MOTOCROSS ACTION’S MID-WEEK REPORT BY JOHN BASHER (3/12/14)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
MXA is known for blowing out berms. We love to see roost fly. So, naturally, we threw some snow around while riding Timbersleds in the backcountry.

MXA AROUND THE GLOBE

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It was a busy weekend for the MXA gang. Between Jody, Dennis Stapleton, Daryl Ecklund and myself, we covered three states, nearly three countries, and several thousand miles. Jody held down the fort at the weekly REM racing series in sunny SoCal. Stapleton journeyed southward to Ecuador where he raced at Los Tres Gusbos in Quito and finished second overall for Gas Husqvarna (special thanks to the Vidal family for Stapleton’s trip). He is currently teaching a motocross camp at Cantu motocross park. Daryl and I caught a flight up to Spokane, Washington, where we drove to Ponderay, Idaho, to meet with the Timbersled folks.

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Daryl and John’s view in Idaho. Meanwhile in the Caribbean…

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This is what Stapleton rode on. I say rode, because on the day of the race it was downpouring. Imagine this same track, only with a few inches of standing water on it.

What’s Timbersled? It’s a company that specializes in snowmobile aftermarket parts and, more importantly (to us moto heads, at least), snow bike kits. These guys have developed a way to transform a dirt bike into an all-terrain snow machine designed for exploration in the most gnarly conditions. Over two days we climbed around 8000 vertical feet that spanned around 80 miles. To put it into perspective, we ascended the height of nearly 27 football fields stacked end to end.

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The Timbersled Mountain Horse uses a snowmobile-style track mounted to a drive system–gears and all–that goes in place of your swingarm and rear wheel. Two Fox Shox shocks are set at between the tracks for bump absorption. The track is 12-1/2-inches wide in the Long Track and Short Track configurations. Timbersled also sells the more nimble Snow Cross kit, with a narrower track and third shock spring. The Long Track ($6300) has a 137-inch-long track, while the Short Track ($5600) uses a 120-inch track. To clarify, the Long Track is geared toward bigger riders looking to climb steep mountain terrain. The Short Track is more nimble and works best with lighter riders.

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Daryl and I switched between the Long Track and Short Track versions during our two day stay. By the way, the Timbersleds were mounted on Husaberg 501 four-stroke behemoths. Very cool. There was such incredible torque and traction that we were able to ride across terrain that in no way should have been possible. You can see by the photos that we were smack dab in the middle of nowhere. It was equal parts amazement, exhilaration and scariness.

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I don’t want to ruin anything, because Daryl Ecklund is digging his hands into this story for the magazine. Suffice it to say that we had an awesome time weaving around trees (sometimes hitting them) and scaling up mountain passes on the Timbersled Mountain Horses. For more information, please visit www.timbersled.com.

HINSON LAUNCHES BRAND NEW WEBSITE

[Press Release]

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Hinson Clutch Components has launched a brand new website, built from the ground up in cooperation with Taylor Creative. The new Hinson site was designed and developed to provide our customers with an easy, powerful tool for finding the correct clutch parts for their specific application while experiencing stunning content in a clean, informational platform.

To celebrate our new website, we will be giving away signed jerseys from some of our top sponsored riders. Log on to our site at www.hinsonracing.com, and click on the “contest” banner to navigate your way to the contest page. Sign up for our newsletter, and we’ll enter you in a drawing for signed gear from Ryan Villopoto, Chad Reed, Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen and James Stewart. For additional contest rules, please visit www.hinsonracing.com.

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Click the image above to view Hinson’s new website.

To properly engage with our customers regardless of what platform they are visiting our site on, we utilized a responsive web design to present a clean user interface that automatically sizes to match desktop, tablet or mobile devices. We’ve also built in a bike finder that will filter our products by make, model and year, showing only the parts for your specific application.

Hinson has big plans to provide entertaining and educational content on a regular basis. Bookmark our site and return for racing action and gain a technical advantage.

