New Alvaro Desktop Icons For Mac OSX & Windows PC

(*Preview of the new set of 9 fabby Bati icons)

On a genuine piece of Bati-related news (and certainly Bati fan news) I've just published a new set of Alvaro Bautista desktop icons for Mac OSX and Windows PC.
These are great for replacing drab system icons for your folders, applications and drives; and I've done a mix based around a nice shot of Alvaro on the 2008 bike (with the 19 on it, unlike my last icon set which featured the pre-season bike) - and created 9 variants based around drive, netowrk and folder symbols. They are all nicely detailed and feature everything you'd expect from a state-of-the-art icon set, including alpha-channeled drop shadows so they look gorgeous on your desktop.

How do you download these?
Simple - Join up on the BatiFans.com Alvaro Bautista Fan Forum and you can get the links from our "Members Only" downloads area.
Not a member?
You should be... ;-)

OFFTOPIC: More El Canto Del Loco In UK iTunes Music Store

Okay, slightly offtopic - but there's not a huge amount of MotoGP news at the moment, and it's still vaguely Bati-related as Alvaro is a fan of El Canto Del Loco...
British fans who also use the *UK* iTunes Music Store will be interested to know that a second ECDL video has cropped up; although it's actually a song called "Me Gustas Cuando" by Lucas Masciano. It has to be said that it's not anything profoundly special, but it's nice enough - and you can see and hear the guys, and overall I'd say that hte song has a slight hint of the same vibe as "Gigante" off the album Personas.


I have to admit that I still can't get "Peter Pan" out of my head (although to be honest I do listen to it a lot anyway!)
It's kind of become the soundtrack in my head to the trip to Talavera de la Reina; it was played so often on the radio, in bars and on TVs there. I particularly remember being huddled round a table in a packed bar with Tamara, Michaela, and a bunch of the Peña guys and gals sometime around 2am with it blaring out over our heads, and everybody joining in... :)
Good times.
Though I have to laugh at myself for getting a bit maudlin whilst watching it on my iPhone on the return flight, having necked some G&T and a couple of bottles of red!
What a total wuss! ;-)

It's a lovely video - and you deserve to buy it for yourself!!! Click here to go check it out... (and buy it if it grabs you, of course...)
Hopefully this means we will see more and more ECDL videos on iTunes very soon....

What Would Steve Jobs Say????

I've been asked many things since I got back from Talavera de la Reina... Did you have a good time? Did you get pissed? Did you meet Alvaro? What's the Batster like? Was he nice? How was the big dinner & party evening?
But possibly the thing I've been asked the most is "How old are you???" when people see my newly pimped MacBook Pro. I'll be the first to admit a whiff of the tragic about it, having spent the best part of 20 years refusing to put a single sticker on any of my Macs. I must have just got a bit into the mood of it all :)
The photo was taken with my iPhone which is of course also in danger of getting stickered-up if I get bladdered anytime soon too...

;)

My 2004 Aprilia Conversion Meets Its New Owner

Although a lot of the pictures and videos from the trip to Talavera de la Reina we want to keep special and exclusive to our Forum Members there's no way I can resist posting up this picture (by stv21 - thanks!) of Alvaro taking delivery of my 2004 NGS Aprilia 125cc conversion (based on Altaya's Hector Barbera model, re-worked with my own designed decals). He got a real kick out of it, and said how it was really special and how the actual 2004 bike was really special to him too, having taken his first podium on it.
I'm probably even more chuffed at his reaction than he was chuffed at the model, and can only say I hope he gets loads of pleasure from it :)

The full story and pictures covering the process of converting the model can be found here...

To Steal A Phrase.... "All Kinds Of Awesome!"

