i did see Bridgestone riders strugglin a bit...but in the end i thought Bridgestone riders were gettin faster than michelin shod riders....the gap between Pedrosa and Vale came down...ofcourse Dani did ease up a bit....but Capirossi had a good result too in the end...just makes me wonder....surely Michelins have improved...but when it comes to durability till the end of the race i feel Bridgestonez are still better...only time will tell....

Right, so that's interesting what Han and Aussie were discussing about the front end. Going from what Colin Edwards said about Rossi at a race in Donington (somehwere on this forum) where he observed that it was "like riding on snot" it was so slippery, and when he looked at the race data afterwards, he saw that VR had just been racing around with his front end locked, and CE couldn't believe it.
This is once again where the talent factor, not just experience, comes into it. INteresting, we all wanted to see what this year would bring for KC in terms of rites of passage... Qatar had people gushing suddenly, but now at Jerez... his weaknesses as a rider are coming through. Bottom line is, the Ducati is a race winner, a championship winner... how does it go from hero to zero from one track to the next?

Is anyone else finding all this tyre readjustment issue a goddamn bore? It's the only thing that makes me wish Rossi had stayed with Michelin... at least we knew what we were dealing with. This whole Yamaha on bridgestone business... certainly mixing it up, isn't it? That other bridgestone riders may or may not do well in a race... yeah, but they've always had their b'stones... but trying to suss out what Rossi will be doing in a race on his b'stones... bloody hard work.

Especially the other riders in the race......they must be wondering what the f*** is Vale likely to be like during a race now even more so than ever!

I don't know, I kinda like this excitement.
It is good to see Vale taking on new challenges and I honestly prefer to think "How will he manage on the Bridges, will the Yamaha adapt to them, what are they doing?" to "God, hope those Michelins will last the race." and "I wish he could have switched to Bridges."

So I am looking forward to an interesting season, even if it is only to see how he will manage with the new tires!!!

yes they choose estoril for for the testing done by not moto gp riders (on not moto gp bikes --> superbikes???)

and it had to be AFTER the race was on that track

they choes estoril cause they say they had some problems there last year with the tires

Michelin chose jerez for that purpose

Not MotoGP bikes? Why not ?

Actually, as b'stone seem to be heavily relying on Valentino for feedback (hahahahaha, whose the best?), it will be strange when KC is also the beneficiary of this information.
Dunno, though, KC is the marked man this year. Valentino, except for his hunger to get WC back, I think he rides without that pressure this year.

You definitely have a point! It was torture, wasn't it?

Though from recent stuff posted by people, sounds like those new challenges are being mastered. And THAT is very very exciting stuff indeed.

It also felt kind of strange when the commentators said Vale is now using tyres made for KC with his data. Irony, huh?

Too true!

Obviously Valentino and KC are gonna end up best friends, chatting tyres over post race beers. Then Jorge can complain about how Valentino used to be friendly towards him at the start of the year, but now shuns him, like KC did last year. KC can do warm and fuzzy interviews about what a great bloke and mate Valentino now is. (And Mrs Stoner might then egg them on for some french action at Le Mans... as in, that's right, you guessed it, menage trois! (I'd certainly take advantage of the situ!)

Well let's say that the Bridgestone are doing still much better than Michelin's in wet conditions. So they (Michelin) haven't changed a lot on that side. That is for sure one of the reasons that Valentino choose for the Bridgestone tyres, the overall consistency of the tyre in dry or wet.