The 'former best' I speak of is of course the best he could manage last year - fast, but always crashing. Haven't really read the reports yet (I missed the race... poo), but apparently he at least didn't hurt himself.
Deficit to Rossi now: 50 points.
Points he would have had in the last two races without crashing: 50. (+ at least five that he would have snatched off Rossi)
It's sort of sad he can't convert his speed and talent into results - I would still expect the championship to go to Rossi, but it would be much tighter. Rossi is still just as fast, and ultimately better at winning. But he shouldn't be as far ahead as he is.
As it is, the hopes of our nearest challenger are slipping away faster than his bike is sliding down the track.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Riding gear: Shifty experiences
I just wrote an item on my todo list which provided cause to stop and think: haven't I been here before?
Working at MCA I came across a broad range of Shift products and was broadly impressed. They seemed to offer good attention to detail, sensible design - and often they look shit hot as well. There were some reservations by some - but given those people were generally suggesting the European garments with 50-100% more on the price tag, I took these reservations tongue in cheek. And I know at least one with a lot of experience with the product who swears by them.
I am now the proud (...ish) owner of a pair of Shift kevlarred riding jeans, and some Shift sports gloves.
The gloves fit the bill perfectly when I was shopping - I wanted good overall protection, a wrist strap and a pricetage under $200. And they fit 'like a glove'. They were a no brainer, and generally seemed to offer good value. Within a couple of weeks, the stitching on the palmside of the fingers had buckled on a number of fingers - I took them back and they duly got restitched. Within a couple of months, the other hand has pulled apart and remain that way - taking them back is not worth the effort or wait, and I haven't yet gotten around to doing it myself. I am still happy with my purchase, but would be much happier if something was available with the same features and fit and was actually made properly.
The jeans are a reasonable amount cheaper than Draggins (and Hornees again), fit well and look so much hotter. I really like my jeans. Others expressed some reservation, but couldn't really give anything specific. The kevlar is much thinner - but should still do the job, right? Reading that the 'kevlar' pad is actually only 20% kevlar put any such misunderstandings to rest. Oh well, I got what I paid for - ultimately still happy with my favourite jeans.
But... on my todo list now: 'restitch the crotch of jeans". Frankly, I expect further deterioration. Compared to Draggins - or any half-decent jean - which I've heard of people wearing for 10+ years without drama, this is uninspiring.
... you can make your own judgement - with a bit more information than what you might see initially: the positive design elements which drive the sales of the the Shifty brand.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
Working at MCA I came across a broad range of Shift products and was broadly impressed. They seemed to offer good attention to detail, sensible design - and often they look shit hot as well. There were some reservations by some - but given those people were generally suggesting the European garments with 50-100% more on the price tag, I took these reservations tongue in cheek. And I know at least one with a lot of experience with the product who swears by them.
I am now the proud (...ish) owner of a pair of Shift kevlarred riding jeans, and some Shift sports gloves.
The gloves fit the bill perfectly when I was shopping - I wanted good overall protection, a wrist strap and a pricetage under $200. And they fit 'like a glove'. They were a no brainer, and generally seemed to offer good value. Within a couple of weeks, the stitching on the palmside of the fingers had buckled on a number of fingers - I took them back and they duly got restitched. Within a couple of months, the other hand has pulled apart and remain that way - taking them back is not worth the effort or wait, and I haven't yet gotten around to doing it myself. I am still happy with my purchase, but would be much happier if something was available with the same features and fit and was actually made properly.
The jeans are a reasonable amount cheaper than Draggins (and Hornees again), fit well and look so much hotter. I really like my jeans. Others expressed some reservation, but couldn't really give anything specific. The kevlar is much thinner - but should still do the job, right? Reading that the 'kevlar' pad is actually only 20% kevlar put any such misunderstandings to rest. Oh well, I got what I paid for - ultimately still happy with my favourite jeans.
But... on my todo list now: 'restitch the crotch of jeans". Frankly, I expect further deterioration. Compared to Draggins - or any half-decent jean - which I've heard of people wearing for 10+ years without drama, this is uninspiring.
... you can make your own judgement - with a bit more information than what you might see initially: the positive design elements which drive the sales of the the Shifty brand.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Stoner's mystery illness continues to take its toll
It appears Stoner's apparently improving competativeness belied a condition far more serious than optimists like myself had expected.
http://tiny.cc/YEASf
http://tiny.cc/AuUaK
Ducati have confirmed rumours of Stoner sitting out at least three races.
It's really sad to see Stoner resorting to sitting out races. His attitude on the track and in front of the press had been extremely negative for a while - contrasting his mature performances at the start of the year. I was hoping, like many, that a few weeks' break would see a further improvement of his condition and increasing competativeness at rounds at which we could expect strong performances.
