????"

Walkin Jack; I am a bit younger than you, but I have dove abalone here in Ca. with Brad Lackey! Blast from the past. My neighbor for years was the engine builder at Kawasaki who did all Jeff Wards' KX250's and KX500's. Yes, I had THE fastest KX250 of anyone I knew!!!! Literally, too fast. The ONLY dirt bike I have ever said that about.

Ducati really needed to stick with Terblanche's thesis for chassis design and development. The move to Preziosi's designs was a fatal error.

Well, he is a great guy. One of the nicest guys I ever dealt with at Honda. He and Roger do not like sushi; if you take them to dinner, they tend to call it 'Bait.' "That ain't food. That there is BAIT; we use that to catch catfish ta eat. I ain't eating that!" I wish he had a better situation, but he has had a really good career. I hope he goes to WSB and has a long run with plenty of great racing.

He will never win in MotoGP again, so he might as well move on.