Tuesday, October 31, 2006

North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom's blog - "dreadful driving exhibited by so many motorcyclists"

Motor Cycle News this week reports again on the blog of the Chief Constable of North Wales - Richard Brunstrom with the headline "Brunstrom's blog slams bikers".
You can read Brunstrom's blog entry at:-
http://www.north-wales.police.uk/nwp/public/en/blogs/viewblog.asp?UID=1&CID=72

Earlier this year Richard Brunstrom suggested motorcycles should be banned from all National Parks and now he uses the actions of two bikers to suggest in his words "Anyone who ventures onto the roads of the UK will be aware of the quite dreadful driving exhibited by so many motorcyclists - dangerous to the point of recklessness for their own lives and for those of other road users."

Yes the action of the two motorcyclists featured in the blog and on the video clip features do show a number of undertakes and use of the hard shoulder, but are they a justification for such anti-biking comments.

Is it right that a public servant should use his position to attempt to denigrate motorcyclists based on the actions of a minority. In most sphere's life there are those that choose to flout the law, but that does not mean we are all law breakers!

What do you think? You can tell Mr Brunstrom what you think, by visting his blog and leaving your own comments.

Ride safe!

Jon Booth
webmaster@inter-bike.co.uk

Bradley Smith is "Rookie of the Year" in MotoGP 125cc Championship

Bradley Smith is "Rookie of the Year" in MotoGP 125cc Championship

Bradley Smith, the 15 year old Oxfordshire schoolboy received his trophy for Rookie of the year at the MotoGP awards ceremony in Valencia on Sunday.

It is great that an English younster has made it to international level, when the competition for places at this level is so tough, as is the financial cost on parents and supporters helping Bradley get to this position.

It takes a massive amount of determination and hard work to make it on the international motorcycle racing scene, for each youngster like Bradley who makes it, their are hundreds who don't.

I wrote an article for inter-bike last year about what it takes to enter the world of motorcycle racing at amateur level entitled So you want to be the next Valentino Rossi? which gives some insight into just how tough and expensive it can be, even getting on the bottom rungs of the racing ladder.

Bradley has had a fantatsic first season in MotoGP and I look foward to seeing how well he can do in the 2007 MotoGP championship.

Ride safe!

Jon Booth
webmaster@inter-bike.co.uk

Monday, October 30, 2006

Hayden wins, Rossi loses, MotoGP history!

Nicky Hayden - 2006 MotoGP World Champion
Hayden takes title after Rossi crash, Bayliss wins race
Fortune strikes its final blow at Valencia
A day that will go down in Ducati's history

So what a momentus race the final round of the MotoGP 2006 Championship was at Valencia on Sunday. I like millions of other MotoGP fans was on the edge of my seat through out the whole thrilling race.

Against many pundits expectations Nicky Hayden won the 2006 MotoGP Championship despite Valentino Rossi's pole position on the grid and an eight point lead in the championship. Who would have predicted that Rossi would not have made a clean get away at the start and even more that he would low side his Yamaha R1 on lap four, leading to him finishing thirteenth!

Nicky's dogged determination has paid off, despite the massive set back of being knocked off by team mate Dani Pedrosa in the Portugese Grand Prix at Estoril, he is now 2006 MotoGP World Champion and Rossi relinquishes his long held crown.

So why did Rossi lose, he has said publicly:-
“Of course this is a big disappointment for me because to arrive at the final race with an eight-point advantage and then not win the title is a disaster. Basically I made two mistakes today – one was at the start and then the second one was the crash."Source- Camel Media Service

So do you think Rossi has had his day, that younger blood like Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Toni Elias will continue to challenge Rossi's previous dominance in the 2007 season, or did he just have an off-day?

But lets not forget Troy Bayliss, newly crowned 2006 World Superbike Champion, who picks up the injured Sete Gibernau's ride for Ducati and goes on to win the Valencia race, despite having not been on a MotoGP bike for 18 months! Could we see Bayliss making a return to MotoGP at some future point, who knows?

Anyway tell us what you thought of the race and the amazing result.

Ride Safe!

Jon Booth
webmaster@inter-bike.co.uk

inter-bike Speaks!

Hi to all motorcyclists and users of www.inter-bike.co.uk.
So inter-bike finally gets to speak and I finally get time to publish inter-bike's first ever blog posting. I've been passionate about motorcycles ever since I was a lad (a long time ago!) and in 2000 I decided to start www.inter-bike.co.uk as a site dedicated to motorcycling. Well since then a hobby site of 12 pages has grown into a full time job and the www.inter-bike.co.uk site now serves in excess of 3.5 million page viewings to in excess of 800,000 visitors a year with over 1Gb of content!
Through this blog inter-bike hopes to tell you about whats going on with the inter-bike site and whats new, post up topical motorcycle news snippets, tell you about issues which affect motorcycling and threaten our continued enjoyment of motorcycling and invite your comment and discussion on http://www.inter-bike.co.uk, this blog's postings and all things motorcycle!

Ride safe!

Jon Booth
webmaster@inter-bike.co.uk