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He had a good effing base. At the practice tracks before A1 everyone was raving how good Sexton looks. He'll, even my rider, a 6 x SA Champ had his money on Sexton. At A1 Chase throws down a lap 0.6sec faster than Tomac...that's effing brilliant and then he chokes in the heat and main. It ain't the bike.
The bike is easily good enough for a top 5.
I will put my whole nut sack on the block and say that if Jett was on that team they will find a way to make it work. No bike is the perfect ride. The rider on the bike adapts and makes it work. There ain't the perfect setup.
This is the 3rd 450 factory team Chase has been on and its the same every year. Maybe. Just maybe he should look at himself a little more.
He definitely knows the feeling he is looking for and you can’t argue with that as he’s a proven winner . He will get there with it
So who won A1 last year.
I did.
So he won't.
🤣
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No one is surprised this happened. If he’s doesn’t perform this weekend he will surely fall into a bike set up death spiral for the rest of SX.
Sounds like he threw Levi's Kitchen sink at it
Perfection is the enemy of good.
He needs to have the bike be good and let the rider do the rest.
This sport has gone off the deep end with this belief that guys can't ride a bike unless they're perfectly comfortable. It's dirt bike racing where setup for one part of the track is going to take away from setup in other parts. There's no way around this and as such every setup is a compromise, not some perfectly dialed setup that's perfect everywhere and finally let's the rider send it. And regardless of setup, all of these guys should be able to get on basically any bike and find it's limit and consistently ride up to that point. If they keep blowing past that limit it's not the setup it's an inability to understand the bike or use a little common sense. If the bike's limit is third you take third, you don't smash into a jump face and jump off the track repeatedly and try to sell it as not settling for anything less than perfection.
you change 1 variable at a time. Document what worked and what didn't. This certainly could be viewed as firing the new parts cannon at the bike out of desperation, but it's also likely they already tried all these components individually and this is the culmination of what should be his ultimate perfect set up. Time will tell.
Prado rev 2.0
That took far too long.
He wasn’t on a new bike and he still struggled that season. He changes his setup probably more than any racer in the history of the sport. Chase only hits the heavy bag when everyone else is sparring.
Webb raced a new bike in WSX and realized he felt better on the 25 frame. He figured out setup well before it actually mattered. Chase is and will always be playing catch up until he decides to change his program.
That's also what I was thinking. There's been talk of this can of worms being opened right before A1, so I wonder if the real panic move was then and this is more of reverting back to closer to where they were a few weeks ago. Who knows.....
He won A1 last year.
If any one rider is going to push for change and improvments at Kawasaki its going to be Chase
Why not looking into what PC is doing, they have a solid chassis and suspension program going on.
You have to think his competitors are rubbing their hands together and take some kind of joy in seeing him struggling with the bike/mental stuff
I could also see him winning tonight by a few seconds
With all jokes aside, if he gets another 7th or 8th tonight the championship is going to be very tough with the talent on the gate. So, we have a possibility that by round 3 this turns into another "learning" season.
I kind of feel bad for the guy because I think he's so in his own head that he doesn't know what's a real problem and what's self-inflicted. I think the pressure and nerves get to him in a way that he doesn't realize and he doesn't ride like himself which screws up the handling of the bike. No bike is so bad that a guy who is top 3 in the world literally can't even keep it on the track. That's from losing mental focus by panicking in your mind. Until he wants to win more than the pressure he feels he will have this issue. I'm not saying he doesn't want to win, but the immense pressure is killing him and the only way around it is to want to win more than the pressure. Carmichael was possibly the only guy that consistently won because he was scared to lose. I think this was Eli's problem when he was younger. This is also why Webb won last year. As an old guy he just wanted it so damn bad that he didn't even feel the outside pressure of sponsors.
Everyone is making it seem like this is a Sexton only problem, however in reality most riders are constantly searching for the "perfect" set up.. but they aren't in the limelight. Round 2? not concerned, Round 5..6..7... yes. He has only done a single race on the Kawi and he feels like he could improve the setup, race conditions are impossible to reproduce practicing, this happens all the time. Both Lawrence's missed their set up last year (while on the same manufacture as previous year) and made big changes during the first few round for them and it seems to work out fine
Pit Row
Side note… I’d love to hear Mitch Payton’s thoughts on this and the outcome when it goes either way haha
Just a quick question, did Prado had this much room and choice in changes? Because this is almost a 450PC bike excluding the engine?!?
He wins or gets 8th.
Kawasaki should hire Carson Brown as a psychologist / liason / mediator. That guy can take any bike and make it work. I have no doubt that Broc is a great test rider but put CB on Sexton’s bike for a few laps here and there during the week to show and then tell Chase that it’s not all the bike dude. Better yet, have Carson bring a bunch of assorted bikes to the test track and do an abbreviated version of the one on ones he did with KRoc.
lol.
/thread over.
I think a lot of you never raced at a high level or did competitive sports and it shows. Champions tick to a different clock that is why they win.
A great example is Justin Cooper, just seems content with not winning.
Chase already has more pro wins than all the kids combined that he battled with as an amateur
Carson is a cool dude, but on an SX track, Sexton laps him easily, even on a bike he doesn't like...
It’s literally only been one race. So maybe let’s see what happens at the second race. 💁♂️
This is vital. You change one part and it’s the end of the world and the team sucks.. Vital mentality at it’s finest…
Boomslang you should have a talk with him and talk some sense into him.. let him know what he’s doing wrong 👍
Top to bottom, 250 and 450... kawi is a certified chit show, and has been for years.... how much more money they gonna throw away before they completely rebuild???
Prado and Ando were right!
Post a reply to: Chase changing the whole setup!?