MOTOGP » Hopkins fastest, no 'new' Kawasaki.

in my opinion , kawasaki is a nice precise sharp bike, and suzuki is more harsh. hopkins is both: harsh and sharp by nature and the fact that he mentioned how the bike needs more power management, control - looks like a challenge his personality is hungry to tackle.
my instinctive resources were right

Go Hopper!
It's only testing, but it's good to see John on the pace on the Kawi.

John is going to surprise many people in MotoGP this year. The Kawi has had the potential, it just needed a rider. Now it has one. Oh yeah....

Sorry to disagree but I don't think Hopkins is such a smasher.
The step he makes now (switching teams) is one he should have made ages ago
it would have been much better for his career than hang around at Suzuki for 5 (five!) years.
Loyalty is all fine but look wat it does to Hayden...
But then again, I may be wrong, the signs (Kawasaki not making a new bike but just hanging new parts on it)
are not convincing, though this test is ok
At Suzuki they built a new prototype that flew through the speedtraps at Sepang...

WELL, IT IS ABOUT TIME SOMEONE POSTED A STORY ON HOPKINS/KAWASAKI'S PROGRESS!!
It is a shame that the press has payed them absolutely NO attention until they topped the timesheet.

It seems to me that Kwak simply does not need to unveil a new-from-the-ground-up bike for '08-- the '07 has THAT MUCH POTENTIAL ALREADY BUILT INTO IT!!

As for Rizla Suzuki, it has taken them 4+ years to figure out how to make a GP bike handle properly, now it will take them another coupla years to get the horse power needed to be competitive

Bottom line-John Hopkins is surprise quite a few folk in '08. The ZXRR just needed a 'racer' with experience (NOT Randy, not Jacque, and NOT Ant West)

Bottom line-John Hopkins is surprise quite a few folk in '08. The ZXRR just needs a 'racer' with experience (NOT Randy, not Jacque, and NOT Ant West) to 'fine-tune' the good thing that they already have going. This statement is not meant to detract from any of the riders in parentheses, I just think that JH may be a better development rider than those other guys, that's all.

Over the last few years John has been making consistent progress up through the ranks towards the podium. This year he got his feet on it. Next year we will see more of that. If his learning curve continues at this rate, he may well have a championship in him before he's done.

Well sorry but... he's been nibbling on that podium for a while and very reluctantly put his feet on it
and not on the top spot... not to slam the guy or anything but others come in and do that in their first season.
The only way he is gonna land a WC is when he has a package with the potential of Stoners.
I know it is hard to compare bikes and stuff but the Kawa is in my view not a much better bike than the Suzi.
It has taken both factories a long time to get their **** together and the fact that Yamaha and Honda struggled in 2007
looks as if they are up there now.
However I think thet when Yamaha and Honda get their stuff sorted you will see where they are.

Just my view

I can fully understand your view, Morgue. I just wonder what would happen if Hopkins was on a bike of equal ability of Stoner/Ducati or Pedrosa/Honda...I think he would be rather impressive. The Kwak will be nice w/him on it, but I don't think he will win a Blue Riband Championship wearing green

A real strong point of Hopkins is his consistency, he delivers.
That is why he outperformed Vermeulen in the standings on the same bike.
Remember his entrance in the premium class? In the pouring rain on the Red Bull Yamaha, fell twice, came in for repairs,
finished in the poits. He just never gives up
He was however hailed as the next Kevin Schwantz (see the film 'Faster') when coming to the World Championship
but he isn't...