MotoGP first official test of the year is Sepang on February 5th.

Official Schedule to start 2022.

1st Test, Sepang, Feb 5-6th
2nd Test, Mandalika (Indonesia) Feb 10-12th

1st race: Grand Prix of Qatar. March 3-5th.

Just a few weeks to go and we begin again. The preseason testing is so limited and a massive change from 20 years ago.

Probably a lot of MotoGP fans don’t know Earl Hayden but he passed away just after Christmas the 30th I believe. My young brother raced against Nicky and Tommy on dirt tracks as little kids. This is how I remember Nicky with Uncle Jerry holding the bike because he was to small to reach the ground. After a race they would run along side the bike and try to catch him.



I miss Nicky



This is a pic from Nicky’s first year as a pro Lima OH. When they were kids there were stories of earl taping the left foot on the peg so they kept more weight on the bike more down force more speed.

I hope these three lads have a good season. Without a dog in the fight at the top level currently I’ll be paying quite a bit of attention to our three Americans who will be fighting in the middleweight class.



Rumors are that Honda is interested in Mir. I don’t blame them. The gaping hole Brivio left in the team and Suzuki’s snail like pace at finding a replacement along with a horrific title defense all give Mir a legit reason to bail on Suzuki. That’s before you even factor in the deep pockets and lucrative contract offer Honda can extend. A team with a smaller budget and resources like Suzuki have to bank on loyalty and their team environment being something Honda may not be able to match. But with Marquez as a team mate he could risk ending up like Maverick.

It will also be interesting to see if Yamaha and Suzuki have managed to mitigate the straight line speed of those Ducati bikes. If they have not made a significant step forward then I am liking Ducati’s chances of total dominance. They’ve already filled nearly 1/3 of the grid and their bullpen is loaded up with talent.

I cannot wait for Qatar!

I think this might be my favorite video on YouTube. No matter how bad I feel or how dark my mood is this video is ALWAYS able to lift my spirits.

“It’s going to give me a heart attack! ... it’s so great. It’s going to give me a heart attack. Dovizioso, I’m crying”

It’s so cool to hear all the languages during this brilliant last lap battle at Austria.

Around 4:40 an Irish or maybe Scottish sounding guy has a pretty neat sound bite but I’d say the Italian & Brazilian announcers are the best when it comes to coverage of that last lap.

I have no idea how to imbed a video anymore but here is the link.

Last lap battle in every language

Crank up the volume & enjoy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: stickman428,

There is a possibility that Ana Carrasco will be competing in moto3! I really hope it happens. My son isn’t too interested in MotoGP but my daughter often sits down and watches races with me.
You should have seen her face light up in astonishment when I said “there might be a girl racing in MotoGP (moto3) this year!!”

I cannot help but root for riders like Ana who would be coming back from a VERY nasty back injury.

Ana Carrasco close to confirmation in Moto3 World Championship

Which new teams could join the MotoGP grid in the near future?

Pure speculation but a few of those predictions would be so damn cool to see materialize. I’m sure you can guess which predictions or possible scenario I find most appealing.

Ladies and gentlemen only two more days until Monster Energy Yamaha and Team Suzuki Ecstar unveil their 2022 colors.

Also, It is official Ana Carrasco is back in Moto3.

Ana Carrasco move to Moto3 is official

To be fair and balanced this is an interesting article on the impact of such a move and why it is also bittersweet.

Impact of the move to Moto3 on the grid

Stick, check out Ride Your Dream. I watched it with my daughter about a year or so ago. Can't remember which platform had it but we thought it was done well enough and it was nice to watch Ana's story.

Sweet!!! Will do! I watched Hitting The Apex with my wife and son this past weekend (my girls were having fun with the grandparents and missed it). Both my wife and son were shocked at how much better it was than they were expecting.

I walked out of the room when it got to the bad part while covering the career of Marco Simoncelli. I knew when it got to that awful part because I heard gasps coming from my son and wife. That part of the documentary kinda blind sides you if you don’t follow the sport and this is your introduction to MotoGP. Yeah, Dani’s statement about life being short foreshadows the event about to be shown but I remember how much it shocked me when I first saw it. Hitting the Apex was my introduction to MotoGP.

A few days after we watched the documentary while walking back from the school bus stop with my son, out of the blue he says “hey dad can we ride dirtbikes some time soon? I want to learn how to ride and go fast”.

It was a moment I began to fear might never happen. My oldest daughter is the one who shows the most interest, fearlessness and talent when it comes to speed on two wheels. She watches MotoGP races with me and she is FAST on a BMX bike. When my son said that I thought to myself FINALLY he is beginning to show a genuine interested in motorcycles.

It was a great moment.



