St. Stephen

What a great photo Philois! An image most of us probably think of when we hear the phrase great mc road. Three years ago I rode...err...OK, drove, Gilles/52. In a crummy rental car. But wow, I know you have some motorcycling fun in store! I am incredibly fortunate to live near some first class roads here in NorCal, but I dream of the perfect pavement you folks in AUS and NZ have. Send us some of your roadway engineers!

Yup, first lesson of the BRP is head downhill when fogged in. You can walk faster than you can safely ride. Here's Blowing Rock, late April:

Mugello 2017. OMG. To see Rossi lead the race at Mugello is like nothing else in this world. I thought I knew, but I didn't. Dovi wins. First podium for Petrux, in tears. FP2 I was above turn 1 and saw Marquez brake too late from 215mph and slide all the way through the kitty litter. Bounced right up. The wild insanity of the crowd was addictive, and the outpouring of love for Nicky, who had died (in Italy) two weeks prior was overwhelming. Anyway, here's a few photos: If you can read Italian you will laugh: Turn 1. 60 seconds of silence for Nicky (can't quite photograph through two chain link fences like Jelorian). I got a chill. Mugello grid! Race is over. I wasn't happy parking the rental Fiat 1.5 miles from the track, but this walk (pilgrimage?) turned out to be a blast. BTW, June 4th was our wedding anniversary. I married the right girl!

As I understand it you purchased a VFR. A week later you again purchased a VFR. You're committed. Just make sure that suspension fits your weight and riding style. Jamie or Ohlins, can't go wrong.

BLS, you and Dutchy are shameless name-droppers...I love it! The cool thing about being a motorcycle road racing fan in the U.S. is access. Outside of the track no one recognizes these guys. I was at the Indy airport Monday morning after the 2010 gp and bumped into Ben Spies (and his mom, what a trip!). We had a nice little chat, where I advised him to get better starts when they got back to Europe. I'm sure he valued my wisdom. 😁

Yeah, 2019 LS WSBK was fun. But I recall wondering this past winter if I had attended the very last world championship road race ever at Laguna Seca when they cancelled 2020. Motogp bikes getting too fast, the buffoons in Monterey County who got rid of SCRAMP--who knows? Anyway, to add to your great pics, a couple more: Corkscrew dad: Alex Lowes rear rubber inspection. Jordi again, animated as always: This suspicious crew member obviously thought I wanted the Ducati. He was right!

Great shots Lazyeye! In 2017 I had the good fortune to attend the WSBK opening round at Philip Island, and motogp at Mugello. Both exceeded my incredibly high expectations despite being drastically different. The similarities were limited to great racing, incredible natural beauty, and excellent Italian food (not a typo!). Here's PI: Pino's in Cowes is great. It's always a good sign when you see the Italian race teams eating there. In addition to these original leathers (58!), they have Valentino's coolest helmet, where the image of his face is on the top--the one nobody understood until they saw him at 200mph! Can't remember seeing three of these together outside of a dealer. Siberia, looking towards Antartica. What a beautiful track! The laid back vibe seemed to me to match the flowing nature of the track itself. BTW, I promised my wife that if we went to the race we would also go see the famous PI penguins emerge from the ocean. It worked, she wants to go back! Sticker shock! He's got to be the most friendly and gregarious rider in WSBK. Inconsistent results but a great personality. Obviously this was one of Nicky's last races before the bicycle accident in Italy. He was 10th and a DNF as I recall. That bike that Honda gave to Ten Kate sucked. The races according to JR65 were "slow" tire conservation affairs, but as a spectator I couldn't have asked for more.

The classic is to go to Partzilla looking for an item for your Honda RVT, but then clicking through to a VRT parts diagram instead. Not that I know anyone who has done anything that dumb.

Thank you Cogs. Have not yet been to Grass Valley. It's Thunderhill, very early morning Sept. 2018, track day at the west circuit. I should photoshop out the portapotty to make it better...

The smile of a new RC-51 owner is a truly satisfying smile. You're going to have a lot of fun, congratulations.

More great shots Jelorian, thanks for posting. I particularly like Ben Spies braking for all he's worth, a real action photo. I went to COTA in 2017 and enjoyed it, and I enjoy Austin, but I was having a hard time convincing myself to return this year pre-virus. I actually like Indy more, weird as it was to be in that vast track ("hey, look, there's a golf course!"). As you note, 20 turns is way too many, and you have to wait two minutes for the leaders to return! I placed myself above the endless esses from turns 3 to 10, which was fun, but my favorite spot turned out to be at the end of that endless back straight. I make a point of walking around the whole track when its new to me and that was indeed a hike! Anyway, here's some esses:

motogp videopass is ~120 euro/year, has full races back to roughly 1992. As you may already know. https://www.motogp.com Valencia 2006 is kinda fun...

Actually, for the benefit of VFRD, you should keep them coming. As perhaps you've noticed, I'm jonesing for some world championship road racing.

OK, this is it, I've saved the absolute worst quality photos of this race for last. I think these are actually photos of slides. I did snap all the photos I've posted though! The two strokes did plug chops at the end of the straight, then had to take the bikes, with engines off, back to the pits at the end of practice, giving us fans on the turn 2 hill a great chance to see the riders. Here's Schwantz, Rainey, Haslam, and Lawson, on his Marlboro branded scooter. And finally, the view from 2 in '88.