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Here’s the Broc Tickle interview that I did about their riders’ settings/struggles.
I think he was more open than most… It’s available on all podcast platforms!
I love Broc. I like when team personnel aren’t afraid to be honest about a bike’s shortcomings. He was very open in this but in a respectful and honest way. Makes me respect him and the team even more.
Brilliant! I think that everyone can learn from Broc and Kawasaki in that respect.
It's possible to 'win' by talking rather than staying silent and ignoring everything.
For those of us at work, who cant listen to the podcast, in short, what does Brock elude to as far as "shortcomings" of the KX450? I have late editions of the KX250 and absolutely love the bike and impressed with all aspects including it's handling.
Link is busted for me in here and in my podcast app
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Excellent interview.
Turning. Getting the right feel for mid corner and exit. That is what I heard anyway...
I think the major problem is cultural.
Tickles explains his job is to test what team proposes and provide feedback. He should 't/can't go outside his box and suggest what needs to be done. It's not his job he says multiple times on a direct question. It's probably not black or white, but sorry, that is just poor culture and management.
In those situations, people tend to focus more on not stepping on each other's toes, than to solve the problem. Something that could take 1 day to figure out, takes 2 weeks because it needs to pass the right channels, maybe go two rounds of testing before Tickle can speak of something he could say before he even tested it, people needs to be massaged and so on.
He also says that if it was his bike and he could both propose and evaluate, he would be done in 3 days. Of course, it's for himself.
Question: Is Tickles job description at Kawasaki different than test riders for Honda, Yamaha, KTM, Beta, Ducati, Triumph etc.
Like, is Brock completely limited on what Kawasaki wants from him, and what they may change because of him? And that's different at the other manufacturer's? When Yamaha, went with the backwards engine I'm sure their test riders had input but only on the bike given to them once Yamaha made drastic changes. No one else has followed their lead, but it seems to have paid off big in the 250 class.
Test riders though aren't going to have designers and engineers going back and redesigning a model coming out. I would guess test riders have virtually no input on design and engineering. If they do, it might be for something way down the pipe and years in development
Lewis presented the idea that he’s been told by a rider that it’s either going to over-steer or under-steer depending on how it’s set up. It’s extremely difficult to get it right in the middle where it works well all the time.
It was also said that the Kawasaki in its stock form is actually extremely good at turning, but whatever modifications they’re doing plus the speed at which professionals are riding at make it harder to set up right.
According to the interview, he is only to evaluate and provide feedback.
Example as I read it:
Tickle: Bike is difficult to turn
Team looks at data and evaluates: Let's try 20 instead of 22 offset
Tickle after testing: X y Z happens, not good
Team: let's try different linkage with 22 offset
Tickle: Now it works
At the same time, Tickle with his experience could have said, it's feels like linkage let's try that first. But that is not in his job description.
He kind of confirmed it when Lewis asked if he would benefit from being able to both suggest and evaluate. That's when he said that he would have his bike dialed in 3 days with that approach 🤷
Probably not that black and white, but he kind of fraises it like that.
Man, if that's the case, that sounds like a painfully slow way to fix a bike. And not only that but, by the time the engineers decide the next change, it may be a different day with different track conditions.
Important to note that he said he'd fix it in 3 testing days for himself ....not for Chase. Chase has a very unique style, and rides at a much higher level than any test rider.....
I would think that Tickle is limited as to what he can say so I would take it with a grain of salt.
Didn't see it mentioned here but I see Chiz is test riding for Kawi also on his Insta
That would be a pretty good assessment.
What’s crazy is Steve knows this and has acted for years like they don’t do this. Must be some good coffee over there.
It sounded like he was surprised that when he changed clamps, the forks changed. I listened 3 times. How does he not know that already. Thats basic stuff. Shaking my head at that .
And then with the dyno stuff.... again, irrespective of what the dyno says, rider feel and lap time is all that matter.
He was honest and a great interview , but i can see why they are so lost .
Pit Row
i wonder who comes up with the packages that he gets to test. its ass backwards to let an engineer define the map and not let tickle explore the territory. if truly unilateral, this is why the team is failing; the suggestions are coming exclusively from people who think they know better because they rely on theory and not bilateral/ground-up feedback. not blaming the japanese, but if its initially coming from the japanese, either directly or via perceived political pressure historically, this would be fairly on brand. in other words, the factory thinks they know, and they refuse to consider outside input, at least past a certain development stage, and this rigid thinking defines a scope too narrow to encompass a real solution.
they should be actively combining feedback from the factory riders, allowing tickle to come up with potential solutions, and collaborating with european and japanese teams, instead of "here try these three packages and let us know which you like best".
as jake weimer said, they lost out on 15 years worth of data in their arrogance while they attributed their success to their own intuition rather than to villopoto's and tomac's sheer talent. this is no way to play catchup.
Without a surprise, it's waaaaaay more interesting than listening to Stjernstrom.
Still, there's one question that hasn't found its answer: is his official nickname at Kawi "Test Tickle"?
Wonder how many times he heard it since he got his position...
TUE Test Tickle
How gauche.
They're a bit more refined in that camp.
They refer to him as "Orchis". 👍
Ando came out swinging on that bike in his first season. How the f did that happen. And still had great speed the following years. He never seemed to have any struggles with the bike. Moreso his own health.
And now the zuk he's seemingly very comfortable already.
I thought it was funny they're working till 5 o'clock. Way to put in some overtime.
I’m not sure how they put in 100 hour weeks like Chase said - leaving at 5.
Getting to the race shop at 7am, loading up and heading to test track by 7:30. Arrive at test track around 8:15-30. Start riding around 9:00-15. Test until 5pm. Then drive an hour back to the race shop. 6pm...unload and wash. Into race shop bay around 6:30-45? Start pulling suspension off, parts, wheels, whatever needs to be prepped for next day. Suspension is being torn down or swapped, etc. Before you know it the techs have been at it until 7pm...8pm...9pm before they leave the shop to go home.
A few people on the team have mentioned not leaving the shop until 9-10pm multiple nights a week right now.
They do 2-3 test days a week. One day in the shop fully prepping everything from the last race for the next race. A day flying to the race, a day building the bike at the race, a day racing, a day traveling back. That's 8 days, so something is overlapping, either a travel day with a test day, or build days with travel, something.
his results are worse on the suzuki than the kawi last year before he left the series, he had 2 podiums early
I just heard him saying everybody was leaving at 5:00
Bunch of kooks….if sexton cant make the bike work for him….its on him….same with prado…. U sign contract, make it work….tickles bring his dog to work? I would….
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