It's all been a bit hectic since getting back from Talavera de la Reina on Monday (a fantastic trip that even exceeded expectations - genuinely awesome, really); lots of work to catch up on and lots of photos and stories to post onto the BatiFan.som Forum...
There's loads of very special stuff up there - pics, videos - and more to come. I f you're a member of the forum you can see them just by logging in. If you're NOT a member of the forum, well what the hell is wrong with you????? ;)



Here's me with Alvaro's 2008 leathers.
More pics here (forum members only)...



Here's me on Alvaro's 2006 Championship winning 125cc bike.
More here (again, forum members only)...



Here's one of many lovely pics of a lovely city.
More here (froum members only)...



And purely randomly, when returing via Madrid - although we didn't go to many places it was astonishing how they didn't seem to pimp anything about either MotoGP or El Canto Del Loco... (We couldn't find *any* MotoGP DVDs at all! Honest!)
In fact this Converse posterboy panel was about the only special ECDL thing we saw. ("Peter Pan" is going to be stuck in my head for months after many emotional listening to it in bars late at night!)


Thanks Bati -thanks to your family - thanks to the Peña - thanks to all the new friends we made.
It was a very very very very special weekend...
Can't wait to come back in 2009. :)

Return To Talavera

Well, first thing tomorrow I'm flying off to Madrid and heading back to the fab Talavera de la Reina for the Alvaro Bautista Official Fanclub Winter Dinner.
I tell you, I can't bloody wait... it's a beautiful and friendly town and Alvaro, his family, friends and fans are the most lovely people I think I've ever come across.
There's a reality check in that I can't imagine it as ever being as special as the summer party in August, but I'm sure it'll be a great time nonetheless.

I have no idea if I'll be posting anything up here before I return on Monday... It's possible but by no means certain. For now I have to go check important stuff: Euros, passport, hair gel... ;)

Valencia Testing - Day 1

Team Aspar were at Valencia, running both 125 and 250 bikes.
Here's how the 250s fared...
1.- Álvaro Bautista ESP Aprilia 1.37.1 53 laps
2.- Gabor Talmacsi HUN Aprilia 1.38.1 41 laps
3.- Mike di Meglio FRA Aprilia 1.38.9 55 laps

Keep up with all the news, stats, pics and comment here...

Get This: "MotoGP - Riding Secrets" DVD

As someone who religiously gets the Duke MotoGP Season Reviews, another top tip for this year has to be their "MotoGP Riding Secrets" DVD which is out now...
The best part of two hours long, it's not unlike last year's "A-Z" title which was an excuse to pull together lots of the special features from the season's TV programming plus some excellent race and onboard footage to form a terrific (but paid-for) bonus disc.
This time around we have pretty much the whole top class talking about how a team operates across a GP weekend, mental and physical fitness (the mental bit includes a really nice interview with J-Lo... honest...) and lots of great stuff on starts, overtaking, cornering and of course crashing (that old DVD favourite) from the likes of Tony Elias, the Hopper, Colin Edwards, JT, Vale - all of 'em.

Whilst it's easy to snipe at it being an exercise in charing you for recycling, I don't honestly mind - it's a great film with Dorna and MotoGP's usual top quality behind it and it's an excellent way to pass a couple of hours.
My only serious gripe would have to be the fact that, unlike last year's "A-Z" it is totally focused on the top class, and completely excludes the 250s and 125s. That's a great shame, although I'd be the first to admit that it might end up a preposterously long film if they *were* included.

Get it now!

Incidentally, as a Mac geek and iTunes/iPod/iPhone addict I've been busy badgering Duke to get the Season Reviews put into the iTunes Music Store. Their response was pretty positive so keep an eye out next year :)

Happy Birthday Bati!

Happy 24th birthday to our guy - Alvaro Bautista - Feliz cumpleaños Bati - Best wishes form all of us who run BatiFans.com and AlvaroBautista.co.uk - We hope you have a brilliant day, a brilliant off-season and a brilliant 2009 :)

Saludos desde Londres,
(Cheers!)
Gareth

Alvaro Bautista Diecasts Campaign - UPDATE

(*Above: Who wouldn't buy this lot???? Our suggested "Collection"...)

