2024 Supercross Thread

I think that would be awesome. But I'm pretty sure he said on the Bubba podcast a few months back that going solo was his last option?

 

I'll have to watch that one. We shall see...

 

The rest of us are ready to see him ride a Kawi in 2 weeks, lol.

 

Thsts awesome. I think you are right though, he looks really good on that bike. Supposedly they had 2 bikes with different set-ups, ready for him. Every picture/vid that ive seen was him NOT using the BFRC shock. So im assuming he doesnt like that set-up.

If he does go that route, the rumor is he would technically do his own thing with bikes built and supported by Pro Circuit. Pingree still thinks its a very real possibility, so we will see.

 

Mitch has 2 bikes built for him that he bought, but Fly/WPS is really pushing to get him on PRH or HEP, as they already sponsor those teams. If I had money to put on it, it would be one of those teams and I would think PRH would have the most budget for him. Suzuki doesn’t have the money for sure.

 

I know of the yellow YZ250 from RedBull Straight Rhythm. What's the other bike Mitch built for him?

 

That's what I thought too but Michael Lindsay said that HEP / Suzuki has a salary/bonus package in place for him.

 

Two Kawi that Kenny bought himself.

 

The bonus would come from an insurance policy.

 

Partially yes but multiple sources have confirmed that money-wise the HEP deal is the best of his options. So I was just pointing out since your initial post made it seem like the Honda deal involved the best financial situation, while Suzuki was financially bad.

 

Ok, I was mainly talking about Suzuki as a company not being in a place to pay riders. They left MotoGP and are crushing the bikes so they don’t have to claim them on taxes. To save money ‍♂️. Suzuki even broke their contract with Dorna to quit racing. Kenny makes some crazy choices but he would be nuts to sign with an OEM like him that. And I’m a Suzuki fanboy.

 

I'm not sure I would either, so I get where you are coming from. The Moto GP situation is very concerning for the direction of the brand. But somehow that HEP team lands some good outside sponsors and is pretty well-run. And that is exactly how they are able to pay Kenny a salary and bonuses. Plus they even were able to move sponsors around to put their main 450 guys with Twisted Tea as the main graphic logo. And now they have expanded to 250 and will use the Progressive logo. So the plan is to use the Progressive logo for KR also, so it doesn't conflict with RedBull. So I give them credit. They actually are stepping up this year, whether they land KR or not. If Suzuki bails, they will get another OEM to back them (it almost happened this offseason actually.) Plus they have a WSX effort. So it doesn't sound like a bad deal, overall. And like I mentioned, the bike to me is able to win but I still think it's slightly behind as a whole. I would have to assume that is the main factor.

 

Just a couple of old pictures I took of Dungy at Elsinore I thought your would enjoy. Since you guy's are discussing Suzuki's I threw in a picture of Jimmy Albertson on his Suzuki from 2012.

 

Just throwing this out there. I don't know what Kenny's relationship with Mike Genova is but, Roczen to Motoconcepts?

 

I feel like if he were to stay on Honda it would be with Fire Power. They have a pretty solid team from top to bottom over there, and Kenny is already a competitor and winner on their setup. Just my thought tho... Which isn't much cause the guy is on a new bike every other day at this point haha.

 

It definitely would make more sense, but now that Deno signed with them it would probably not happen. It's fun to speculate though.

 

Sounds like the KR Suzuki thing is very likely, at this point. Pretty wild series of events lol.

 

So I just wanted to sort of say that I was somewhat wrong about something on the RMZ. Since the rumor of KR to Suzuki is becoming a bit stronger, I was sort of searching around at some of the stories about what Twisted Development does to the HEP bikes. And it seems that once they are built up, he is able to get the bike to rev much more freely and feel much more modern. I personally did not think that was possible, because to me the stock bike feels tractor-ish, every one that I have ridden. But I think a combo of what they do with the head, the ecu and even the transmission, they seem to get that more modern feeling out of it. So I didn't think they could but I found that I was wrong. So I just wanted to mention that lol.

 

All good man, I still think highly of all your input! Keefer tested one of the Twisted 450s earlier this year and had a lot of good to say about it. That was kinda the premise my earlier comments were based on, but Keefer review is always taken with a grain of salt. Side note - he and Matthes just did a good review of the '23 Yz450f on the pulp podcast this week. Makes me want one reeeaaal bad!

https://youtu.be/SkTS70dOUoo

 

I came across that Keefer test as I was searching. Good stuff. That one really put a lot into perspective for me. Because I have owned a few RMZs in the past and have ridden some others. And I just didn't think they would be able to get that free-rev type of feeling out of them. But I guess Twisted Development does know how to work magic. And I also in my research saw that JGR got those motors to run that way too, when they had the Suzuki team. So that is good. I do still think there are some other things about the RMZ that are negatives (that I mentioned earlier.) But even so, I think KR can do just fine on it. And like I said, I have been hearing the last couple days that it is very possible that he does sign for that team.

The new YZF sounds good. I like everything that they changed aside from maybe chasing the Honda-ish cornering. Part of why I like Yamaha now is the very stable predictable chassis. They have tremendous balance and I love that. So I was never one to call for anything more, but I know some people love that. I could do without it but I'm sure it's still a nice bike. I listened to the SWAP moto roundtable. Check that out on youtube if you are bored. They seemed to like the bike but said it is a bit twitchy and hard to set-up and that's exactly what comes with the chase for razor-sharp cornering. So there is some give and take there.