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He hasn't owned his part in the setup. They tailor that bike to his requests. And the bike as a base platform has been on the podium indoors and out in the past two seasons. He may not personally like the bike, but this isn't a situation of the bike being shit as a base platform its a rider that can't figure out the bike for him.
Imo Kawi have backed themselves into a corner as much as Prado has.
If he doesn’t come out swinging on his new ride, his value as an elite rider will take an even bigger, maybe fatal, nose dive.
But if Prado does well, then Kawi’s fortunes will fall faster than a seagull on a chip.
And what is more likely? Prado getting back to his normal level (or at least close to it), or this kind of form continues?
Betting against Prado getting back to his normal level would be very, very ballsy.
Yeah tough call. If Prado does succeed, then he must have Reed level mentality.
Kawi is lucky they have Sexton incoming, you just know no matter what he’ll give 110%. Nearly anyone else could be a disaster.
But still, nothing is a given, it really could go either way.
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Why don’t ML or Philip L call Oscar Wirdeman?
Yeah we will, just as soon as we find out what was in Davi’s locker! 🤣
Chase will win indoors and out on the Kawi, I don’t see how people think differently with Chase going to Kawi. The Kawi will suit Chases body better imo, Chase always looked too big on the KTM to me. Everyone’s talking like the KTM is a gods bike, but let’s not forget the shock fades, the brakes fade, throttle sticks sometimes, brakes lock up, and who knows what else. Shit they even had someone in the shop fab up a custom air tunnel from the radiator to the shock lol I think maybe Chase lost trust in the KTM and wants back on a JAP bike 🤷🏻♂️
Unfortunately, i dont think you did.
Sounds like someone* gave Prodo's GF the factory shock shaft...
Huh? Whats this all about?
Initially Prado said the bike was slow, but based on his starts, it appears that they overcame that problem. Does anyone know what he is specifically complaining about now?
With the KTM guys, the problems are obvious and specific (brakes that lock up in the air and shocks that fade). I’m not sure I understand what Prado is complaining about at this point. Is the bike not nimble enough? Is it not stable enough?
Just because it can holeshot doesn’t mean the power is where he wants it.
And he’s one of the best starters in the world, he could get starts with a pw50.
Kawaski is a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar company, who advertises ATVs during the Super Bowl. They could have afforded to shit can Prado before this became a dumpster fire and should have. Now with all this drama it leads to the whole bike/ride/team conversation/narrative, that Kawasaki should have avoided at all costs. Imagine Sexton struggles next year, or Prado wins, however unlikely this would be amazingly bad press for Kawasaki. In the long run Prado has cost Kawasaki far more than his salary, for years now people (I am not stating me or anyone reading this, just generally some of the public) will associate this episode with Kawasaki regardless of any success Kawasaki has and will look to any setbacks Kawasaki has in relation to this episode. Allow me to re-explain to prevent misunderstandings, I myself realize this situation is far more complicated, but even if 10% of viewers of MX can misconstrue these events to put the brand Kawasaki in a very bad light that is hundreds of thousands of people. What has happened with this rider is very bad press for any international company's image. Does anybody in their wildest imaginations believe Chevrolet, Trek, CanAm, Caterpillar, etc. would continue to have a company spokesperson or representative who states their products are unsafe?
Completely agree. Kawasaki need to pray that they have success next year.
We know how sensitive Chase can be- if he speaks bad about the KX, it’ll be a long road to recover it for the green team.
Ac couldn’t keep it upright.
JA did nothing on it.
Prado did nothing on it.
If Chase can’t win on it like he could the Honda & the Pumpkin, then it’s f*cked.
When I think back to the 2003 CR250 setup that RC rode with (and shudder) and won with, the contrast is pretty stark. I know the speeds are higher, skill levels are more elite, bikes have more parity, but geez. This just strikes me as a guy that never really learned how to set up a bike well (relying heavily on Cairoli), and spent his entire career on one brand, developing an extremely specific "feel" that he'll never achieve on the Kawi.
