Stewart + 2011 = Crashfest

I agree with some of the above statements......... First, being a fast rider has nothing to do with knowing how your bike works or what to do to make it go better. I'm amazed at how many "fast" guys that I come across that are afraid to turn their clickers on suspension for fear of making it worse and just ride it because that's what the suspension guy said to set it at. Stewart may not be the best at bike set up or relaying what he's feeling and what he wants it to do differently to his team and it shows with some weird swaps and such out of his bike on the track.

Second, I think any "factory" level bike like Stewart's can be made to feel like anything they want it to feel like if the rider can relay that info to the team. They use offset bearing races to change the geometry of the frame without changing the frame, triple clamp offsets, shortened / lenthened subframes, wheel clamp placement, etc to make the bike feel differently. If Stewart wanted a YZ to "feel" like a KX, his team could certainly mimic the geometry and dimensions of his old KX's if they wanted to. Make it turn easier, make it more stable, make it whatever with the use of components available to them....... so while it "IS" the bike, it probably could be made different with rider input saying I want more of this and less of that.

I remember being at Loretta Lynn's in a quagmire when Jeff Emig was there on break from the AMA National series and the annoucer asking him....... "Jeff, what do you do to your bike for these muddy conditions to make it easier to ride when it's muddy like this?" And astonishingly Jeff answered completely honestly and said "I really don't know what to do to the bike to make it better in the mud. I only know how to put gas in it, and take out the air filter when it's dirty and that's about it. I just ride it and let my mechanic take care of all of that stuff." Jeff was in the battle for the 250 MX Title that year and had no idea anything about bike set up....... just get on it and ride fast!
 
Pit you agreed with what I said.....it is NOT the bike, but the rider on the bike that cant get it set up. While I am not a Suzuki fan (because I think stock they are not that great in quality), I think their factory bikes are some of the nicest on the track. At that level, they are yellow, blue, red, green and orange (oh yeah, Blue and yellow for Rocket too). They are not even close to stock, and as Rocket pointed out, they can make it feel like a KX if Bubba says I like the way my KX handled.

This is not the first year for the new design Yamaha, and now this year he is having issues. I personally think his issues are "Bubba" issues and head issues. He is more about "playing" and "partying" this year and not focused on racing. The TV show, the toys, the "I am Bubba" attitude......do not help him on the race track. He did not race much last year with the lay off, and it has caught up to him. While he is extremely fast still, the lack of focus has taken a bit of an edge off of Bubba. Places where he would save it before, he does not save it....I think other riders are in his head now. He knows that some others have stepped up their game recently, and when he gets out front he is worried about the challenges behind him, so he basically rides a bit over the edge and makes mistakes.

Bottom line....Go ask Hannah what he thinks is wrong with Bubba......I would love to hear his response. I am guessing he would be telling him to concentrate on racing, and not buying another car, house or boat, or playing policeman.......go train, get the bike set up correct, and race.....that is not what is at the top of Bubbas priorities these days.

When "THE GOAT" was racing.....what made him the greatest ever ....... he was focused on racing and NOTHING else.
 
ohh poor james. who knows what the deal is? we all know, its either james is on the ground, or hes first to reach the checkers, its going to be one or the other. maybe set up or the new ride has something to do with it and maybe not? but it does seem to me a lot of the mistakes as careless as they look, seem to sneak up n bite him. for example i dont know how many times he has lost that front end just rolling through corners, and on top of that just stupid mistakes. i dont know what the deal is but he better get his **** straight, he more than anyone knows no matter how fast you are, the consistent prevails. I just hope he can stay healthy and get his head on straight for outdoors.
 
So, uhhhh, looks like another night of "buck fever" for Bubba?

THIS year he's having issues? What did he race in 2010 -- 3 races and done for the season?

I read something interesting regarding bike setup -- when Stewart was at Kaw Tim Ferry was there doing bike testing. When he first went to Yamaha he basically took over Reed's bike.....now on the all new Yamaha who is doing testing that Stewart can gleen off of? Remember when Stewart showed up to race a National last year, what happened? His bike setup was such a mess he couldn't even ride the second moto.

It is so clear to me the bike setup is hosed for him and he doesn't know where to go with it. I don't see anyway anyone can possibly say it's not. Just look at the progression Reed made early in the season while working on setup.
 
I'd really like to see a stock class in addition to the lites and 450s and see how they compare, but hey JMO


I have been screaming this for years!!!
I wish there was a "PURE" stock, OFF the Shelf, NO mods (EXCEPT SPRING RATE and OIL HEIGHT) class!!! BOTH in BIG BIKES and LIGHTS, and a TWO STROKE STOCK class (same rules) as well.
WE can always dream!
 
Sorry to stray off topic I just think Stewart is too fast for his own good. Its a double edged sword. That witch has driven him to win in the past and ride as fast as he does, has also driven him to push the limits. All these guys in this sport who are driven to win have to push the envelope. With such fierce competition, riding within the confines of safety most of the time will not produce the desired results, for you, or your team. As far as bike setup, rider error track conditions, bad luck? All speculation, but they better figure something out. James can't have many more good wrecks left in him, and I'm sure the other track casualties are starting to loose patience.
 
