Ben Spies

[Japhrodisiac]

Ben has certainly not forgotten how to ride - he has put in fast laps at every round so far this year.

His attitude and the manner in which he comes across in interviews this year is perplexing though. He seems to not be bothered by it all - so either he really isn't bothered and thinks it's just a run of bad luck which will end promptly, or he has lost interest/passion atm.

I believe in him and think that he will turn things around very soon with a series of good performances.

[Oscar]

Ben has certainly not forgotten how to ride - he has put in fast laps at every round so far this year.

His attitude and the manner in which he comes across in interviews this year is perplexing though. He seems to not be bothered by it all - so either he really isn't bothered and thinks it's just a run of bad luck which will end promptly, or he has lost interest/passion atm.

I believe in him and think that he will turn things around very soon with a series of good performances.

I for one certainly hope so, he's way better than his results so far this year. The visor problem resulting from a whack to the helmet on the start line should not be discounted, but it's hard to see that his pit crew should not be given a very large blast from Lin Jarvis - too many dud set-ups, too many lackadaisical attention-lapses. If Spies cannot trust the bike to be right to go who could blame him for tippy-toeing until he finds out what problems there may be? Somewhere in the mix, there's trouble up at t' mill, and nobody should be asked to find out what nasties lurk at 300kph.

[Nachlauf]

Did I get this right? He damaged his helmet at the start, when his bike tried to throw him off and that damage caused him to ride around more or less blindly? Man, how can a man have that amount of bad luck? He should be happy he only had a terrible result there. Could have been much worse, if he had crashed, especially at the start.

My faith in him remains strong though. He has the pace to win races. He just has to pick up the pieces again and get in the comfort zone. Crossing my fingers.

[Zaphod]

Question for Krop.

Is there any info you can give in regards to where the problems with Spies and the team stem from ? I too would like to see him perform to the level his talent would have us to believe is possible. It seem to the naked eye though, that all is far from well in that side of the garage, excluding what he pulled off at Le Mans, he seems to be down in the mouth a bit...especially with his comment after Estoril that "the championship is over"

Admitedly, that comment may mean that he feels he can no longer run a chance of being World Champ, although it could also be that he means he doesn't feel like he will even finish in a good championship position.

There is a lot of conjecture in regards to the team, for instance the cracked frame, not putting in the effort.

What do you see from where you are ?


Thanks.

[tz250w]

I'm going to ask a really naive, lazy question here (I could probably find the answer by searching...) but... Just how bad did he bang his head at P.I. last year? He really seemed out of it after that, in Sepang it was almost like a different person wearing a Ben suit.

Growing up through the ranks here in Japan I saw several guys knock themselves once too hard on the head and end up "out there", not only losing confidence but just doing stuff at times that was completely out of character. His performance since does remind me of them.

[Gustav O]

He did very well at Valencia after that PI crash so I don´t know if that is the problem.

[Kropotkin]

Question for Krop.

Is there any info you can give in regards to where the problems with Spies and the team stem from ? I too would like to see him perform to the level his talent would have us to believe is possible. It seem to the naked eye though, that all is far from well in that side of the garage, excluding what he pulled off at Le Mans, he seems to be down in the mouth a bit...especially with his comment after Estoril that "the championship is over"

Admitedly, that comment may mean that he feels he can no longer run a chance of being World Champ, although it could also be that he means he doesn't feel like he will even finish in a good championship position.

There is a lot of conjecture in regards to the team, for instance the cracked frame, not putting in the effort.

What do you see from where you are ?


Thanks.

I think it's a question of confidence and luck. When you have a bunch of luck run against you, then your confidence takes a knock, and especially after what happened in Qatar, that's just what he doesn't need. One good race could turn things around. I still think he can ride, but he and his team just need a weekend where everything runs smoothly.

[Japhrodisiac]

It may well turn out that Ben's laid back attitude regarding his bad run is just his way of downplaying the situation. I hope so anyway!

[tz250w]

He did very well at Valencia after that PI crash so I don´t know if that is the problem.

That's true. I can't remember if he crashed at all there or not during practice / QP. If he did, my little theory is bunk... It's the other races since, where he has crashed that he's seemed to have come unglued in the race as well.

Whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted... It was amazing watching him blitz the WSBK championship in his rookie year and I really hoped that momentum would continue into GP.

[Nachlauf]

He did very well at Valencia after that PI crash so I don´t know if that is the problem.

That's true. I can't remember if he crashed at all there or not during practice / QP. If he did, my little theory is bunk...

Actually he did. During one practice session when the track was partly damp he touched the white line separating the pit exit at the end of the main straight. The bike crashed instantly and thew him into the kitty litter.

[Cam D]

Spies is where he is because he changed his approach to racing. At the start of the season he was setting up his Yamaha and riding it in a way that was foreign to him, but worked for the other three Yamaha riders, teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammates Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow. Spies admits he was riding it as “the Yamaha needs to be ridden and that’s where a few weekends ago I just decided I’m going to ride like I need to ride and set the bike up like I feel we need to do and that’s what we’ve been doing and since then it’s been progressing. But for sure at the beginning of the year, even taking that out of account, there was some misfortune, a little bit of bad luck and also just some bad confidence. But definitely the approach to how I’m riding the bike has changed, obviously.”

and

“It’s just for me, it’s always more braking, a little less corner speed and corner exit when I’m not that great at braking early and the high corner speed,” Spies said. “I don’t like to brake early. I like to brake as late as I can and that’s how I’ve always been, so that’s kind of what I’ve reverted to. I haven’t really reverted back to anything, I’ve just got on the bike and however I feel like I need to go fast to make the lap time that’s what I do. I don’t try to follow lines by line on data and try to be a different rider, just do what we’ve got here by riding the way I’ve ridden the past six, seven years and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1206 ... index.html

[Japhrodisiac]

I wonder what prompted him to change his style? You can see it actually in the first races, and we have commented on it as well - his elbows out, agressive riding style seemed to have vanished completely. Perhaps he was trying to emulate Jorge as a way of finding the missing few tenths between them? Perhaps he was being led this way by persons within Yamaha? The few boob moves aside, he does seem a lot more like himself lately. I predict a podium very soon for Ben.

[n8r]

It sounds to me like Spies is probably reverting to a more superbike style of riding where you stop/turn/accelerate. I think that Jorge is probably the ultimate in corner speed GP style riders. Spies had said in the past that he really tried to not mess with the bike much and learn how to ride the 800s in the GP style. I'd guess that the 1000s can be a bit more flexible with riding styles than the 800s.