Casey Stoner Struggling With Bike Heading Into Assen

Many fans thought Casey Stoner
would be set to repeat his dominant performance of MotoGP this
year, but it's been all about Jorge
Lorenzo thus far. It will likely continue that way if the early
tests are any indication, as Stoner is having issues with his bike
that will prevent him from making a comeback at the upcoming Dutch
GP in Assen.
Stoner has suffered from "chatter," an issue that causes the bike
to become slightly unstable, on both his front and rear motorcycle tires
all year long. Most of Stoner's news conferences are now dominated
by chatter about chatter, as the Australian continues to try to
shake the issue.
At Assen, it's clear that problem was still bothering him, reports
Crash.net. After posting the third-fastest time in the morning
session, Stoner was the only rider who didn't improve in the
afternoon, ultimately settling for seventh overall.
"In FP2 we couldn't get any feeling from the rear and to be honest
I felt a little nervous on the bike because from the first two
exits, the bike just wanted to throw me off," Stoner told the news
source. "Everything we're doing, trying to reduce the chatter is
just making the bike difficult to ride."
Even worse for Stoner is the fact that Yamaha rider Ben
Spies topped the Assen test, and another Yamaha rider,
Cal
Crutchlow, was second. That seems to bode well for Lorenzo, who
also rides Yamaha, as the track may simply favor that type of bike.