Ben Spies explains why he left Yamaha

“You need luck and preparation, not make mistakes and be focused.
Those are the things that Ben clearly has to work on this season,” said Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis in January of last year who also added “I also think this will encourage Ben, who in turn with or without Andrea [Dovizioso] must show greater potential in order to keep his place in the factory team in 2013.

One year later we all know what happened to Ben Spies.

Not even a thousand gypsy curses could have wrecked so much havoc on the American rider’s season that started with a cracked subframe in the season opener, a damaged visor in the French GP, a blistered tire at Silverstone, a chunked tire at Assen and several errors of his own in the other GPs (which futher down the season included a busted shock mount, a blown engine, brake failure and if this wasn’t enough a crash left him with a busted shoulder, surgery and the season ending before the final two rounds).

However it was the the Mugello race in the middle of July when Spies ended up with a bad case of food poisoning when the American’s position with Yamaha abruptly changed and just a week later he would make the shock announcement via email to Superbikeplanet that he was leaving Yamaha for a ‘litany of reasons’, which were never fully explained, until now.

Now that the his 2012 contract has expired and gag orders are no longer in place, Spies wrote his own article for cycleworld.
com explaing the reasons behind his decision – a part of which we already know like the Yamaha official who told him “Don’t come to Laguna Seca if you aren’t 100 percent” (revealed during the Indianapolis post race interview), the problems he had riding the Yamaha M1 and why, how he was tempted to return to World Superbikes and ride with BMW and why he decided to stay in MotoGP and accept Ducati’s offer.
It’s a fascinating and revealing read and we suggest you hit the the above Cycle World link to read the complete article.