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Press launches - the ugly truth. Part 3

So with an afternoon of sightseeing completed (a rare luxury on most launches) it's back to the hotel for the press conference. These are you usually long winded, tooth pulling affairs with Japanese technicians insisting on speaking their bestest engrish which only serves to elongate the proceedings. Nothing kills a presentation more than reading every word of a powerpoint slide verbatum, even thought the viewers can read exactly the same words (and probably a lot faster).  The Crossrunner presentation was mercifully brief and snappy followed by dinner in the hotel and a reasonably early night as everyone had already been up for twenty hours.

The future. But we can't have it

It's no secret that we motorcyclists are getting older. We're ageing because less people are passing their bike test each year (roughly 30,000 last year compared to 50,000 for the 10 years before the new two-part test) and so not only is the pool not growing it's not even being replenished and so the average age isn't being diluted down by yoof. When the going gets tough in any situation, you really get to see who's got their shit-sorted and who's light enough on their feet to adapt to change.

Gardner chilling out and taking it easy

Away from the pressures of being a Grand Prix racer in the days when fierce on-track battles and unexpected highsides were common place, Wayne Gardner throws a Honda VFR750F around Oran Park in Australia. The bike that Wayne is likely to be riding is special VFR750F, that was given the codename '6X'. The VFR was an experiment with prototype components including titanium valves and magnesium flat-slide carburetors, the result was the bike that weighed less than a factory RC30.