MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

At some point during the evening of Tuesday January 6th / Wednesday morning January 7th, the server will be going down for routine maintenance. That means the site will be offline for around an hour. The site should come back up normally, of its own accord.

Apologies for the inconvenience!

2025 is done and dusted, not just for MotoGP and WorldSBK, but for me as well. It is time to take a week or so off and spend time with my wife and family.

Just a quick programming note for the next few days: I will be taking my wife for a few days to something almost unheard of: a place without a race track.

It has been a long season. From visiting Milan for the launch of the Aprilia in mid-January to the Valencia MotoGP test in mid November, with tests, races, and plenty of other stuff in between, it has been a demanding year.

So with my post-Valencia test round up posted, it is time to take a few days off. We are headed down to Andalusia to soak up some sun, walk on the beaches and along the cliffs, and not think about motorbikes for a few days. 

You are probably wondering why I have not posted a round up of all the things that I saw at the Jerez MotoGP test yesterday. The answer to that question involves a hard lesson on the fragility of the technological society, and how much more we are dependent on it than we realize.

I continue to be hounded and frustrated by health issues. This time, I managed to strain my back by performing the strenuous and unwise action of * checks notes * pulling my jogging pants on.

However, that has meant that I have spent all of Monday in bed, resting my back. I should be fit enough to sit properly and write on Tuesday, to bring you insights into what happened in Argentina, whether Marc Marquez was playing with his brother again, whether Pecco Bagnaia is in trouble or not, and how Ai Ogura managed to get himself disqualified, through no fault of his own.

After many years of faithful readers running the much appreciated Motomutterers fantasy league on the site (now moved it its own site here: https://www.motomutterers.com/), and after having enjoyed the Alpinestars Paddock Pass Podcast fantasy league last year, I have finally set up a separate MotoMatters league inside the official MotoGP fantasy game.