Quick update on the Diecasts campaign.
I've found a couple more contact addresses that we can all write too, and I would suggest that you also send in the image above - or the PDF version of it which you can download from here...
We think it'd be good if a company just went and made either a couple of key bikes in 1:12 scale or perhaps a whole collection (as illustrated) in 1:24 scale.

Altaya have a suggestion page on their website: Click here...
And here is the page translated into English...
(It requires a 5-figure postcode - just put 11111)
You could also try sending an email to them at: info@altaya.es

Here's the contacts for IXO...
Trade inquiries: sales@ixomodels.com
Customer Service: cs@ixomodels.com

This is the email address for Minichamps...
info@minichamps.de

And here's the contacts for another Spanish company called Guisval...
info@guisval.es
sales@guisval.es

There's more about all this campaign here... if you want to find out all about it and get fully involved.
Cheers,
gb

Our Websites in Spain's "Motoracing" Magazine

Many thanks to Karina for scanning this superb clipping :)

Alvaro Bautista Diecasts Campaign - Level 2

We at BatiFans want to try and push the campaign for Alvaro Bautista diecast models further afield than Minichamps, and would appreciate your help in also filling up the Suggestion Boxes at Spanish company Altaya (who already produce some nice 1:24 MotoGP bikes) and Chinese manufactrer Ixo (who produced the 2005 Alvaro Honda in 1:24).
Obivously the 2006 and 2008 bikes are probably going to be the most important to suggest, but particularly with 1:24 scale why not push for a full "collection"...

Altaya have a suggestion page on their website: Click here...
And here is the page translated into English...
Please can you submit the suggestions to this site (pmaybe be courteous and write in Spanish if you can, using Google's translation page) - and on this occasion make sure you remind them that as a Spanish company they could use Alvaro's popularity in Spain to sell such a collection.
By the way - If you have problems submitting the form it is because it demands a postcode (Spanish I guess) - I just filled that field with 11111 and it worked.


As for IXO, they have a page also saying they welcome suggestions, so please don't be shy.
As ever let's campaign for all bikes from 2003 through to 2008 - including the red & yellow World Championship end of season 2006 livery. Here's the contacts for IXO...
Trade inquiries: sales@ixomodels.com
Customer Service: cs@ixomodels.com

Please write, and get other fans to write, and let's get some momentum behind this!
Thanks :)
gb

Alvaro Bautista 2009 Calendar Now Online

Okay - the 2009 BatiCal is now online for download.
As per last year, it's a special BatiFans.com design, completely chocca with great pics, and fully marked up with all MotoGP dates and the Batster's birthday.
All the info and pics you should need to go on your Mac/PC desktop or to print out onto some nice glossy stock for your walls or *real* desktop
I’ve done two versions; one high resolution top print quality, and the other screen quality (although it has to be said this will print out very well indeed anyway).
Just wanted to give you the option of a seriously quality version if you plan on outputting it onto some costly paper/stock.

Full information and downloads are here at the BatiFan.com Fan Forum...

Hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll pass the links around so that other fans and friends can enjoy it too. As well as a nice piece of Bati fanart and a useful calendar it also helps pimp our website and forum so anything you can do to spread the word in that respect is *always* appreciated... :)

2008 Stats

Here's a few stats form the season which were gathered to use in a recent 'end of season' desktop wallpaper design. Although I know so many of us wished Bati had clinched the title this year, a reading of some of these reminds you that he had a pretty impressive time of it anyway...


Championship Position: 2

Championship points: 244

Wins: 4

2nd places: 4

3rd places: 3

Podiums: 11

Consecutive podiums: 10

Fastest laps: 7

Pole positions: 5

Consecutive pole positions: 3

Laps in first place: 130

Km covered in races: 1669.863

Highest speed: 278.1 km/h (Mugello)

First win: Estoril

Last win: Sepang

(*Thanks to Tamara)