The Prado Mystery

R.V., Tomac (his dad) , Reed all complained of the ”commie” conservative BS attitide at Kawi… as i read here some rider was not even allowed to raise/lower the forklegs in the clamps!?

Is this really true!? 
Even KTM/Roger does let Chase run KYB internals in his KTM… and that says something!

so, how long do kawi or himself give it 

up untill now, i thought his results would vastly improve, but where im sitting from my comfy armchair, i just cant see him getting to where he belongs.

 either sooner or later, i would not be surprised if one of them pull the plug

At this point I would almost think both Kawi and Prado would be equally willing to part ways early.  Maybe Prado goes to Husky and Kawi moves on…or something like that.  

I think if he was on his MXGP bike in his prime days, he may not be beating Jett, Hunter, Chase right now, but he would be a damn sight closer each wk end.

The amount he’s off right now is surprising, my best guess is they are making big adjustments each wk to try strike gold.

AMA has basically no practice sessions & each round is new. But I still think Prado should be closer so my guess is while the bike is far off he’s not pushing.  

You think both Jett and Hunter has elevated their riding that much in 9 months? With Jett being injured?

Because Jett, Hunter, Eli, AP, Gajser, Prado was all equal at MXoN if you look at it objectively (laptimes, who beat who). Thats on a track that Hunter was second on to Prado on 250, so ridden there before.

I can give you that on a new bike and injuries Jett and maybe Chase as he rode yesterday would be hard to beat. Needs to be on top of the game for that.

But I don't think Tomac, AP and Hunter is that much better than 9 months ago.

That was Shorty on Honda, fork height. Was just an example when people say factory team can throw whatever engine parts in there and do what they want.

I'm curious to the turn around cycle for engine modds. It's No like they port the cylinder on Tuesday night and throw a new piston and mapping in it and let's Prado ride in Wednesday morning. Must be pretty rigid process due to liability. 

Dyno, run durability testing X hours with test riders and after that Team riders can have it?

I think Prado is capable of running up front if he has a bike he's comfortable on.  However, I'm not so sure Kawi will be able to deliver the package he's looking for.  Many have left Kawi for this same reason, with the most recent being Tomac.  

With that said, I think Prado would be better off just stating he's just not comfortable yet instead of blatantly pointing to the bike.  Stating he's not comfortable yet is basically saying the same thing, in just a less offensive way.

I feel like Le Cobra might have an opinion on Prado. I’ll wait for him to chime in lol. 

Be curious if he is still with kawi by next year. With Vialle gone possibly, maybe he can get back on KTM platform. If they will take him of course. Bad look on him if he high tails it back to MXGP. Either way, hope he gets it figured out. 

            I think Georgie wants to go home, and sooner is better in his mind. He looks to be in the same shape as most weekend warriors, who by the way, generally work 40+ hours per week. I have always admired his skills, but he is , incredibly, unable to assume any of the blame for this debacle of a season thus far. Time to start looking for his passport.

He’s very obviously throwing the race the second he gets passed. His attitude is terrible. I can’t think of any US top guy that has done this and many of them have been uncomfortable to the point of constant crashing on a new bike, but still gave it their all (chase lol). 

I see it as such a huge risk for any team to pick him up now. This has made kawi look so incredibly bad and why would any other team want to take that risk? He messed up big time. I get he’s not comfortable and bike could be better, but his attitude and him just giving up isn’t the right thing to do in this situation. He has the talent to be on a bicycle and still be top 10. His bike is not that bad. He’s just throwing it.

You're spot on. I was just thinking about Chase and KTM. Going the opposite as Prado, from an aluminum frame to steel. He and KTM were honest and admitted they were struggling to get the set up correct. But he still rode his ass off and never quit. Unlike Prado.

Does anyone think for one second if Deegan was on that bike and it wasn't set up perfectly, that he still wouldn't give it 100%? Hell yes he would! Like Sexton, that's what a true champion does. Remember Dungey with the broken shift lever and shifting with his hand?

You're absolutely correct saying none of the top riders would give up like that.

Bradshaw quit what was the biggest motocross contact ever at the end of ‘93 when he realized he had nothing for McGrath and his pride wouldn’t let him race for second.  Eerily similar circumstances.

