Nicky Hayden

[fire83tug]

Hey, I like Rossi, I like Hayden, I like all of Moto GP. And what the hell....they are all better than me. Hayden is an excellent rider, just having trouble adapting to the new bike. You just can't throw away your support of an excellent American rider because he is doing bad this year. Last time I checked the Yankees weren't doing so hot either.

[Lucky7]

Originally Posted by Xracer264

NOT this year...... John Hopkins is the best American in the class....

Good for the kid. He's really had some tough luck with injuries, tire problems, and bike problems for the last few seasons. Its good to see Hopper and Suzuki finally competitive in the 800cc era. It just makes the field so much more interesting.

[Mike295]

"I won a MOTO GP CHAMPIONSHIP and BEAT ROSSI so fuck off"

[ffejtable]

Originally Posted by Kennedy

I guess Rossi didn't win 5 titles in a row?

Or does he not count b/c he isn't american?

He (Rossi) wasnt included in the list because it specifically says recent champs that did NOT repeat... last I checked Rossi repeated himself over and over.... quite a few times in fact...

[EvilSteve]

Hey, everyone'll hate me but IDGF, Hayden is a top 10 or top 5 rider, he's not as good as a bunch of guys in GP. I'm not down on American riders, I'd love to see Edwards pick his game up but he may not get the chance if rumours that he's done after this year are true. Hopkins is good and needs to get some consistency and stop crashing. He seems to be doing pretty well at that this season which is good. I'm sure it annoys the crap out of him that every time he gets a good result Vermeulen goes one better (even though Hopkins is in front in points). I've never liked Hayden but that's probably because he's hardly won any races (he's up to what, 3 or 4 now?) and his championship was a technical win AFAIC. Yeah, he did well and deserved it because he obviously had the most points at the end of the year but talk about uninspiring wins. I know a lot of people don't care how you win the championship but for me, the best rider should win, not the guy with the most points. Most of the time the two are the same but I don't think that was the case last year. I guess it's kind of 80/20, 80% rider, 20% bike. Stoner for example is winning but Rossi's still a better rider but Yamaha hasn't given him a good enough bike IMO. Hayden's championship was more about reliability than actual speed. Yeah I know he had clutch problems, everyone else had more serious issues and more DNFs. Not to mention that all the main contenders for the title were taken out in the Catalunya crash by Sete Crashernau, missed races and then were injured when running several other races.

Did he deserve the championship? Yep.
Was he the best rider? Nope.
Is his form thus far this year indicative of his actual skill? Nope.
Should he have stayed at Honda? No fucking way.

The writing was on the wall last year, Honda was always going to favor Pedrobot, I feel genuinely sad for Nicky that he's still with those assholes. He had an offer to go to Ducati too. Ah well, maybe the new chassis stuff (that they gave to Pedrobot first!!!) will work better for him and he'll improve. I don't think he's going to do any better this year in terms of wins though. Maybe Laguna but we'll see.

I still can't believe that Honda would do such a poor job of supporting their reigning world champion it's really quite disgusting.

[Lucky7]

Originally Posted by EvilSteve

Should he have stayed at Honda? No fucking way.

I still can't believe that Honda would do such a poor job of supporting their reigning world champion it's really quite disgusting.

I personally don't think Hayden should have stayed w/ HRC but I'm not sure it is Honda. It's more likely Repsol pushing the sponsorship button.

[EvilSteve]

That may be so but it's still totally wrong. Talk about giving the guy the least help to do well. It's fucked up.

[SPL170db]

Originally Posted by Lucky7

I personally don't think Hayden should have stayed w/ HRC but I'm not sure it is Honda. It's more likely Repsol pushing the sponsorship button.

Agreed. The satellite Gresini Hondas of Melandri and Elias are doing better than Haydens full factory Repsol.

Current Standings
1 Casey Stoner 140
2 Valentino Rossi 126
3 Dani Pedrosa 98
4 Marco Melandri 75
5 Chris Vermeulen 72
6 John Hopkins 72
7 Loris Capirossi 57
8 Alex Barros 51
9 Tony Elias 45
10 Colin Edwards 45

[Kennedy]

I created a monster

[EvilSteve]

Oh, Vermeulen is in front of Hopper, I guess that's only because he has a win. So, in terms of American riders in GP, Hayden is last, or 3rd if you want to be nice... I don't. LOL

[SAXON117]

Originally Posted by Kennedy

I created a monster

Damn right you did!

[Ant]

Stoner's the real deal. He showed it last year but was inconsistent due to crashes. This year he has the speed and patience to bring it home.

BTW, I'm a Hayden fan but I feel really let down this year.

[Cakes206]

Amazing how much rain tires suck on a dry race line. Crazy when they have to actually look for water to cool em off.

[SAXON117]

Edwards did a great job