Last Sunday one of my motorcycle heroes died in a traffic accident. Norifumi ‘Norick’ Abe was riding on a street bike and collided with a truck that made an illegal U-turn. The former MotoGP star was only 32 years old.

I was fortunate enough to spend a training session in his pit box during the GP of the Netherlands in Assen 2004. I’ve always liked his - sometimes crazy - riding style. He was an inspiration for many and loved all over the world. He was also the inspiration behind Valentino Rossi’s adopted nickname Rossifumi.

My condolences go out to his family and friends. Rest in peace Norifumi, you will be missed…

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The world Superbike championship went down to the wire and got decided in the last race of the year in France. British rider James Toseland won the championship by only 2 points. It was so exciting! I was kind of hoping that Noriyuki Haga would be able to clinch the world title, but I knew it would be really hard. I really like Noriyuki Haga, he’s a bit of a dare devil and he’s always in for a good fight.

Congrats to James Toseland though, he deserved to win the title. It’s a nice way of saying goodbye to the Superbike world for him as he goes to MotoGP next year. What I like the most of James Toseland winning the title is that the Dutch team he’s riding for - Ten Kate Honda - clinched the double. They won the world title in both Superbikes and Supersport.

As a bike lover my self I know how hard it can be to find other biker singles. You can of course join up with a motorcycle club, go to motorcycle races or go to special bike meetings, but a lot of times all eyes are on the bikes and not on the people who are there.

Biker Planet offers a great biker dating service for people who are looking for a partner. You can join Biker Planet for free and instantly search through thousands of profiles of singles who share the same passion as you. You can upload pictures, send people messages or flirts, add people to your black book and more. Biker Planet is the number one community for biker singles and it has some cool features that other dating services don’t have. It has never been easier to contact other bikers.

As you can read in my About page I love motorcycle racing. Whether it is MotoGP, Superbikes, Supersport, etc. I love it all. When I still lived in Holland I used to go to just about every race. We packed up our tent and camped behind the track for the whole race weekend. What better way to wake up than to hear the engines of the bikes roar?

Unfortunately the races in Australia are not exactly in close distant to where we live. I’m gonna have to catch a plane or drive for 24 hours straight. Because of this and other reasons I haven’t been able to go to the races for the last 2 years. I absolutely hate not being able to go. Anyway, to make up for it and to make sure we never miss a race we have subscribed to paid TV.

Yesterday the MotoGP world championship got decided and Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner clinched the title. I am really happy for Casey. I’ve been following him for years and you could say that I am a fan of him.

Of course I would have wanted to see my hero with the title behind his name. I am a huge fan of Valentino Rossi for the last ten years and at the moment he is runner up in the championship. He’s had such a bad season! It’s a shame when mechanical or tyre problems are a deciding factor in a championship, but I guess that’s racing. Sometimes I wish all the riders were on the same bike with the same tyres.

But congrats to Casey Stoner! He was the ultimate package this season. Bike and rider were a perfect combination and he definitely deserves to win this year!

Do you like to watch motorcycle racing as well?

I use to be a huge fan of soccer. In Holland, just about any young boy plays soccer in the streets. It is the national number one sport. I was a huge supporter of Ajax and am proud to say that I was one of the first to join their official fan club.

But when I started to watch motorcycle racing I started to look at soccer games in a totally different way. I know you can not compare these two sports. They don’t have much in common, but I would like to give you a reason why I don’t like soccer that much anymore.

First of all I’d like to say that I’ve got a lot of respect for motorcycle racers. It’s a dangerous sport and basically they put their lives on the line (for our entertainment). When it comes to soccer players I think they get paid an enormous amount of money for just kicking the ball around and trying to get it between a few poles. But that’s not something I want to discuss though.

No, what I want to say when I say soccer players vs. motorcycle racers is this: I am tired of looking at a soccer game where the players seem to dive to the ground whenever they get ‘touched’. I am tired of looking at players who should be playing in a theatre because they can perform ‘the dying swan’ better then the ‘real’ actors. I am tired of looking at players who do everything they can to screw their opponent in getting a yellow, or worse, red card. What I basically want to say is: Grow up and be a man!

Soccer players should take an example of the motorcycle racers. Why? Whenever a motorcycle racer crashes his bike with a speed of 200 km/hour the first thing they do (when they are able to) is run to their bike and see if they can get back on and finish the race. Whenever a motorcycle racer has an injury he doesn’t ask how long it takes to recover, he asks if he can get back on the bike. You’d be surprised to see how many riders are actually riding with broken wrists, ankles, collarbones, etc.

Not that I promote doing sports with injuries like that, but I think that soccer players could learn a thing or two from them. So please, don’t dive to the ground and act like you were horribly tortured… Get up, be a man and give the fans what they came to see: a nice game of soccer!!!