Last weekend saw two championships decided in WSBK and three championships deferred in MotoGp.
In WSBK, as expected, Carlos Checa clinched the championship with one round remaining, easily disposing of all challengers having been the outstanding rider on the best team all year. Despite protestations to the contrary, Checa’s Althea team IS the official “works” Ducati team and, as such profitted from all the factory development that could be obtained. Again I can point out the hypocrisy of Ducati’s stand on regulations. Good on Charlie, though, he might set some sort of record for the oldest world champion of the modern era.
In WSS, Chaz Davies clinched the championship with one round to go also. In SS600, Australia’s Jed Metcher finished 2nd but went back into the lead in the title chase with just the Portimao round to be decided. We might yet have another world champion.
Champagne is on ice for all classes in MotoGp with Casey Stoner saving a massive death-wobble at over 300km/h to run off the track but keep the bike vertical and recover to finish 3rd behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo. A net loss of 4 points as a result, so he can’t clinch the title at PI the weekend after next. Having said that, he’s still in the box seat and I’d rather be him than Lorenzo heading into the last 3 rounds of the championship chase. Marc Marquez had to settle for 2nd behind Iannone in Moto2, but Bradl finished 4th so the Spanish youngster now leads the title chase for the first time this season and Bradl loses it for the first time as well. As noted here before on many occasions, the momentum is firmly with Marquez as the season closes out. In the 125′s, Terol continues to hold sway, despite Zarco taking his first victory of the season (finally)
In the European theatre of war, Aussie Matt Davies, won the European Junior Cup 250cc championship on the weekend to add to our impressive list of World Champions.
In silly season news, BMW has signed the out-of-work Marco Melandri to partner Leon Haslam for next year. This must surely signal the end of the distinguished career of Troy Corser but I don’t believe that the addition of the Italian to the team is going to make any difference to their on-track performances. BMW’s problems are not rider-related, they are engineer-related.
Shadowfax news is that the new fork tubes that I purchased do not seem to be suitable for the existing fork sliders which may mean that the existing fork tubes are not Kawasaki items at all (or at least not Kawasaki Z1R ones). The answer seems to be that I will have to get the existing tubes re-chromed instead.
On a more serious note, I believe that I have been pretty poorly treated by the trader in Melbourne to whom I sent my disks to be ground down from 6mm to 4.5mm. After being told that the cost would be $90 per disk, I sent them to him. I waited 2 weeks before I received a voicemail message telling me that he was doing the disks that day and did I want him to enlarge the holes in the disks at the same time as this would make them work more efficiently. I rang back straight away and, because there was no answer, I left a message on HIS voicemail saying that, under no circumstances did I want them drilled out any more.
The next day, late last week, I received a phone call from him telling me that the disks were finished and that the cost was $240 PER DISK! When I objected he said that there was no way that he would have quoted me $90 each considering all the work that needed to be done. He refused to accept my assertion that he HAD, in fact told me this. When I asked him of he had received my message about not drilling the disks, he said that he had already done that anyway and that I would be pleased because the brakes would work better.
The discussion, that rapidly became an argument, circled around and around with him trying to tell me that he was entitled to the money due to the amount of work that he had done and that, once I saw them, I’d agree that it was worth it. When I again challenged him about drilling the disks when I told him I didn’t want them drilled, he said, “Oh well, I’ll make it $200 a disk instead.”
NOW, here’s the real problem though. This guy is an old bloke who has been doing this for years and does not accept credit card, bank deposit or any other sort of payment except COD, to which I had unwittingly agreed. Now, they have arrived at my Post Office with a bill for $426 (the extra is for the postage) and I have no choice but to go and pick them up, pay the money and be royally ripped off. I COULD send them back as being unsatisfactory and take him to small claims, but I still wouldn’t have my original disks any more and I’d have to find some more, have them drilled correctly and still be bugged every time I looked at them, knowing that they were not original.
To say that I am hugely ticked off is the understatement of the year. Be warned. That well-known disk repair/grinding business in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs are not good people with which to deal.
Hi Phil,
I have been in the Engineering/machining field all my working life [ retired now ] & the verbal quote you received i.e $ 90.00 per disc was reasonable. Grinding 0.75 mm per side [ assuming the disc is the solid type & i think all disc's from 70'-80's were all solid type] should not take more than 10-15 minutes per side unless they are using some ancient machine tool or the disc’s were warped & needed to be straightened beforehand. .So the whole job would have taken at the very most 2 hours @ approx $ 100 per/hr.
If it was me i would i would have told him to shove it & refuse to pick up the delivery but in your case sourcing original period disc’s is problematic.
Btw…Hows the leg these days? Cheers Joe
BTW Hows the leg progressing ??
Stoner can clinch the title at P.I if leaves P.I with a 50 point lead or better he’s World Champion.
Correct, Leon. He can, as long as Lorenzo finishes well down, which isn’t likely to happen. So the possibility is mathematical but not probable.
Yes, I feel pretty aggrieved, mate, but there’s not much I can do now that it’s done. I can’t send them back and ask him to restore them to how they were. On a much better note, the leg is heaps better with the doctor giving me permission to go back to work at the start of term 4 (October 10th). I’ll have to take it easy, but I’m going to give it a damn good try. For the record, that will be 51 weeks since the accident.
Yes, Joe, I was royally screwed, but, as you said quite correctly, originality is the issue. Having said that, the disks are beautiful so I’ll take it on the chin and move on. Leg is progressing very well. Hoping for a call for casual relief teaching as term 4 has started. Can’t wait to get back to work. Next Tuesday will be a year since the accident.