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By Graeme Brown<br />
Not everything had been ready<br />
for a full spec race machine in<br />
Almeria so it was a case of setting<br />
up riding positions, mechanics<br />
getting used to spannering the<br />
bikes and so on.<br />
Now with everything prepared<br />
the bike looked pretty trick when<br />
it rolled out of pitlane on Tuesday<br />
morning at Jerez. <strong>On</strong>e thing<br />
I noticed however, was that they<br />
were running Nissin brakes. Nissin<br />
were only present in the paddock<br />
in recent years with the Ten Kate<br />
Hondas. Everyone else ran Brembo.<br />
Sykes apparently was really<br />
reluctant to use the Nissin product<br />
and was insisting on having<br />
Brembos. However, the deal was<br />
done long before Sykes put pen to<br />
paper and Nissin have gone all-in<br />
with BMW and SMR having their<br />
Racing Service on hand at both<br />
the Jerez and Portimao tests.<br />
There were other little noticeable<br />
changes up and down the paddock.<br />
The Barni Racing team,<br />
which is widely seen as an offshoot<br />
of the Ducati factory team<br />
and have taken Michael Ruben<br />
Rinaldi under their wing, are running<br />
Showa suspension. Showa<br />
have been a very big part of the<br />
success at Kawasaki over recent<br />
years and I was really interested to<br />
see their product on the Ducati. I<br />
couldn’t nail anyone down to find<br />
out the exact reason. Could it be<br />
that Ducati want to run it on their<br />
satellite team to get a handle on<br />
the performance of the Kawasaki?<br />
The current rules make it possible<br />
for anyone to buy the same equipment<br />
as the factory teams so it<br />
would make sense to see what the<br />
competition is using.<br />
In personnel terms it was interesting<br />
to spot Phil Marron in the Puccetti<br />
garage working as crew chief<br />
to Toprak Razgatlioglu. Phil has<br />
been a long term crew chief and<br />
friend of Eugene Laverty. I wonder<br />
how the relationship will develop<br />
but the Turk was pretty quick at<br />
both tests.<br />
Jonathan Rea continues to be<br />
top of the pile, setting the fastest<br />
times in both Jerez and Portimao,<br />
and he is resolutely determined<br />
to stay there. I had to visit him at<br />
home in Northern Ireland a couple<br />
of weeks ago.<br />
As I was coming off the ferry from<br />
Scotland he messaged me to say<br />
he was at the gym but to come<br />
up and by the time I get there he<br />
should be finished. When I arrived<br />
he was just starting the final exercise,<br />
pushing a sled with metal<br />
runners, laden with weights, up<br />
and down the car park in 10, 20<br />
and 30 metre shuttles, for the following<br />
20 minutes. By the end he<br />
looked drained. He has been doing<br />
that most days since December in<br />
order to stay fit and strong.<br />
<strong>On</strong>e man who has been hot on his<br />
heels at the tests is Alex Lowes.<br />
Alex and his brother Sam have<br />
pitched up at Valencia circuit and<br />
been training there since the start<br />
of the year. They have their own<br />
pit box and each day have been<br />
doing gym sessions, finished off<br />
by repeated efforts running up<br />
and down the hill along the back<br />
straight. Anyone who has been<br />
there knows how steep that is.<br />
We all follow our heros on social<br />
media and we see pictures of<br />
them riding motocross or supermoto,<br />
trials riding in the mountains<br />
or pedaling a push bike in<br />
some sunny location. What we<br />
don’t see is the hard graft of turning<br />
themselves inside out on a
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