rubber pants
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posted October 07, 2003 09:01 AM
Kawasaki Moto GP Efforts!??!
What's everyones thoughts on this Moto GP season with the Fucks Kawasaki Team?
Seems there's a lull in the action on this board so I thought this might be a little more interesting. My thoughts are .......they need WAY more power and need to do more research on what they are doing handling wise and those tires, what are they shit?. I don't know evrything but I've never gone wrong with GOBS of power to start. They seem to have speeds alot less than most machines there which to me is a HP problem. Is the team "Worthy"? I really am disapointed with this team. I just can't believe it is that difficult with the resorses they have and the history of Kawasaki in the past in racing!?!??!
I wonder whats is store for 04?
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extremelean
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posted October 07, 2003 11:22 AM
Has WAY more power than the chasis or rider can handle.....power is not an issue......Its all in the chasis.
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jonwright
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posted October 07, 2003 11:28 AM
Thumbed through an interview with McCoy in Racer X.
He said he problems running into turns (had to brake earlier). Then had problems exiting turns. Plus (if I remember correctly) he said the chassis doesn't hold a line too well.
Seems until he has to brake, enter a turn, hold a line, then exit a turn he's okay.
Ouch.
'course, it would be interesting to see what the engineers had to say about HIM.
But he did comment that he's modifying his style to keep from sliding all over the place.
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k bryant
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posted October 07, 2003 04:18 PM
They need Eric Bostrom.
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wannabe
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posted October 07, 2003 04:26 PM
 Edited By: wannabe on 7 Oct 2003 17:31
McCoy is a damn good rider. Do you think that his riding style just plain doesn't match up with the bike? Can EB really do better on the same bike? Or, does the bike really suck?
I'm still a relatively knew Kawasaki guy, so please correct me if I'm wrong. My undserstanding is that Kawasaki has never done well in Moto GP. It is just not their strength to make a complete one off bike that will compete with everyone else's one off bikes. Kawasaki's strength is in the production classes because Kawasaki seems to be really good at making bikes that are easily to upgrade.
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auszx12r
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posted October 07, 2003 05:19 PM
I heard on the last GP that Mccoy is shopping around for a new ride next season, and kawasaki have dumped dunlop and is now going to use bridgestone next season.
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k bryant
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posted October 07, 2003 06:17 PM
GMc is an awesome rider. But at this point in time, he reminds me a little of Randy Mamola when Randy was more interested in doing lurid (and totally cool) smoking backed-in/backed-out corners on the Cagiva with Pirellis. He's a little older, been hurt a little more, and seems to be occupied on another ride. His style has always been about backing it in. It just appears to me that the Kaw needs a different style of rider. Obviously the bike is an excellent base. Kaw has way to much history in Racing to make a pile.
From my observations at the track, Eric reminds me of Doug Chandler, smooth and focused on forward movement, not getting completely sideways. Plus Eric is motivated to get to, and stay, at the Moto GP level. And he's Kaw loyal. Look what he's done in Superbike with a bike that's older than anything in the paddock. The guy is money!
That's to take absolutely nothing from GMc. Just a fresh look from a young talented extremely motivated EBoz would be interesting to see. JMO
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EastBayDave
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posted October 08, 2003 05:11 AM
jeeze how fast everyone forgets about the FIM World Championships of Toni Mang, Kork Ballington, etc. ...
They've been there before; if I had to guess I'd just say this is a "development season" for Big K, with a plan to bring Eric aboard when the bike is ready to win. As we all can see, it's not there yet...
I keep wondering if there's a plan to run Eric on the ZX10R in WSB for a season, then switch him to MotoGP a year or two later?
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jonwright
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posted October 09, 2003 04:43 PM
They'd be crazy to not run Eboz on the 10R. By reading between the lines he stayed on with Kawi thinking he'd get it.
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necro
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posted October 10, 2003 11:32 AM
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WARBIRD
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posted October 10, 2003 06:36 PM
Edited By: WARBIRD on 10 Oct 2003 19:37
I have the 2004 ZX-10R Technical Summary that they gave the dealers in Las Vagas at the show sitting in front of me as well as the 10R brochure. ( They gave the dealers only one brochure........my dealer was nice enough to let me bring it home.)
This is a quote from that Technical Summary.
Kawasaki storms into the 1000cc Supersports segment with the all-new ZX-10R. Designed to be the lightest and most powerful 1000cc Supersports machine, its only purpose is to deliver the highest performance in its class. Destined for the racetrack in 2004 as the base for Kawasaki Road Racing assault on the AMA Superbike Championship with Eric Bostrom at the controls, the ZX-10R will take its place as the flagship to carry the Kawasaki performance heritage into the future.
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k bryant
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posted October 10, 2003 08:20 PM
I got the same stuff (as a supplier to KMC P&A). Unfortunetly it's a little premature with Eric not committed yet, as is anyone else for that matter. Hopefully the AMA will be able to compromise with everyone and stop the bullshit. Everyone is on hold from the OEM's to the sponsers waiting on the AMA; as usual....
