“Stay a hero”

Apart from Mick Doohan’s landmark “The street is not a track” advertisement, the quality of motorcycle road safety ads is pretty poor. The recent effort by the Victorian authorities that ended up implying that all motorcycle accidents are the motorcyclists’ fault is a vivid case in point. But this ad out of Britain, who seem to be leading the ay in this area, is one of the best I’ve seen. Given that I so nearly didn’t get home at ALL, it probably stuck an extra chord, but I defy you to watch this ad and not be moved.

In other news, Dani Pedrosa has opted to miss this weekend’s Catalunya Grand Prix meeting, electing to give his plated collar bone more time to heal. It is a measure of how much Pedrobot’s attitude has matured of late that he is prepared to miss his home GP and the potential loss of 25 points in the championship chase in order to achieve long-term healing and recuperation. Dani’s loss will be the gain for the other riders who will now know that they’ve got a potential one position “leg up” on race day. I’ll publish a detailed preview of Catalunya tomorrow.

Oh, and if you’re watching the telecasts, keep your eye out for a big media scrum. If you seee it it will probably be the one surrounding Paris Hilton. Yes, the “famous for being famous” Ms Hilton will be attending the race as part of her contractural arrangement with the Bluesens team that requires her to attend 5 races to fulfil sponsorship obligations. After “her” rider’s win in the 125cc race at Le Mans, she’ll be on hand to see if he can repeat the dose at his “home” race. Ms Hilton appeared on the Jay Leno show last week, being pillioned into the studio (helmetless – can’t mess up the “do”) on the back of a bike. Unfortunately she spent about 20 seconds talking about bikes and the rest of the time blathering about her dog. Paris’s deal with the Bluesens team is a 3 year one and there has even been some talk about the team stepping up to MotoGp in 2013. You read it here first!

In sad news, the Isle of Man TT races has already claimed its first victims this morning and the racing hasn’t even started yet. British sidecar competitors Bill Currie and his passenger Kevin Morgan were killed in a high speed crash during sidecar qualifying.

Out of Europe this morning, news that the revolutionary narrow-angle Horex V6 engine is a step closer to production with the manufacturers signing an agreement yesterday with specialist manufacturer Weber who will build the motor.

Sweet, eh?

And, for those of you who can never get enough of the excellently produced Aprilia videos, here’s another. I won’t spoil it by commenting, just watch and enjoy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-JzQFpj9fY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Finally, a wonderful discovery yesterday. I was wondering if any of my old CRRC mates would have any more pictures of the Shadowfax Kawasaki and my thoughts turned to John Small.

This is one of John’s efforts from Oran Park in 1984.

Well, I “googled” his name and came up with this…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50929289@N05/sets/72157624196168331/

The photo of BBDN on the CBX is just outstanding and the one of him on the 900 at Bathurst, showing the shadow of the bike in as much detail as the bike itself is purely a work of art. As you can see from the album, John resides now in the tranquility of Tilba Tilba on the far south coast of NSW, pursuing his photography and restoring postie bikes. Some life, eh?

FINALLY finally.

This just in from our good friends at Asphalt and Rubber, a much clearer shot of Ducati’s 2012 superbike.