2010 Silly Season

[zooom]

and that is why I'd like to see him elbow to elbow, hip dip in the quagmire with people and machinery above the level of what he has become accustomed to in the last few years of AMA and actually have to compete to make a place in a race.

[tufty]

Mladin in WSBK? Nah, it ain't happening.

He'd risk being an also ran and then a whole lot of arm chair racer types saying "See, I told you he couldn't compete in the bigs."

He'd definitely be playing with fire.

[gm2]

Mladin in WSBK? Nah, it ain't happening.

He'd risk being an also ran and then a whole lot of arm chair racer types saying "See, I told you he couldn't compete in the bigs."

do you really think he would care about that?

[derby]

Mladin in WSBK? Nah, it ain't happening.

He'd risk being an also ran and then a whole lot of arm chair racer types saying "See, I told you he couldn't compete in the bigs."

He'd definitely be playing with fire.

again, i think people underestimate mladin.

[gm2]

again, i think people underestimate mladin.

which, given his influence and subsequent result on the ben, is still surprising.

hell, ben went as far as to say that after racing mladin for 3 years, wsbk was... not that hard.

[OT]

Kevin Cameron comments very highly of Mladin in the Jan 2010 (print edition) issue of Cycle World

[Cider]

Assuming the crank thing never happened, didn't he win more races than Ben in 2008?  I guess you can say that he crossed the line in front of Ben more times in 2008 than vice versa  .

[derby]

Assuming the crank thing never happened, didn't he win more races than Ben in 2008?  I guess you can say that he crossed the line in front of Ben more times in 2008 than vice versa  .

yes, but the ama point system also rewards consistency over wins.

(ben) bostrom won his championship without a single win.

[Cider]

True.  I'm not saying he's better than Spies, or as good as Spies, but he's definitely in the ballpark.  Given a good ride, I'd expect him to do well in WSBK.

[tufty]

again, i think people underestimate mladin.

I'm not underestimating him, I think he's the dogs bollocks. But he did make a song and dance about retiring and if he decides to come back he is risking a lot.

I like Mat, always have, always will. Definitely in the top 20 racers of all time.

[zooom]

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/12/10/could_mat_mladin_race_in_wsbk.html

a good summary of what hath transpired thus far...along with the spewing forth the rumor that his ride could very well be Bavarian in nature...

[gm2]

....testing?

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/12/11/mladin_to_test_bmw_in_oz.html

[ducpainter]

....testing?

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/12/11/mladin_to_test_bmw_in_oz.html

It doesn't make any sense to me...but I am stupid.

Corser and Xaus were on lesser machinery on factory bikes. Granted it's a bike in development.

How does a privateer team with a less than top bike to start with fill Mladins' requirement?

[Spidey]

It doesn't make any sense to me...but I am stupid.

Corser and Xaus were on lesser machinery on factory bikes. Granted it's a bike in development.

How does a privateer team with a less than top bike to start with fill Mladins' requirement?

+11tyb.  

I mean everyone *says* the BMW is a good bike, but if neither Corser nor Xaus can win on it, how good is it really?  The priller was really great out of the box (and legal?), the Hondas are always good, Kawis suck, the Suke is intermittant (sometimes good, sometimes sucks, but they haven't really had any competitive riders on it after Max N hurt himself).  And, of course, the Ducs--even the privateer Ducs--are great.  The Yamaha?  Great in Ben's hands, but not much of anything in Sykes.  Hard to say about the bike itself 'cept that the electronics were fubar'd in the beginning of the year.

So why does a privateer BMW make sense?  If he's going privateer, it should either be a Duc, Honda or 'priller.  Or if he can get Yosh to do a Suke with some factory help, that'd make the most sense.

[derby]

'de angerous' confirmed at scot moto2:

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/155340/1/de_angelis_agrees_moto2_deal_with_scot_racing.html