Remiss!

I've been a bit slack not reporting the release of little bro's bands new CD. Here's the blurb:

Following on from their much acclaimed, vanguard 2002 release, “Gentleman’s Hardcore” which featured the Triple J fave track “She Said” comes the brand spankin’ new EP from Melbourne based band The Surrogate Queldommage (what a pity). This tightly produced, lyrically wild and truly international sounding EP consists of 5 tracks, fourteen minutes & zero tattoos. Think Refused or Muse or as one commented, Queens Of The Stone age if they had grown up in England.

Tim Cashmere of Bigpond.com's music site sez:

Rock 'n' roll guitars mixed with a punk aesthetic is the name of this game and their energy will not soon be forgotten.

BigPond Music CD Article
Buy it online!
The NEW Official site

Speed cameras...

Like most, I don't think speed cameras do the job. And now that many have been found to be faulty, I think it's time to do something else. I've written the following letter to The Age:

The current problems with fixed speed cameras present police with an opportunity.

Get back to old fashion policing. Go out with you laser detectors and unmarked cars onto these roads and work.

As a motorcyclist I am sick of seeing people using these "safer" roads as a free for all outside of the camera gantries. You only need to see the ripple of brake lights at each camera site to know it's not exactly working and is in fact dangerous. Give me a steady 110 k's over 90-120-90 any day. Add in a liberal dose of mobile phone use and you have what one rider called the "mobile stupidity collective". This behaviour is funnily enough not noticed by the fixed cameras. But as a vulnerable road user, I notice it just fine.

Actually coming on the back of the death of a cyclist due to a woman SMS-ing while driving, I have the following exchange at the traffic lights in Hawthorn when I saw a woman SMS-ing at the lights:

Me: Hey lady! Didn't you see the news? Put the damn phone down and pay attention!
Her: I wasn't doing anything Phone is actually in her hand
Me: Oh yeah- then what are you doing eh?
Her: uncertain, furtive I don't use it much. Just... SMS... at the lights.
Me: Yeah sure, put it away before I become a statistic.

What could have been so important?
Speeding fines frozen

Last night of MotoGP

Stayed up late last night to watch the last MotoGP race from Valencia in Spain. 120 thousand people turned out- they sure love their bike racing in Espana!

Casey Stoner broke through for his first win- great way to end the season for the young man. He's off to KTM next year so I think he might be a big show for the title. One to watch (if he can just stay ON the bloody thing! Mick Doohan said of him:"You can teach a fast rider to stop crashing, but you can't teach a slow rider to go fast")

Rossi turned out in a 70's revival bike colours and leathers, wore a huge afro to the podium and press conference and basically was his usual goofy self- thank god for him and I hope he does well at Yamaha. It's brave step- but as others have said, if he can win with them he will be known as the greatest GP rider EVER. Big call? I don't think so...

The appalling performance of Kawasaki, Suzuki and to a lesser extent Yamaha got me thinking. The MotoGP class is for prototype machinery only. Theoretically you cannot buy a MotoGP bike- you might be able to lease one to race in MotoGP, but you can't get the parts from the makers. The bikes all make over 220 horsepower, have carbon F1 style brakes, weigh under 150 kilos and are the shit really.

Or are they? The World Superbike chapionship is for homologated (ie the manufacturer made (not sold) a minimum number of replicas.) These bikes are based on real bikes- you can buy one, mod a road bike to the same specs and race it.

So they must be much slower right?

WRONG.

There are a few circuits where both MotGP and WSB race. So lets compare Valencia!

Qualifying MotoGP are numbered, WSB in bold
1/ 1'32.478 46 Valentino ROSSI Honda >
2/ 1'33.148 15 Sete GIBERNAU Honda
3/ 1'33.275 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Ducati
4/ 1'33.348 69 Nicky HAYDEN Honda 2
5/ 1'33.454 7 Carlos CHECA Yamaha
6/ 1'33.575 3 Max BIAGGI Honda
7/ 1'33.984 45 Colin EDWARDS Aprilia
8/ 1'34.247 4 Alex BARROS Yamaha 3
9/ 1'34.286 11 Tohru UKAWA Honda
10/ 1'34.398 12 Troy BAYLISS Ducati
11/ 1'34.467 17 Norick ABE Yamaha
12/ 1'34.677 56 Shinya NAKANO Yamaha 4
13/ 1'34.742 6 Makoto TAMADA Honda
1'34.863 Neil HODGSONDucati 999
14/ 1'34.912 8 Garry McCOY Kawasaki
15/ 1'34.975 99 Jeremy McWILLIAMS Proton KR
16/ 1'35.125 88 Andrew PITT Kawasaki 5
17/ 1'35.178 21 John HOPKINS Suzuki
18/ 1'35.269 10 Kenny ROBERTS Suzuki
1'35.429 James TOSELAND Ducati 998F02
19/ 1'35.439 9 Nobuatsu AOKI Proton KR
20/ 1'35.572 23 Ryuichi KIYONARI Honda
21/ 1'35.816 19 Olivier JACQUE Yamaha
1'35.827 Ruben XAUS Ducati 999F03
1'35.831 Troy CORSERFoggy PETRONAS Racing FP1
1'35.853 Régis LACONI Ducati 998RS
1'35.927 Steve MARTIN Ducati 998RS
22/ 1'36.524 41 Noriyuki HAGA Aprilia
23/ 1'36.604 52 David DE GEA Harris WCM

The Racing
1/ Valentino ROSSI 152.674 km/h
2/ Sete GIBERNAU 152.638 km/h
3/ Loris CAPIROSSI 152.072 km/h
4/ Max BIAGGI 151.801 km/h
5/ Carlos CHECA 151.558 km/h
6/ Alex BARROS 151.030 km/h
7/ Troy BAYLISS 150.666 km/h
8/ Colin EDWARDS 150.605 km/h
9/ Norick ABE 150.537 km/h
10/ Neil Hodgson 150.311 km/h
10/ Makoto TAMADA 150.209 km/h
11/ Kenny ROBERTS 149.431 km/h
12/ Jeremy McWILLIAMS 149.275 km/h
13/ John HOPKINS USA 149.240 km/h
14/ Ryuichi KIYONARI 149.198 km/h
15/ Noriyuki HAGA 149.191 km/h

So a Production based TWIN cylinder, with steel brakes, 170 kilo weight would come up TOP 10 in the premier class? Absolute disgrace!
This would be like a Formula three car getting top ten in formula one! I don't think so! Let's check that too!
Formula 1 vs Formula 3!
British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 2003 Results
Saturday Qualifying
1/ Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:21.209
2/ Jarno Trulli Renault 1:21.381
3/ Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.695
4/ Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:21.727
5/ Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:21.867

Formula 3 Qualifying, Silverstone, Qualifying 24-05-03

1/ Nelson PIQUET JR 1:44.039
2/ Alan VAN DER MERWE 1:44.180
3/ Richard ANTINUCCI 1:44.501
4/ Rob AUSTIN 1:44.510
5/ Adam CARROLL 1:44.548

Not even CLOSE!
MotoGP offcial site