Posts
3639
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Atlanta, GA
US
Edited Date/Time
1/23/2014 3:55pm
Reed struggles all of 2013 on that Honda, and now 3 races in 2014 he has a 3rd and a 1st on the Kawi! It doesn't make Honda look very good! And on top of that, Barcia is not living up to expectations, and Canard and Tomac are out hurt.
The guys that are true privateers (place 15-20) don't have the money to drastically mod a bike like teams do so they tend to be on the most complete bike package from the get go.
Honda has a big showing in the 'we buy our own bike' pro market, which I read into a lot.
Guys like Reed can afford to test and change every angle on triple clamps, linkages, sub frame height, frame flex, etc.
The Shop
It has been a bummer so far for Honda with their 450 effort so far though.
Reed in 2012 before he went down in Dallas.
Thats not that far ago.
In the 250s they are always good.
In the GPs... Well, not so much.
A healthy Tomac would be right in the mix and I guess we have to wait and see what he's capable of.
He was so good in his heat race in A1 when he catched, passed and left Stewart.
Tomac is another story. Once he comes back healthy and gets a full 450 season under his belt, I do think he can win a title in the premier class. He has the full package, where the other two have hangups that I think will be their undoing.
KTM 4
Kaw 3
Yam 1
Suz 1
Honda 0
If it keeps going anything like this it will be the 11th year in row Honda has gone title less in the big boy class...
In regards to Justin, I thought that he'd be a lot more spectacular on the 450 last year. I thought he'd be throwing in wheels everywhere with all or nothing speed and creating all sorts of drama. But overall his 450 career has so far been fairly quiet - apparently choosing to ride steady over wild, which isn't necessarily a bad strategy. He's been solid. Obviously Canard is once again injured and Tomac is an unknown quantity on the bigger bike (and got hurt 5 seconds into the first heat race anyway).
With Chad... he's by his own admission notoriously picky over bike set-up and, again by his own admission, was significantly over weight last year. So that's probably not really fair on the current CRF 450s reputation either. They had what were widely regarded to be awesome machines in 05, 06, 07 and 08, but once more weren't really players for any big bike titles. You need the riders.
Pit Row
And everything has to go well together, certainly with the field of riders that we have today.
Honorable mention to Yamaha and it's amateur to pro program. We'll see if they can keep them on blue all the way up to 450's, but they have a lot of talent in the pipeline.
It's no secret that Reed has to have every single little thing lined up perfectly for him to show his true speed. That's why he spends millions on his own team rather than riding for RCH on $2 million dollars a year.
Pourcel - 2 250 sx titles and would have had 2 250 mx titles too if it wasn't for some unbelievably bad luck. Then he was left with no 450 ride and look what happened.
Hansen - Lead 2 250 sx championships for a while if I remember correctly. Moved to Hart&Huntington 450 with poor results and now look where he is.
Weimer - Won a 250 sx title and has had some limited success on the 450.
Tickle - Won a 250 sx title and has had some limited success on the 450, now rides for Suzuki.
Rattray - No championships after 3 years? Now moved back to Europe to ride the GPs.
These are offset pretty heavily but Villopotos huge success but look at all the results I just listed and none of them have gone on to win a main event or overall on a Kawi 450 whereas Hondas most recent graduates, Canard and Barcia have both won main events on the 450.
do i feel bad for honda?? no..every time i go to a local track all i see is new crf450s and ktm's ...
people dnt care who wins on what these days..quality and brand loyalty seem to be the most important things..and i say this because i rarely see rmz's at the track and they are one of the better bikes.
Honda will sell motorcycles because their build, quality, and reliability is top notch.
Honda I am sure will be patting Reed on the back saying good job, if you TRULY believe that ALL of Reed's 2013 problems were down to the bike then you are obviously got your blinkers on.
Honda sells more MX bikes than any other manufacturer, so I am pretty sure that although they are concerned that they havent won a round this year (and for God's sake we are only rd 3!!!!!) they are happy to see a lot of sales, Honda sells because they make reliable pretty fast bikes, sure at the hands of good riders others might be faster but they have a good package...and this comes from a KTM rider.
I am not a Reed fan at all, but good on him....he has started well.....sure others have crashed or been injured but lets see how the rest of the races go, great season thus far!!!
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