Melandri to Sign With Hayate MotoGP

Marco Melandri .... a great race rider, but not so great development rider ... looks like he's about to sign with Hayate ("Bad Wind") MotoGP, riding the ZX-RR. That means there's only one Kawasaki on the grid and that leaves Hopper sitting on the sidelines.
Hopper's put in some good rides over the last couple of years, so it's a fat shame that he's bikeless. If he can't ride MotoGP, maybe a Superbike series somewhere will pick him up. He wants to ride international, but it would add some much needed depth to AMA Superbike if he went back to the States.
Melandri didn't do so well with the Ducati last year, so it'll be interesting to see if he adapts better to the Bad Wind Kwacker, a bike that's said to be a bit lacking in development time already.