Hinson sells the most advanced Off-Road Motorcycle, ATV and Sport Bike clutch components in the world. Hinson offers premium clutch baskets, inner hubs, pressure plates, slipper clutches, fiber and steel plates, clutch springs and extremely durable clutch covers. In our 21 years of doing business, Hinson Clutch Components have won 263 National and World Championships.

TRAVIS FANT’S VIEW FROM DAYTONA

Travis Fant is MXA‘s resident videographer. He’s in charge of filming unique content for our website. If you frequent MXA online then you know that our token beanie-hat-wearing brother is talented at what he does.

Fant has been traveling around the Southeast this past week, filming with many of the stars. He attended the Daytona Supercross for MXA, but instead of shooting video he picked up a camera and snapped photos during the race. Here’s what Travis saw through his Canon camera.

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MINI-VIEW: JUSTIN BOGLE

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 Justin Bogle burst onto the Pro scene late in 2011. The Oklahoma native immediately showed that he was a force to be reckoned with. Bogle captured a podium moto finish at the final outdoor National that year. Unfortunately Justin had a plethora of injuries that derailed his ascent to the top of the podium in 2012 and ’13. Things were looking promising for Bogle heading into this season, but disaster struck once again. He sustained some serious injuries that left him and his Geico Honda team wondering if he would be able to race Supercross. However, a few short weeks before the East Coast Supercross series, Bogle was back on the bike. Here’s what Bogle had to say about his Supercross campaign.

By Jim Kimball

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MXA: Justin, you had a pretty decent start to the 2014 Supercross series.

Justin: Yeah, I think so, too. I had a pretty big injury earlier this year and wondered if I would even be able to make Supercross at all. I’ve put in a lot of time, hard work, and just really buckled down to get ready for Dallas. Honestly, it’s just a blessing to be out here racing. Taking a fifth at the opener, and then getting on the podium isn’t too bad from where I was. My team and my trainer have helped a lot, and I need to keep my momentum going. I only had a couple weeks on the bike before the opening race.

Your injury was pretty serious.

For sure! Like I said, I wasn’t sure I would even be able to race Supercross. It was a pretty big injury; definitely the worst injury that I have ever had. I fractured five vertebrae, compression fractured another, and broke my shoulder blade. I just spent a lot of time with my trainer and my team to get some riding under my belt. You can do a lot of training while being injured, but training on your motorcycle is very key.

Your career seems to be somewhat comparable to your friend and teammate, Wil Hahn.

Wil and I are very good friends. Watching everything that he has been through has been good for me. It showed me that despite adversity you can keep grinding away, and that everything will work out if it was meant to be. Since I turned Pro I have had quite a few injuries. At first it was a big bummer. I felt that I wasn’t doing the things that I should be doing. I wasn’t accomplishing my goals with my racing. Wil and I have the same trainer, Ryan Federow. He has been such a huge help for me, both on the physical side and mental side of things. I missed the entire Supercross series last year, which was a big disappointment. I feel that I am strongest in Supercross. I really enjoy it. With this last time that I got hurt, I said to myself, “Let’s just learn from this and get through it.” Getting injured definitely knocks you down, and it’s tough to get back up when things are going rough. You are not getting any results, and people begin to doubt you. At the end of the day, you just need to keep working away, and believe that it will come back around. That’s what I am doing.

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It seems like Geico Honda is a great team. Not only are you guys getting great results, but there also seems to be a true friendship within the Geico Honda semi.

I’m extremely blessed to be a part of the Geico Honda team! The guys have been very understanding of the injuries that I have been through. Obviously we all want to win, and we put our heart and soul into this. No one wants to win more than myself, and the team knows that. The Geico Honda team can see the potential in a rider and know that it’s going to pay off. Wil is the perfect example of that. He was somewhat down and out in his first couple of years on the team, and then it paid off with a Supercross title. The really cool thing about this team is that they re-signed me while I was still injured That made me feel great; I knew that I could do it, and they trusted in me, too. It’s awesome to have that support and belief that you can succeed. And, as you said, everyone gets along well within the team, and we are all friends. It’s a great atmosphere here.

Geico Honda has also really grown into a powerhouse 250 team.

