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I went back and watched Bar To Bar ‘09 on YouTube a few months back. Annnnd now I keep browsing Facebook marketplace for a ‘09 YZ450F!
Yeah, that sucked. It was so sweet watching Stew win every race that season until that incident.
The monster kawi fuckery competing with his redbull deal is what killed his career. If he never left Kawi no one would have held a candle to him
I think I remember Reed saying that he liked that version of the YZ (06+) because the front would push some and he could sort of slide into the corners.
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Enough said.
2007 supercross on the KX450 was unreal
That was such a clunky looking bike all the way till 17. Even watching stew that year you could tell it was off. 2009 Honda or 2010 Yamaha what was worse? lol
Probably both sucked ass the same 😂
Word
The Ryan's ended Stews championship run. He wasn't as good as them. Period
if you read any of the initial tests of the 2010 YZ450, all the mags loved it. They all swore that it handled better than the 09' and it had more power than the 09' (easy pickings). Only Stewart found so called flaws in the bike. All the other pro's liked it until they talked to Stew. Now either Stew was bringing out the worst in the bike, where others couldn't, or Stew may have been on a downward slide anyway, and losing confidence. Sure, he seemed to do consistently better when he got on the RMZ, but he still wasnt the same Stew we saw in 09' and earlier.
Is it just me or does A1 2014 keep any of you awake at night? LOL Seriously though, that was a tough pill to swallow as a JS7 fan.
Stew 2011 Daytona:
That was a tough one to swallow for sure. I thought 2014 was going to be the year he put it back together.
The one that haunts me is A1 2016. I was on the floor of the stadium when he and Dungey collided, it made me sick. I looked at my buddy and said something along the lines of “I don’t think he’s going to rebound from this”. Clearly, he didn’t. I was around him in the tunnel a few times at Oakland when he came back and he truly looked miserable. It sucked to see. He looked so stressed and unhappy compared to everyone else.
James and McGrath are the only two racers I legitimately idolized growing up, and still do. But something about James, he was God to me. So to see the final days of his career, seeing how unhappy he was, knowing how much unfinished business there was from his earlier years and he knew he could still win…it truly messed me up. When I see him on TV now and on his podcast, I like that he seems genuinely happy. I hope he is, he gave a lot of himself to this sport.
I personally think he looked better on the kawi, the man was in his prime in 2009 which made that bike perform, he was more sketchy on the yami.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Stewart was more successful on average and won more races on the 2010-12 YZ450 than the Suzuki afterwards.
Stew had more talent in his pinky finger than both Ryan's combined.
He was the fastest man to EVER ride a dirtbike. Period.
He was (is) the best 125 rider that has ever existed, draw dropping really.
The "problem" was that he was so good on the 125 that anything he later did on the 250/450 would have to be outstanding beyond belief to match the expectation people had for him going into 05 and beyond. Is a perfect season in 08 not outstanding? Of course it is. He had a career better than 99% of champions (not just pro riders but title winners) could ever dream of - as well as redefine a way of riding to the sport itself with a unique technique.
But... He never got to grips with Ricky. That was really the only blemish in an otherwise outstanding career.
I don't think the 2010 YZF was a good bike in all fairness. And James wasn't the only one to point out its weird behaviour. That said he wasn't particularly stable (stable as in: Reed or Dungey etc levels stable) on anything. He either won big or crashed big on everything beyond the 04 KX 125.
Pit Row
I’m on board with this take, well said.
Thanks for clearing that up.
The mags opinions are complete trash. They are just marketing machines for the oems.
That ‘10 was junk, but James did himself no favors by signing with JGR and riding that Yamaha again. Or was JGR going to go to Suzuki in ‘12, but ended up staying with Yamaha? I thought I had heard when James signed with JGR, he thought they were going to run Suzukis.
I also think he underestimated RV and Dung, and didn’t put in the work that he needed to. James was definitely on another planet, but the Ryan’s came, saw, and conquered.
James did smoke his knee in practice at A1 in 13. I think that for sure hurt the start of the year
I don’t recall that but could of been for sure. I remember JGR being confident they could fix the Yamaha. And they threw the kitchen sink at it with custom one off stuff. Millsaps talked about how his bike in ‘12 was way different than James bike. At the end of the day, he and that bike were just a no go. That JGR check cashed though lol
He never fixed it for ‘14 either huh? He looked good at A1 and last practice did that to his knee, that one sucked. His 2013 Suzuki and first year of Seven with the Nike boots was awesome.
Yaa James had that sweet aluminum tank and Davi was getting the leftovers lol I remember hearing that bigger/taller riders didn’t have as many problems with that generation Yamaha like Millsaps, Tommy Hahn, Kyle Chisholm, and Brayton made it work. James is smaller than all of them, but then again none of those guys were on James level to make that bike react the way it did for James. James said the only thing predictable with that bike was that it did nothing the same the next lap 😂😂😂😂
I would’ve hated to be a rider then especially coming into my peak. Big bikes 250 2-st already had handling issues. Then make the bikes bigger with almost twice the engine and 30_40 more lbs. imagine being near your peak and the bikes r not rideable . Then you are Not allowed to say the bike is a pile. Can’t blame anyone on the team there doing everything & anything you could think of . To get the bike to handle . Ride a 90 or 91 cr250 incredible handling with a awesome engine. A 04 cr125 was the Peak of a Raceable chassis, by far the best ever. Imagine James on a 02-04 cr125 a chassis that can take Much more speed & hard hits and keep driving straight. James could easily push it 2 more notches . If I where Kawi I would still send James checks every month .
Pro, your dream almost was realized. He would have made his debut on the 02 CR125R, as some (or one) say, the greatest chassis of all time.
Too bad championships are won on consistency instead of speed. He was fast as hell but crashed himself out of contention a lot.
In the 12 championships that Dungey and James raced together, James never finished ahead of him even once. NOT ONCE! He finished ahead of Villo exactly once. How can you be faster than someone and never beat them? The reason we have races and championships is to figure out who is the best.
The Ryans ended James shot at championships. It wasn't his Yamaha. They were just better than he was.
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