Well, Stewart showed his skills in Vegas, wreck in the whoops and take out domeone else. K-Dub seemed exceptionally pissed
 
Well, Stewart showed his skills in Vegas, wreck in the whoops and take out domeone else. K-Dub seemed exceptionally pissed
altho that sucks for kdub, its racing. its not like stewart pulled a hansen and took someones wheel out on purpose.

as for some of the above statements, ive heard many times that stewart is not a good bike tester and doesnt know much about them. as team owner, id ditch the yamaha and get a honda. MC has that bike figured out.
 
You guys crack me up, it isnt the yamaha. He can switch to honda, kawi or the suzuki but if he cant get the bike set up correctly then it isnt going to help. Like Pit said it is the bike set up, and like Robin said they can set the bike up ANY way that JS7 wants. But if he cant tell them what it is doing wrong for him it will never happen. Maybe the team needs to hire someone that can translate for JS7 to the bike engineers.
 
If Bubba is that bad at setting up a bike.........Why would Yamaha not have someone like Dubach in there setting his bike up for him? No one probably knows all Yamahas more than the Dr himself, and is a awesome bike tester. I dont buy it as bike set up....that much involved, they just add someone onto the payroll to get his bike set up for him.
 
You guys crack me up, it isnt the yamaha. He can switch to honda, kawi or the suzuki but if he cant get the bike set up correctly then it isnt going to help. Like Pit said it is the bike set up, and like Robin said they can set the bike up ANY way that JS7 wants. But if he cant tell them what it is doing wrong for him it will never happen. Maybe the team needs to hire someone that can translate for JS7 to the bike engineers.
thats what im saying. if he switched, he would have someone like mcgrath that does hondas testing to help setup the bike.
 
Well, for one thing, Stewart doesn't ride for Yamaha. He owns the team and it's the San Manuel team or whatever it's called. I think it would be up to Stewart or whoever is running his team to be adding personnel for testing and bike setup. Not Team Yamaha. For as much of an Internet Idiot Larry Brooks is, the team seems to have gone downhill since his departure.

I just hope he doesn't race the Nationals, I'd prefer to see good racing without other riders getting injured because of him.
 
ya got a point there pit, things have just gone downhill. I guess we will never know the truth, for all we know it could just be terrible luck, or maybe it is whats going on behind the scenes. when will we know if the san manuel team will be running the nats?

wouldnt it be great to see him show up on a kaw :)
 
from JS7 twitter...
For anybody that thinks me a KDub had heated words after the race, please stop dreaming. We are good friends and we've talk since then and..We didn't say one word abt what happen on Sat night. If you actually knew anything about racing you would know that stuff happens. Simple
 
from JS7 twitter...
For anybody that thinks me a KDub had heated words after the race, please stop dreaming. We are good friends and we've talk since then and..We didn't say one word abt what happen on Sat night. If you actually knew anything about racing you would know that stuff happens. Simple

HA! Ya that stuff does happen....but the fact that you cant keep up on two wheels and have FU**ED Up others peoples points and money on the line is Bull****! Learn how to ride in comfort zone....I personally could care less if Stewart wrecks his brains out every race and goes out injured etc....just dont put other riders in ur line of fire all the time...
 
All the satellite teams get factory stuff from Yamaha since they have no factory team....so yes Yamaha has an interest in what is happening there. Larry Brooks was a good tester too. Perhaps he was setting the bikes up.
 
HA! Ya that stuff does happen....but the fact that you cant keep up on two wheels and have FU**ED Up others peoples points and money on the line is Bull****! Learn how to ride in comfort zone....I personally could care less if Stewart wrecks his brains out every race and goes out injured etc....just dont put other riders in ur line of fire all the time...
while sometimes thats the case, example, when he rear ended reed. but vegas was a stuff happens kind of thing. people crash all the time and have riders run their bikes over. bad luck for windham on the timing. the people that are blaming stewart for taking out windham need to open their eyes. if that was lets say dungey that crashed, and then stewart did what windham did, everyone would say "stewart is a dumbass, he should have known better"
 
while sometimes thats the case, example, when he rear ended reed. but vegas was a stuff happens kind of thing. people crash all the time and have riders run their bikes over. bad luck for windham on the timing. the people that are blaming stewart for taking out windham need to open their eyes. if that was lets say dungey that crashed, and then stewart did what windham did, everyone would say "stewart is a dumbass, he should have known better"

I never said he intentionaly took Windham or Reed out....his inability to ride within his skill level, instead of riding over his head, is whats taking him out of the points, and dragging others down too... It is Stewarts fault.... and you should open your eyes to the fact that if dungey ate **** and Stewart had to run over Dungeys bike and didnt make it, no one would call either of em a dumbass.. Because Dungeys pretty consistent, at least at staying on two wheels, and Stewart would have had no where to go that quick and naturally would have ate it too.... :)
 
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