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Ando being a mid pack guy is a weirdly common misconception, he’s always been towards the podium end barring a problem or crash, even last year until his Thyroid block passed him
I get it that Tomac was committed to the rut but, getting punted off the track kind of sucked. Ando was riding really well.
The mid-pack guy that has been giving the Lawerence bros so much grief the Dazzy has to refer to him as a roadblock?
Anderson was on the podium in three of the first five races last year.
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You bring up good points. Interesting too that both Chase's Kawi and Prado's KTM are both running suspension that is new to their programs for 2026. Its arguable that Kawasaki winning with Chase and Prado's improvement on the KTM could both be credited to these suspension changes.
He literally had 12 days of practice on the Kawi and then entered his 5th EVER supercross in the 450 class. In retrospect that was never going to work.
He didn't win his 3rd Heat race.
When did they actually sign Chase. I think that is the real answer.
That's what happens when people are scared to pass you because you've been pushing people over berms for years.
Winning races and titles? With some odd crashes during it. I agree, same guy.
You can't compare MC in this conversation. He was at the best in SX by miles and had a ton of class and knowledge. Plus that 97 Honda was a clam!!
Chase tried Levi's bike which is PC components yes. They only had 2 sets of it, practice and race and Chase raced Levis practice set last week and they sent it back to Florida for Levi to practice on per usual. So Kawi put the PC fork settings in the factory showa stuff and then placed inserts in the clamps so it could hold the production 49mm forks. This isn't a case of the factory bike being bad, simply a different setting that Chase really enjoyed and they placed it on the bike this week for A2 and he won.
If you look at previous races on the Honda and the first race this year you can see Chase like forks that have feeling in the hands and the initial part of the stroke is constantly moving until it ramps up on the dampening for SX. This always seemed to cause weird front end issues with Chase. The setup this weekend looked good, the bike was planted, no side to side action in the whoops, could hit the turns and it didn't have that front end instability. It is going to get interesting real quick here
He didn't melt down or complain about the bike in supercross, that started after he raced his first AMA pro national.
So what you are saying is, Chase felt more comfortable with a setting he used for 2 days off of a used set of suspension from a different company than he did from testing with the factory for 3 months? And looks way better, riding better (still has the same crash technique though). But yet the bike wasnt bad?
Also, he crashed in the whoops from the bike going side to side and front end tucked in a turn....
Yes exactly.
I think I know what you thought I was getting at. You were wrong.
Same company, Showa on Showa. It is safe to say that PC tuners built a setup that Chase tried on Levi’s bike and there ya go. Just different tuners. More than likely it is Chase who is unable to state what he needs. Kind of a pattern with HRC, KTM, and now Kawi. He stated they stiffened the frame as well. It is all a learning curve as you get to know the technicians and the motorcycle. Demands change.
As for the side to side comment.just check the main event results. All the bikes are good including the Suzuki which is clear. The only thing that matters is communication between rider and team to setup the bike properly. Sometimes, certain bikes do indeed fit a rider a little better characteristically.
Pit Row
Does he look way better than when he ripped through the field from dead last to 4th after hitting the gate at SD or does him winning A2 influence your opinion on how good or bad he looks?
IMO, his ride at SD was better, up until he lost that little bit towards the end.
Same overall company, yes. But PC tuners, PC triple clamps. And 2 days of riding it and all the factory kawi techs couldn’t find that in 3 months. Basically the exact same thing as factory yamaha not being good enough so they handed the reins over to star because they were better at building a bike. Factory kawi should do the same with Mitch.
I was thinking this too. It’s honestly a big difference. Just look at how Factory Yamaha couldn’t make their yz450f work at a pro level and couldn’t win. Then they hand it over to Star and all of a sudden it’s a great bike that’s winning constantly.
I actually don’t think Sexton’s bike looked good at A2 either, better but not great, even though he won.
That's the thing. We will never know if Prado would have been better with the PC stuff, since he didn't test it as far as we know.
Kawi had no option but to let Chase do whatever he wants on the bike, because a failure with chase is the end for those team members at Kawi.
If it's so far off, that you want to test another external teams 250 bike to get something closer to what you want, it's bad.
Dan's comment last week that the bike was good when RV rode it, should be an eye opener for anyone that yet hasn't understood how that team works.
I’m surprised that you’re the first to mention that interview last week, at least that I’ve seen.
Having to go back ten years for an example of when the bike was good and they got the setup right, was very telling.
Edit: leaving out the Tomac years was the thing I thought telling.
We will never know how "bad" the bike was since the only time Prado actually tried was at Southwick.
Smh
It underlines the fact that there are people who would rather lose , than win with something that wasnt their idea.
If you dont think this is a thing, you havent been close enough to it to hold an opinion.
KHI will not be happy that he rocked up at the test track and threw a front end on the bike off someone elses.
They already have started copying the parts.
With respect to suspension settings. Anyone that has been close to the interworking of suspension tuning knows there are many ways to design a setting: shim stack build, ics spring weight, main spring weight, preload, final clicker settings. It is not a situation where there is a single optimal approach. Yes there are software to model force curves and the like but that does not result in a single optimal setting as an output. However, the only way to break through plateaus is to test new approaches, and not merely accept that good is good enough and try to adapt. You have to hand it to Chase that he went out of his way to ask about how setups were working around the pc camp and to ask to try something different. The result is that it worked for him.
I don't think this frames Kawasaki factory team in a negative light. They were able to build the rest of the bike around what Chase wanted with the engine package, longer header, etc. It is clear they want to win.
Post a reply to: Is it safe now to say, It wasn't the bike?