*Liam's Wild Ride*

[defraine]

Respect mate, I wish you the best. Cheers, Sean

 

[stan23]

Liam - see you at Fantasia. Old times my friend.

 

[com3]

 

[CockyRooster]

Liam, you've managed to intrude a great deal of integrity and dignity to BARF regardless of all of our best efforts. You shape the world with your presence, My Man!

Super best wishes for the future. Here's to you

-Rooster

 

[whorida002000]

Liam,

Thanks for all the inner view on the Motogp paddock, and sharing all with us. It is rare to find this type of information from someone so grounded and not "HOLLYWOOD" with it.

Wish you all the best in the future for whatever you decide to do!

Stay up! (Ebonic term = Cheers!)

 

[iehawk]

I still remember working on the DVD cover, the going-away sale (still have your old TV in fact).

It's definitely been great following up your adventure. Now perhaps you'll have time to sit again and start typing up all the stories into that book of yours.

Just like what Stan said... Fantasia... with your white Mac laptop of course.

 

[John-O]

I can't thank you enough for putting up your Wild Ride, its been inspirational reading for me as I go through my midlife crisis. Ha!
You've been a great ambassador for MotoGP, when you decide to come back I expect to see you in front of the camera next to Greg White or Nick Harris.
Best of luck to you.
Welcome back to the grid, John

 

[Desmodromic]

Guys,

I've decided to leave the Championship at the end of this season. Technically, it's already over, but for my position, I'm involved months before, and for some time afterwards. All the rest of my team finished up on Sunday at Valencia, a few hours after the race. On Monday, we tested with Mika Kallio and Canepa, keeping five of the youngest members of our team. Their job next year will be to drive the semi-trucks, build the garage, and maintain the machines. Most of the staff went elsewhere, my track engineer from SG50 moving over to WSBK to be the man behind Tom Sykes on the Factory Yamaha team, Jose headed over to WSS to help build and run Kawi's electronics, Lele moving over to Aprilia in WSBK to head Nakano, Martin over to work with Sete, pretty much everyone was able to secure a spot in a championship series for next year. In the past year, I've been looking at my part in the racing and coming to a decision that would change everything. I'm sure some of you felt this along the way, that things just weren't really clicking, but the bottom line for me is that I loved working with my crew, I loved the energy that we all shared. When that changed, it was never really the same, and I wasn't sure I wanted to start again with another team. I have been in contact and heavy talks with other teams, both in WSBK, MotoGP, 250 and 125 even, haha.

For me, to stay in the big leagues would have meant compromising myself in ways I was not comfortable doing. With the GP7 flat out dominating when it debuted, and continuing the trend through '08, many of the other teams I spoke with wanted detailed information about the bike, it's components, and also about the GP9. It put me in a strange place, because I would love to contribute my professional opinions about things, but when someone straight up asks you for dimensions and weights of components, that crosses a line that I'm simply not capable of.

Mostly, I just want to be Liam again. I want to ride motorcycles again. Looking back on the past three years, it's perhaps the one thing I've missed the most, and it's only gotten worse as the years have gone by. At first, I was content to be in a different city, a new place, watching the wheels go by. I always stop and check out the bike wherever we go, they're always parked outside our hotels at the races. I love seeing the moto-culture in all these countries. The highlights of the last two years were coming back to SF and actually riding again, putting on the helmet and just going, whether it was on my little monkeybike or getting onto a Ducati Superbike. Just twisting the throttle and letting everything go, off into the wind. I miss it.

And I miss my girlfriend. I miss building a life together. I don't want the years to pass us by while we hold on to a partial life filled with skype, emails, phone calls, and small vacations a few times a year. There comes a time in a man's life when he has to make the choices that are not only best for him, but for those around him, those he loves. It's time for me to grow again, this time in a more personal direction instead of a professional one. But rest assured, the adventures and experiences will continue, and we have new goals and bright ideas that have the power to change the world.

I still have the fire, and it's quite possible I will come back to racing at some point in the future. I am heavily connected in both world series now, with years of experience and knowledge, but for now, I want to bring it all in. I want to take my focus and apply it where it's needed. I want to work on what's fun and creative, and continue sharing my love for life and living.

I'll probably be closing this thread down within a few weeks. It was a real wild ride, coming out to Europe, not really knowing anyone or anything, and just finding a way to make it all work. I did it! Three years in the WC with some great people. The memories and experiences will last a lifetime, and I've seen the series go from VR to NH to CS and now back to VR. Quite a wild ride, and I'm proud to have shared it with you all. Thank you all for being here and for all your support over the years. It's helped me get by on so many occasions, so for everything, Thank you. I'll be around . . .

