MOTOGP » 'Wake up call' for West

Why won't Kawsaki take notice of what Wayne Gardner and Ace27 are saying about the bike both these guys are experts in their own fields and the advice is free

Why would the Japanese they take notice of Gardner they never did when he was racing???

Wayne (legend) "Mr 110%"

Marty; Gardner was working for the Japanese back then and they believe the workers don't think and the thinkers don't work, both Ace27 and Wayne are giving their vast knowledge for free,and the best things in life are free

I can't believe that some people think Kawasak are all of a sudden uncapable of building a bike.
You make an irrelevant connection between three things:

1 West is underperforming
2 A great racer from the past (not talking about Ace27 now ) makes a statement
3 Hopper falls

West has been moaning over lack of fitness the past year, saying he has to train + his wrist is operated on.
Gardners riding style may not even suit the Kawa, or any high cornerspeed 800 fourstroke of this era.
He can hardly be fit enough to ride it the way modern day guys do.
Hopper was jubilant about the bike so far, no complaints there.
De Puniet was bloody fast on it too.

Nice post Gromme,

I Agree,
Love West, but very disapointing!!
Been wathching him for year's.
Hope him the best for 08'!!
Hopkins...Love the guy also!!
He may tame the green beast!!!

Of Course The Morgue I should have known that you would know more about GP bikes and their set ups than Gardner.
Bad PostJH

What post was bad saltbrush? I didn't think any of them were good.

I don't, couldn't even walk in his shadow

but there were other testers of the bikes that made different statements about it.

I'm not slamming your champ Saltbush, I've always been a Gardner fan and liked him a lot more that Doohan.
I know everything Australian is sacred and undebatable here but in my opinion the only ex racer from that era that can make a fair assessment of the current generation of bikes is Randy Mamola, he still rides the twoseat Desmosedici on a regular basis and has never really been away from the paddock. However because of his commitments to Marlboro Ducati his hands are tied and you will never hear him speak out completely open about it.

Well said The Morgue.
As far as I know, Wayne Gardner (I was a big fan !) has been slower than Schumi at Valencia... He was just allowed a very small number of laps, aboard electronically tamed bikes, and we all know that you cannot really assess how a bike is when you lap several seconds of actual race times.
A bike can be a delight when ridden at 5" per laps slower, and become a nightmare if you try to up the pace, and another one be the opposite.
Facts are that (i) Hopper has NEVER been in charge of developing a race bike, (ii) West has NEVER been faster than Randy last year, (iii) the bike is potent but a handful to tame, hence crashes when pushed at the limit.