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Say what you want about him (and I know you will), but he's always interesting.  Note where he says that the only GP star that could compete with him and Spies on the old-spec AMA Superbikes is Rossi!?!  Classic Mladin.   [laugh]

http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/511/1/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/511/1/)

Sorry if it's a derby.  I hadn't seen it before.

Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cQ0cPdYK88&feature=player_embedded#normal)

don't think you derby'd.  ...i've seen it.  great stuff.

if anyone can figure out the OTT site enough to find parts 1-5??  love dave and his work, but that site needs a major overhaul (again).  ...unless maybe 1-5 were the in-season stuff he did.  hadn't thought of that before now.  i was looking for interview bits.

http://www.onthethrottle.com/index.php?searchword=mladin&option=com_search&Itemid=5 (http://www.onthethrottle.com/index.php?searchword=mladin&option=com_search&Itemid=5)

He was talking about body type and how that related to the bikes, not anything else. And he likes Rossi so you guys now have issues. :P

Ok, here's the whole series for whoever wants to watch 'em.  Derby's link has even more videos, like Dave Moss going through the trick bits on Mladin's superbike, an interview with Mladin's mechanic, and a tour of the Yosh garage. 

Part 1:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/455/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/455/30/)
Mat Mladin Series Intro- Inside with the Champ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnGHdaclqmY&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 2:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/459/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/459/30/)
Mat Mladin Series Part 2- Inside with the Champ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTv2fkwXmY&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 3: http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/475/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/475/30/)
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqqgTaRhpzE&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 4:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/480/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/480/30/)
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdaXgBlN3hI&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 5:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/485/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/485/30/)
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-sW25Jhpj8&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 6:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/498/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/498/30/)
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATa2j_ffKFA&feature=player_embedded#normal)

Part 7:  http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/511/30/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/511/30/)
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cQ0cPdYK88&feature=player_embedded#normal)

there ya go.  thx doods.

I love his comment about Daytona [laugh], but thought he would of been a little more diplomatic since living in his adopted country. I guess, if it looks like shit and smells like shit, it must be shit, tell it how it is Matt

mladin always said daytona was shit, even when he was here.

Which one was he talking about Daytona in?

#4. 

Thanks.  [thumbsup]

I heart Mat Mladin.

[laugh]

I was just hoping that since he'd retired he'd stfu. ;D

Part 8:

Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79a5N4eIrIk#normal)

Great stuff for any young racer to watch.  I always liked Mladin, especially when he spoke his mind. The guy walked the walked.

Makes me want to go out and get a GSXR1K! [laugh]

in particular i.. liked?  appreicated?.. what he had to say about bboz.

Part 9 (it's mistakenly labeled as part 10 on youtube):

Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BnZw8PmkQ4#normal)

interesting commentary on cornerspeed and the use of the clutch.

Part 10:
Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcdNflG1rTQ#normal)

Part 11:
Mat Mladin - Inside with the Champ part 11 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksIOaYAeFqA#normal)

That hangar couldn't hold his ego.

True. I always thought it was simply his team outspending the competition, but last year showed he works his ass off to be the best. I'm not a big fan, but I give Mladin a LOT more props now than I used to.

I also found his analysis of rider position and wheel control very interesting. He's clearly spent a lot of time analyzing what the bike is doing and how he can influence it.

I love him and his arrogance is well earned, BUT, I still say he should've gone international 6 or 7 years ago just for a couple of seasons at least. History will always paint him as a shark in a goldfish bowl.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/f004.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/f004.htm)

The only comparisons we can make is when we take Spies and what he has done in SBK and hopefully will do in MotoGP. We can only deduce that Mladin might also have been excellent, but we will never know. I think his ego would not have allowed him even the remote chance to fail.

that, and the fact that ben says that racing mat was the hardest thing he's done.  more difficult than winning the wsbk title.

Again, we will never know. He will need to live vicariously through Ben. Yet again, I doubt he cares.

about that i'm sure you are correct  =)

can't he just shut up? [evil]

there will be a part 28, 43, 76, 98 in a week or two  ;D


mitt

one of my greatest fears. ;)

 [laugh] [clap] [laugh]

Matt is a little twitchy. I guess the way his brain is wired that sitting still is probably painful for him.

part 11, i wonder if he was talking about spencer or schwantz.

my guess is the latter.

fwiw, i think a mladin riding school would be very interesting.

