So who goes into the burning building that is Kawasaki.

They already signed Mookie 

Maybe Big James will get things straightened out and flying right over at the green race shop…😂

Kawasaki signed Stewart to boost their completely demolished PR situation.

Stewart signed for the Benjamins.

Good on Stewart, he's not a title contender, so performance isn't the deciding factor, he's taken the best financial offer.

I think the team needs a new sponsor to reflect where it’s at. Chernobyl Kawasaki sounds about right. Leave now before it kills your career. 

They're going to have two guys in Mookie in Garrett where the expectations aren't too high, so they only have upside when either one puts in a surprise top-5 ride.

Obviously, after Jorge and Chase, they've shown the world that they still don't have an answer for how to set the bike up for a championship-caliber rider. They need to continue to develop before making another high-value signing with the intention of a serious championship run.

Personally, I say give the reins to Mitch, if he's be willing to take over.

Not sure what Mitch would do, he needs out as well really, other than a gimmick SMX title this year he hasn’t won anything since pre-Covid. 

Chase is a crasher

Jorge is a KTM guy who blamed his poor results on the bike. 

I dont think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the bike. A properly motivated top guy would win on the KX450F

Kawasaki has been my ride for 40 years.  They went through this exact thing in 1980 with Gary Mathers, I called this years ago.  They will be hurting until Dan Fahie is gone!  This could be a really long mess!

Serious question because I don't really follow who's in management etc. but is the same team in place as when Anderson and Tomac were able to win on the bike ?

I still fail to accept that the Kawi cannot be made to work just as well as any of the other manufacturers…but even so, do race wins and championships even sell bikes now and days? Or is it twitter followers or rider popularity that matters more? The Kawasaki”s seem to be fine on a local level …at the end of the day the manufacturers are all just trying to sell motorcycles…….it will be interesting to see where Sexton ends up….Should have never left KTM IMO….I get they had some issue but all the teams do, you have to work through the issues and not bailout every time ….

Bring back Mike Fisher! He was right about those damn mufflers getting plugged with dirt.

They need to go the star route and have pc take over the 450 effort. They have no choice. Factory kawi is dead. Its almost hard to remember now but the yz450f was considered the biggest turd of all time. The bike was winning shootouts for a few years but public perception was still bad due stewart bike, then yamaha being a shit team once the bike got good. Kawi is coming out with a new bike I know its late but new bike new team would be a fresh start. Idk what else its going to take but that team is bad news. Sometimes you need to clean house, its time. 

If you really think about it too tomac and rv were 2 guys who ride like nobody else. On top of that rv really was the only guy who was in peak form on the kawi. Sure tomac EVENTUALLY put a few championships together on the kawi, but he was there forever and he went from looking even faster than jett lawrence on the honda 450, beating kenny and dungey by over a minute outdoors, to underperforming for years on the kawi and having tons of “weirdo” rides. The second he left kawi and went to yamaha he won everything and looked like honda eli again right away. Once you saw him on the yamaha it looked like he had wasted away his years at kawi cuz he was back to 2015 form immediately. Eli is eli so he still made the kawi work, but he masked a lot of its flaws with brutal strength. Looking back the kawi move actually hindered his career. Then even when he last went to ktm as an old guy he also looked better than the kawi there too. 

Jordan / Reed take over the Kawasaki 450 program in '28?

I don’t think the issue has been finding a guy that is properly motivated. Kawasaki has been known for telling riders “this is our bike and you must ride it this way” instead of collaborating with their riders to set the bike up in a way that makes them comfortable. 
 

There’s been some pretty consistent evidence of those guys either winning or crashing out in the past 20 years. The lone exception being RV, who basically said “f it, I’m out” at 28ish years old because he was done dealing with it. 

Hey Kawi...give Eli a call. 

Kawi used to be a powerhouse team. Ward Lechein Keidrowski Larocco Metasavich Huffman Ryno RC Stewart Roy Turner Rick Asch Emig Tom Morgan Plus many others. A shame what this team has become.

Honestly, I hope whoever signs does really well.

For the riders who run less sag, like 85mm which is actually fairly common, the Kawasaki struggles. The guys that can run a lot of sag are fine with it.

Kawasaki is a good bike for riders that like more sag.

Kawasaki is a bad bike for riders that like minimal sag.

So it's a good bike and a bad bike, both can be true.

It’s time for Kitchen to step up.

The building is only burning for people on Chase's and Prado's level. For anyone even a little below them it's probably great. 

I really wish Cianciarulo would have changed brands early in his career. His stats could be completely different. 

It's the team, not the bike.

From everything that went public the last few years, it absolutly seems that the bike it's not the problem. It's the team that handels the bike, the development and the riders needs. It's also not Kawi, cause in Europe Kawi can get it right somehow. Not perfect as some guys left and had problems with the bike, but not as bad as the US side. I would fire the upper management stuff at Kawi US immediatly...

What a disaster!

TBH i wouldnt be surprised to see stewart have a solid year. Ill break my keyboard no and say both him and Marchbanks finish top 10 in both series with a few podiums