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I’m no modern day chassis expert, but this was told to me from someone 100% involved. The leaders of the team don’t want to mess with the chassis, or the rake and trail. They said when the bike is on a test track with other Kawasaki’s, it’s a fantastic bike, but once you throw in other bikes cutting in different grooves and ruts, the cornering and feel goes away. It doesn’t want to track through the ruts. Like I have said before, KYB wanted to make chassis adjustments with Eli, they were told nope. Gilly was fired because he was making chassis adjustments with Eli. They are testing the motor because it distorts the chassis, so they are trying to get it to work with the chassis. Some might say that the engine position might be a problem nobody is willing to deal with.
He is keeping back the pace because he would crash if he tried to go faster. Just as Prado, they don't trust the bike when they push because it doesn't behave as it should.
He already said he needs to ride wide lines and around the bumps becuse the bikes doesn't turn. So much weight on the front, they probaby have to make it rear steering to be able to ride it. Consistent with what others have said and how Villo and Febvre and even Anderson can ride.
Chase is about 0.5-1sec slower on it compared to KTM if you look at qualifying. So any win is completely circumstantial and can't be repeated if even the smallest contributing condition isn't there.
I think your first paragraph rings true for almost every rider. No bike is perfect and the riders have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of their bikes and adjust their riding accordingly. I don’t have any inside info but I think Sexton wants the bike to be perfect all around which isn’t really achievable and he seems to be searching for a specific feeling but has no real idea what to do to the bike to get there.
FWIW I’m not trying to say everything is fine within the Kawi team, at this point it’s obvious that their approach does not work and there needs to be some big changes but I also think they are fighting an uphill battle trying to make Sexton happy.
What do they do mechanically to "make the bike rear steering?"
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They won't let him change clamp offset?
It's definitely not simple, that's for sure. And I don't think that there is one single silver bullet to 'fix' whatever the dysfunction is going on with the situation. I did a quick look at how the Kawasaki 450 program has done since 2011, which I think was Weimer's first year racing it. There's a million ways to hash out the data, but it's pretty interesting that they have had so much success with the confirmed issues that they have.
The fact that Chase is incredibly uncomfortable on the bike, and yet won two Supercross races shows how incredibly talented he is.
If Chase found a comfort zone and could get out of his own head, he’d be very hard to beat.
Keep in mind, Kenny did not like the Honda at the end, he couldn't get comfortable either.
It could just come down to some rider gel with certain characteristics, ala Kenny and Suzuki. Chase just hasn't found his type yet... Although he's running out of options quickly lol.
I look at what Roczen did on that 1986 RM bike this year. The bikes are all great these days.
One guy Id like to see get some fa tory help is Mitch (jorge) Harrison.
They might have since, but no, they wouldn’t let him. They were told this is how it’s designed to work.
It's what ruined Honda HRC in MotoGP too. They had the best rider ever on their bike and completely neglected the issues that Marquez was able to ride around. It resulted in the worst period in the history of HRC.
Assuming both chase and Prado rode the bike before signing multiple year contracts is what is perplexing to me. Prado and tomac did better after switching brands so could be something there.
Regarding chase, he’s running out of options on factory race teams.
Personally I think what’s happening is they try it, they feel the bike is ok for a first try on a smooth track, they ll them, hey the bike is ok but it needs xy and z you guys can do that right?
Kawi goes yeah sure we can do that.
And they sign
And then reality sets in that the team couldn’t unscrew a lightbulb let alone improve the bike, and then they’re fucked.
But it’s really not the riders fault to assume they could improve a bike. If you rode a buddies bike and went damn it felt great, and it wasn’t even set up for me! You can imagine hopping on their “base package” and it feels ok, not enough to go win on, but good enough for a first try, you’d imagine after 3 months of fiddling the team could get you happy right?
But they can’t…
It’s not an inherent issue with the bike, it’s that the team sucks balls exactly as several have pointed out like motogp hrc and team Yamaha before star etc…
If you don’t believe me look at the engine package. They “worked so hard” for Jorge and improved the engine so much from where they were. Their own words…. This year they took a huge leap forward and have a new package… built by twisted… so the huge leap forward from their already huge gains that Jorge forced them to make, came from twisted, not from their own factory Kawasaki hands…
How many riders, incl Tomac this year, has thought they nailed the setup all the way until they get on a proper race track under race conditions. And suddenly it doesn't work. That's with months of testing.
Riding the bike for 2h before signing, pretty useless if it's an established brand.
As I said, he is up to a sec of his top pace. So he isnt looking for the perfect bike, he just want it to get him to the same level as he was on Honda or KTM. That's nowhere near a perfect bike.
I'm just guessing, based on what has been said. The bike is so front end heavy, so to make it stable they have to drop the rear or raise the front and rake it out so much, it becomes rear steering.
Longer/different linkage arm and knuckle, offsets (triple clamps), rake and trail (lugs or steering stems). Shifting engine position or tilt. Different wheel position in swingarm. Length of suspension.
Building a spaceship? No problem compared to engineering a dirtbike 😄🤷
This horse has been beat to death, buried, dug up and beat again 10 times over. Nobody can agree on what’s wrong or if panic buttons should be pushed. We are all eager to see if outdoors is better and if the rumored ‘27 updates fix whatever might be wrong. 😬
That's impossible to know for sure. You can't just eye ball it and say "yep a second slower than last year" lol
Pit Row
According to JT, if it goes tits up for Sexton outdoors he'll leave Kawi. Presumably, he'll go to Star. Then he'll start complaining about the bike...
He was on the ground constantly on the Honda. Tucking the front...remember that?
Don't think anyone has forgotten.
Bring back the full floater, with 2026 suspension shock, fork.
Team matters. The Yamaha 450 was hot garbage for a long time until the Yamaha good ole boys club was disbanded and star (who was dominating the 250s) finally took over.
I'm sure if you got a group of good people together to run the team with buy in from Japan to try things, the bike would get figured out
That you Dan?
No it's not that hard. It's easy to see where everybody is in lap times for qualification compared to previous years.
You think I look at how fast he is going down a straight, and going "yeap that's 2mph slower" 😄🤦
The problem is how the engine is placed in the chassis and it's tall head. Everything else is 1% compared to what stated before.
And if Chase leaves Kawi, he will go to Triumph. No $$$$$ at Star, it's already spent!
This is a perfect explanation for Febvre as well. People point to him winning the title absolving Kawasaki of problems however every single second rider on the team has struggled and complained about the bike. Febvre is clearly good enough to ride around the issues others are having.
I still look at Roczen pulling up to ride the 2010 Rmz 450 and after a quick lap he signed a contract. What was he thinking?
Are the newer Ktms or Kawis worse then that shiny 2010 Suzuki? I hope not.
But then again, Roczen hasn’t done much with the old dinosaur yet either. Here on Vital, we all told him so. 😂😂😂
A slow engine in a great chassis is faster than a fast engine in a bad chassis....at least in 450's.
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