Loose wheel

Last week during WSBK's Donington Park round, Maxime Berger had a strange moment when its Ducati lost its rear wheel. Watch the video.

Looking at this video, you would certainly think that this is due to a loose wheel bolt, but staring closely to (copyrighted, not the one below) pictures of the crash, you could see the wheel spokes were actually cracking !

Sunday ride

With descent weather back, it's time a for us to arrange Sunday rides. So the season started last Sunday with our first escape. This is Gregory, a good friend of mine, on his Aprilia Shiver GT and the BMW R1100S standing still at a gas stop which we actually started the ride with ...

We took some of the nice roads around my place. I think we were both happy with this one. Me riding in "wander mode" for once allowing to enjoy the landscape and him working on his corner entries while dealing with gravel sprinkled roads. Maybe it was funnier for me then ... :D

New kit

My old trusty Dainese boots are about to retire ... at last. These have beenfaithfully with me for almost 10 years whatever the bike, wherever we rode : from simple roadsters to advanced soprtbikes, from winter frozen road in the North to hot summer melted track tarmac in the South. They evan survived 3 crashes while saving my ankles and toes.

Farewell boots ... Welcome to a brand new pair of TCXs.

The comparison speaks for itself

Get a grip

Tired of slippery manholes waiting round the corner ? Think there's nothing you can do against that kind of surprise on a wet day ? Here's something to change your mind : the "Get a grip" petition.

Go sign it or stop complaining.

Watching MotoGP

Sitting in my couch watching the first MotoGP round of the 2011 season.

It looked promising on the paper with Bautista bringing Suzuki where they haven't been for 10 years - he then badly highsided in free practice -, Rossi on a still-to-impress Ducati (but certainly on the good move) and Simoncelli riding on super fast pace mode on his private Honda. It eventually turned out to be a rather boring race which looked so 2010 :

- De Puniet crashed in the 3rd turn (hurting Capirossi). This points actually looks so 2009, 2008 and 2007 as well ...

- The entry list was as short as ever

- Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa were in front from the start

MotoGP is back folks ! Let's hope this race is not a preview of what the rest of the season could look like.

Braking

Restoration to drool for

Click the link below if you want to drool looking at a ZX7RR restoration performed by a real fussy spoiled boy. Not only this rather rare bike receives the restoration treatment it deserves, but it also gets shiny tasty performance parts in the same process. Really nice to look at. Check it out here.

Could the TRX be back ?

Rumors are growing around a possible return for the Yamahe TRX. Back in 1995, Yamaha tweaked a XTZ Super Tenere 750 to build 2 new motorcycles, one being the TDM, the other what was Yamaha's attempt to hunt on Ducati's Supersport territory. Despite not being their best selling bike, the TRX wasn't a bad horse at all.

Now with the new 1200 Tenere out, could Yamaha do the Super Tenere trick once again more than 15 years after ? It may not be that obvious, but the factory released a few protective patents that could let us hope for such a launch to happen.

Read (a bit) more on Visordown.