It's not to be it seems.
The most disheartening factor is that we still have very little indication about what is causing his condition, and with news like this it becomes apparent that his problems are much more severe than tiredness over race distance.
All hoping he has recovered for the final string of rounds starting in Portugal, and in particular can have another strong performance at home at the end of October.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
http://tiny.cc/YEASf
http://tiny.cc/AuUaK
Ducati have confirmed rumours of Stoner sitting out at least three races.
It's really sad to see Stoner resorting to sitting out races. His attitude on the track and in front of the press had been extremely negative for a while - contrasting his mature performances at the start of the year. I was hoping, like many, that a few weeks' break would see a further improvement of his condition and increasing competativeness at rounds at which we could expect strong performances.
It's not to be it seems.
The most disheartening factor is that we still have very little indication about what is causing his condition, and with news like this it becomes apparent that his problems are much more severe than tiredness over race distance.
All hoping he has recovered for the final string of rounds starting in Portugal, and in particular can have another strong performance at home at the end of October.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
Friday, August 7, 2009
'Teq' talk: Beaches Blat
Doing a little bit of sitting, waiting for departure - so figured I'd at least do some sitting while I'm riding.
I wasn't 100% happy with my technique last weekend down Mac Pass, so I wanted to work on a couple of things.
Entries are the bottleneck of my technique. I exit well enough, but I generally feel slow mid-corner, and that's because I enter poorly - not because I'm not happy leaning. Even accounting for a sensible and conservative 'slow in fast out' approach, by mid-corner it is so often obvious I am travelling too slowly.
Part of the problem is that I usually run the brakes quite late. I am happy doing it, and still maintain that it is a useful technique to be comfortable with. But the SV doesn't handle the easing-off process that well - and neither do I frankly - and I don't deal that well with the busy process of entering and appropriately judging speed. I'm always conservative if I'm not concentrating appropriately on my line through the corner.
So, today I went about improving that. It was a little hard picking out some suitable roads, so I resolved to just ride to the beach, and managed to randomly generate some corners.
Without going particularly quickly, I was pretty happy with the smooth lines and effective approaches I made - given a largely suburban corner set. No breakthrough, but I felt good. No big changes to riding technique ('teq'), but a revision of focus and mindset had a huge impact on experience. And of course a noticeable difference in the corners.
Another realisation I had on the road today is that corners in the suburbs often aren't 'corners' at all. Intersections, dead-ends, roundabouts and other obstacles are all great opportunities to enjoy riding - and practice teq - and are often safer and more predictable contexts to do so than narrow, blind and unpredictable corners. So maybe the next ride I plan I won't be looking for the twisties at all.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
I wasn't 100% happy with my technique last weekend down Mac Pass, so I wanted to work on a couple of things.
Entries are the bottleneck of my technique. I exit well enough, but I generally feel slow mid-corner, and that's because I enter poorly - not because I'm not happy leaning. Even accounting for a sensible and conservative 'slow in fast out' approach, by mid-corner it is so often obvious I am travelling too slowly.
Part of the problem is that I usually run the brakes quite late. I am happy doing it, and still maintain that it is a useful technique to be comfortable with. But the SV doesn't handle the easing-off process that well - and neither do I frankly - and I don't deal that well with the busy process of entering and appropriately judging speed. I'm always conservative if I'm not concentrating appropriately on my line through the corner.
So, today I went about improving that. It was a little hard picking out some suitable roads, so I resolved to just ride to the beach, and managed to randomly generate some corners.
Without going particularly quickly, I was pretty happy with the smooth lines and effective approaches I made - given a largely suburban corner set. No breakthrough, but I felt good. No big changes to riding technique ('teq'), but a revision of focus and mindset had a huge impact on experience. And of course a noticeable difference in the corners.
Another realisation I had on the road today is that corners in the suburbs often aren't 'corners' at all. Intersections, dead-ends, roundabouts and other obstacles are all great opportunities to enjoy riding - and practice teq - and are often safer and more predictable contexts to do so than narrow, blind and unpredictable corners. So maybe the next ride I plan I won't be looking for the twisties at all.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
Thursday, August 6, 2009
MotoBlog developments - digression from the mean
Just a quicky - because I know none of you are crash hot on commitment - I think I have decided the direction for the blogs breakdown. All travel stuff - including the motorcycling aspect - will be posted on 2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com. Only stuff specifically of interest to motorcyclists will be posted here. That means:
Discussions on technique, technique introspectives, and other aspects of rides that will only really resonate with the bikers among us. Stuff on the MotoGP. General bike things. Anything about riding that I don't want my mum to read...
