Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Ment wrote:Its hard to say, tyres are definatley a big factor but maybe its the riders?

We know the bike isnt too far down on top speed, just look at the qualifing times.

Watching China, Nakkers looked like he just never got into a rhythm. arkward lines etc, he had a few good laps in the middle, mainly when rossi got past him, seem to wake him up a bit, but then he faded again.

Look at what OJ did last year in china, i think this proves what a rider with a real hunger can do.
Casey and pedrosa are hungry for it, but are nakkers or randy?

OJ's effort was in the wet, and Randy's qualifiying times were also done in the wet, .... maybe we need to employ a couple of Shamans to do a rain dance before every meeting...

Well unfortunately Randy has had a few too many "orfs" & an injury to push "nakkers' into really having a go.

I think the bike only lacks slow corner exit speed, When Nakkers got a good exit onto the China (longest) straight no one was filling his mirrors into the hairpin.

I think Nakkers needs to realise that the bike can get results if he puts his elbows out & fights for each position instead of letting them slide past him at will.

Randy will take a season to get used to the bike, took Melandri/Elias etc 2 years to podium. The boy has "Ticker" & will pay dividends if he stays healthy.

Of course a sh!tload more money, JB &/or Valle wouldn't hurt our efforts.

Still think we can Crack a win in the wet this year..

they need JB.
he's a dead set legend.

i reckon he might be the guy that could get changes made.
on the other hand, maybe not.

Ok
Bringing this up again
The Kwaka was fantastically fast,Great Poll position.
So what happen in the race.
I thinks its Naka's
So if you were able to be team manager and said I want ------?to ride the Kwaka,who would like to see ride the green mean machine?

Pabs wrote:So if you were able to be team manager and said I want ------?to ride the Kwaka,who would like to see ride the green mean machine?

Marco Melandri...

Ant West - for gods sake, give him a factory/semi-factory ride someone!!! and not a KTM deathtrap!


i also think that kawasaki should follow the ducati route and sell the prev years bikes, and have that extra team on the grid to help R&D.

Get casey and millandri

let's all be honest here.
if you could have anyone, u'd have Rossi. There's none better. and that way JB would come with him. double bonus!

short of that, i'd take nicky hayden.

or biagi

Just remember that the big K have just come back to MotoGP after a 20 year break.... its gonna take them some time to get up to speed....

A bit of patience and continued development will get them closer... That will attract better budgets and better riders..... and then WHAMMO!

Kawasaki may not have been in moto gp for 20 years but that was 2 stroke days.. Everyone started from scratch when the motoGP 1000s started up....
Ducati caught on pretty quick and have come to terms with different tyres. There on Bridgestones too and look how well they did on Sunday....
So what excuse will they have next year when the capacity changes to 800cc and everyone starts from scratch again..
There chassis is fines its there engine they complain about..??

That aside, I still go back to my first statement, the bike can't be that bad as it can lap as quick as the rest of them in qualifying, it or the rider just can't race..???

Image the place if we did win a race oneday, I think I'd go all gooey!!!!

Are tis nice to dream!!!

MadKaw wrote:Kawasaki may not have been in moto gp for 20 years but that was 2 stroke days.. Everyone started from scratch when the motoGP 1000s started up....

Yah, but a purpose-designed, handbuilt racebike is a purpose-designed, handbuilt racebike. The R&D which builds a MotoGP bike is quite different to R&D which builds regular sportsbikes.

The ZX-RR was built by a team of probably 40-60 engineers. It didn't handle until they went to Eskil Suter and asked him for advice, and it didn't start getting consistent top 10's until they poached a guy who'd been working on Yamaha's GP effort for years.

If the input of lone individuals can really have that sort of effect, then the rest of the effort must really be lagging.

Ducati caught on pretty quick and have come to terms with different tyres. There on Bridgestones too and look how well they did on Sunday....

What Ducati seem to have really shown is how well you can do in top-flight racing if you're prepared to send the company broke in support of the racing program.

It seems that Kawasaki are still going the other way...

hoffy wrote:Image the place if we did win a race oneday, I think I'd go all gooey!!!!

Are tis nice to dream!!!

I would pay a dollar to see that...

My spin on it... Nakkers is riding his knackers off.... the bike finished 19 seconds off the pace... less than a second a lap so you really know that he is bloody consistent but can't get the power to the ground. Looking at the top speeds... they are down 5 - 6 kmh at the top end... so that is also an indication that he is riding it to the best of his ability. He has podium finishes in both classes so we know that the ninja-boy can ride..


Its probably just money and R&D expertise that is holding hte big K back.

buy Rossi!
the bike is a dog, with fleas. Shinya needs to grow a set. It is early days for Randy. I have no time for Harald Ekl he treated Kwaka's last road race world champion (Andrew Pitt) very poorly.
Kawasaki should use the rest of this year as a development for the 800cc and saving to buy Vale for 2008!

MadKaw wrote:Kawasaki may not have been in moto gp for 20 years but that was 2 stroke days.. Everyone started from scratch when the motoGP 1000s started up....

I agree with that sure..... but there is more than just the bike.... It takes time to assemble a team of engineers suitable to a job like this, you cant just pick the guys who design your normal bikes (or at least not all of them would be suitable)... If you are lucky you will have a teamleader who has done this kind of work before that can lead the team well.... Also dropping people into an environment like this and expecting them to communicate correctly sothat they are working together would be quite hard...

Not to mention the power struggles that go on in any large corporate environment....

Basically, Im just saying that it takes time for a team like this to get into 6th gear....

Some of the other teams had an advantage since they already had their R&D and trackside teams set up and ready to go.... Ducati utilised their WSBK experience, which is vast...

Kawasaki simply did not have the experience or staff to get off the starting blocks as quickly....

Thats just what I understand from what I have heard and read ... a bit of reading between the lines probably went on aswel....