Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
FWIW they did let RC race a 98 frame in 2001. I don’t know if they did that for RonRon.
Fro might have been on the 98 frame in 99 as well? Not sure. I remember Huffman commenting on it in the re-raceables maybe
Jake and Coke for the win!! Glad he finally said it.
I'm a person who always believes the best riders can win on anything, look at some of the riders Kawi has had, RC, JS, RV, ET.... these are the type of riders it doesn't matter what they are on they will win, RC, JS and RV are no fuss type of guys they were never setup chasers they just rode.
The biggest example for me where Kawi has looked average is when Eli was on the team, he never looked comfortable, at the time I just thought his shoulder injuries made him look stiff and uncomfortable.
When Eli moved to Yamaha I just thought it was the effect of him being in a better environment but if you look at his riding style from Kawi to Yamaha there is quite a bit difference especially in the corners, Eli did really well on the Kawi when he was able to rail the outsides provided the line was there, same thing with outdoors he would dominate when he was able to rail the outsides of the track.
Now you look at Eli at KTM his style has changed again, now he's able to shorten the track and cut down corners with ease.
It also takes me back to RV and Dungey, Dungey always looked comfortable and speed came with ease RV was manhandling that thing.
I hate bike blamers but there is certainly something there, Kawasaki has been extremely fortunate in the early 2000's to mid 2000's they had the riders they had that masked the state of the bike.
RV is also one of the greatest riders of all time and had a riding style that no one else on the planet could be successful with to the degree he was. The fact that bike worked so good for him is probably a bigger red flag than anything in terms of how other riders would feel about it at the time.
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
He got to waste a factory bike for years and he's still complaining about it?
One interesting observation Lewis and Steve also touched on: Lewis did not specifically ask about the entire Kawasaki factory program's history. Fahie could have given a corporate answer and not put himself in this situation.
The classic moto challenge this now poses for a journalist like Lewis is: given that Jake has spoken up, will he follow up on the topic the next time he interviews Fahie and pose a direct question? Or will this be as usual, where no one in moto can admit fault or flaws? EVERYTHING IS GREAT!
They found something in Davis locker as an excuse to fire him. He was in the first year of a two year deal when Monster started whispering in their ears Tomacs name. They needed the money
I don't think "green pig" is quite right yet, as we've seen the bike is obviously a capable machine in the right hands... I think it's more of a team culture issue
After "Matasavich" and "Pieke", here comes "Wiemer". He's lucky it's not "Wiener"...
And some will complain the SX broadcast team is too "mainstream audience oriented" -or orientated, as RC would say...
😄
I listened to it and while I get what Jake is saying, they could’ve did whatever Jake wanted to that bike and it wouldn’t have turned him into a winner in the 450 class, he was too much in his head. He even said it in the interview, that he was mentally too cooked after kawi to keep going, and he was at Kawi for 4 years. He made good money, played a good number 2 to RV, his results wouldn’t have changed if he went elsewhere, so why complain. That’s my take. I think they were on one of the better bikes in that era, Reed wanted off that ‘13 Honda and chose a Kawi for ‘14. James couldn’t make that era Yamaha work, dung would struggle on the KTM, I’d say Jake was still one of the best teams and packages out there. What other bike factory bike from 11-14 would be better besides a factory Honda in ‘11 and ‘12? But even Shorty said that Honda Japan wouldn’t let him run his forks flush with his triple clamps and that was why he wasn’t winning.
I'm not going to critique every rider on your list, as many were not championship material (thinking fill in and B riders)
Let's look at some success with those that rode for Kawasaki.
You completely disrespected James Stewart, perfect season outdoors in 2008 aboard the KX450F
RC won both the MX and SX title his final year with Kawasaki.
Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki 2011-2015
6 championships
•2011 AMA Supercross 450cc
•2011 AMA Motocross 450cc
•2012 AMA Supercross 450cc
•2013 AMA Supercross 450cc
•2013 AMA Motocross 450cc
•2014 AMA Supercross 450cc
Ryan potentially could have won more but missed a couple of seasons due to injury.
Tomac Kawasaki 2016-2021
5 championships
•2017 AMA Motocross 450cc
•2018 AMA Motocross 450cc
•2019 AMA Motocross 450cc
•2020 AMA Supercross 450cc
Jason Anderson's best season with Kawasaki was in 2022 with 7 supercross wins
AC shoulda, coulda woulda. We all wanted him to do more. He had the ability and talent, but injury after injury kept him down.
Is/was there something amiss with American Kawasaki? Jakes's experience was from 11-15 years ago, so it's difficult to say it's exactly like that today. the fact that the entire team is putting in massive hours at the test track indicates they ARE trying.
They found a set of stock clamps and engine mounts!
So you wouldn't have hired him in 2011 after his 2010 season?