After we watched Hitting the Apex I asked my wife “so which rider is the most interesting? Who are you a fan of?” (In my mind I was thinking please don’t say Marquez ) Her response was not at all what I expected to hear. She said Rossi seemed cool but She liked Marco Simoncelli’s personality the most and wonders if that awful day didn’t happen what would his career have looked like. I was pretty surprised. I really didn’t expect to hear her say that. My son said he liked Rossi the most and that he didn’t care for Lorenzo.

It was a good FANTASTIC morning. I woke up today feeling like a little kid on Christmas.

Today is the day Suzuki Ecstar unveils the 2022 GSX-RR colors.

Yes, I am biased as hell (obviously) but I would be lying if I wasn’t thinking in the back of my head “please Suzuki don’t fuck up the best looking bike on the grid”. My worry was unfounded and to my great pleasure Suzuki did not disappoint. Minor adjustments aesthetically and a bit more black splashed on the bike here and there. No need to radically change the most beautiful bike on the grid.

Gorgeous!

They do look sweet!

But this sky blue is taking some getting used to....

My main knock on the Suzuki is they made the nose winglets more pronounced. The last couple years, they were more subtle which made the GSX look great.

The blue Ducati looks great, IMO.

I wouldn’t be sad if the wings were banned.

Yeah that’s an odd color on that Ducati. I don’t mind the color, if their goal is to be distinct and stand out I would say mission accomplished.

I caught a glimpse of the new RC-213. Whoa. Interesting tail. Its front fairing looks damn good. This might be because the wings are understated and not so noticeable when the whole bike is black/carbon fiber.

There will be a lot riding on the performance of the new Honda as well as how much the GSX-RR can improve from its disastrous title defense. My gut tells me Mir will be going to HRC unless Suzuki managed to find something big in the off-season .

If Ducati managed to improve their bike even a little bit the rest of the field is properly fuct. The bar that was already a bit high on straight line speed would be that much harder for the inline four Yamaha and Suzuki to have to contend with.

Listening to the riders say how fast the Ducati was last year and how you couldn’t draft the damn things because their aero created so much turbulence was interesting.

It’s gonna be a fun season!

Look out Phillip Island there is a new beach front circuit on the schedule that is just GORGEOUS!!!

Enea topped the time sheets in Sepang and the new Aprilias were awfully fast. Suzuki and Honda have almost brand new motorcycles. Yamaha's new engine is almost no improvement over the 2020/2021 engine. Ducati seems to be feared universally as it was at the end of the year during post season test in 2021. Few things were gained over this past weekend at Sepang. MotoGP laid down so much rubber that there was so much grip it will be hard to tell if the test resulted in anything substantial. And a new circuit beckons where they will spend 1/2 the first day just figuring out how to ride the circuit rather than develop the bikes. The new testing days and program pre-season is going to have every mfr. developing their bikes during race weekends.

Now they had to Mandalika, which is a circuit steeped in controversy as they evicted local farmers and fishermen from their land to construct the circuit. It's in an area often affected by heavy down pours also so rain is always a threat to cancel the day as it did when WSBK went at the end of last year. I didn't watch WSBK when it was there but know a day got completely canceled to rain and it looks like a track where the bikes will be in the first few gears most of the lap. Seems more suited to a street bike than a GP motorcycle.

A few things that raised my eyebrows at the Malaysia test.

#1. Aprilia is showing some serious potential. Will we see them reach the top of the podium this season? I’d like to think the possibility is good.

#2. Suzuki is only around 3 mph behind Ducati in the speed traps at Sepang. Yes, it’s VERY early but it looks like Suzuki is serious this year. That interview Rins interrupted with Enea Bastianini (awesome interview BTW) was interesting. I have not seen Rins smiling like that in a while...it’s a good sign.

#3. Dovi holding out for Yamaha only to see the manufacturer he seemingly wrote off as uncompetitive (Aprilia) begin to show major improvements has got to be nearly as frustrating as his performance on the M1 so far. But again it’s too early to draw too much from one test.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
MotoGP laid down so much rubber that there was so much grip it will be hard to tell if the test resulted in anything substantial.

Michelin definitely has some job security

Did you guys notice the tail on the Aprilia and the Honda has changed quite a bit?

The Aprilia’s tail has elements that remind me a little bit of Ducati’s tail.

I really like the looks of Aprilia’s new bike.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
I really like the looks of Aprilia’s new bike.

I am not a fan of the looks of the Ape. Too much gap behind the front wheel. Looks goofy as shit. All of the manufacturers are trying to do their best Ducati impression with their changes. Not sure they’re all moving in the right direction myself but straight line speed is the end game it seems. I think they’ll end up too fast for most of the circuits they have now. We’ll see.

I did watch some videos of the testing that showed the riders using their hole shot devices. I will say that the Honda was exceptionally flat off the line. Kept both wheels on the ground so they seem to have the electronics dialed in.