Included in all that technique talk is implicit the idea of developing my ability to help other people with their riding. I am by no means an expert or a pro, and really I'm not that fast or otherwise extraodinarily skilled. Anyone with the right attitude could get to a similar point to me with a year or two of experience. But I am proud of the skills that I have developed, the mature approach I take to riding, and the level of safety and confidence with which I ride. Ultimately, these things I have learnt not through excessive experience (I have gained them mainly through about two years worth of riding, over the last four years), and certainly not through innate ability, but through an introspective and analytical perspective and approach to developing my riding.
This background should make me suitable for helping other people to work on their riding. Should - to be honest, while I like to talk to people about their riding, I don't know much about actually helping them to ride, and can think of few instances of having a concrete impact on anyone's riding.
I had approached James Spence a year or two ago about getting involved in the rider training they do at their race schools - ultimately I didn't have the time, so I didn't really progress down that avenue. Being on the road, it is obviously difficult for me to do anything along those lines, though when I settle down anything that I can work around fulltime work could be a good option.
In the meantime, there will be this blog. I don't know how much help I can offer, but I can certainly think out loud, and we can see where to go from there.
In the news, you might also have heard a couple of details: firstly, I will be leaving Sydney next Thursday - it has gotten to the point where I may as well hang around in Sydney till my sister gets back from overseas. I have also been offered a job with the Victorian Auditor General's Office (VAGO), as a Performance Audit officer/analyst. Their GRAD Scheme starts in February next year, in Melbourne of course. I haven't said yes, but I will, and as long as my second reference doesn't stab me in the back I will be fine.
So this trip, really is a departure - my return home won't be to the home I am departing. And it really is a holiday! Not just an extension of an uncertain future.
Chin chin - don't forget to nod.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
www.jsbaxter.com.au
Discussions on technique, technique introspectives, and other aspects of rides that will only really resonate with the bikers among us. Stuff on the MotoGP. General bike things. Anything about riding that I don't want my mum to read...
Included in all that technique talk is implicit the idea of developing my ability to help other people with their riding. I am by no means an expert or a pro, and really I'm not that fast or otherwise extraodinarily skilled. Anyone with the right attitude could get to a similar point to me with a year or two of experience. But I am proud of the skills that I have developed, the mature approach I take to riding, and the level of safety and confidence with which I ride. Ultimately, these things I have learnt not through excessive experience (I have gained them mainly through about two years worth of riding, over the last four years), and certainly not through innate ability, but through an introspective and analytical perspective and approach to developing my riding.
This background should make me suitable for helping other people to work on their riding. Should - to be honest, while I like to talk to people about their riding, I don't know much about actually helping them to ride, and can think of few instances of having a concrete impact on anyone's riding.
I had approached James Spence a year or two ago about getting involved in the rider training they do at their race schools - ultimately I didn't have the time, so I didn't really progress down that avenue. Being on the road, it is obviously difficult for me to do anything along those lines, though when I settle down anything that I can work around fulltime work could be a good option.
In the meantime, there will be this blog. I don't know how much help I can offer, but I can certainly think out loud, and we can see where to go from there.
In the news, you might also have heard a couple of details: firstly, I will be leaving Sydney next Thursday - it has gotten to the point where I may as well hang around in Sydney till my sister gets back from overseas. I have also been offered a job with the Victorian Auditor General's Office (VAGO), as a Performance Audit officer/analyst. Their GRAD Scheme starts in February next year, in Melbourne of course. I haven't said yes, but I will, and as long as my second reference doesn't stab me in the back I will be fine.
So this trip, really is a departure - my return home won't be to the home I am departing. And it really is a holiday! Not just an extension of an uncertain future.
Chin chin - don't forget to nod.
--------
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
www.jsbaxter.com.au
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Money sinks which aren't too deep
Just a heads up to the avid consumers among you,
Aldi have their motorcycle gear in stock again. Having looked through it all none of it really excites me, EXCEPT the tank bags, which are certifiably awesome and awesomely cheap. It's been about a year now that I've had mine, and it has not fallen apart at all - including the inbuilt rain cover and assorted straps -, has shown no sign of fading or other wear or tear. Its assortment of pockets and ziptogether options are as good as any, it functions as a backpack/regular bag, has an additional hightening compartment which can function as a separate shoulder-bag - all sections of which (plus a separate base) have a clear top for the maps... Head to Aldi with $60 in your wallet and get one. (Yes it's $10 more exxy than last year.)
Deus have a decent range of older/winter stock going quite cheaply at the moment. You thought USydMC club shirts were the only wearable Ts you can get for $5!? - you're right, because the Deus ones are a horrible yellow (but they are $5, and they do have a Deus tag).
Of course, you could pay $99.95 for new-season boardshorts (minus 10%? for a USydMC discount perhaps), but I know none of you are that trendy.
@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
