South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Casey Stoner signing a contract with honda...

Valentino Rossi signing a two year deal with Ducati...

Spies to a factory ride?

My money is on Bautista to take the Tech 3 ride...

The Rossi/Ducati deal is done, apparently - due to be announced on Monday - lets hope Burgess & Co are making the move too ..... though I can't imagine Vale making the move without a degree of "insurance"

Stoner is not thought to be on a Repsol bike, that'll be Pedo (personal links to Repsol) and Dovi ..... Stoner thought to be on a Red Bull sponsored machine, with Simoncelli (who was apparently promised a factory bike as part of a two year deal) ..... but the Dovi has a strong link to Red Bull too ..... so perhaps Pedo/Moaner and Dovi/Simoncelli

Either way, 2011 is shaping up nice now

i am guessing that will be rossi's swansong then.

Bow out on a duke, italian rider on italian bike.

My thoughts exactly,

There is talk of a 3 factory bike honda team. I'm not sure about the contract with simoncelli though. But yes, at least one bike will have a different livery. Could be interesting with Dovi's and Pedo's performance contracts...

there is a clause in pedrosas contract that states if he is top3 mid season he guarantees a factory repsol for 2011 and dovi's contract states top5 and with them both being in the top3 hrc will have to take them on again hence the reason for a 3man factory team. simoncelli already has a factory bike so doubt there will be much change in his circumstances

i'd guess that rossi has 2 years on a duke before moving onto car racing

isnt bautista on a 2yr contract with suzuki, the strong rumour on the tech3 bike is the frenchman de puniet riding for the french team

Would be shame to see Dovi lose a factory ride as i feel he's earned it. Just needs to win a few as he's constantly battling for the podium but just not the top step.

I heard Spies was to take the other Yamaha and i can see edwards leaving after this season, so could be two new riders for tech 3. I think de puniet will get a decent contract being the best rider on a non factory bike, also Elias might make a rightful return after tearing up moto2.

Could see simoncelli taking one of the tech3 rides as he's probably the strongest rookie