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Eli on a steel framed KTM? I hope they have lots of frames. I don't see him wanting any part of that bike.
Tomac's finishing positions were less than impressive because of horrendous starts. In every race, he was moving through the field at a rate nobody else could match. He went from last to 5th at A1, waxed the entire field (including beating Kenny by over 10 sec) at SD with Jett, and at Glendale, he had that insane Main Event 2 ride where he went from near last to 4th in like 10 minutes, and then destroyed the field in the final main. The only round where the speed wasn't blow-your-doors off impressive was A2. He started around like 15th I think, and only got up to 6th or 7th, and it took all moto for him to make up that ground. Still not a bad finishing position when taking into account his start.
Forced retirement?
no its not cause they have deegs as their future , this isn’t a bill belicheck / tom brady situation where they let tom go Tampa & now the pats for the last 3 to 4 seasons been stuck in QB hell , star already got their Eli & coop replacement in deegs
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If I'm Star for 26, I keep Coop and Eli as they are my two best shots at titles. I also keep JCoop, but I move him into CC's spot on the same bike, but under the 250 tent(or whatever that whole deal is). Then for 26 outdoors, Deegs moves up to the 450 outdoors next to JCoop. Towards the middle/end of outdoors 26 I see where everyone is and how the years gone to decide which way to go for 27.
I just don't think JCoop would take that kind of deal. He has earned a pay increase, and it sounds like that's what he's getting. With all the uncertainty surrounding Tomac, Webb's inability to compete in outdoors, and not knowing how Deegan will look in his first year or two on a 450, I think it's a good idea to keep JCoop around for another couple years. He's proven to be halfway decent in SX, and is a really solid MX rider. He's a good close-to-guaranteed top 5ish finisher for the time being.
Put Webb on a SX only deal. Seems like that's what he wants anyway
Pretty crazy to think that Sexton, Tomac, Anderson, Stewart, and Barcia might all be switching teams/brands next year.
Half of the top 10 on new rides, cannot recall a past year with so many team changes (if they happen).
It surely won't be an ugly separation. Star Yamaha needs to focus on 450 budget allocation for '26 and beyond; leaving substantial dollars on the table for a waffling retirement isn't feasible. Eli knows this and regardless of where he lands, it'll be lucrative and hopefully successful.
What about Eli going back to Kawi if the sexton deal falls through? Did they end on bad terms? I don’t recall. Maybe this has been brought up but I didn’t read the whole thread.
It sounds like Kawasaki didn't give Tomac enough freedom to make the bike changes that he wanted. I don't think it was necessarily due to the people he worked with face-to-face at the test track, but rather those in corporate across the Pacific. He also prefers a cable clutch, so that was a big selling point for the YZ over staying on the KX. Other than that, I don't think there were any known issues between him and Kawasaki. I don't think there were money issues - everyone says he took a pay cut to go to Star back in 2022.
I think there's an argument for '22 Tomac being comparable to his best Kawi years. I didn't realize how good he was until I checked the stats. He had 5 straight wins and managed the end of the year over Anderson. I still put '17 Eli as his peak speed. Dunge dieseled his way to the title but he had nothing for Eli
As race fans, we think of this question as whether the riders race results justify their salary. The question to a brand has to be 'does this rider on our bike, with the expected results they will achieve, increase our sales relative to what the rider cost'. Yeah, I think Tomac sells more bikes than Webb..
I’m not arguing that Tomac wasn’t impressive, or fast, but just stating facts; Roczen beat Tomac and had a faster fastest lap time in 66% of the early rounds.
You stated that Tomac was “faster by a decent margin”. Without any subjective opinions, the facts say he was in some races but not in others. That is all.
As others have said, it'd be pretty damn cool to see #3 and #94 together on Suzuki.
Has Team Hurricane called yet?
Eli tweaking his knee at ATL kinda put Eli in manage mode forreal forreal , if it wasent for tht knee , he might’ve had snuck in 1 or 2 more wins
Yup, you jogged my memory. I do remember him starting '22 mx a little banged up
Pit Row
You know what strikes me as odd. I have never once in my life ever purchased a bike based on what pro rider was riding what bike at the time. Never ever crosses my mind. I have many times purchased products of sponsors who were sponsoring specific riders and still do to this day. I have no explanation why that is.
Shhh don’t tell the manufacturers that 😂
I’m sure no-one including Eli saw the last couple of years playing out this way.
Nonetheless if it was a slam dunk to re-sign him it would already have been done.
Which is pretty cool when we look back a couple years when people thought most of them would be retired by now.
Remember that he always had to come from behind in 2017-2019 compared to 2022 where he was pretty much the best avg starter all of the sudden. He didn't need to bring his peak speed. I do think though 2023 A1 Tomac was the fastest Tomac we have ever seen in SX, that was ridiculous.
God damn, that's a great point. Yeah his starts got drastically better on the Star bike. Ok, you guys are selling me here and pointing out some solid observations lol. Starts were really his biggest issue this sex season before he got hurt, too. The last time we saw him getting starts that bad he was on the Kawi. Odd
I will say that kids seem to be influenced by what the pros race (at least mine are a little). At 15, I started racing Suzukis because of Pastrana and contingency and haven’t stopped since. My 14yr old wanted a Honda like Jett but they missed the boat to capture a customer because their mini bike sucks. My Illinois boys are riding KX minis and are excited about Chase going green. That might follow them until they’re buying their own bikes.
I wasn't really getting into the discussion of which rider sells the most bikes but I agree with you. If anyone is buying bikes based on a rider, it's the younger demographic. I'm 47. What my favorite rider rides is at the bottom of the list when I'm choosing which bike I buy. Is it arguable that Haiden is the most popular rider on either gate? And it's a younger fanbase that will probably want a Yamaha because of him. JMO
What if he takes KC Carlyle’s spot at Nami????
Everybody keep saying why would Star do this. It is not Star's decision. The factory pays for the 450 team, Star just runs it. If Yamaha has a rider budget and Yamaha does not want to commit to that then someone is going. Just a business decision. If they do not want to spend the money to have Cooper/ Eli and possibly Deegan then one will go away. And unfortunately the 30+year old rider is going to lose out to the 19/20 year old. Happens in all sports
Can we argue about who sells the most bikes yet?
Hey I wanted to ride Kawis as a kid cause my favorite rider was Emig. Maybe a kids favorite rider has some kind of influence in the parents decision on what they buy?
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