Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

Not fully open yet, Simon. Best wait for the official announcement before hitting the new new trails. SA Nationals track is open though. As are a couple others. Just not the red and black just yet.

Yeah, but TBH I side with the commentators on this one (and his post race interview) where they say he was battling to get heat into the tyres due to his size. And with his size, he couldn't push it in those conditions as hard as Lorenzo could. He's also kinder on the tyres than Lorenzo. And Pedrosa is TINY. Because of that, he had far more grip when he eventually could get the tyres up to operating temperature, and just blitzed the whole pack. I mean, taking 1.6s in one lap!? That's crazy.

Note to self - when telling someone else to "read", best do it yourself as well... #coffee

AWESOME, Patch. That's a wonderful result. And yes, Hayley was right.

Read.... It cost him R 350 or so. Unpolished

Okay, so no cribbing at all. Just a slip, and some changes by yam.

Sauce?

what a little ripper!

Shot, Cap

What a race... Lorenzo setting a blistering pace at the start, but ultimately it was too blistering - for his tires. Pedrosa's weight and riding style really came to the fore today, given how his tyres were less damaged by the end. But - Rossi was there, yet again. Managing his pace, the ever tactical doctor. Knowing that if he pushed too hard in the beginning, his tyres would go off too soon. Loved it. Also loved the fact that Crutchlow got his spot...

Ate those the hiking / trail running or MTB shoes? The terrex comes in both varieties

You'll see a full pic in Iwan's review, which should be hitting us soonish.

7am.

it is... was given it as a going away gift from the fellows at the bank I used to work at in my time over there... I am half pom, so there's a bit of legitimacy there!

It's finally official So much more bike than my limited skillset can handle at the moment, but she gives me a big ****-eating grin every time I get on her, and that's the point of it all... Meet: Penny.

@mylesmayhew - not a lot up till now, but more often going forwards.

Jorge Lorenzo came out on top in an epic duel with his teammate and title rival Valentino Rossi to take his 4th pole of the season. Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo enjoyed an incredible duel with Rossi during the 15-minute Q2 session, eventually coming out on top by just 0.081s. The Spaniard, who has topped every session so far at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, ended up setting the fastest ever lap by a MotoGP™ bike around the 4.8km Twin Ring Motegi despite the cloudy and cool conditions (Track temp. 25˚C). Lorenzo set a 1’43.790 on his final flying lap, knocking over seven-tenths off Andrea Dovizioso’s 2014 Pole Record (1’44.502). The man who trails Rossi by just 14 points in the standings utilised a two-stop strategy after experiencing some front-end issues on his first run. Rossi knew he had to put in a good qualifying performance to not let Lorenzo get away at the front during Sunday’s race, after Lorenzo has led from flag to flag during his 6 wins this season. The Italian managed to take over a second off his best time in practice to start from second on the grid in only his fourth front row start of the season and best Qualifying performance since Assen. Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez (+0.426s) impressed despite riding with a broken bone in his left hand to finish third fastest. It is the 13th time this season the reigning MotoGP™ champion has been on the front row. The Ducati Team duo of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.532s) and Andrea Iannone (+0.646s) were next up in fourth and fifth respectively as they made use of an extra set of aerodynamic winglets on their GP15’s and the extra soft tyre. It was Dovizioso’s best qualifying performance since Barcelona, while Iannone showed no ill effects of his re-dislocated shoulder to start from the second row for the sixth time this season. Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa (+0.792s) will start from the back of the second row after improving his time best time from practice by over 1.3 seconds in Q2. It is the third consecutive time that the Spaniard has lined up on the second row of the grid this year. Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro was seventh as he also benefitted from the extra soft tyre, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) on the leading Satellite bike in eighth. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith will start from 9th, despite crashing twice during the session. The Brit went down at turn 5 and the turn 12 after also crashing in FP3, but still managed to complete 5 laps in the session. Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) completed the top ten after making it through from Q1 along side EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding, who will start from 12th. Wildcard Katsuyuki Nagasuka (Yamaha Factory Racing Team) will start form 15th, with Hector Barbera on the Avintia Racing Ducati the leading open class rider in 18th. Aspar MotoGP Team’s Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden will start from 20th and 21st respectively as just 0.092s separated the teammates. E-Motion IodaRacing Team’s Alex De Angelis had earlier brought out the red flag in FP4 as he crashed heavily between turns 9 & 10 and was airlifted to Dokkyo Hospital for treatment. Check out the full MotoGP™ Qualifying results; the 24-lap race kicks off 14:00 local time in Motegi on Sunday.

Which means VAG

Awesome. That's still a very good price indeed.

That's the thing with subjective stuff like colour combinations... No fact to base it on, just what you think looks good...

Dude... personal opinion. Paint job is supreme, but for some reason it's just not grabbing me in my short n curlies. Stanchions - meh. Whatever. Never worried about that unless it was a super blacked out frame and stealth was your ultimate goal. Black lowers would be just fine... As I said before - maybe I was smoking something, maybe I was just having a bad day. Maybe it's just the white lowers throwing the rest off... . But yeah... just something about it in its current form that's not gelling. Without having seen it in the flesh, that is. Take Adam vd Ploeg's bike (mada3400) - in pictures, it looks HIDEOUS. Black and red frame, blue wheels, mismatched colours everywhere. In person - totally perfect.

yeah - $$$$!!! And I'll take your word for it, given that the IRL colours of pretty much all bikes are so much better than in the pics.

Yeah. Okay. the frame looks gorgeous by itself, but I think it's the mismatched nature of the parts that's doing it a dis-service. Reckon it'd look farr better with a black fork, black grips and bash and so on...

yeah

BTW patch - can you post a pic of the full bike again please? I just want to check it out again. Maybe I was trippin a bit...