WSBK » Kiyonari: The problem is the rider!

Refreshingly honest, frustrating though, he was a fair bit more impressive than Haslam in bsb.

I have never watched BSB, but judging from the performsaance of it's former champions in WSBK, it's not competitive enought to hone a rider's skills. Kiyonari admitted in a post race interview this season, his breaking was bad!. One would think a championship winner would not have so admit to this.

Good on Kiyo for being so honest...one of many reasons that a lot of people like him.
Aeolus, you've not watched BSB by your own admission so reserve judgement on a series you know very little about. A certain Mr Bayliss also rode in BSB along with a lot of other well known and reasonably successful riders.
The Japanese tend to send their best riders over here to prove themselves...Kiyo, Yukio (and let's not mention Watanabe...lovely bloke but still qualifying outside of the top ten on a regular basis lol).

It's disappointing not to see him doing better as when he is on it there are very few out there who can stay with him, not happening enough though unfortunately

I have to agree with Aeolus on this one. Not on the fact that BSB doesn't prepare a rider, but winning one's domestic series means nothing in translation to consistent success on the WSBK circus. Case in point:
Byrne: 2 time BSB champion
Kiyonari: 2 time BSB champion
Lavilla: BSB champion
Borciani: CIV champion

Bayliss and Spies are just a notch better than the competition but this doesn't guarantee anything either in the move to MotoGP.

And look at those ex-motogp riders who arrive in WSB and dont set the world on fire. When Biaggi turned up in 2007, most pundits had the ex-250 champ down as a future champ in WSB. Nowadays he gets the odd podium. There are others - can't name any - shows how memorable their performances are......

But then again look at Hodgson, Toseland and Bayliss, they have all come from BSB and won 6 WSBK titles between them in the last 9 years.

fair cop ?its refreshing to hear a rider blaming himself for not performing well, rather than those that blame everything else, at least he can try and improve,not sure about the reason tho,(sensitive to changing conditions), in bsb the conditions could and did change dramaticly, and he still won ?????

Kyio is a class act and takes time to settle, he did in BSB. But once he is, he will give everyone a run for their money. He showed that last year. And beat Rea, Haslam et al in BSB week after week after week.

He has 2 BSB titles, 2 Suzuka 8 Hour titles and several wins in various conditions in WSB.

Maybe living in Holland and a few changes to the team structure have affected his confidence a little, who knows for sure.

Anyone who has seen Kiyo in BSB knows he's a class act and on his day can be unbeatable, but we also know that he goes through these peaks and troughs of form.

As for the BSB comments by people who haven't even watched the series ??? Come on get a grip!!

I hope Kiyo turns the corner soon as he is better than this.

As for the BSB comments by people who haven't even watched the series ??? Come on get a grip!!

One doesn't have to watch the series to judge its effectiveness in turning out winners. And as for Toseland and Hodgson...well we know how that has turned out. Hodgson won just one wet race when the main competition crashed. Both he and McWilliams went to AMA thinking easy championship. Boy did they get a surprise. I watched Maladin blow Hodgson off in turns at will. Unfortunately the new management at AMA seems determined to destroy the series.