First, these guys are idiots. However, this brings up an interesting side question. The presenters bring up a scenario along the following lines. Say at one point what if Deegan had just said no you cant take the bike, disqualify us who cares about your championship, and if they got taken to court a judge have thrown it out because it's not law. I feel like this has to be in a contract that every rider/team signs and agrees to to participate in the series and any Judge would realize that as a contract and it being mutually agreed to by all parties that the claiming would be enforceable. Is it a signed thing?
I would expect signing up for a claim-able class is considered implied compliance with the claim rules. Otherwise the sanctioning body is opening up the hassle where every competitor in a class is going to have to sign off on every individual part of the rules for that class.
The PulpMX host is pushing an agenda pretty hard. "The dealer said Yamaha never contacted him so I'm not saying the kid is lying but". Sure thing - because if the dealer is capable of lying once, they can lie again, and Yamaha surely can call him and say "You better say we never spoke". And the host saying things like "well he's just 17 and there are a lot of hazy facts" - in my experience teenagers are much less capable of telling a lie and then sticking with it in a calm consistent manner with any type of pressure. At the end of the day a Right/Wrong check sheet is pretty clear: Kids claims bike legally = Right Yamaha questions kid = Wrong Degan questions kid = Wrong MXSports question kid = Wrong Yamaha offers kid a couple engines = Wrong (don't sell me on the that's my job in amateur racing to put out fires.. if that was the case the kid would have had the support prior to claiming the Star bike. It was a bribe dude)
This would be a great PR opportunity for some other manufacturers/vendors to step in and sponsor this kid.
Gas-Gas could use some positive PR/visibility. And Big Orange Daddy could probably spare a few bucks to help them out. I don't see Honda being that switched on I expect Kawasaki is busy. Suzuki, not a current powerhouse, but could use the boost.
IDK, perhaps a smaller business. I'd guess most major players don't want to be any where near a toxic situation even if its the right thing to do. End up with some guilty by association. Its a very small industry.
It’s clear by listening to multiple peoples interviews where their motives are. It’s about $ and not burning bridges and yes that’s obvious. The kids engine builder comes off as kind of a flake and could see how he sure didn’t help the situation as his “I have your back” could easily have been perceived the way it was. That guys social media would blow up if he had that bike on his dyno. The kids would as well with him riding that bike. There was some serious potential of monetary gain claiming that bike but rather ironic that a lot of the gain would come from a kid who’s family makes huge money off social media. They should have just offered the kid something he couldn’t turn down and been done with it. Instead it’s all blown up and out in public. I doubt the kid walked away empty handed and if he did then he f&ck Ed up. Once you open the rabbit hole you might as well go down it because he’s now “that guy” wether he has the bike or not.
No, they should have honored the claim and most of the fore mentioned bullshit would not have occured. Honor the claim per the rules. Everything else is the flake bullshit part.
Agreed, who really cares if your engine gets out. There is nothing In that engine that another manufacturer hasn’t already built/tried. The ECU is where most of the secrets probably are anyways and from what I understand they don’t believe anyone could get into it. The really sad thing about all of this is they clearly had a high spec engine in the bike. They also only brought that spec with them because once the claim was dropped they pulled the engine and went and borrowed one from Evan Ferry so that Deegan could ride schoolboy 2 the next day….shock and surprise he sets his fastest lap of the weekend on Ferry’s engine. He obviously didn’t need the high spec engine to start with and star looks like a bunch of fools showing up with nothing but those engines.
There has never been a bike claimed before. You don't think there is a tacit agreement between manufacturers? I'd be surprised if any of them stuck their neck out to support this kid. They don't want their cheater bikes claimed next year.
At this point enough palms probably got greased where they will just come up with their own version of reality and push that narrative. As mentioned, some of these media companies have bills to pay and sponsors to please.
Take that ECU and make a Youtube video claiming the security is so good no one can crack it. You'll have a cracked ECU in a week. Mention it can be used to mine crypto currency and it won't take a week.
I used to watch videos on the Deegan's YouTube channel weekly. Used to. I think the kid handled himself very well but I wouldn't have left there without that bike. The fact that Deegan has threatened, online, to claim other kids bikes just adds to the Deegan bullshit responses.
Dude, people confess under pressure to murders they did not commit. I think it would be pretty easy to scare a 17-year-old without adult supervision or legal representation to drop his claim before he has time to really think about it.
I thought in one of the interviews it was mentioned that a bike had been claimed before but it was a while ago. And maybe not a bike related to a factory. And I suspect there probably is a tacit agreement; it certainly wouldn't look good for one factory to claim another factory's bike. I'm not saying they need to give the kid a factory bike (and then worry about it getting claimed) but providing stock bikes or parts. I agree that a manufacturer sponsoring the kid is highly unlikely but it seems plausible for a large dealership or industry vendor to do so and I think it would be positive PR for them.