Prado sucks let's face it. The bike is the bike it's fine. He's got no confidence, he's got no fight obviously… And he will never win one single Moto over here. We are seeing now the difference  between the gp's and over here. It's a different game over here. Superior level of racing with way more depth. The biggest disappointment with Prado is the nonstop bitching and whining just race your fucking bike like you're getting paid big money to do. 

prado 2026 back in mxgp on a ducati.....this american adventure is not going to work.....ducati is still looking for a top rider for mxgp.....zo problem solved

Washougal should’ve been a good track for him. A less powerful bike could be over riden on the track without getting out from under you and everyone knows a slower bike seems to handle better. He should’ve been at least top 10 if he had any heart. 

Best of both worlds. Hope so.

What if it’s actually about the engine delivering power at a completely different RPM range compared to his MXGP bike? When you watch Lucas Coenen ride, the engine revs are consistently very low, yet he pulls away from others in the race with ease. After all, he’s riding Prado’s bike from last season.

Did Prado use a similar engine setup before? If you've spent years riding by relying mainly on torque, maybe now he’s running out of stamina and arm strength when riding at higher revs?

And i thought overreaction was Daniel Blair's thing

The only thing worse would be pulling in the pits and calling it a day. Or not getting paid

I thinks it’s pretty telling that he’s been shopping around for rides in MXGP and not a different brand in the US.

He’s completely defeated. Honestly the whole Prado thing is weird when you think about it. He comes to the US and signs a huge deal with a bum shoulder that he didn’t even tell the team about, gets surgery to fix it and is now putting around the track and looking for a ride in MXGP in the process. Kawasaki got played, for real. 

Realistically he should be a consistent top 5 guy and top ten regardless of misfortunes or crashes. Those severe fades are impossible for someone of his ability.

The kid is in a mental blender for sure. Part of me totally gets it. New country, new culture, new everything. 

But even with that he’s coming across as a prick in interviews and takes zero accountability in the equation. If he just says, “I am mentally struggling a bit here because of the culture change…and my results are suffering”, we’d all feel differently about the situation. 

Instead, he pisses and moans about the bike publicly and is now rolling around the track in 20th. Grow the fuck up, take some accountability and mentally regroup. I want to feel bad for the kid but Jesus he’s making it difficult to. 

Isn't Mitchel Harrison on a Kawasaki (Privateer!).  Let him ride Prado's bike next round and swap the two and see what happens.  I like Prado, but he is full of shit to say he can't get a top 10 vs Mitchel Harrison, who got top 10 on an inferior bike!  Am I wrong?

I guess Paturel did when he passed Prado in the US but never did in MXGP 😅

You are 100% correct.  Harrison is on a far inferior bike.   Prado should be getting top ten on a stock bike of any brand.  He is mentally cooked right now.

Anyone know what happened second moto? He had to have crashed right? He didnt go from 2nd to 20th without falling did he? 

JT said on one of the pods he's on about Jorge's manager putting out feelers to MXGP teams. Be a pretty rough look to go back to Europe with his tail between his legs. But I guess it cant get much worse than the whupping he's getting every weekend. Has a former MXGP heavy hitter ever come over here and struggled like this? I cant think of one

They need to get Mitch to extract every oz of hp available. 

I think 2 things are happening, one ultimately leading to the other.

Firstly he obviously hates the bike. Whether it's down on power off the start or indeed anywhere at this point (that might not even be his claim now) is sort of irrelevant at this stage. The bottom line is that Prado doesn't feel comfortable and can't make it work. Some riders can ride with a set-up that's a little off - others are desperately sensitive to even small changes. Just look at the difference between Eli this weekend and last week at Millville... Night and day. Not even close to the same rider.

Secondly I do think the frist problem has bled into his overall attitude. And tbh you can sort of see why, especially if he feels the team isn't listening.

Imagine you're really good at something, doesn't even have to be MX, let's say you can play the guitar or piano etc really well. Your play on tour in front of you friends, family, and fans but now you absolutely HATE your guitar etc and the way it's set-up, you feel it's knocking 20% etc off your performance, no matter how hard you try to compensate. And worse the technician won't listen or help you try to fix the issue. 

Week after week after week. Constant humiliation to your ego. At some point you're going to be over it... 

I'm not saying it's right, I'm sure he's paid well (in terms of our sport I mean), but at some point you are going to say 'oh F this', especially if you feel the team isn't on the same page.