www.zxrworld.co.uk

You might of seen the various sites with the above news

Some are even saying that they might change their mind but i asked the wife to translate the official announcement yesterday and it does say they have decided to quite

A joint meeting today in Japan will hopefully produce Aspar taking the team over but even if they do , more likely we will loose both riders and a Spaniard will take their place on just the one bike.

So how does this affect me and my ZXR400, well ......

Marco Melandri is one of my wifes favourite riders and for a couple of years she was praying for him coming to Kawasaki and seeing his hedgehog motif on a green background

When the announcement was made that he was going to be a 2009 rider she was doing back flips and mutterings of attending every GP event were in the air

After she settled down i proposed making the 400 into a replica MotoGP bike (Marco Melandri - MM , my name MM ) and so got the go ahead to start scooping up parts to make the change as authentic, within reason, as possible. i have every piece of the jigsaw now and only just bought up some carbon sheets for doing some finishing touches to it when this was rumoured

Wheels were a difficult one but after a bit of investigation some GPz900R Galespeed type R's would give the same look and i was leaving them to after the paint job had been done in the new livery.

So now the wind has been taken out of my sail and with the other bodywork i picked up it will be transformed into a J2 SP with some enhancements on it.

Going to start a thread in the "My build" section with the spec'

Still gutted though

your bike sounds rather nice!

On the dropping out note its a real shame, bet hopkins is kicking himself in the nuts as well

Even more reason to do it, if you ask me!

There won't be many of them around if the bike is never actually raced, so that would be a rather unique paint job on it!

And a hell of a talking point at meets and forums like this about what the hell the colourscheme is from!

Where does it say they're quitting? I've seen a number of sites saying they might, but nothing official.
Thier website doesn't say anything about it either.

zxr_oli wrote:Where does it say they're quitting? I've seen a number of sites saying they might, but nothing official.
Thier website doesn't say anything about it either.

http://search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=%E5% ... 1&ei=UTF-8

What the English media is speculating that Aspar will take over "Kawasaki Racing Team" and they will get the bikes to manage. So there will be at least a Kawasaki bike on the grid but no team Green.

Just wonder what colour scheme Aspar would use ? Spanish sponsor colour, still Green with Monster sponsorship? or something totally new.

http://www.kawasaki-motogp.com/news.cfm ... ish&page=1

Tokyo, January 9, 2009 -- Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has decided to suspend its factory MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season.

Amid quickly changing business environment, Kawasaki has been promptly taking countermeasures to cope with the situation. As the world economy is not likely to recover in a short period due to the major impact of the financial crisis, Kawasaki decided to suspend its MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently.

Kawasaki will continue racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles as well as supporting general race-oriented customers.
Kawasaki would like to thank all the fans and all those who have forwarded us great help.

Mr.Yoshio Kawamura, the Managing Director of Kawasaki Motors Racing B.V. deeply appreciates the contribution and the dedication brought by staff members of the MotoGP team