Hey dude more power to ya! Not many peeps with that kind of back bone to stay loyal to the scuderia, much respect! It was great kickin it with you and Michelle back at Laguna (oh thanks again for letting me take home the Agip race gas barrel, it looks great in my garage). Oh, don't worry I never posted any of the pic with you on it.

Loved reading about you're personal experience with the 1098R and it's DTC [up against a D16RR no less]. I love your passion for the sport and motorbikes, because I think I'm as passionate about it as you, the thing is you are living what I only geek about in my lonesome.

Oh, let me guess Honda teams (If not factory Honda them selfs) wanted the dirt on the Desmosedici? <---joke, you don't have to answer that... no, really, PM me

“Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts”.
-Cicero

 

[el_chorvo]

Hi I used to read this post, thanks Liam for your comments, in Spain we knew you in TV program "Historias sobre ruedas" (stories on wheels)
Good Luck man

 

[jrace]

...in Spain we knew you in TV program "Historias sobre ruedas" (stories on wheels).

Which you can watch again on LiamTV: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MotoLiam&view=videos

-jim

 

[Junico]

Thank you for all you've given to Barf. It's been great following your story.

 

[MotoLiam]

Thank You Everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm always amazed and surprised when you guys all write in, kind of blows me away. So here's my Thanksgiving post, albeit a day late (they don't do this holiday in Spain, and I didn't learn T-day was on Thursday until Tuesday night)!

Thank you all for the kind words, and I'm especially pleased that some of you realized more of what I was trying to express in this thread than sheer info-tainment. More than anything, I wanted to show that when you set your mind to something, if you push hard enough, if you make the best decisions you can and have faith in yourself - you can do it! You *can* make it! It was a hell of a gamble, for sure, when I decided to pack up and leave San Francisco in search of Big Speed. Sold off all my stuff, my bikes, my truck, pretty much left everything behind so I'd be completely free to pursue my dreams. It's all been worth it, and truly expect that my future is going to be even brighter.

I'm grateful that I've had such a tremendous learning curve out here in GP's. There wasn't a single day that passed where I didn't learn something significant, and this applies to learning about myself during my life in Barcelona, or about myself while traveling through some foreign country observing their unique and sometimes baffling cultures. At the races, the curve was off the scale, and I'm particularly indebted to my crews and some of the finest engineers at Ducati Corse for sharing openly with me about all manner of things. I suppose I was much more of an exception because I don't just do my job blindly, I have this burning desire to constantly learn and improve. I'd spend hours talking with my data guys and crew chiefs (my best friends on and off the track these last years), and I spent this past year working closely with our Ohlins track technician, Millsy, getting the best foundation possible. Millsy came from 20 years in the World Rally Championship, so we were constantly asking each other things and bouncing ideas off one another. He taught me about the vehicle dynamics behind those crazy sliding cars, and I would teach him about what I knew about how to make a bike go faster. Joking and kidding with one another all day long, we quickly started raising each other's levels, and it was fantastic. Not only talking about work, but just life in general, life on the road, and life in the fast lane! In fact, all the Ohlins guys that I've spoken with in GP (almost all teams using Ohlins have an individual tech that maintains and modifies the suspension trackside) have been outstanding, recommending books and joking around while being extremely forthright and knowledgeable. Not to mention their stuff is so trick and works so well!

It's funny, but there are different approaches to getting round a racetrack, and different ways to get there. Some people follow the guidelines, laid out in a book. Some manufacturers have custom made software that allows them to see the physical characteristics that will result from changing the fork offset and angle, plugging away numbers into program after program, determining rake and trail, weight distribution, chain length (effective swingarm length, crucial with regard to the physical engine braking effects on the rear suspension, under decel load and under accel load), transmission ratios, pretty much everything. Then there are other schools of thought, and while they're a little more creative, they're not a guarantee of success either. Everything, and I mean everything, boils down to compromises. You can never have it all, you can never have that cake and eat it, too, hahaha. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the cutting edge of motorcycle racing. Make more power, then something breaks, then redesign that part, then something else breaks, etc, etc, it becomes this huge cycle of evolution and development that is truly wondrous to see and be a part of. I could have bought a house in SF with some of the money we spent chasing parts failures, hahaha.

