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.
Again, think you’ve failed understand my point and are hellbent on creating an argument here.
The bike can win. We’ve seen that with Chase already this year.
However, clearly riders are having set up issues and Kawi are unwilling to move out of the window they’ve set themselves in.
Effectively limiting riders thresholds in terms of comfort and therefore performance.
Don’t know how can dispute this, let alone target me for stating the obvious….
There are tools capable of undoing a bolt. There are tools more efficient at undoing a bolt. Same objective will be achieved, one with considerably less work.
You beat me to it with the F1 analogy.
Taken further.
Michael Schumacher came to Ferrari with a crew of people around him, when they were stuck in their typical Ferrari stubbornness.
He/they changed everything to suit him.
Thus wins and titles.
Since then, they've reverted back to their old ways. And the results on the track show.
The narrative of Kawasaki not willing to do this or that is played out. I feel bad for anyone who truly believes this is what is currently happening at Kawasaki USA. They have been working their asses off day and night trying to make things better.
Did you see the emotion from Jason Montoya when Chase won? These guys are working hard and sacrificing a lot to try and make things happen.
Too little too late. Momentum matters. Years and years of not developing as a team and as a program matters.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
I just finally listened last night. You could tell Jake was pretty rattled about it. Definitely a lot of pent up emotion over the last decade+
I think the problem is Chase doesn’t know what to change and neither does the team.
You can work really hard and be all kinds of dedicated but still have parameters that you have to work within and bosses you have to keep happy. Now or in the past it's never seemed to me like a criticism of any of the mechanics or techs.
They should’ve asked Jake if his Team Tedder Kawi 450 was better or worse than his factory bike. I would assume that his Tedder bike was basically a PC450 that he could do whatever he wanted to with? He also rode a RCH Suzuki and JGR Suzuki after that, Barcia hated that JGR Suzuki, I wonder if Jake liked it.
I doubt Montoya is sitting next to Fahie on calls with Kawi execs 😂
Two things can be true: Montoya is over the moon and in tears when Chase wins, AND there are organisational issues that create friction between Chase and the bike.
I owe Jake an apology - I knew he had the talent, so I thought he was bagging it as he was #2 rider on the team and felt he should be/could be #1 at Kawasaki or elsewhere -
good lesson for me, I never would have guessed a factory would ignore input from a professional, top tier racer.
Today's athletes' careers are going into their 30's and getting top 5 results on bikes that work for them - based upon this new information - that time was not afforded Jake as his machine was not as rideable as it could be- he may have done more with his results had he been comfortable on his bike. He had good years taken from him, not to mention $
That's fucked up.
Apologies to Jake
This.
The best Jake ever did was on RV's Kawasaki.
Clearly you're on your own on this stance and I was going to drop it here. However, I'll pose one more question to you;
Why don't they support MXoN?
Does this in itself highlight the "they work in these parameters and aren't will to deviate from that" rhetoric?
Kawi to their riders: We're willing to support you with Supercross and Nationals... "What about Mxon?" No.
Kawi to their riders: We're willing to give you this bike set up... "What about trying this?" No.
Most of us have worked at a firm where the culture just isn’t right. They lose top performers, and those who stay end up miserable, eventually leaving due to poor management. At a certain point, the only real solution is a reset.
In the SMX world (still weird to say), Yamaha went through this. Maybe it’s time for Kawi to do the same.
Again, I’m not belittling anyone or suggesting there aren’t hardworking people there. But it’s becoming increasingly clear there are issues at Kawasaki. When multiple top performers leave or voice discontent after moving on, there’s only one consistent party that might need to look inward.
In the last 10 minutes of this interview, I gained more clarity on Kawasaki's MXoN stance than ever before.
So, in my opinion at least and based solely on this, the MXoN can be removed from this line of thinking.
Not even close to being worth comparing.
My takeaway from the interview is that Bruce is absolutely a company man. Foreign SMX round? Pay us. MXoN? Pay us. No matter what you asked him the answers were given in spreadsheet terms. It is what it is but not a lot of passion for the sport came across in that interview.
Exactly, he did good over there and after his time was up he should’ve proved himself but was mentally cooked after 4 years with Kawi in the 450 class. I like Jake and his style, and thought he would do well to n the motoconepts Honda and was bummmed when he got hurt, but I think his results had more to do with his mental than the bike because he did do good on it.
Pit Row
The slower guys always think the faster guy is getting the good stuff......where the reality the faster guy works harder and is likely more talented. Ping told the story many times at PC where he was convinced RC's bike was faster and Mitch offered or actually did just change the plastics from one bike to the next effectively giving Ping RC's bike.
Then why to do they keep the team engineers/mechanics and Broc. If they cannot analyze and get the bike very close based on feedback from their multi million $ rider, they should all be gone and staff it with guys that can.
As others have said, super conservative/ company focused on his answers.
The MXoN part got me- I’m convinced there was a podcast with someone from Kawi stating they had concerns over a conflict of interest with Roger?
This concern is no more, they now have a rider who’s competed multiple times and is already expressing interest. Their teams title sponsor, is also the title sponsor of the event…
Their stance: “It’s up to team USA to start getting them t shirt sales in from A1 to muster up the funds to pay for a factory team to go….” - (paraphrasing here in case Mr Fouledplugs electrode shears off).
Appreciate you saying that perhaps we can take mxon off the table, but in my opinion - this sums it up for me.
It’s outside of their requirements, so they have zero incentive/ willingness to help.
Same ordeal probably applies with the bike: we’ve supplied you a factory bike, it’s up to you to ride it and get comfortable with what we’ve provided you with- “count yourself lucky”.
Obviously they’re making efforts now and we’re seeing big changes, but I really feel that an element of this is to save face now they’re in the spotlight and consequently reiterates that they’re clearly miles off where they need to be.
I’d be curious to know how Tomac got them to use KYB suspension while he was there. From what I remember he’s the only one to run KYB since RV and Weimer ran it in 2012 or so.
IDK man I’m not a fly on the wall at Kawasaki. But based on how many changes they are making it seems evident neither rider or team are sure how to set up the bike to the riders liking
Edit to add that doesn’t mean they won’t get it right eventually
The Kawi’s looking good in Q1 so far
I agree 100%. I am thinking there needs to be accountability starting with leadership. Now two years in a row they are struggling badly. If it was a real business, heads would be rolling with multiple years of losses compounding. Somehow that does not apply in moto. Example: Jeremy Albrecht at JGR literally never performed and had a million riders. How they kept him with an NFL coach owning the Team made no sense to me.
I agree. Even if it takes Chase a race or two more and they get it sorted, this isn't sustainable. They will have same issue with every rider coming in, with maybe the exception of a Jett.
Could be it's because they've never had to really do it before. Hmmm...
You'd think a rider, especially one at Chase's level would spend enough time on the bike with the team to sort it (and the team attitude) out before he signed the contract. Why are we now only one race before the "season starts" at Daytona...and Team Kawasaki & their star rider are both still searching for a setup? Why does it suddenly sound like I'm talking about Prado?
He had them put it in his contract because he had them on his Honda. It was one of the contributing factors. The problem was that Kawasaki wouldn’t let KYB do everything they wanted to do to the chassis to get it anll working together, and ended up firing Gilly over it.
I like Sexton and I think he absolutely rips on a moto bike. But it seems he doesn’t know how, or maybe can’t tell the engineers how to set up a bike. It’s the same issues on every bike he rides. Might not be the bike, or Kawi in particular
But what I can see is Tomac is making the unrideable KTM look really good.
Is Chase dad there with him everyday helping guide this disaster show or no?
Post a reply to: Jake Wiemer on Pulp