Yup, that was my guess. The only problem is that Schwantz doesn't teach excessive hanging off the bike, in fact he criticizes it. Many Schwantz graduates are noticeable by their upright riding position... so at least in that case Mr Mladin was talking out of his butt.

know anybody that's attended a pridmore school?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the guy that beat Mladin in the championship and went on to win the world championship make him look like he's sitting bolt upright?

WTF is he talking about that it's the wrong way to go fast on the track?

yeah, but ben's riding style isn't exactly "normal." he's always ridden like that, even on his little gp bikes.

i think what mat is saying is that teaching people to hang excessively off the bike is counter productive.

gm2 will be along to correct me here, but it's my impression that superbike school teaches head position and hip opening, not really hanging off.

I have done done any riding school, but from what I've seen they teach upper body positining and the good ol one cheek on the seat. It's up to the rider to feel more comfortable hanging off the seat.

css doesn't teach excessive hanging off, correct.  they say that if you get turned quickly enough you don't need much more than a cheek off.

whoever he was talking about it wasn't pridmore, based on the comment about them being a world-renowned racer (or something to that effect)



you really can talk about it for three hours, like he said.  some (like rossi.. and maybe that should always be the bottom line.  then again, he looks DOWN in corners...) really don't hang off that much.  others do -- and others go fast, also.

for some it's probably counter-productive (elias?!), others not so much.  but again, this is a couple-of-tenths conversation.


the thing about always keeping the rear wheel in line was really interesting too.

Maybe not normal...but definitely not wrong.

I think that's what bothers me about him.

No tolerance for differing views.
Again...how can he say it's not the fast way around? He's never beaten Elias either and Elias has beaten Rossi. ;D

It doesn't matter. I just dislike him and it's clouding my thinking.

well he was the 2003 world endurance champion.  ;D

the "world-renowned racer" pool is very limited in the us.... the pool of those guys with riding schools is even smaller.

with spencer no longer in the picture, yeah, not too many people to choose from. fwiw, i doubt kevin's "livelihood" is his school.

well, spies has beaten elias, and mat has beaten spies.  ;D

not lately.. ;)

The point is that what works for one person doesn't work for another. If we all tried to ride like Spies, it might work for some people but wouldn't work for most (would be my guess) but a less extreme position would work a lot better for most people. I'd say he's talking about Spencer.

DP your distaste for Mladin really doesn't result in productive conversations. Yeah, we get it, you don't like him but being dismissive about just about everything he says ignores his success and indirectly the skill of the riders he's raced against including Spies. Mladin is an amazing rider, super fast but a bit of a douche, I think it's funny, you don't like it, can we just take it as read that you're not a fan and move on?

That's fine, but it still doesn't make his one way fits all statement any more accurate.

Your statement is far more accurate IMO.

he's still a prick

To be honest, I think the point Mladin is making is something along the lines of "my way is the best way" but the general point that extreme body positions are going to be more difficult for most people and less extreme positions are going to be more comfortable for more people (much closer to a general statement) is definitely true.

i think everything mat says is a matter of [in my opinion] + [this is the best way to do X].  the results don't argue with that.. but it of course doesn't make anything the end-all, be-all on such a subjective topic.

i mean... look at the jacked up body positions of doohan, corser, and bayliss.  they still managed to win.  ;)

I agree with tufty; I noticed a difference between Spencer and Schwantz coaching, and Schwantz was more upright.  I think Freddie's curriculum was highly influenced by his coaching staff (personal opinion), but I'm not sure about Schwantz.

Agreed, body position isn't everything but that doesn't refute the general point at all.

If you can imagine someone going to the Elias track riding school and trying to learn with his body position, maybe you'll get the point. Body position is a continuum (John Mayer, great album) there are people who drag elbows (elbowz!) and are crazy quick, there are people who are practically draggy ass and crazy quick. Does that mean that when you're teaching people it doesn't matter? No, not at all. When teaching, you want to make people as comfortable as possible so that they're going to be able to take on the concepts attempting to be learned.

For example, Lee Parks focuses on left hand turns because most people are more comfortable turning left. It would be more difficult to teach people something like trail braking if you try to do that when they're uncomfortable.

For us normal people (lol!), getting a body position that's comfortable is *way* more important than having the "perfect form" (whatever that is). That's the point that I extrapolate from Mladin's comments.

Can I save this quote next time you're bashing the hell out of most Brit riders? (Yeah, you really do.) ;D

i think he thinks there's one way to do it, period.  but i agree with you.. i'm pretty sure i get a lot more off the bike than css 'taught' me to.  not something i tried to do, just happened.

naaah.

