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From Superbike Planet: Rossi's statement is as follows: "Marquez knows it wasn't red mist that caused the incident. It's very clear from the helicopter footage that I didn't want to make him crash, I just wanted to make him lose time, go outside of the line and slow down, because he was playing his dirty game, even worse than in Australia. When I went wide and slowed down to nearly a stop, I looked at him as if to say 'what are you doing?'. After that we touched. He touched with his right underarm on my leg and my foot slipped off the foot peg. If you look at the image from the helicopter it's clear that when my foot slipped of the foot peg, Marquez had already crashed. I didn't want to kick him, especially because, if you give a kick to a MotoGP bike, it won't crash, it's very heavy. For me the sanction is not fair, because Marquez won his fight. His program is OK because he is making me lose the championship. The sanction is not good, especially for me, because I didn't purposefully want to make him crash, I just reacted to his behavior, but I didn't kick him. You can't say anything in the press conference, maybe it changes something, but to me this was not fair, because I just want to fight for the championship with Jorge and let the better man win, but like this that's not happening. Like I said, I didn't want to make Marquez crash, but I had to do something because at that moment Jorge was already gone. The championship is not over yet, but this sanction cut me off by the legs and made Marquez win."

MM was on the way down before the leg. I agree it wasn't Rossi's greatest moment, nor was the Thursday press conference. But MM could easily have avoided the crash as there was still plenty of track available. Lorenzo screaming for points to be stripped from Rossi show what a tosser he is as that's not a way to win a title. I think the punishment against Rossi was to prevent the conflict to escalate before it reach Biaggi/Rossi dimensions. Can only hope Iannone manage to hold Jorge out and prevent him from turning into turn 1 so that Rossi and Jorge will both have to work their way through the pack. Then the best man will win, not the one avoiding penalty. And it's not like MM and Jorge has been free from making others crash over the year, exactly. Remember at Qatar this year when MM literally cut through Bautista's bike on his way back up the field? That's just one of many, many accidents created by MM.

In this video, it should be clearer - well, it is to me... - what I mean. Race starts around the 50 minute mark.

Looking at Rea, he seems to have his back far more errect, sitting tall with a straight back whereas almost every other racer is hunched over the tank with a rounded back. He also appear to way longer before he leans into a corner. Or am I just seeing things?

Read this with interest, from today's QP at Motegi,

Thanks for sharing, very interesting! Trivia: Cycle World magazine had a large article in their May, 1978 issue about one of their editors being trained by Keith and his experiences with that. The journalist rode a KZ650B.

Great photo

Wrong. It says "I'm mad, watch me smash the windscreen".

This was very evident when McWilliams put the KR 500 two-stroke triple on pole against the 990 four-strokes at Phillip Island - in the race the faster litre bikes simply powered past him and held him up in the corners, and he finished way down the order.

There are aliens in most individual sports, people who has that little bit extra that make them into regular winners. The data before cirka 1975 is less representative because most bikes/riders were privateers.

I recall the Dunlop D205 (something few if any of you have ever considered for anything) made the bike flop on its side quickly, the requiring a lot of effort to lean further from a particular angle. I liked the instant reaction, but strongly disliked the way the steering effort changed with lean angle. I very much prefer tyres that feel neutral from upright to full lean while offering the least amount of steering effort delivering that sensation.

I have found that staying off the brakes as much as possible and not charge into corners have done wonders for my smoothness without slowing my progress from what I can tell. Using only the throttle for the majority of my deceleration is a far more relaxed way of riding than braking late and hard and keeps the momentum up and the suspension happy.

The CB400 has no torque worth mentioning. It does carry a low gearing, though. And it is easy to ride. On a Gixxer or S1000RR, you will just sit in first gear as that will cover the same speed range as the first 5 gears for the Honda 400. The tall gearing can be an issue, though, as on a 1:4 hill coming out of a 20-30 mph corner a litre bike race rep will likely has less acceleration available than something like an SV650. Even worse is the riding position, which on race reps are targeted towards high speeds, not hairpins. MOTORRAD many years ago tested many types of bikes in the Alps, and the Ninja 636 could not keep up with the V-Rod going up because the corners are so short that cornering clearance isn't vital. But the V-Rod was much easier to stop and would stomp out of every corner, giving it advantages that could not be made up through the corners. Downhill, in the rain, no bike could keep up with the simplistic Kawa ER-5, a 50hp twin, because it was so easy to ride and power was of less importance than going up. Personally, I have enjoyed hard street cornering for decades, but recently have - finally, after too many accidents in injuries - found pleasure riding with much greater safety margins. You can ride as hard as you want on the street as long as you always make sure you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear. However, when the juices start to flow and you enjoy the brisk riding, it is oh so easy to ignore that and start cornering much faster than that, meaning a blocked road around a blind corner can be the last thing you will ever see. Lately, I have had tons of such and similar situations appear, situations that would have ended horribly had I been flying at the sort of pace I have practiced for most of my time on the road. As to your questions about technique - I think it is important to ride in a manner where you feel in control, otherwise I cannot comment since I am not skilled enough. It boils down to whether you want to achieve the ultimate satisfaction or the ultimate speed as they are not always related.