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WARBIRD
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posted October 10, 2003 08:33 PM
Sounded pretty sure of themselves................I hope it pans out..............
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necro
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posted October 10, 2003 08:44 PM
K bryant, what do supply KMC?
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EastBayDave
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posted October 11, 2003 05:19 AM
quote:
Hopefully the AMA will be able to compromise with everyone and stop the bullshit. Everyone is on hold from the OEM's to the sponsers waiting on the AMA; as usual....
Someday, sometime, someone will boot Hollingsworth out of office; only then will things @ the AMA improve. Until that time, I want nothing to do w/AMA racing...
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02' ZRX1200
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necro
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posted October 11, 2003 11:31 AM
Me too. The AMA doesn't care about the racers.
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k bryant
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posted October 11, 2003 01:49 PM
Necro - I can't tell you exactly, or I'd have to kill myself (not ready to do that just yet...). But it's a lot of items all across the board for Cruiser, Sportbike & Offroad. Same for Suzuki.
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Hells Dark Lord
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posted October 11, 2003 05:59 PM
well tell us and I will kill you, that way you dont have to do it yourself....afterall what are friends for.....
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rubber pants
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posted October 11, 2003 07:22 PM
Come on tell us!! We know where you live!!!!
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zeta xray
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posted October 11, 2003 07:51 PM
I don't know where the problem is with the Kawasaki MotoGP team. I know in car racing, there are drivers that can sort a chassis out and make it go fast, and there are drivers who can fly if the chassis is already pretty well sorted out for them. Garry McCoy and Andrew Pitt may be fantastic riders but can they sort out a new undeveloped bike? Can they properly diagnose a problem and then communicate what is wrong to an engineer that doesn't really speak their language fluently. I don't know. I think Rossi can develop a new motorcycle. Maybe Colin Edwards. Although it is not ready to win, the Aprilia was much better with a couple of months of input from Edwards, than it was after a whole year of racing. And, it looks like the Duc riders must be doing something right. It takes a whole lot of elements to work together perfectly to run up front. If one piece of the puzzle is out of place, you will need binoculars to find the leaders.
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k bryant
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posted October 11, 2003 08:11 PM
No, I won't tell. Because some of us are getting our 10's before others. And I don't want to risk that. It's worth the death threats....
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Y2KZX12R
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posted October 12, 2003 04:49 AM
Remember, Kawi is taking a different approach than some of the other teams. They chose to put the new GP engine in a mule frame to complete the engine development. They never planed to "compete" with that bike. Yea they entered a few races with it, but I believe it was for data aquisition to further develop the new frame in the realworld to backup the computer generated, yet produced frame.
Then the new frame came out and the proccess of tweaking the combo started.
I believe this is where Honda was at the start of the first season. Either honda keeps several designs in development at all times or they had a heads up on the anouncement of the new class. I doubt the latter.
I saw a photo of a Honda frame in development over a year ago and it had small (10mm or so) holes drilled into the frame all over in wierd places. Several of the places had (plugs) in the holes and these plugs had 3 wires coming out of each. It seems they were using these pressure transducers to monitor and measure directional flex. Then I saw the date that the picture was taken, 1999. The frame had nothing to do with any production bike and it didnt look like the gp machine. So it might have been an early scraped design or some kind of test mule. ?? The picture came from an engineering magazene and was actually an add for "solid transducers" for the stamping industry. Now, I know honda has deep pockets but I'm wondering how many simultanious development projects they can support with just the motorcycle division? Its becoming more apparent that they seem to be like IBM and have a closet full of tricks and toys that they carefully decide IF and when to develop them for production on race bikes or street bikes. And they most certainally share technologies and data with other divisions within honda. This is a huge advantage and is most likely the reason the honda GP bike was/is so far ahead of everyone else in development at the start of GP-1.
So it appears Kawi has the "final" frame and engine at the track now. So that leaves the engine and chassis management system. I believe this is where all the marbles are now. It seems most teams are using the onboard computer to do more than just squirt fuel these days. Honda is reported to be using a traction control system with realtime suspension control and electronic frame flex control as well as the usual engine
management systems. This explains the need for 32 bit high speed proccessors.
I'd go out on a limb and say that once Kawi has the electronics sorted out they will be right there with honda.
This could be Erics winter job. ???
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k bryant
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posted October 12, 2003 08:46 AM
That's an awful thin limb your out on.....
I'm a huge Kawasaki fan, but they first have to be consistently competitive with Proton, Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati, before they could come close to Honda. Then they'll need the riders. I think Eric is capable. But man they have their work cut-out for them and realistically, I just don't see it happening. But let's keep our fingers crossed!
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Hells Dark Lord
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posted October 12, 2003 10:24 AM
tyoo bad that kawi couldnt land Sir Rossi for their rides....I think he would have the talent and knowledge to sort the bike out, and then make it win, but its not going to happen overnight
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When in doubt, lean farther and go faster....
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