for the championship. It's still a long
year."
•
What has made it seem longer is having to adapt to the Ducati after coming
off a year of success on the Honda.
"The Ducati seems more evenly distributed, the weight, front to rear," Hale
says. "Whereas the. Honda seemed to be
a little more front-heavy and be real stable on the front end, but loose in the
back. And the Dunlops accepted that
pretty well. It was a real forgiving bike.
And my style is typically hard-charging.
When I ride pretty hard it worked pretty
good with that setup.. This bike's more,
from the tapes I've watched and the few
people I've talked to, and talking to
Troy, it's a little bit more like a 250 bike.
You keep them in line, you don't spin
the tires a whole lot. I1
