Prado looks so uncomfortable

Anderson’s already a monster for about 2-3 laps. 😎

I do wonder how far behind the Kawi has fallen since Tomac left.  Guessing it wasnt so good when the number 3 was there. 

Like I said before, I have bled green since 1981.  Of course Ive owned almost every brand since then but have also owned more Kawi’s than anything else. 

At this point, take a honda and a yami and cross breed thw two. Start fresh. 

 

Lol, 3 races in and dude is 8th in the points and some of y’all are on suicide watch, or think Jorge is/should be. I mean, I get the high expectations (that were largely driven by hype from the moto media machine), but pump the brakes. He’s on a long-term program to race and live in the US, both indoors and out, and he’s entitled to figure it out on his own pace. AND he’s not obligated to spell it all out for us in every single interview; it’s already been said.

A lot of y’all are leaning hard on his comments about the current state of the bike. Lol, he could easily say something completely different this week, then what? He’ll still be on his own program doing his own thing. It doesn’t negate any of his past accomplishments and doesn’t mean he won’t achieve success here. 

As far as the bike, Japanese OEMs are extremely prideful and stubborn, so they are gonna do what they want (seemingly regardless of sales or feedback). Only saying that to say Kawi’s direction for the bike is completely different than the Austrians. Weight and ergonomics are a good example.

Will be interesting to see how he stacks up against the guys he beat last year (Gajser, Febvre, Herlings, etc) at Ironman. Or maybe Herlings at Southwick to have a fair comparison.
The fact that Guillod is pretty close to him is a pretty bad sign. He was about to pass him in moto 2 before his bike expired. Last year he was down a minute to a lap on Prado more often than not. 

The green turd

That’s what happens when you eat too much greens. 

I am a licensor of some of my IP to a prominent company in Germany.  You want to talk about pride, thick skulled, stubborn and a slow moving company in a competitive market, I scratch my head often.  (Not a motorcycle company)

Im still thinking Suzuki has been developing that next generation platform now for a few years. It would make sense and cents. 

I think Stewart nailed it...its not his finishes that are oh so terrible its how far off the pace he is from the lead....40-50 seconds off.....wow! losing 4+seconds a lap.....thats a lot of work to do to get to a place or the results he's expecting. 7th-8th doesnt sound far off when you look at finishes but the devil is in the details-

Laggard 

Tom and Prado probably go 1-1 at the MXON in their classes and Vital explodes and nobody knows what the fuck is going on. 😂

Jett on that kawi finishes in the exact same spot.  

Yes, and I'd say at least as far as the stock bike goes, the power delivery would match well with Jett's riding style.

Agree with most of what you said, although it seems most people find the ergos on the Kawi as very good and some of the easiest to modify.  Weight?  These bikes are all within a few pounds of each other now and if you take the spring forks off the KX and swap them with the air fork on the KTM (that everyone seems to want to swap to spring anyway) and those two bikes are essentially the same weight.   

He’s finishing right were i expected him to finish the first season. Pace is off but he will improve once he gets starts and fitness dialed. Even more impressive how good ferrandis en musquin were on their first years in the US

Raced Prado ever alu stock frame??

Its no that worrying and im surprised Stewart says so.

If you are not comfortable and backing of to 95% its several seconds per lap right away. If you are comfortable and cruising you can drop 2 sec last laps of a race on hard packed. 

To can maybe take the fastest lap and say how much he is off, because he really tried to hang on. But looking at total time behind winner is so misleading when someone is not trying since its a lost cause (for the day).

AP was 36 sec behind but only 0.7 on the lap. That's what happens when you can't or won't ride 100%.

Idk. Hunter and Jett went like 12-13 at A1 when their bike was 3% off and were visibly struggling.
He wouldn't be 8th but don't think he'd hold off ET3. See Hangtown moto 1

Watching the Pulp Hangtown review and hearing JT talk, its known the Kawi is shit. WTH happened to Kawi snd hows Chase feeling right about now?

I know what casual fans are. Are you saying you're one too?

Masterpool was getting better results on a stock Kawi 2 years ago... 

Does anyone know why he didn’t finish the 2nd moto?  Bike failure or did he go did he crash?

Seems very strange as Febvre is killing it in MXGP.

Guess that chassis is very, very different..  Who knows.

I sure would think that with the obvious struggles, Factory Kawi US would on the phone every day with the MXGP team trying to figure this shit out.

Yeah and who was all racing then?

First of all, y'all need to chill. Kawi committed to 3 years for a reason, and part of it is they need time to get their program up to speed. 

Second, no, it's not just the power of the bike. As others said, he and Ando were near the front off the start this weekend. He just looked uncomfortable in the ruts and downhills. In the long sweeping left after the big step-up table, even Deegs and Hymas were going about 10 mph faster than Prado. In the steep downhill after the Thunder Valley sign, Prado looked like he was on a sight lap compared to Justin Cooper who was WFO down that hill and jumping all the way to the base of the tunnel jump. Neither of those have anything to do with not having enough power. 

Prado's bike looked stable on the downhills but it looked a bit lower and seemed to want to stand up on him in the rutted corners, especially if there were any kinks in the rut. He didn't seem to be standing as much as I'm used to seeing from him either. 

I'm still very optimistic that they will figure this out. They HAVE to, especially if they signed Chase. Imagine how bad they will look if Chase isn't near the front next year either. They have to look at this as a development year, take their time, and keep progressing. If I were Jorge, I would ask Kawi to send over Febvre's bike to test (yes, different rules, I know, but at least to get a baseline of where he's been able to get the bike). 

It’s definitely not a chassis issue. 

He had battles with Ferrandis and AP if that helps. Had finishes up there with Ando sometimes and AC who was on/off with the elbow nerve. But he was near the Factory Kawi's in finishes sometimes

As I recall, Masterpool was on the ‘23 bike while the factory guys were on the new gen ‘24.  Speaks to the new engine being off the mark.

How do you know? They can change the chassis in MXGP. 

No they were all on 23 bikes.