Couple that with the fact that he's changed every single variable in his life simultaneously, and he obviously doesn't over-ride the bike (similar to Dungey, Tomac, etc.), and here we are. I like Prado, and I get the feeling that despite his command of the English language he perhaps isn't reading the room very well....I think American fans in particular will overlook a lot of shortcomings, but ingratitude and lack of effort aren't on that list.
Race teams have budgets. Just because Kawasaki it’s self is a massive corporation doesn’t mean the race team has unlimited budgets.
People close to the situation that know more then us have decided not to fire him, yet.
This controversy if you want to call it that is so in the weeds most fans aren’t really that invested in it(Theres like 20 posters in this thread, it’s not an accurate representation of overall sentiment, and most people I’d wager just don’t really care). If they cut him a check to get out of the contract that will be millions of dollars. And they’d still have to look for another rider.
If Prado gets on the Austrian bike and performs better good for him and his career(he probably will because his mind will clearly be in a better place). I’m not sure how damaging it would be to Kawi, they are hiring sexton. If he comes out and beats Prado like he usually does that should negate all the negatives about Prado leaving according to the logic being used.
Anderson won more races on the kawi than he did on the husky the year he won his title.
We all know how important the mental side of this sport is. Prado has to maintain an inner monolog that tells him he's not at fault, else lose all confidence in himself. The issue is he's been a bit too transparent on his inner thoughts. You can't go slash and burn on everything around you as it reduces alliances and future opportunities.
Pit Row
I hope you're right.
My gut says we see a return of the tuck. Kawi HA is 1.5' more slack (choppered) from KTM. I think swingarm is a link shorter too. Thats less weight on the front. Chase is taller and rides a bit rearward compared to somebody shorter. That unweights the front. All Japanese bikes are similar in that HA. Again, hope I'm wrong.
Eli - i think he's gonna be amazing on the KTM. Same reasons.
It will be interesting to see if Eli runs a Kyb insert or if he will be happy with WP. I think it’s unlikely Eli improves on the ktm at this stage of his career. But hopefully he can maintain and stay at the top end of the field.
And for all the talk about Eli leaving because Kawasaki was inflexible on bike setup, the fact remains that in 4 years now on the Yamaha, he’s only won 2 titles compared to 4 titles in 6 years on the Kawasaki. Maybe those engineers actually knew more than he thought they did. It will be interesting to see if he can get back to his winning ways on the KTM.
Ifs and buts but freak injury robbed him of at least one title.
Didn’t a broken zipper cost him a SX title? I might be remembering that wrong, though.
betting against him isn't ballsy, it's simple logic. the guy highly underestimated the challenge. give him a ktm, he still has to ride supercross, which he will get waxed, for months. so his arrogance will just see more excuses and blame pies ... then it's back to the heat of outdoors where he'll get waxed again. he'll be in europe by 27, maybe sooner.
On the Tomac/Kawi issues- We tend to see it all the time with Kawi don't we? They get a new rider(RV, Tomac, Ando, Prado, soon to be Sexton) and Kawi for the first few years seem to do absolutely everything to make sure that rider is happy on their bike. But after a few years pass it seems to change and they start pulling some of that freedom back and go the way they think is best. We will see with Sexton since it doesn't sound like we will see anything after this year with Prado.
Plus a guy called Jett joined the 450 class....
Id assume you mean the 2017 season. If I recall he had a terrible ride at East Rutherford that year and tucked the front while leading. He had some insane rides that year (salt lake was anll timer) but had his fair share of issues too. Some his fault some bike related. I do remember him having a fair share of issues with the Velcro closure on the sides of his pants that year. Many times in MX he would try adjust it while jumping.
Anderson was an absolute freak in 2022 for sure, unfortunately for him he had to go up against the best version of Tomac. Still, there was nobody even close to them
At least if it is 60cc and have QT gears and Ti driveshaft… oh shit, thats another thread! 😅
Good post!💯👍🏻
Post a reply to: Jorge Prado "It was a very tough season to say the least. Cruising around every single race..."