Julian Ryder speaks

This guy never fails to crack me up...the things he writes about MotoGP have such a Continental flair, as compared to the "outsider" feel I get from US writers. The dude is just funny sometimes.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Aug/090830c.htm

Ryder Notes: This is Indy
by julian ryder
Sunday, August 30, 2009

There's work to do for Mr Burgess tonight. Valentino isn't happy with his setting, he can't get the power down, his team mate is faster than him, and Dani Pedrosa is much faster than all of them. The Repsol Honda man has been blindingly fast from the start, wet or dry. Unusual for him, Dani was fast right from the start of the first session, a change from his usual tactic of being invisible in the first session and improving stealthily through the weekend. Pedrosa used the harder front tyre and the softer rear options. Looks like the posse of fans in the grandstand by the press office wearing 'Pedrosa Sucks' t-shirts might be in for a disappointing weekend.

Enough of this tarmac stuff. Most of the paddock was more interested in the mile oval. I saw most of the Tech 3 team, Fiat Yamaha, Toni Elias, Jorge Lorenzo and others examining XR750s in the paddock. I walked in with Ralph Shaheen, who introduced us to Jay Springsteen. Even I, a road race addicted Brit, know who Jay Springsteen is. I watched a couple of heat races from the top of Springer's truck with the great man explaining what was going on to me. It really doesn't get any better than that.

Can someone explain why an XR750 is a thing of beauty when most of the company's products fail any sort of good taste test?

It took a while to find KR's TeeZee, a couple of hundred people were standing around it in the dark. I wondered about the Soup Poll; what would be the equivalent of that monster today? Maybe getting the old Team KR V5 990 MotoGP motor and slotting that in in place of the TZ? But even that could never have the visceral impact of that yellow and black thing. I have never seen a scarier motorcycle.