MotoAmerica 2020 silly season.

Kawasaki is pretty strong in the midwest also, it has been for a while.
No graves support out here though.

 

Setting track records on the ZX6 with Dunlops. They have that bike working really well. My rider tested their ZX6 at the last round of AFM and says it’s the best 600 he’s ever ridden.

The idea is very similar to what Kawi does on the Moto side with Team Green. I think it’s working pretty good for both parties right now as there’s a lot more green bikes on the grid with Graves parts on them.

 

That's good to hear. I remember last year the Canadian kid that ran a Graves 600 in MA last year, quit riding it for the last few rounds and jumped back on a Tuned Industries R6 and was instantly more competitive. I remember seeing an interview and he said he was more comfortable on the R6, whatever that means?

 

I talked to him and asked about it. He said he was having a hard time adjusting his riding to the kawi characteristics and kept defaulting to R6 habits since that's what he was do used to. Graves was supporting him but he wasn't riding "for" Graves, IIRC. He just wanted to end the year on a high before going back school full time and his old team let him ride at the end of the year

 

He definitely wasn’t more competitive when he got back on the R6. Results were basically the same.

 

I remember him running up in the top 3-4 on the Yamaha and he probably did that on the Kawi too, so maybe I probably based it on what I heard him saying vs what actually happened. Since you work for Kawasaki I'm sure you have a better grasp on the results than I do.

It's actually awesome that Kawasaki is doing well now, because competition is good. Plus it's nice to see the Kawi evidently works well now on Dunlops, which was an issue at one point. I'm not sure if Dunlop tires characteristics changed enough to fix the handling problem or if Kawasaki changed the bike enough for everything to handle better? I do know that the Kawasaki worked well on Pirelli tires.

 

I’m still not sure why the ZX6 got such a bad reputation. Everyone I’ve personally worked with on that bike has loved it and set personal best achievements on it. It took Graves less than a year to start setting track records on it. All on Dunlop. It’s always been a great race bike, but for some reason it got a bad reputation.

 

I'm working with client that has one now, I love the bike.

 

Yeah, don't know but nearly everyone who hasn't had one will talk about the issues with them. "They only work with Pirelli, don't try and run with 'lops on it." "Suspension, man, takes a NASA scientist, an electrical engineer and the entire Ohlins factory to get it set up" "Great horsepower but you can't get the bike set up to use it."

Yapping with a buddy the other week on what I'd use if I was running a superbike or even a 600 program. "Kawasaki" was my answer.

 

I think that's because very few people wanted to put in the time and effort to figure it all out with the ZX6R when they could just buy an R6 that everyone in the paddock owns and can provide setup tips for.

 

Remember, the R6 had an issue getting the rear to hook up a few years ago. Once they got it all to work together it was the bike to have.

 

Fixing the chatter wasn't in the suspenion......

 

And leaving us hanging??

I was a slow Pirelli guy so I never had issues when I was on my Kaw. That and having Farrell local ish to help set it up made it pretty easy.

 

C'mon man, don't leave us hanging......you are killing me!!! What does the rider need to do to fix it, add more front air pressure?

 

Not for me to say. There was some front end tweaking which helped, but the real development was in the motor.

 

Okay, I thought maybe it was rider error and I was curious what that error was and how we could fix it? Tyler did get to ride an older ZX6 back in 2012, but it was a previous gen bike that Elena used to race, what ever year she raced? It was just a track day out at AAA speedway and Tyler was helping out a trackday school with some coaching and riding and Ty was on Dunlops. Another rider came up and said he couldn't believe what he was seeing as the front end was chattering pretty good and claimed he could see at least an inch of daylight? I asked Tyler about it and he laughed and said, "it was rattling the fillings in my teeth". I asked if he wanted to try and change things and he said, "it is just a coaching/helping day and it doesn't really matter how fast I go, I just need to be able to go fast enough to help the riders".

Your tweaking comment reminds me of what I heard about a very competent AMA Honda crew chief. Evidently on one of the older models, from the 90's/early 00's, I heard they would run/push it hard into a wall to change the steering angle? I don't remember where I heard it, but I've heard it more than once. I believe it was during the Miquel Duhamel decades.....

 

My understanding is that Valentine Debis and Andrew Lee both broke lap records at (way under) Thunderhill. Supersport Spec Graves Kawasaki ZX6R.
Debis with a high 1:47 and Lee with a 1:48 flat. I was watching that weekend. The rumor at the track was that Lee was riding Ortt’s bike or at least the same spec.
CRAZY FAST!!
Debis won the FP race.

 

Yeah, Andrew was riding the bike Ortt raced. He said it was the best 600 he’d ever ridden and was about 2 seconds faster than he’d ever went in his R6 there.

 

Holy Wow! That's a dream set up for just about everyone I'll ever know. The knot in the pit of my stomach is either envy, or the hospital food I had last night at the VA

 

NGK coming on board to Sponsor;

https://motoamerica.com/2020/02/ngk-to-spark-motoamerica-in-2020-as-sponsorship-partner/