Brass balls. As an old git, I am less and less keen on risks, but even as a crazy kid I would have backed off if my bike began acting like that at warp speed. (Not that I would ever have reached speeds like those). Only GP rider I can recall who regularly had his bike protesting and weaving like that was Gardner, especially in the 1986-88 years. Currently, MM is the one most out of shape. But he has far more run-off area avilable to him!

Martin may be that of a carving knife and a chain saw - but like the chain saw, Martin makes for more action

Crash.net: What would you say has been the toughest thing? Was MotoGP how you imagined? Loris Baz: Mostly yes. I knew it was going to be hard and also I knew I just needed time. In Sepang 2 we were continuing to change the bike for my size, longer seat and things like this, while everyone else was working on set-up. If you don't have a good position on the bike it's hard to think about the set-up because you are not feeling comfortable. Even at Le Mans we had another new, higher seat and I felt better again. My seat is now ten centimetres longer than Bradl's and six centimetres higher, and I weigh 20kg more than him. When you are 20kg heavier and a bike ten centimetres longer, it changes everything in the middle of the corner. Especially on this bike, you just change 1mm and it changes nearly everything! So to change 20kg and ten centimetres you have to go to some settings that Ohlins, the crew chief and everybody have never used before because there are only small riders. So you have to fight and also Adrien, who has followed me for twelve years now, helped me. He can talk with the team because he knows me and he knows that we can go really far in the settings for me. Crash.net: So you've gone with your own settings? Loris Baz: Yeah. Really hard in the rear for example, but that's normal. Because I'm not fat, but I'm heavy! Crash.net: Has your size been much of a disadvantage? Where do you gain and where do you lose? Loris Baz: I lose in the straight and that's always been the case. But I was one of the guys that always braked hardest in Superbike and I think that's the same here. I think that's coming from my size. I have more wind resistance [when sitting up] that can help you to stop. Also my size can help in change of direction. I've never seen my size as a disadvantage. You just have to work to adapt the bike. Marco Simoncelli was 1m 83-85. Honda believed in him, gave him the bike, did things like wind tunnel work with him. And he was fast. If you have a team that believes in you and supports you, you can be fast.

So we're getting close to 70 degrees of effective lean, although only for brief moments. Pretty spectacular.

You are probably spot on about the tester pushing the bike down to achieve the bike lean on the old K75. What would you estimate the actual, combined lean angle is when Lorenzo has his bike leaned over 64 degrees in addition to hanging off?

In theory you are correct, but in practice it seems to be a difference. It would be interesting to watch the suspension compression when circling at let's say 50 degrees of lean doing 10 mph vs 100 or 200 mph, to see if it stays the same and that speed really doesn't matter. I know that when MOTORRAD did their test with the K75, it was at a very low speed, like circling inside a garage, and they said it would be impossible to achieve the same thing at higher speeds as the tyres would begin to slide before they reached 45 degrees and also ground clearance was used up before they could reach 45 degrees.

No, I think you can coast - at a moderate speed - around a corner leaned to about 60 degrees on a coarse surface, but if you try to feed extra forces in you're likely on your arse pretty quickly. The faster you go, the less lean can be used before you start to slide.

Way back in 1987, MOTORRAD managed, at low speeds, 52 degrees of lean with a BMW K75 riding on Metzeler touring tyres. I'm sure the racing tyres of 25 years ago would tolerate more than that. What they wouldn't tolerate to the extent of modern rubber is additional forces at big lean. Current race rubber offer lots of grip for acceleration or braking even leaned to 50 degrees, back when you would more or less have to coast.

Oh, sure, I have. Elbow, shoulder, hip... ouch!

Once you find a tyre you like and that doesn't limit you, my experience is to stick with it, so IMO you're doing the right thing about the Metzelers.