Perhaps most interesting to me, apart from the lessons learned from my chiefs as we tried different solutions to various on-track problems, are the talks and dinners I've had with various designers, the men behind the scenes, the men in the cubicles back home "somewhere". Every so often, an engineer would come out to a race to see his stuff in action and just to take it all in. Regularly, Corse guys would come by, each one excited and willing to share what they were working on, why things did what they did - good and bad - and what the thought process was behind an evolution or a completely new piece/tech. I've spent time with the guy who created the current Ohlins forks and shocks that everyone is using, a pure genius of a guy who looks nothing like what I would have imagined. Imagine a great big burly Swede, with a deep voice rumbling from a barrel chest. Yaaah Yahh, ve did it zisvay for zis reasong, hahahaha. Or dinner with the engineer from Marchesini in charge of designing the rims we are all using. So much work, so much time, effort and R&D goes into these things, it's always a pleasure to get them away from their desks and computers . . . they always seem to come so alive when they're talking about something they're passionate about.

I guess I'm still reeling from meeting the GP9 in person. After working on my end of the project this past season, to finally get up close and personal with this bike and hang out, have dinners and coffees with the engineering staff behind it, just incredible for me. It's a lot easier to learn in a small environment like Ducati Corse, because there simply isn't the amount of people working compared to a large Japanese Factory, and everyone carries more than their own weight. I know all the guys working on the electronics, I know the chassis guys (actually, they're the vehicle design guys, they design everything outside of the software), and the engine guys. Three small departments. It's almost unfair to call them departments, even. There's seven guys working on the bike, not counting engine and electronics. Seven! It's funny, I was joking with the Marchesini designer (who now works in DC), and I said that HRC has so many engineers they even have a few guys who just design their own wheels. He laughed and said, I know! HRC would design their own wheel, then have Marchesini manufacture it to their specs instead of using one of the "standard" March's. Why would HRC do this, you ask? Different reasons, a different standard. HRC has their own stress testing parameters that a wheel must pass before they'll race with it, and this includes repeated shock testing, where a hydraulic ram bounces (batters) a rim over and over to find its weak points and eventual stress failure areas, and time (length of life). He claimed HRC's wheels are 1.5 kilos heavier than the rims that other teams are using . . . . so my question to you guys is why would a team use heavier wheels when there was obviously a lighter wheel available? Anyway, I'll answer that question later if one of you hasn't gotten it in a week. And the aero work these guys are doing over in England. Just flat out cool!

Speaking of Aero . . . the more things change, the more they stay the same . . .

 

[Alexey]

so my question to you guys is why would a team use heavier wheels when there was obviously a lighter wheel available?

I wouldn't have thought of this if I hadn't read a recent issue of Bike magazine, where they talk about how Yamaha's new R1 cross-plane MotoGP-derived crankshaft is actually designed to smooth out the stresses on the tire, rather than the conventional big bang thinking. So, in light of that, I'm gonna say HRC might be opting for a heavier rim (aside from possible shock energy delivery reasons) to add to the "intertia torque" -- sort of like the flywheel effect right on the tire.

 

[Deucer]

Liam,

I just got back to this thread. I'm JP's cousin. You also met my brother at the test after Indy. I've run into you a couple of times over the last couple of years, and wanted to congratulate you on taking the next step in your career and life.

Have fun decompressing and enjoy life out of the fast lane.

 

[MotoLiam]

Thanks Andrew, I remember meeting you for the very first time in '05! Good times all around, and you got some great family there.

Here's a photo just cause I think it's cool, haha.

 

[number_6]

. . . . so my question to you guys is why would a team use heavier wheels when there was obviously a lighter wheel available? .

maybe because they are the company that put a carbon fiber wheel under Freddie Spencer which exploded into bits. maybe they took that pretty serious and didn't want it ever to happen again? I dunno just guessing.

 

[Graystroke]

Liam,

Thank you for sharing your journey with us all......and allowing us to live a "MotoGP life" vicariously through you. I'm certain the decision to make this change was tough, you were in a very special place.....breathing rarified air. Most importantly.......you're moving on your own terms and for the right/best reasons. I look forward to seeing on the local roads.....and perhaps you'll have time to hang at the Casa Tornadiac in 2009. Thanks Bro! See you at the Ace!

Graystroke - JPT #1

 

[jrace]

Audio update with Liam, speaking with popmonkey: http://www.motogpod.com/episode/episode-155-laverty-and-motoliam

Insightful stuff.

I manage to hog a bit of the show as well, speaking with Eugene Laverty of WSS Parkalgar Honda.

-jim

 

[Sharks]

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Im really glad you did this for us and I really enjoyed reading your stories

 

[Grikl]

its been a great read bradda, mahalo