and winning everything there is to win over and over and over and even having a perfect rookie season….. and then just throwing that whole bike in the trash. Same exact thing KTM did a few years ago which trashed webb and christian craigs seasons. Why do these manufacturers do this? Obviously the bike didnt make jett hit the tough block and his result in this race was all due to mistakes he made, but Im talking more about the new bike and how hes uncomfortable as hell and making mistakes all over the place and not confident. What is the point of them always changing everything and then chasing their asses for a few years until they figure it out again?
Going back to keefers test of the 07 crf450 he said that is STILL the best chassis of all time. So if they had just kept the chassis and kept improving the engine and suspension theyd be golden and saved millions of dollars of money and headache. Is it just because theyre paying a bunch of engineers and have R&D departments and so they always just have to change things just to change them? Id imagine the R&D isnt allowed to say yea the chassis is actually pretty good our job is done for years. Why not tho? Its a valid question. Seems crazy that these brands always get something good going and then change it all just to change it.
All that being said tho shout out to chase. He hated the ktm too but its been a few years now and he looks strong as hell. If hes comfortable now and he hasnt had front end issues since the honda hes gonna be an absolute monster to go up against. Jett definitely is gonna make it interesting trykng to close the gap for the rest of the season. Definitely makes it more interesting.
-Also shimoda did seem to like the 250 so not all bad for honda, but damn.
Japan phone call tomorrow: "Please explain Jett Lawrence finish 12th"
Weird Jo's bike looked good. The Huntah Bros' looked like dogshit
Jo pulled a holee and had clean air. It makes your bike feel mucho good
Think about the number of champions who, when reflecting on their career, won over and over only to have the manufacturer change to a chassis they couldn’t win on. How do they manage to fumble to that degree? If you’re winning and want to sell future bikes based on people trusting that it can win championships why would you fix what isn’t broken with what I assume is also hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) in obsolete R&D to build an inferior chassis.
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They change the bike so they can sell them to the average Joe. It's capitalism. We always want the latest and greatest, even if it ain't better.
Jett was all over the place in paris too. He ended up winning but you could tell he was way off. I just dont get the point of changing everything every few years. Some slight tweaks and new plastics would go a long way as long as theyre still keeping up with the times. Even then though kenny got 2nd on a suzy Q so if it aint broke you actually dont have to fix it.
I thought that when they moved up to 450s that Dazzy was hailed as a genius and fixed all of Roczen and Sextons bad setup mistakes. Now they cant figure things out? 🤷
All last year we were told this is the chassis the Lawrence bros wanted. And how much they were involved in the development.
I haven't seen a choke that bad since Game of Thrones....
Marketing Obsolescence
...and yet somehow that "dinosaur" Suzuki is still kicking ass.
I love it.
Honda has done it a few times. Remember the 97 250? MC sure does lol.
Not to mention they made it ugly as fuck, in my opinion
I think I saw corporate Honda meeting with Lars...Shimoda to the rescue!
Suzuki's motto is don't fix what aint broke.
Jet went from Jett last (22) to 11. Tomac from 15-5.
Works good outdoors. Indoors? No.
Pit Row
Those Hondas tonight made the ‘09 CRF 450 look good.
😂💀
Tomac was behind Jett when he got up from his crash.
Ask Suzuki how it’s working out for them sales wise. You’re totally valid in your points, but the same thing year after year doesn’t get people excited about buying a new bike. Then again, neither does finishing outside the top 10.
What? Tomac was dead last after Jett was. Jett was in 21st and Tomac 22nd.
Only 1 race. I don't expect this to be a long term issue.
Not where it needs to be but it will come around quick- bikes can appear 10x better with a start too
Absolutely, its a story as old as time. Actually the most famous example is mcgrath and his honda in the 90s being changed out to a complete shitter. The guy above who said “its capitalism you have to show you changed stuff” is correct on the answer of why they do it, but the answer of whether you should do it I believe is still up for debate.
I feel like right now yamaha is playing it the best. They had also done a massive change when they had james on their bike when they turned around the engine and at the time they completely destroyed the bike, their reputation for years, and that part of james career. It took years after the bike had been fixed before they gained back the good reputation.
That being said instead of panicking they just kept slowly refining that package and actually since 2014 theyve really only been slowly tweaking the bike over time. Very similar to what ktm did from 2016-2022 before they finally blew it all up in 2023 and tanked their rep. Every year though yamaha shaves a little here, trims a little there, and then most importantly once its been a “generation” they swap out the plastics to something new. Theyve really been keeping the base platform for the most part though and just refining it each year as they find out what small tweaks can be done. I think yamaha and ktm have shown this to be the way to go. Ktm did the same thing back then too and after a few years they would change the plastics too so that way it represented the “generation change”. Even then the next generation plastics are really a refinement of the earlier generation, but its still enough to get the consumers excited that its the new toy.
It seems to be working very well for yamaha and was working great for ktm up until the most recent change, so I think this model is showing itself to be the best to follow. Imagine if honda had done what yamaha and ktm did with the keefer special 07 450 or back in the 90s with mcgrath. They need to try slow small refinements over time vs blow it up and start over every few years imo. Its a deep rooted culture though so idk how you change that.
Dude probably trusts the timing and scoring on the screen lol.
You just had to mention that bike. Now I have to go see my therapist again…😂
LOL!
Glad I’m not the only one. Those shrouds remind me of the early 80’s when they just threw something on there because radiators were new and they weren’t sure what to cover them with.
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