Gripe of 2017

Mark Fattore: Bikesales Editor
This absolute and seemingly irrevocable fascination with containing speed as a major panacea for our road ills. It’s across the board poppycock from police, politicians, bureaucrats, academics and so-called “road safety experts”. In Melbourne, the speed limit on the totally revamped, safe-as-houses and five-lane-wide Tullamarine Freeway is a mind-blowing 80km/h, which most people dutifully drive at – conditioning for when someone says it would be safer at 75km/h at a later date. This madness serves no purpose, and isn’t a function of safer roads at all.

Kellie Buckley: Bikesales freelancer
The snore-fest that became the Superbike World Championship. Especially since it had such promise with the controversial reverse-grid second race. Jonathan Rea and his factory Kawasaki team were unstoppable and while I don’t wish to take anything away from the Irishman’s talent or his record-setting achievement, the reality of his highest ever points haul was that it was boring. The most exciting moment of the year came in Parc Ferme when he and title rival Chaz Davies called each other swearword names. Ducati Corse’s Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti summed it up pretty well: “We have very good riders now, some of them very fast, but they don’t really make the people on TV or in the grandstands want to cheer for them.”