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Edited Date/Time
3/18/2012 4:51pm
Instead of the usual bile-spewing vs lovefests that James Stewart threads usually turn into, I have to wonder - what's really going wrong? Is it the bike? Is it his riding? Is it both?
When I watch him ride, it's obvious to me that his bike has a real problem with rear end traction. That's what happens on starts, and that's what happens when he gets into a rhythm or whoop section and the thing suddenly goes sideways on a jump transition or lip. Not only does it break loose, but when it does, the thing just goes sideways, all at once. That's a bike problem - a guy can't ride very fast if he's scared to open the throttle.
On my 500, it sometimes lights the rear up, but it doesn't just violently go sideways. Why does James' bike do that?
It could simply be tires. Pirellis aren't highly developed SX tires. Remember when Roger D switched the Suzuki team to Dunlops from Michelins? Nothing wrong with Michelins for regular MX, but SX is a different game. You'd think JGR would do the same thing if it was that simple.
In my opinion, JGR hasn't been able to figure out how to make that thing weight-transfer right, or if they have, they can't convince James that their setup will work. So how do you make it transfer weight better? By softer, much more progressive rear suspension - so the bike sits down lower under acceleration, putting more weight on the rear end.
It would also help to take some of the snap out of the engine - but I imagine they'd hate to have to do that when they're already struggling with starts. But a snappy engine isn't the same thing as a powerful engine - a heavier crank would obviously help.
It would really be interesting to know which of those things JGR has tried and James just didn't like they way they felt, or maybe JGR didn't try them because they didn't think they'd work, or maybe they've gotten to a stage of both sides thinking it's all the other guys' fault. I think it's "common knowledge" (whatever that is) that James likes super stiff suspension and super snappy engines, but surely JBone has enough credibility to just say, "Look, the title is gone now. Try it our way for a couple of races and see what happens. How much worse could it be?"
When I watch him ride, it's obvious to me that his bike has a real problem with rear end traction. That's what happens on starts, and that's what happens when he gets into a rhythm or whoop section and the thing suddenly goes sideways on a jump transition or lip. Not only does it break loose, but when it does, the thing just goes sideways, all at once. That's a bike problem - a guy can't ride very fast if he's scared to open the throttle.
On my 500, it sometimes lights the rear up, but it doesn't just violently go sideways. Why does James' bike do that?
It could simply be tires. Pirellis aren't highly developed SX tires. Remember when Roger D switched the Suzuki team to Dunlops from Michelins? Nothing wrong with Michelins for regular MX, but SX is a different game. You'd think JGR would do the same thing if it was that simple.
In my opinion, JGR hasn't been able to figure out how to make that thing weight-transfer right, or if they have, they can't convince James that their setup will work. So how do you make it transfer weight better? By softer, much more progressive rear suspension - so the bike sits down lower under acceleration, putting more weight on the rear end.
It would also help to take some of the snap out of the engine - but I imagine they'd hate to have to do that when they're already struggling with starts. But a snappy engine isn't the same thing as a powerful engine - a heavier crank would obviously help.
It would really be interesting to know which of those things JGR has tried and James just didn't like they way they felt, or maybe JGR didn't try them because they didn't think they'd work, or maybe they've gotten to a stage of both sides thinking it's all the other guys' fault. I think it's "common knowledge" (whatever that is) that James likes super stiff suspension and super snappy engines, but surely JBone has enough credibility to just say, "Look, the title is gone now. Try it our way for a couple of races and see what happens. How much worse could it be?"
Did you see Villo breaking loose coming down the start straight every lap? The track was slick.
The Shop
Slick tracks are a fact of life. JGR and/or Stewart just don't seem to be able to come to a meeting of the minds about how to deal with them.
I think it was just a case of a very slick track, guys were sliding around a lot. And like motosmith said he would not of crashed if he had not gotten hit after he spun.
He takes too many chances/pushes too hard at the wrong times. Obviously he is always lightening fast, but some times it bites him.
The only reason it's not straight up is to make some poster feel better about "his" rider's results...or lack thereof.
Pit Row
"Stewart is an all out kind of guy while Davi is fast but seems to be real conservative".
Here's the thing, James wicked the throttle on a small jump face with the bike leaned a bit from completing a turn and lost traction on a slick spot. We've all done it, all Pros have done it, and it was rider error in our/their own minds every time. This fall was James' rider error. No setup/bike design is ever going to provide never-ending traction in all conditions or prevent falling in all circumstances. James rode Daytona as conditions dictated. He made adjustments in his riding for conditions. He wicked the throttle on that jump face like he was at Red Bud, not a slick Indy track. He didn't adjust his riding for track conditions. If he rode Daytona how he would have ridden a dry Red Bud, he wouldn't have made it very far into that race either. We saw RV go down in his heat as well. That track looked like it was made of ice with dirt sprinkled on top to cover it. By the way, was Indy ever slick like this in the past? I always remembered it having great traction.
I think his best bet would be to not sweat the title, stay racing, concentrate on developing both himself and that bike over time (don't gotta win all the races), maybe develop a little more patience, race outdoors, and shoot for the titles next season. If he could mature a tiny bit when it comes to a willingness to take second or third, I think the guy could dominate.
Hopefully he's not getting concussions...scariest injury I can think of.
Seriously, as long as we're all taking wild guesses and nobody here has any real clue about how his bike is set up... I'm going with too light of a crankshaft! He wants to jump over the first 9 jumps in a rhythm section with a 50' run so the build his motor with mega torque and a super light crank. A 2-stroke type powerband.
When he gets in low traction situations like last night(leaned over on slick dirt) or skimming whoops his motor revs up too fast and his rear wheel breaks loose.
What I don't understand is, how can JGR be so stupid and not listen to all our FREE advice we give out here at Vitalmx Performance???
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