Hey Ping,
I was just watching the 1st installment of the Racer X supercross preview show when I noticed a disturbing trend in your 2 whiteboard presentations. Now I am a fan of using props when trying to make a point; when I'm explaining something to someone, my thoughts always flow better when I'm drawing for some reason and whiteboards are my favourite thing to draw on. I noticed that when you spoke about Aldon's inner sanctum and Kenny's switch to Showa forks you used almost identical drawings to explain both. This in itself is not a problem, but both drawings looked like a great big set of boobs. My first thoughts were that you must have had something on your mind, but upon further reflection, I thought that maybe the issue was with me for noticing such glorious filth in innocently rendered presentation aids. So which is it Ping? Are you deliberately or subliminally trying to pervert young minds or do I need to seek help immediately?
Cheers
Jas
Jas,
I’ve re-watched the video and I have to say I’m disgusted that you turned a diagnostic rendering of the discussed topics, provided only to help those who prefer visual aids, into a life-giving female organ. Those “boobs,” as you so crassly referred to them, represent the motocross related items being discussed and nothing more. The drawings were a couple circles and parenthesis coupled with dots to specify a location. Let’s not make sweater meat-mountains out of mole hills. Thanks for watching the shows. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get back to my lunch at Hooters.
PING
Pingermeister,
How fast is too fast? Are athletes such as Tomac pushing the limits of physics too much? I was wondering after seeing Tomac’s crash over and over again on the web, what was it that really derailed his campaign for the 2015 MX championship after such a dominant start to the season? Was it mere bad luck, was it the Honda, which I hear is twitchy and unstable at times, or was it the fact that Tomac took a whooping minute and a half from Dungey and everyone else and that such speed could hardly be maintained without too much risk. In other words, was it just a matter of time? It came to my mind that we had riders before who were equally capable of raising the speed in just about any given situation to ridiculous levels. Both of them have a lot fewer championships to their names than their capabilities of riding a motorcycle very fast would indicate. The first was #199 who was just blatant at times and tried to force the issue in a way that made you scratch your head a lot. He had an abundance of talent, race-craft maybe not so much. He paid the price and he left the sport. The next is #7, it appeared almost as if he could be the fastest anytime he chose to be, but often we saw him throw it away a few corners into a ridiculous lead. Sometimes he still came out on top, but sometimes does not bode well when you’re paid for collecting #1 plates. To go full circle, I wonder if we are at a point in MX history at which men just cannot consistently go faster than let’s say Dungey, Canard and Roczen without a pretty high chance of eating it rather sooner than later. This brings me to the next point; do you think that Tomac has to “detune” himself in order to grace his mantel with a multitude of #1 trophies that would reflect his level of skill and fitness, and do you see potential that if he doesn’t, we will have a new James Stewart from Colorado?
Cheers, Oliver
Oliver,
This is a great topic for bench racing with your buddies over a twelver of your favorite beer. Of course after a dozen adult beverages pretty much any topic becomes entertaining but that’s another point entirely and kind of going down a rabbit hole, so let’s get back on track. There is no question that Pastrana and Stewart both tried to push the limit at times and it bit them. Both riders have had their fair share of injuries and, most disturbingly, head injuries. Would they have collected more championships if they checked up a bit and settled for the occasional second place or first place with a narrower win margin? Who knows? I believe it is way too early to add Eli to that list of guys. He’s had a few crashes but the one at the Anaheim opener last year wasn’t his fault and anybody twisting the throttle enough to win races is going to hit the deck now and then. That leaves his Colorado crash to discuss. Was he pushing too hard, was the bike not working or was it just a fluke? He’s already said that he felt totally in control and like he was riding within his limits. It’s no secret that he and the front end of his Honda had a tumultuous relationship ever since he started riding red. Eli never quite had the feel he was looking for and this could be a case where it just crept up and bit him. The crash was brutal and it ended badly, like all volatile relationships do. Chris Brown and Rhianna, John and Lorena Bobbitt and Eli and his CRF450 all turned out horribly. Thankfully there were no severed genitals in Tomac’s Colorado debacle. I think this year will be very telling for the #3 as he has a new bike and team around him. If he can harness his speed and stay on two wheels he is the next guy in line to wear the #1. I’m betting he keeps winning.
PING
Ping-a-ring-a-ding-a-ling,
So the races are now live on Fox Sports, yippy. But, why in this modernized world can't I simply open my laptop, punch in a website for live stream (heck, I would pay $10 per race at this point), open a cold one, sit back in my recliner and bench race? I don't care to ever have cable or dish, yet I STILL can't use the internet to watch live racing. What say you?
-Benchracing junkie needs his fix
Junkie,
I hear you talking, brother. Or I read your typing, or whatever. In an effort to cut expenses when I went through paramedic school we got rid of our satellite TV package and went to Netflix, which cost us about $7 per month. Our kids were watching nothing but cartoons anyway so it was a great switch for us. My only complaint is that I don’t have FS1 or FS2 or whatever other channels the races are being broadcast on so I have to go to a bar or to my friend’s house to watch the races. I think the almighty dollar is winning out here and Feld is trying to improve viewership the old-fashioned way. Cable networks bring in a nice little slice of everyone’s monthly cable bill, and they’re deathly afraid of people cutting the cord. So, they like to wrap sports leagues into nice TV deals that offer good time slots (all the races airing live is a relatively new thing for supercross) and lots of promotion, however, they also get some control, and that control is used to make sure people who don’t pay a cable bill can’t watch the event in any other way. Feld might not care how you watch it, but Fox Sports definitely does. If you pay a cable bill, you can get the Fox Sports Go App and watch all you want on your phone or iPad. See how that works? Same deal for most other sports leagues with a good TV package. I’m all for a web viewing package and I’ll be sure to do absolutely everything I can for guys like us. Unfortunately, I can’t really do anything at all so I guess we should get used to watching the races in a bar or checking out the highlight clips on the web the day after. Sorry, bro.
PING
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