Funny thing is, there isn’t an open spot at Kawi in 2011 for Jake if Chad didn’t bail because the bike sucked
To your last point - Jake did make it clear that he's not insinuating that the team isn't trying to accommodate for their riders today - he was speaking on his own experience. He did pose the possibility that their unwillingness to test/experiment back in the day put them behind the 8 ball, and now they're scrambling to figure things out because of the lack of data and passed-down knowledge from prior years, which I think is a valid possibility.
People seem to be missing the point repeatedly. It's not about whether the bike was good or bad or better than other bikes in that era. It's not about whether some guys could win on them. It's not about whether a guy would have had a better or worse career on a different team.
It's about whether guys had freedom to try the things they wanted to try and were made to feel like their input on the bike mattered. Several guys have said that wasn't the case and from that they lost confidence, got burned out, never got the bike to a place they were comfortable, etc. Fahie denied this was ever the case and that was what weimer was responding to. Not sure how many guys have to say it or like the posts reporting on it before people accept that it's probably true, regardless of how many races RV won there. I suspect they could have had the exact same bike, for better or worse, and better team dynamics and respect for riders input would have left them much better off.
All Fahie had to do was give Lewis some canned answer about learning from the past and things being better now and this would be a non story. But he didn't and right now they're struggling in a big way. The current issues might have nothing to do with the things from the past, but it's hard to believe that when it's the same people in charge and they seem to be in total denial about past criticisms. That lack of introspection or humility from the bosses probably didn't help then and isn't helping now even if the issues aren't the exact same.
So shorty could’ve done better with a bike set up to his preferences but Jake couldn’t?
I don’t think you listened to what Jake was saying with an open mind. You’ve already made your conclusion.
Pit Row
If you listen to the post race interview with Sexton after the second round with Lewis from Vital, he makes the comment about going to the PC forks because "they can do whatever they want" as far as bike setup goes, which is telling that maybe the team isn't willing to go the direction he wants
He also talks about how PC has so much more chassis and suspension development than factory Kawi which is exactly where Jake said the bike was lacking and they gave up 20 years of data.
I don’t think Shorty would’ve been winning with flush clamps, and my point was that another big factory team wouldn’t let their rider do something that he wanted that would “make him go faster”.
Or if RV didn’t mind Pourcel as a teammate in 2011
That’s been debunked time and time again
I think there are good details in the interview and appreciate Jake was willing to speak up about it. We need more of that.
But....he has always been a bit of a whiner, especially when racing. His interviews were filled with excuses and he was on factory team for multiple years barely getting top 5's and usually 8-10 in a much weaker field than we have today. I never understand how he kept that ride.
Where he lost credibility for his "side" is he signed another contract in 2012 because they told him they would test suspension etc etc. He then said they did and he was upset because it was a chassis problem. They can't change the frame and he knows that, but they changed everything else for him and he still hated the bike.
If he was that upset leading up to 2012....and the bike was that bad.....he has to own that and should have gone to JGR, Honda, or RCH who he was allegedly talking to.
With all that said, how in the hell is Tickle still employed or Dan for that matter. If the bike does in fact have all these issues after 2-3 years and now with Chase failing miserably, wouldn't you change the guy you are paying to run the team and the other guy you are paying to get the bike "close"? That is the biggest issue for currently and I cannot understand how they are keeping their jobs.
"With all that said, how in the hell is Tickle still employed or Dan for that matter. If the bike does in fact have all these issues after 2-3 years and now Chase failing miserably, wouldn't you change the guy you are paying to run the team and the other guy you are paying to get the bike "close"? That is the biggest issue for currently and I cannot understand how they are keeping their jobs. "
Weimer said exactly that. He fairly held accountable as a rider, but how are they not accountable?
If Chase doesn't regain his form this year consistently, at some point it's no longer a rider problem.
This speaks pretty loudly
Isn't AC paid by Kawi as an ambassador?
yeah, as much as we all dig AC, he gets no credibility here. Especially in this sport, the athletes NEVER bite the hand that feeds 'em. He'll say what he's told to say.
Gonna be an interesting Saturday for Chase. He REALLY needs to show up and quiet all this noise down.
It really shows you who is a badass on a bike. Its amazing that RV and Eli put that turd at the top repeatedly when other pros that are considered their competition can't ride the bike at all (Jorge, Chase, etc). Makes you wonder how dominant they would have been if they were on a ridable bike they liked. I feel like its a difference of mentality more than skill, and RV/Eli would not have been THAT much faster on something else. They will just ride anything as fast as it will go. like RV and Eli BELIEVE they can win on a vespa, while others subconsciously give up when its not the best bike in the paddock.
Mike Fisher did that to spite Mitch, but I cant remember the reason why. Fighting over a rider or something maybe. I hear Mike was an asshole and the team was better off without him.
Post a reply to: Jake Wiemer on Pulp