Definitely. In my opinion we do have the best bikes out there. We have so many great people within the team and people that are working behind the scenes. Engine and chassis people helped to make an already good bike all that much better. I was open about the bike a few years ago, that it wasn’t my favorite. But with the new 2014 chassis, it’s been awesome. The entire team really put a lot of time into the bike to get it to where it is. This, coupled with all the great people, make it a perfect atmosphere. There is no place that I would rather be.

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Bogle has sick style. Check out this whip he executed last year in practice at Washougal.

You really seem to enjoy riding, and always appear to have a lot of fun racing.

I definitely have a lot of fun with my riding and racing. There is nothing else that I would rather be doing in the world than racing my dirt bike. I’ve wanted to be a racer since I was just a little kid, and I always want to have fun with it. It makes it more fun. It keeps things more interesting to have some fun, and do some tricks while racing. People like to see some wild jumps. I’ve always been a big fan of throwing some whips and showing some style.

Where do you want to be as the 250 East continues on?

I want to be fighting for wins and on the podium every weekend. It won’t be easy. There are a lot of fast guys in the class. It’s going to be tough, but I feel like I am getting more comfortable being back on a bike. It’s coming around and I feel like I’m capable of getting some wins.

MOVIN’ ON UP: DETROIT SUPERCROSS TV CHANGE

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Due to incessant complaints from television viewers and the flip-flop between Fox Sports 1 and the harder-to-find Fox Sports 2, Fox has decided to bite the bullet and air this weekend’s Detroit Supercross on the more popular Fox Sports 1 channel. However, there’s a catch. The race will not be live. Instead, Detroit will be tape delayed for several hours. Fox Sports 1 will air the Detroit race at 11:30 p.m. EST (8:30 p.m. PST). It’s going to be a late night for diehard Supercross fans on the East coast. Note that Fox Sports 1 will re-air the race on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EST.

DUBYA RELEASES PRODUCT CATALOG VOLUME 2 ON iTUNES APP STORE

[Press Release]

Dubya USA has announced the availability of the second volume of their product catalog for digital download in PDF format, or as an app for iPhone or iPad through Apple’s iTunes store. The catalog contains all of Dubya’s latest products from top manufacturers such as Talon, Kite, D.I.D, Excel, Galfer and Brembo.

Since its founding in 2011, Dubya has become one of the leading suppliers of premade and custom wheels and wheel components to riders in everything from motocross and supercross to endurocross and supermoto. Each wheelset is constructed by hand at their shop in Orange, CA using only genuine components for reliable, durable performance.

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Download the Dubya Catalog Volume 2 in PDF by clicking the image above.

The digital catalog is also available on the Dubya website at www.dubyausa.com. If you would like a CD version of the digital catalog, please contact Dubya at [email protected]. A full printed version of the catalog is planned for later this year.

MASSIMO ZANZANI’S VIEW FROM THE QATAR & THAILAND GRAND PRIX

Our European correspondant, Massimo Zanzani, covers the Grand Prix series for MXA. He’s a great guy and an equally great photographer. Take a look at some of his shots from this past weekend’s Thai GP.

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Tracks need water–especially in Qatar.

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Qatar’s first space program?

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Tony Cairoli rocked these light-up Sidi boots at the Qatar night GP. Way cool!

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The GP riders always find interesting ways to pass the time.

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Max Nagl looks happy to be on the HRC factory Honda team. He’s second in the 450 point standings.

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Evgeny Bobryshev’s factory Honda basks in the sunset.

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Luongo always brings quite the infrastructure. Now if only he could bring purse money.

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Cool track, but where are the spectators?

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Clement Desalle tries to keep cool in the heat and humidity of Thailand.

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Art.

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Calm, cool and collected. Tony Cairoli. The King of European Motocross.

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Sure, we’d test that bike.

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Gautier Paulin had the red plate in the 450 class, at least for one GP. Check out the carbon fiber lower triple clamp guards. Sweet!

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Max Anstie–ever the character. And speaking of hats…

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…Kids, don’t wear your hat like Jeffrey Herlings. Instead, follow the guidance of Stefan Everts (background).

 

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