My question was more sarcasm, theres not a real way to analyze a riders feel and compare it to other riders it is completely subjective.
Everyone I have spoken to says his feel was unparalleled. They all have outstanding feel, the best have amazing feel, but Stoner is said to have been the most sensitive to what a bike was doing.
Other than every time I walk into the local BMW dealer and seeing a bunch of "SOLD" signs on their S1000RR bikes I have no real proof but I believe also that they are selling well.
Really??? Masao Furusawa: There is a big age difference between Valentino [31] and Jorge [23]. Jorge is still young and a 'curious boy'. He is still growing up. So far he has almost no knowledge to develop the bike, to be honest, but I'm very much expecting to look at him for the next couple of years. He is changing a lot. The first year he came to Yamaha [2008] he crashed so many times and he wanted to change the bike. So I talked to him and said 'please, adapt your riding style to the bike'. I said exactly the same thing to Valentino, and Valentino changed his riding style in just 10 seconds. Jorge was new to MotoGP so he took longer. Our advantage with the bike is in smooth riding and being very fast in the corner. Not fast in a straight-line and stop-start style. So Jorge understood and then last year he learnt many things, had almost no crashes and was on the podium almost every time. Now he is so smart. More like Valentino. Also Ben is clever and the combination with the two guys is very good. And, thanks to Valentino again, he and I developed the bike and all we need from now on is just a little bit of set-up and modification. Masao Furusawa reflects on MotoGP career
Thanks for the link. How many mistakes are in this article? 1. Two cylinders? 2. Latest version of the Ducati MotoGP bike? (I believe that two seater is based on the old 990) 3. Brendl? 4............
For a guy who claims not to be a fan of Stoner in particular, Stoner-bashing seems to set you off in a way that Rossi-bashing, Pedrosa-bashing, etc. don't seem to.
I disagree, I think Kropotkin takes exception to people disparaging any riders skills/talent based on their personality. But he can defend himself.
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I think it's fine to be a fan of one rider over another, just a little funny to be coy about it. mdubya: please proceed, Governor. The sock puppet idea is amusing -- which dots are you connecting exactly?
I think what I was trying to say, and not very well, way back there, is that Casey has an almost unbelievable ability to set his bike up for HIM to take it to the max. And this is I think, a well known fact. (I've heard the stories too...). But as for actual DEVELOPMENT, I'm not so sure......But as always, the DATA collected from these sessions will be invaluable. Having said that, Stoners settings that MM uses to start every race weekend seem to be getting him headed in the right direction.....
There are two subjects among MotoGP fans which I find more tedious than anything else. Mindless Stoner bashing, confusing his personality with his ability, and Estoril 2006 (the Pedrosa incident, not the Elias win, or the KRJR last lap mix up, or any of the other awesomeness that marked that race). If you can point me to any Rossi bashing on this site, I'd be glad to complain about that too... As for my own site, I have been accused of being a Rossi fan and a Stoner fan, and of unfairly deleting comments criticizing both riders. As a rule, I tend to delete more anti-Stoner comments than anti-Rossi comments, but that's only because there are more anti-Stoner comments on the site than anti-Rossi comments. And by "anti-" comments, I mean abusive and offensive remarks solely meant to denigrate the achievements of great motorcycle racers, contributing nothing. I have had one poster leave because I deleted all of his anti-Rossi comments (which was just about all he posted), and another leave because I deleted all of his anti-Stoner comments. I suppose I am biased. I vent my annoyance at lazy prejudice because I have to spend more time that I want to monitoring my own website for idiotic comments, and removing them. They just remind me of work...
Nakamoto told Dennis Noyes that Stoner's arrival at Honda transformed Pedrosa. He saw he could ride with a lot less electronics, and got faster when Stoner came. "It's like I have a new rider!" Of course, it also helped that for the first time, Pedrosa had a teammate that was as fast or faster than him. Stoner's period at Ducati clouded people's view of him. They thought Stoner couldn't develop a bike because of what happened at Ducati. One of Rossi's crew said the same thing to me at Qatar in 2011, that Stoner couldn't develop a bike. Two years' later, he made it clear that the problem was clearly with Ducati, not Stoner. They listened to Rossi more than they ever listened to Stoner, but saying that is like saying that Genghis Khan was more of a caring humanitarian than Vlad the Impaler. Might be factually correct, but still meaningless, Ducati didn't listen to either of them much.
Agree+1 It's worth remembering Krop goes to a lot of the Euro rounds. (Possibly all.?). I've been to most, several times, as well as P.I. Being there, trackside, for 3 days, you tend to see, in its purity, FAST! And that bloke Stoner gave it to the Max. It's hard not to notice! Me? I go back to Hailwood, (in my opinion,the bestest...), and so many after. Eddie Lawson being another favourite. Kevin Magee, pure natural talent. Rainey,Freddie! Like, personalities ( or nationalities!) don't come into it. Raw speed does. And Casey Stoner had it in spades. Some people appreciate that.
At this point the Germans could have him develope the bike away from Italy and just slap a Ducati sticker on it.
Great reference. Now, back to a question regarding equipment: how many sets of leathers/helmets/boots, does a rider usually go through a season? I get it when a set gets scuffed up the leathers get retired, but the always look so fresh and new Or do they just dry clean em and stitch on new patches after a fall?