Official: Chris Vermeulen joins Kawasaki WSB for 2010

[patnicholls]

Here:

http://www.crash.net/world+superbikes/news/153190/1/official_vermeulen_returns_with_kawasaki.html

Thoughts?

[tha_jackal]

deary me. must be getting paid an absolute shed-load.

[Allyc85]

Thats a "brave" move...

I always like to see Kawasaki do well and have been pleased to see them do well in BSB but ive seen nothing in WSB that makes me think they will be challenging the front any time soon. I just hope for Chris's sake that Kawasaki give the funding a massive boost as it seems strange that a great road bike is a poor racer.

[The Phantom]

The ZX-10R is going to become something special in 2010/2011 - from http://www.zx10r-adrenalin.com/#/zx-10r-mods-news/4532945590

Kawasaki recently filed patents for an in line four cylinder motorcycle engine with an uneven firing order. While similar to the design from Yamaha in the latest R1, the Kawasaki engine design steps things up a bit by adding some electronics to aid the uneven firing order.

The Kawasaki design would traditionally have had problems, in that the radical nature of the firing order would have made the engine incapable of running at low RPM, due to a lack of momentum in the crank on the long 540° revolution. The second problem would have been the requirement for a very heavy and almost impractical crankshaft, which would have made the engine slow to rev, and would have limited high end RPM.

Kawasaki have solved these problems by using clever electronics. An electric motor operates only on every second revolution, during the compression stroke, and only on cylinders one and four. This tiny electric motor operates only long enough for the motor to gain momentum, and then switches off again. Engine sensors are used to monitor crank angle, degree of throttle opening, vehicle speed and gear position. The new electric motor will also be used as a generator to charge the battery when it's not boosting the crank, and that means it can do the job of the traditional alternator too.

What does this all mean? Well to you and me, probably nothing other than a bike that sounds like the Yamaha M1, but if you are a really good rider, you will now be getting more traction and therefore better feedback from the rear tyre under acceleration, meaning faster corner exits, and ultimately better drive out of corners which means better speed down straits and hopefully an advantage for the green team (and don't they need one right now?)

The radical 540° gap in the firing order is double the gap that the new R1 uses, and means that the ZX-10R motor turns a full one and a half revolutions without any cylinders firing. The gap in the R1 firing order is only 270° which in itself was considered rather long.

However the most significant benefits from the Kawasaki design are that the crankshaft retains the natural balance as found in a traditional (screamer) in line four. This in effect reduces production costs, improves reliability, and also enables the normal high rev limit found in screamer engines, which means that the peak power output will not be adversely affected.

Sounds pretty amazing.

[ShiftingGears]

Not unsurprising.

[leopard]

Great technical analysis Panthom, great to sea the problems of Kawasaki are already identified and resolved. We believe this will improve overall performance of the bike. They succeeded to provide competitive bike for Joan Lascorz at WSS class, and development of the bigger class is supposed to follow in its footstep.

[Rod Richardson]

The Suzukis in MotoGP have not done very well this season despite having two excellent riders on board.
Chris V is only a few points behind Loris C in the title race and must be disappointed to be leaving Suzuki but I am sure he will do his best for Suzuki in the remaining races and will not disappoint either Paul Bird or Kawasaki in WSBK next season.

[NinjaMaster]

To say that I'm jumping for joy would be an understatement. It's a huge get for team green and whilst Chris'll be up against it next year, I think he will give some of the more highly fancied combinations the hurry up.

My argument has always been that the thing always holding Kawasaki back is a lack of resources to their teams and a lack of top talent riding for them. Andrews is a consistent podium threat in BSB and is often joined in the top 5 by other Kwaks and Hacking was the clear next best to Mladin and Spies in AMA last year so I think the bike has genuine potential. The common thread amongst them was talented riders with well resourced teams.

I really see current Kawasaki as similar to 90's Suzuki, making excellent production bikes but let down by their racing structure. Things started to turn around for Suzuki WSB after they hired Peter Goddard from the Australian Suzuki team and then when they gained the resources of Francis Batta and the talents of Frankie Chili, they became a front runner. I can see Kawasaki following a similar (but hopefully more successful) path with PBR running the team having full Kawasaki factory support behind them under the guidance of Yoda and having Vermeulen on board.

The current team has faced a steep learning curve this year after taking over the running and it hasn't helped that they've had to run so many substitute riders to replace their injured regulars. Tamada was great back in the day, but hasn't been the same since he stopped riding on Bridgestones and whilst I love Broc and think he's very good, I don't see him as a WSB title contender, even on a factory Duc. Vermeulen is a rider of genuine speed and with another years development I think he can be at least a top 5 contender on the current 10R and hope that the new one in 2011 is an absolute world beater. Sykes is my non-Parkes preference as a teammate.

Phantom, I remember reading that article in AMCN earlier in the year and it does sounds exciting. Really exciting. Exciting enough to have me saving like mad!

Roll on 2010! :up:

[TheFamousEccles]

I hope it works and the Kwaka's make it to the pointy end, but to my mind it does sound a little like tech for tech sake - and horrendously fiddly to boot. Yes, they must be paying CV a sh!te load....