"Only 4 day's where I felt comfortable" - Ben Spies Opens Up About His MotoGP Career...

[@shoothuntride9456]

Ben Spies winning WSBK as a rookie against a field of veterans was monumental. New bike, new tracks, new team against world class talent. Unreal.

[@winstonwolff]

This guy owes apologies to no one. He lived his dream, And gave everything he had. He won a supersport championship, a moto xtreme championship, 3 AMA superbike titles, A world superbike title. Rode for 3 different moto GP teams. Has 6 podiums in motoGP including a win. Can you imagine what it takes to not only make it to moto GP but to win even 1 race? Especially for a yank. Elbowz is a legend!

[@sburns2421]

Spies in 2009 looked like a man among boys on the Yamaha. People think Bautista or Rea have had superior seasons, but not sure anyone showed such complete domination that Spies did on the then-new cross-plane R1. He had bad luck in the season which kept it interesting, but he so outclassed his fellow rookie teammate (and future WSBK champ himself) Sykes was sacked for finishing fifth in the season.

[@codeboy_henry]

He hadn't even seen 70% of the tracks, we will never see anything as sick as his 2009 title campaign. Anyone who saw it will never forget it.

[@Showmetheevidence-]

Every champion has unique circumstances and “years” with different issues/challenges etc. yes Spies was incredible… but Rea or Toprak for e.g. have had some truly incredible seasons too!

[@zacharyradford5552]

How many showed up and did a one and done season? It took Rea and Toprak a while.

[@sburns2421]

@@Showmetheevidence- Toprak is a fantastic rider and may win another title or two before he is done. He deserves a shot at MotoGP but likely will not get it. Rea moved to the Kawasaki after Sykes and the team had tamed many of the issues of the Ninja, but dominated for years. I doubt though, is ever wins another championship. Neither one top Spies '09 though IMO.

[@albertcampos959]

I remember the 2009 season vividly! Spies was the man, but credit to Haga, who was the only rider to bring it to Spies, the results could have easily been flipped, and Haga would have been the champ! Probably the best season in WSBK!!!

[@FRv4S]

Ben Spies doesn't realize how much fans appreciate the insight he provided in this interview. I remember one time Ben was the commentator for MotoGP on the USA channel and he helped me understand things that unless you were a MotoGP rider you can't explain to normal people like me

[@kaio37k]

He provides a really good explanation for the results we often see. Bautista spent 9 years in GP, only had 3 podiums to show for it, then wins the WSBK back to back aged 38-39.

[@simewood2040]

Ben Spies - Class Act 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@JuniorJr_23]

It's always nice to hear what Ben Spies has to say.

[@jesuschrist-alphaomega]

BEN is a cool guy. Got to meet him a few times. He ran at TWS CMRA with Kevin they started in the back of the grid an passed everyone by turn 2

[@t.0mmz115]

Ben "Elbowz" Spies. Man what a style he had!

[@AlucardFeeds]

Man I miss him and his Era of riders.

[@chrisfournier6144]

An exciting rider to watch in the day! I wish he’d been around longer!

[@F1Slunk]

A great talent in his day.

[@tomg4592]

Spies was the man. So talented. I would like to see the MotoGP guys jump to a superbike and see how competitive they are.

[@2wheeled76]

Biaggi and Bautista are two of the more notable gp riders who went to SBK after their GP careers and won championships. Also Petrucci. Next year former GP rider Andrea Ianonne will be racing SBK as well.

[@pancon5]

​@@2wheeled76Also Carlos Checa (won a championship on a Ducati), Marco Melandri (race winner), John Kocinski... Taking nothing away from Ben ofc, great career.

[@dayleashleynolasco5765]

In the past, it can work out like C. Edwards, T. Bayliss, the late Hayden, Spies & Crutchlow. Today, it's not possible anymore. It's way different. If you listen to what Ben said. It's much worse than today with all the advancement. The riding style has been changed as well besides the braking.

[@DangerousSportsForSeniors]

Love these interviews

[@jamesbensley7914]

I have gained a lot of respect for this man after watching this. Fair play

[@rafalobo5308]

An honest professional.

[@johnjewett2274]

Excellent interview.

[@benjaminnielsen5265]

I kinda wish he had stayed in WSB. I suspect we would have had many more years of watching him ride. After his wild card GP ride for Suzuki at Indy 08, Suzuki was nuts not to sign him to whatever he wanted. He was the fastest Suzuki all weekend and finished 6th during a hurricane.

[@billymc2681]

Probably another year or two before moving to GP.

[@chrisfournier6144]

That was an awful race day wasn’t it? I thought I was gonna get blown clear off the grandstand that day.

[@benjaminnielsen5265]

@@chrisfournier6144 Yeah it was. I was in the grand stand at least. As I recall, the track lost power at about 2/3 race distance.

[@jackiemoon1556]

Can relate to his point re electronics, I went from a raw 2012 gsxr to a fully aided 2017 gsxr, could only manage to drop 1 second off best lap time as I just never felt comfortable on the 2017 bike with the rider aids, tc kicks in at different levels even if set low (2 or 3), the abs couldn't be turned off and was horrible IE rear a foot in the air under heavy brakes at end of straight when abs kicks in and shunts u deeper into the turn, just not predictable like the 2012 was. On the 2012 got a nice little bit of spin on exits so u knew u were getting max power down but on the 2017 it would never be consistent, got highsided hard (saved it) just trying to get that consistent feel on exit. Power felt too linear, which I suppose is a good thing but a bit boring, overall just never felt comfortable mentally on it as kinda always expecting abs to kick in at worst possible time etc which starts to lead to braking slightly earlier and not quite as hard plus the frustration of not knowing if ur getting as much out of it as u could be cos tc wasn't consistent.

