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After all the talk about Kawasaki limiting rider set up, does anyone know if they utilize offset bearing races to tweak front end feel? Seems that's always an issue with Chase on any color machine.
Challenge accepted. 🙃
I'm basing this on nothing but observation, but it looks like the front end is acting like the ones that are set up really stiff to allow the rider to attack obstacles the way they want and provide confidence while doing so, but then are too stiff in the corners and push instead of gripping and tracking. And it's looked that way on all 3 brands now. 🤔
He really should go to a shaman guided Peruvian Ayahuasca retreat.
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It’s been mentioned a lot but I subscribe to the theory that Chase really doesn’t even know what he wants from his bike other than some mythical “feeling” and so he doesn’t know what to change to achieve it. We all heard Tomac say he doesn’t like the rear too low or he gets arm pump. It sounds simple, and I’m sure it’s a lot more in depth when they are actually making changes, but he at least knows the direction to go when he’s not comfortable.
That’s because it’s the Indian not the arrow.
I cannot be the only person wondering what might have happened to Ciancirulo's career if he'd switched from Kawi to KTM.
Yes but maybe not is the concern. I don't remember any time on the Honda or KTM where Chase didn't look like Chase. He just biffed it sometimes. The saying "We can work with speed" applies and Chase has always had that in spades. When he was tucking the front on red and orange, he was fast AF. The last two weeks, he looks like a 5-8 guy with little to no flash of looking like Chase. If it weren't for the win, I'd say this season is full panic mode. Idk what Chase needs to have that but the amount of time he is spending looking average is not good. And with Kawi's track record, it's hard not to think that the bike may have some part of it.
Hard to believe you're putting that out there. In the past four #1 riders they've signed that rode the 450 class, Three of those four won mutltiple chamionships. Stewart, Villopoto, and Tomac!! The ONLY season they have had since Stewart with their #1 rider not winning multiple championships is Prado! Literally, that's it. Ane he left after one season and breaking a contract.
Way way to early to mail off Sexton's career on Kawasaki. Time will tell. And I don't believe it's 100% the bike or the team either. Riders share some responsibility in any bad results. Mentally Chase is not as confident as he's been. Between him and Kawasaki, they'll get things going better.
Kawi just needs a mentally stable rider at this point lmao. Chase hasn’t been comfortable on any bike yet and has been pretty vocal about his dislikes on every machine. Prado, I mean we don’t even need to beat that horse anymore. Prado looks amazing now, but the guy also spent his entire professional career on Austrian bikes, so him not gelling with the kawi and not even trying to get there makes sense.
Anderson did fine on the kawi and so did many other riders. Having said that, this is making kawi look very very bad. Maybe Chase wasn’t the best option for them.
I see this type of reply in many of the threads about Chase, Eli is on a new bike and new team as well. The same excuse was made when he went to KTM the first year. At what point do the fingers get pointed at Chase and not at the bike or the team? The one race he won so far he was on Kitchen's setup and then he went back to trying to tune his setup and hasn't been good since.
AC was also an overthinker. burden of being hyper smart sometimes.
Yes. I can’t comprehend the expectations of winning a championship on year 1 of 3.
I’m the one that can’t comprehend it. 🤡
I believe if you look through the brief history of our sport many riders were championship contenders their very first year on a new bike.
That’s a very high expectation in reality.
Kawi gave him 3 years and millions to win a championship. Get one and the boss will be very happy. ✌️
Cooper and Eli won in their first year on KTM and Yamaha. Chase is a prior champ and is further away than anyone expected. We can talk about he’s only 18 down, but all of the guys ahead of him have had bad races, it’s not like Chase is the only one that has had a bad race. And the the guy who left Kawasaki has more heat race wins and fast qualifiers.
I don’t believe he can “just ride the damn bike” to fix this. In Seattle he did that, and had to ride at a pace that was no where near the leaders.
On RDL Ricky joked about how bad his CR250 was compared to Reeds YZ250, but Chase ain’t Ricky and won’t be able to override the bike and not crash.
Roczen seems to only be getting better, unless he values loyalty over money I could see him going to a different team willing to pay for his talent and speed. I haven’t heard him say but I don’t think retirement in soon in his future.
Eli and coop have been competitive from the jump on at least 2 different teams each. Could probably say 3 for Eli.
Kawi was not expecting fringe top 5 results and one podium at this point.
Pit Row
Webb and Coop on last years bike this year.
Everyone knows it's not easy to win year one of their contracts. However, the elite riders throughout history have done it many times. RC - Honda and Suzuki, JS7 - Yamaha, Tomac - Yamaha, Dungey - KTM*.
The issue with Chase is that he has the speed of the legends and has so many of the intangibles too. It's just crazy that he can't pull it all together over the long haul. Even his championships are mired with mistakes, he's just fast enough to overcome them sometimes. When Chase is on, Jett is the only guy who has proven to beat him consistently. Eli is the only other guy who is close. Both of those guys are all timers. It's just crazy to watch a guy as good as Chase struggle like this. When he was early 20s, it was easy to see a path where he'd figure it out. Now, it's a question if he ever will. I think most people really like Chase and want to see the best version of him and know how good that can be. We're all just befuddled.
Chase is held to a high standard because he deserves to be. If you pointed to Anderson, Barcia, Ferrandis, Marchbanks, Nichols, etc. - Many high end factory guys and said that they'd have Chase's 2026 season so far, you'd say they're having a very good season. By the standards we hold Chase to, it's a panic. I expected Chase to have roughly the season Eli has had. Looks better than everyone most of the time but has some seriously costly mistakes. And we all expect Chase to be improving, not going backwards. He's too good to be this bleh. Maybe he needs to run into the gate again to get his head straight.
Or Yamaha or Suzuki or Honda lol
He won his third race ever on the bike. The bike has proven to be capable. Even with an obvious lack of comfort adapting to different track conditions on a new bike (which has been going on throughout his career) I’d say he’s doing ok. For all the talk of the KTM being vastly superior, there is only one KTM (or Husqvarna) that is ahead of Chase in the points, and the rider is one that gets mentioned as a potential for the Mount Rushmore of the sport. Give him some more time and let’s see what happens. I’m sure he thinks he should be winning and is mad that he’s not, and that is what made him a champion.
Lovely expression
Early retirement. Moves to Hawaii full time and does WSX for spending money.
He will WIN on A Green Kawasaki!!!
He did win. That being said to all those who state Kawasaki should not expect results first year flies in the face of all the first year championship winners and contenders this sport has had in it's history, as well as Kawasaki's investment in Chase. One of the very first champions of the AMA nationals rode three different bikes to three(four) different championships. Chase has had months of riding all day everyday to set the bike up. Does anybody really think Kawasaki hired Chase thinking it was Ok they would not be in contention for championships?
Having been on KX450s for 14 years straight, I reckon the ‘19-‘23 model was the best. The ‘24 was a step back in all areas IMO. I’ve been saying that since day 1, but everyone wanted to argue until recently.
I think his inability to move forward when starting 7-10 is most alarming, given his speed advantage in years past.
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