The great outdoor games on ESPN just had the 1st ATV MX heat on "Kawasaki Trail" and Kawasaki is the main sponsor. Yet, the racers are all on Yam's, Hon's and Suz's. What's with the guys in green? How can they care so much about MX and SX for bikes but do JACK for ATV MX. What's up with them?? As a proud Tecate 4 owner, I've been so disgusted with Kawi's yawning indifference to ATV racing. Even Yokely in GNCC is now on a Zook 'cuz Team Green in nonexistent in ATV competition. His 2 stroke Kawi fourwheeler he was racing with a few years back was awesome.

I hope the rumors are true and Kawi gets a top notch 450 on the track next year. Hell, I'd buy one.

 

I was thinking the same thing. This sucks!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

Wait until the teracross all it is is kawies prairies and brutes with one or two king quads. But i agree bad move on kawasaki would be awesome if they debuted a 450 quad in the race.

 

you know, the least they could do is build a custom quad that not's in production for one marquee rider to race and help develop with feedback. That guy Byrd, who won one of tjhe heats fri. night, has no factory ride. He the ONLY one. He races his own Honda. What the hell could be so hard in getting a laeger chassis and starting to put together a prototype with a make-shift kx450f motor with Byrd racing it for Kawasaki??? Seeing one friggin green quad out there would help my eyes find some color balance. Even those Z400's are FAR from race ready out of the crate. The frame's junk and the motor is way underpowered but they manage to get quads all over the track. They are not even really Z400's anymore by the time they hit the track.

Lazy bums...mind boggling.

 

Amazing that we all enjoy a sport that can only tally up its main stream media exposure in bash pieces aimed at sensationalizing and blowing out of proportion injuries and perceived environmental damage caused by ATVs. Yet when an industry player, in this case Kawasaki, ponies up what I am sure was a healthy financial commitment to bring ATVs to the world's largest sport network they are met with critism from the very people their actions might ultimately benefit the most.

Sure I guess they could have slapped together a one-off race quad in an aftermarket frame. They could have used the motor out of the yet to be released KX450 motocross bike, that most likely has not been tested in an ATV application yet and that no ATV frame builder has seen. Of course to be competitive they would most likely have to throw in a fifth gear, remember the bike is a 4-speed. Now once they have done all this, just throw a rider on it. So find one of the twenty or so invited riders who is not in some way already linked up with another brand, lets see that would eliminate all the top riders. How about Joe Byrd, who is said to be a privateer get him to ride it. I am sure he would jump at the chance to ride a one-off ATV that he would have little if any testing time on in arguably the biggest race, at least in terms of exposure, that sport has seen. Then of course there would be the simple issue of getting around the rules that state the machines have to be production based (engine/frame combinations), because as you recall this was a sanctioned event by the AMA/ATVA.

So now you have a hastely slapped together ATV ridden by a good rider who is used to another ATV racing in front of the a national TV audience, representing in the minds of many what may be a sample of a future product. And if he rides as well he normally does he might finish in the top 10, but it could be much worse when you are racing against the caliber of racers there who will be riding machines they are intimately familiar with I don't know but it seems like a recipe for disaster.

So instead of harping on that I sat back enjoyed the races on ESPN and ABC (how often has that happened), and was thankful that Kawasaki stepped up to the plate to help make it happen. As far as I am concerned Kawasaki has done more for ATV racing in the last 5 years than any other manufacturer, remember they were the first to offer contegincy for ATV racing in over 15 years when they supported GNCC, not to mention fielding a team. Sure other manufacturers followed several years later, but would they have had Kawasaki not started? And it was cool to see the Terracross competition with three lime green Prairie 700s on the podium and standing on the top step was none other than Marty Hart.

So in the end you will have to excuse me if I am not as eager to bash Kawi for their efforts in the Great Outdoor Games. I only hope that this type of sentiment from the public does not scare them away from investing in the racing side of ATVing or worse yet drive other manufacturers away if they are thinking about following Kawasaki's lead.

 

Firstturn, that was quite the passionate, detailed answer. Unfortunately, it seems like you forced yourself to misunderstand and blow everything I've said out of proportion in order to make your point. In a nutshell, my point is simple: Kawasaki is virtually nonexistent in ATV Racing right now and has been for some time and it's ironic that they sponsored the event.

BTW, I doubt The Games would have been called off it Kawi didn't sponsor it. Someone else would have. Besides, it's not like they sponsored the Super Bowl. Let's not go over the top.

Although you need it to fuel your rebuttal, nowhere did I say that kawi should have rushed a representative in the "The Games" for the sake of having one there. I'm speaking more broadly in terms of the last few years. They could have done something as opposed to NOTHING. I'm not alone in being miffed the Team Green's been slow and quiet about getting back into the game.

Another thing, please tone down the false hysteria over ATV's in the media. Unless, you google-search negative ATV news everyday, or read some extreme partisan newsletter that LOOKS FOR off the cuff comments by some impotent, extreme environmentalist tree hugger with ZERO clout, you're not going to hear much...positive or negative...about ATV's in the media. In fact, the only people who ever hear what these extremist tree huggers say are a few thousand extreme tree huggers and another few thousand extreme anti-tree huggers looking for something to **** themselves off. I'm very up to date on news and current events and I never hear SQUAT. So chill out and stay in reality.