(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v378/51/103/1178490287/n1178490287_198117_1666.jpg)

Similarly to the heroic photo above,  [clap] , gm2 and Spies don't seem to hang off the bike excessively, there is a lot of lean angle to the bike and their torsos are inside the tank which gives the appearance of being way off the bike.

I am newly converted to the Matt Mladin school of riding, where the knee never touches the ground!! [laugh]

Yeah, I can see where if you're focused so much on hanging off the bike, you could lose perspective on other important facets of riding. And isn't it all about maximizing the contact patch of the tire with the pavement at a given speed and lean angle? Could it be that newer tire technology obviates the need to lean off so much?

I think we should go back to calling Mladin a douche.

me too...

Mat Mladin-> You're a douche!

I finally got a chance to watch some more of those videos last night, and I have some questions:

• Regarding those "midgets" in Europe that can't handle a 200hp superbike: Capirossi didn't seem to have trouble with a 250hp Ducati at Mugello, and Pedrosa has finished ahead of Rossi on several occasions.  Thoughts?
• Backing it in isn't the fastest way around a track: did Hayden back it in when he beat Mladin for the title?  Rossi has also been known to back a bike in.
• Hanging off isn't the fastest style: his example is Rossi, but my counter-example is Stoner, who is arguably faster than Rossi.  Is he just an exception?

The video series would be complete if he'd offer his opinions on counter-steering, trail-braking, the rear brake, and the best oil to use  ;D

I rag on Toseland because I'm genuinely not a fan but not on every mention of his name... stupid Toseland. [laugh] I'm actually thinking of the Family Guy episode now where Peter makes a noise every time someone says Meg's name. This one: http://www.trilulilu.ro/Sevy/07478fe5cb47d6#video-h370 (http://www.trilulilu.ro/Sevy/07478fe5cb47d6#video-h370)

The main issue I have with the Brits is the commentator who always focuses on the English riders even when they're amazingly riding in 9th. I like Rea, Byrne, et. al. but if they're riding like cocks then you can expect me to say something.

1. His point is that the superbikes are harder to deal with because you have to muscle them around a lot more. They're heavier & turn slower.
2. Backing it in is the ultimate form of point & shoot IMO and is a little contradictory from other stuff he's said. I'm not good enough to argue the actual point though, especially when comparing how Mladin does it (nuts!) as compared to backing it in.
3. Different styles work for different people.

i can't remember how out of line nicky was that year, but tire tech has come a long way over the last 8 years and traction control has entered the equation.

fwiw, mladin can backup a most of these opinions on motorcycle control with hard data from ~2000-present.

For himself on X number of bikes over 10 years.  He, (or anyone else) can't back it up as a universal truth or a law of physics.  For every "fact" people say, there are always exceptions if you look enough.

mitt

pt. 12 preview... b/c i know that will annoy some ppl   [cheeky]
Mladin - Inside with the Champ Teaser, Episode 12 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pxYM9d6mc#hq)

Mmmm, Ben is dreamy.

http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/560/1/ (http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/560/1/)

Easier: ;)

Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 12 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oolekrhTWz4#normal)

pt. 13

Mat Mladin- Inside with the Champ part 13 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ify4TIThlIE#normal)

They should make this into a show, it's bloody good value. [thumbsup]

It's probably been discussed somewhere before but how come Mladin didn't go over to WSBK after he retired from Yoshimura Suzuki?  Was it money...I heard he was compensated really well by Yosh; and WSBK teams probably couldn't match it; or was it his age, or lack of offers?

I think it came down to his requirements versus what was being offered...at 1 point it was rumored that the new BMW Satelite team was considering hiring him...he probably made some issue with wanting to be directly supported by the factory and put a kybosh on himself in the process of his demands

Maybe he's scuuuuuuuuuuuurd.

he made tons of money and had a good life for his wife and kids.  flying his private plane around the US is a far cry from traveling all over the world all year.

he did go to GP briefly in 1993.  wrong time, wrong bike, etc.  and he did some wsbk wild card rides.

and yeah, this has been discussed many times.  =)

See Dan...

It isn't just me. [evil]

won't he just shut up!?   ;]

pt. 14

Mat Mladin - Inside with the Champ part 14 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kkw-EbguKI#)

You'll be asking that after part 1034

i was just pre-quoting ducpainter

he's baiting me.... :-*

Mat's not as purty as The Ben.

[laugh]


and that laguna T3 footage that looks like replays but isn't, is pretty sick.