For my fellow fans of the two-wheeled motorsport, it is my severe displeasure to report that Nicky Hayden has succumbed to the injuries he sustained in a cycling accident Wednesday of last week. Nicky was 35 years old and stood at 13th place in the current World Superbike championship. His career in MotoGP went from racing for Repsol Honda where he won the premier title (the last American to do so), to Ducati where he spent most of his time in MotoGP, and finished off with a couple of seasons on satellite Honda bikes before he moved to World Superbike.

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Nicky never was one to win back-to-back championships and it's been a long time since he was a regular feature on the podiums, but he had a quality all his own. He will be sorely missed.

i saw this news story today and was really sad. my dad talked about him a lot as he deals in Amsoil products. super sad =(

Oh, man, this is terrible news. Thanks for the tribute, pyro.

At first glance it seems a cruel trick of fate that a professional of powered two wheels gets killed on an unpowered bicycle. But in fact, it is some testimony of the safety of racing on tracks in organized events, with everyone involved focused on the same goal, going the same way, with the relative speed between them practically zero. Back in my own racing days, I never suffered any serious injury. All my incidents and accidents were going it alone, out on the unpredictable mayhem of roads, where you never know what's going on in the head of the next person in a vehicle, and spend 90% of your already limited thought process time trying to predict and think for them, each and every one of them, inside your vulnerability zone.

Be careful on public roads. Certainly, don't ride depriving yourself of a precious sense. It invariably ends in some tragedy.

For the third time this week, RIP

Still can't believe it. He was approaching the end of his career and his options were open from a finance standpoint to get married and enjoy the life he built. Sad that he wasn't able to enjoy retirement or go out doing what he loved on the track. Getting really tired of hearing of people getting taken out on the road completely not related to this "super dangerous" sport of motorcycling.

Aw, sorry man. Didn't know it was happening so much.

However, I was actually saying quite the opposite. Racing is not super dangerous. Idiots on the road are. Especially where I live.

(Please notice, I said "at first glance", ie; what would constitute "the average run of the mill appreciation").