I'm not trying to rip on anyone, I'm just stating my opinion, I'm sure there would be a hundred people that would rip on my TL1000R, because it's outdated, and heavy, and slow, well the slow would be there opinion, the heavy and outdated are true. As for the contract, amasuperbike.com has some pretty intelligent information, as does a friend of mine who is a Canadian Rep for Honda Japan, so I would think that I do know a little more than the avg. joe, I do know that his contract is up, and there are problems with HRC that are making him sign with an inferior bike, but who knows maybe he is getting sick of people saying it thr RC-211V thats winning the races. Critics would quickly be hushed if he did his thing on a Ducati, and even more so on a Yamaha. Thats my $.02 for the day.