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Stew was an absolute BEAST on that 09. He won 7 races straight that season. And that’s after going undefeated in 08 in outdoors.
How different would his career have been without the 2010 yz450f being horrendously ill prepared for pro racing. Had the 2010 been a logical refined improvement from the 09 model I think he wins a few more titles personally.
Regardless, just never really watched the races from back then closely before and was shocked how good he was on the 09, dude was holeshotting against a prime Mike alessi consistently and just running the table.
He was at his peak then. 07-09 were special
Facts. The 2010 Yami ruined his career until he hopped on the yellow bike..
A ton of riders crushed it on that gen yz Reed, Langston, Josh Hill, JLaw, Broc Hepler, Facciotti, Josh Grant .. They should find a mint 09 and do the comparison against a 25 like that Honda test keefer did
2009 was special but I would argue 2014 Stew was up there too. The game was elevated by 2014 for sure. Just watched Indy 09…Chad ripped a start, James washes out and he still runs Chad down. He goes down again with the lead but almost catches Chad again at the finish lol. Unreal speed.
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Agreed. That 09 Yami was really good.
I often wonder that as well. If you listen one of Stew’s podcasts, it’s like the first or second one he ever did, he talks about that bike and it’s unpredictably. He said right at the end they did some mod to it I don’t remember what and he tested it after they already quit the team, he said that moment he’s like wait a minute we might have it here cause it felt good and predictable.
Only difference is, not a single one of those guys could push a bike as hard as Stew could and go as fast as him. Stew would most def. Show a bikes weakness if anybody could out of ever name you mentioned. Guy had way more raw speed then anybody then.
True, butI don't think it had as much to do with the bike as it did James.
We'd have to give him some of the blame. 2010 was his second year with L&M, nothing he could do there. In 11' when he signed with gibbs he knew what that chassis was all about.
Actually, he was with L&M for three years (2009-2011).
He signed for JGR going into 2012 and split after SX.
Ahh, thanks for the fix.
The downfall of Stew's greatness can be attributed to a few unfortunate circumstances:
1.WADA 2.Dungey 3.The 2010 YZ450F
And that cameraman moment at thunder valley
I really wish he would have came to the pros either 10 years earlier or 10 years later. 10 years earlier and he would have been on 2-strokes his whole career, 10 years later they started figuring out 4-strokes.
The fact he came right in the middle of that transition time is a shame, he was never really on equal equipment. I think the 2008 KX450 was pretty dialed and he went undefeated.
He made the KX125’s work but was severely underpowered, had to do his rookie year on a KX250, Yamahas went to shit in 2010…
Combine that with the TUE debacle, it bums me out to know how many of his good years we missed.
Also, I think if we stayed 2-strokes he would have been further ahead of the competition. I believe his talent was so superior and the 2-strokes created more of a divide, highlighted riders strengths and weaknesses more. Just my opinion.
Interesting take and I get what you’re saying for sure.
Imagine 16 year old James on a 2024 Star Yamaha 250. My God.
I’d give my left nut to see it.
I think the same can be said for RC, James, and Chad. For instance Ricky had the RM250 which was a really good bike copied off the Yz 250 and it was dialed in. Then he went to the RMZ 450 which by all means was not a good bike until 08-09 but he made it work. James had the Kx250 which was dialed in for SX and then the KX450 which was a beast. IMO that thing suited him well with his low rear end, stiff front end, stable machine. 07-08 that thing was dialed. Chad had the 04 Yz which was amazing, then got the 05 aluminum frame and it sucked. He struggled in 05, then the 06 450 switch came and the frame on that sucked as well. It wouldn't turn for nothing. 07 was a hair better but much of the same along with carb bogs, then finally 08 yamaha updated the chassis and had a "decent understanding on the carb but it still bogged" but the power, and handling of the bike were great. It was stable and it cornered well. Each of them battled something during that time frame because that was the coolest time as a fan. To see the top athletes have to transition from 2 strokes was wild to see. But IMO super cool to see the progression of the teams and bikes tech wise
Pit Row
I think Keefer is doing that 2009 YZ450F comparison next.
My memory could be off, but I think he said they're rebuilding one since it's hard to find a pristine stocker.
The 2010 YZ450F seems a lot like the 2009 Honda in my mind... Lots of guys hated them, a few loved them.
I definitely think there was a learning curve for all the guys in that era, but I do think Ricky and Chad had it a bit better.
Ricky was on the RM250 indoors which was excellent, and the 2005-2007 RMZ450 for outdoors wasn't bad at all, even in stock form. Combine that with Decoster there to quickly make stuff happen, I believe his 450 was one of the better ones during that time. Seems like Factory Suzuki had a great relationship with japan at the time, and Roger could move mountains.
Chad definitely would have been better off on a Honda for outdoors in 2005, that 2005 YZ450F was a very far behind the red bikes. I've also heard they liked the 2005 YZ250 less than the steel frame version, and I believe they also didn't like the bell bottom forks that year. So maybe 2005 wasn't quite as good for Chad, but the rest of his time at Yamaha the bikes were pretty damn good. Then he went to Suzuki and won the outdoor title.
I was on Yamaha's during that 2009/2010 transition, the 2010 was legitimately horrible to me and everyone that rode it. I fought that bike for 3 months and said fuck it, switched to KTM's. If I had kept my 2009's, I would have given the 2010 back and kept riding them. I felt the 09 Yamaha's were excellent, all they needed to be ahead of the other brands was FI in my opinion. In 2010, my favorite bike off the showroom floor were the Suzuki's.
So funny, I was running Yamahas from 06-09 then got Suzuki 450's for the EFI and the chassis. Went back to Yamaha in 14 and never looked back. I do agree that Suzuki had a great relationship with Japan compared to Kawasaki. Another thing to be said is that your looking at each rider as a test rider and a direction for japan moving forward. Chad was always a great test rider, as was ricky even though his setup is strange. But james..... eh not so much lol
That is funny we had the exact opposite opinion LOL. I did only spend about 5 minutes on the Suzuki at the time, maybe I caught it on a good day and my first impression was good. Invited a random custome out to ride our track after he bought the Suzuki, helped him break it in. The shop I was affiliated with sold Yamaha, Suzuki and KTM at the time, but really pushed Yamaha, and Suzuki had almost no support at the time. So KTM it was.
And good point about the testing, from what I gather he was a terrible test rider.
Stew on a 125 was magic. He was great on the bigger bikes but what he could do on a 125 was incredible.
A big factor that's overlooked in history is that James quit doing the Nationals after his undefeated 2008 season.
Obviously that didn't affect him going into '09 (no break).
But after the '09 title he was essentially taking 6-7 months off (Bubbas' World, etc..), and sacrificing his outdoor game.
I don't think the '10 YZ450 did him any favors, but there was a lot going on.
You could see it in his setup as well. He got further choppered out. More squat and less OTB moments. But that corner speed he had was a trade off
That chassis would do weird things all around. It spit off Hahn and izzi a whole bunch, randomly.
That bike basically retired pourcel too.
One of the sexiest stock bikes of all time IMO
There’s one for sale near me all oem original decals still looks new for 3500 and it’s tempting!!
Thinking more about this in 09 stew jumped on the team and bike that won the sx title the year before that was already setup by Chad Reed. I wonder if the same scenario happened in ‘10 and ‘11 with the new gen bike the same result would have happened? I know completely hypothetical but for ‘09 I think him jumping on an already setup bike played a role in his performance.
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