[@burningscooter]

full podcast link on your website is incorrect. Its linking to episode 267 and not 277.

[@nickswaz]

Cool dude wow

[@scottanderson4175]

I was at road Atlanta when Azurá Bouvier won his first race on the BMW his brother Can entered the podium to congratulate his brother so I said to Cam dude that was amazing 💪 Cam looked at me like I had 3 heads and totally ignored me 🤦🏻‍♂️ I guess I expected at least a response !

[@captjohnclark]

I grew up with him, he had a carbon road bike before carbon was a thing...he was training after school...in the first grade lol

[@LeeTillbury]

Cool, does he still collect keychains??😂

[@Bob_Shy_132]

Big cheese Spies! Lol

[@noelcruz2891]

Or styro cups? 😂

[@readie10145]

I could teach a lot how to get around the 2 setups and learn both but it does take a mentally, not style. I learned a lot of Casey, Rossi, and other riders styles. It's called stop on point and slam gears down for that corner while braking hard as possible on rear and the front, causing rear end to slide. when you are relaxing the brakes during that corner you relaxing the front and rear spring, so now you are closing off the corner for better exit, and now you can go full throttle without to much traction. On a world super bike you can play with the bike but it comes to rider and how good you are making them tryres work and how long you can stretch corner out. Tracks are different with long and shape corners and that's when rider makes the difference by changing gears and a different time during that corner

[@soraaoixxthebluesky]

But one weird thing is we’ve seen in past till today. A Motogp guy like Checa, Biaggi and now Bautista manage to win a world title in SBK. Does it means that Motogp rider adaptability are way better that even the most talented pure SBK riders on the grid?

[@Jimmie92]

Yes. Toprak was way off when he tested the M1, although we don’t know how fast he’d be on a Ducati let’s say. Still, the level of GP is higher, always has been ( pretty much), and certainly is these days.

[@rapid13]

Even back then Ben was just too damned big to win on the GP bike lol!

[@hypnodic01]

I think Yamaha and Ben had some form of riff....things happened to him that I've never seen....broken SWINGARM? Wrench left INSIDE the bike? they could have killed him

[@Cato-1119]

Funny, where would you see anything, you ever in WSBK or MGP to know what it is like? Never broke a swing arm, was a bolt at Laguna and also no wrench, was a clamp for the fuel over flow @ Protagal

[@hypnodic01]

@@Cato-1119 so what you’re saying in your snarky yet eloquent retort is that SOMETHING happened to his swingarm. How many other times in recent memory has that happened and how many times has a “clamp” that is for servicing the bike been left in it? Or are you some MGP/SBK savant who knows and sees all?

[@jihigh482]

​@@hypnodic01He wasn't good enough for GP, that's all there is to it. Stop coming up with silly excuses Yamaha signed a rider just to ruin his career, yeah right😂

[@gloriathomas3245]

It's quite a shame an injury ended his career

[@deandee8082]

I wanted you to win, but I felt bad Nori didn't get his at the same time, real bad, Nori raced his balls off and done real good too .... I hope you didn't think you were on the best bike in MGP.. not even close for what you had you kicked arse IMHO, you may not think like this or may never but MGP was never going to let you win a title in MGP, that would have given you the hat trick and that prestige is never going to be given to an American, you're already in a very very unique club already, you have won races in AMA, world superbike and motoGP, count em, how many riders can say they've done this? to win a title in all 3? NO FUGGEN WAY! that's reserved for an Italian or a Spaniard... that's how they see it, in fact how many Americans you see on the grid today .. if you want to count apples and oranges one could argue you are the most accomplished motorcycle racer in the world having won races in all 3 grand series, AMA, SBK and MGP .. how many others have done this, pretty small club right? they were never going to let you win it, titles in all 3 would mean you are the only person to ever do this . . again Spaniard or Italian, but that will never happen so it will never happen, cuz Americans will never allow a Spaniard or Italian to win all 3... but you see they are trying right, they want your crown of winning 3 races in each, Elias won moto america and an MGP race, pertucci won races in all 3 MA, SBK and MGP... small club, you did it first . . fair to say you won more races in SBK than he has in his entire career but he did win 2 in the big dance . . :-) do you know of any other riders to win races in all 3 series? go get yourself a couple Sebring and 24 hr titles, i'm available next year its a cinch... no jokes suzuki only. . .

[@rogergonzalez3036]

Love Ben, but Lorenzo painted him, end of the story.

[@s2wheels]

Comparing apples to oranges my friend. Lorenzo had plenty of experience on the GP bikes. Plus was Yamaha #1 at the time. But how Lorenzo did Lorenzo when he went to repsol?😂😂

[@jihigh482]

​​@@s2wheelsExcuses lmao No matter how Lorenzo did with Repsol, he was far superior to Spies on a GP bike. Spies wasn't good enough for GP while Lorenzo is a World Champion No amount of Copium will make Spies look good compared to Lorenzo in MotoGP.

[@jihigh482]

Exactly lol his fanboys keep trying to come up with excuses to justify his poor performances in GP. Guy is a great rider overall but a GP bike was clearly too much for him

[@s2wheels]

@@jihigh482 I do not have enough time. To dismantle your clown like thought process when it comes to GP. A whole bunch of you clowns get on here and just talk. Mostly because you're a fan of the rider first. Instead of a fan of the sport first. A swear it's like going to a circus and it's just clowns performing.

[@JpOcDenver]

Days. It's days. Why is there an apostrophe there?