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.
So it’s 100% the bike and not the rider? That’s kind of like saying the bike does all the work.
Sick that’s the kind of attitude kawi needs, you should apply you’d fit right in.
They have the data that says the bike should work, because that’s the box they live in. Theh don’t see what needs to be done because they’ve never lived in that box, they are all about the data. They don’t do chassis modifications, look at the Lawrence’s, they modified the head tube and the swingarm to get some torsional flex out of the Honda. Yamaha moves the engine and uses a different swingarm. Honda designs a link just for Carmichael so he can run his bike 15 mm lower in the back and still keep the shock in the right part of the stroke. Suzuki designs a plus inset minus offset triple clamp so Stewy can hit the woops hard and still be able to turn his bike. But Kawasaki fires a guy because he wants to setup the rake and trail differently to fit Tomac.
That’s the problem, they just bolt on some stock triple clamps and production outer fork tubes and think that’s going to give him better feel in the front, cool.
Bro your right he had a total of 2 wins and 9 podiums on the 450 outdoors and no wins and 4 podiums in sx in his 450 career .Im not downing any of the riders i JUST THINK KAWI and whoever made the decisions made alot of mistakes and seems to still be if its the same guy .But i do think it would have been pretty funny had Ryder won the SMX Title
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Jorge was right.
So the bike does all the work and the human is just along for the ride?
Just curious, how many times do you think you'll need to repeat the same thing before someone besides you believes it?
Just waiting for an answer to my question. This isn’t PhD level stuff.
Has Jorge or Chase forced their way out of huge multimillion dollar deals before?
Has anyone done this in recent memory with any other team? Stew at jgr is 1 example in what 2012… any other example? And the stew/jgr example is clearly the bike and team sucked ass at that time, not too many people defending the backwards Yamaha from that era. Not sure you can place the blame on stew. Best on the planet at that time.
idk man, I think your point is pretty broken here.
That teams a trainwreck. Jorge won races and a title in 2027, what did kawi 450 team do? Lose another top rider in amazing fashion again.
The Team will be fine!
Pourcel and MotoConcepts also with that backwards Yamaha...
McGrath and KTM
Windham and Suzuki (I'm not sure).
If you have a mini meltdown where you write "sorry, not sorry", STRAIGH TO JAIL.
Restructure or not.. I don’t see a championship level contender touching Kawi with a 10ft pole for the foreseeable future. Who would take that risk after watching the Prada and Sexton sagas? They’ve made their bed.
If they were smart they would clean house and start the rebuild lrocess. Try and earn some trust back. But here they are doubling down 😂
what is smart about that? Kawasaki isn't screwing riders on their contract terms. There are likely a lot of young hungry guys that would jump at the chance for a factory ride.
Young and hungry, for sure would jump at the opportunity but he said "championship level contenders". Those are two different levels of riders, imo.
Do you think Kawi is spending all the money it takes to go racing to attract hungry 5-10 place guys? No way, they need wins and championships as the ROI. And I have a hard time seeing anyone capable of wins and championships going to Kawi anytime soon. So yes, I think it would be very smart of them to put effort into rebuilding their image to the caliber of riders they want to attract.
they have 2 5-10 place signed. They likely don't have a lot of upside from here? Looks to me like Kawasaki is aiming for stability right now instead of going after bigger name talent and maybe let the new bike attract talent if it performs well. Take the spotlight off negative press from top talent who aren't a good fit. This is more like the Beta, Triumph, Ducati model to me.
A lot of people will hate me for this take and I almost hate myself for saying it, but I think a lot of the issue with poor Kawi 450 results in the last decade or so, outside of Tomac has been the inability develop and graduate 250 and that lands squarely on PC and Mitch.
Star takes riders from amateur to 250 to 450 if the riders perform. See Justin Cooper, Cooper Webb, Deegan, soon to be Davies, AP as examples.
When was the last time Kawi 450 had a chance to move up a 250 champion? AC in 2020? What about before that?
They routinely develop a good amateur pipeline through team green, it stone walls or doesn't progress at PC, and then Kawi doesn't have the homegrown rider who loves the platform and can work around it like AC and Villo could.
Pit Row
Post a reply to: Should Kawasaki USA restructure their team?