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CODY WEBB: GUEST EDITOR I SUPERCROSS TRACK LANDLORD I 2018 CRF250R I XC VS. XC-W MODDED

JANUARY 2018

HOT SHOTS Factory KTM rider ANTOINE MÉO fights to keep his head above water during the second stage of this year’s OiLibya Morocco Rally after heavy downpours caused local rivers to swell. Méo was able to make it to the other side. Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla and KTM riders Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland were first to tackle the crossing.

Quintanilla and Sunderland both drowned their bikes. This and a later crossing caused the stage to be canceled. Quintanilla was able to carry on and finish seventh.

Sunderland was forced to retire due to water in his fuel. Walkner won the event, with Méo finishing fourth. US racers Ricky Brabec (Honda) finished third overall (and scored his first stage victory), and Andrew Short (Husqvarna) finished 16th overall in his first FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship race.

COURTESY RED BULL CONTENT POOL

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HOT SHOTS CODY WEBB, your

guest editor for this issue, says about this moment captured during our visit to his EnduroCross track, “Sometimes I find it easier to just launch into the rocks! You can get lucky and miss the holes in the beginning and then you have fewer rocks to deal with before you get out of them.

It’s a risky maneuver for sure, but at least it looks cool.”

JEFF ALLEN

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JANUARY 2018

ROUTE SHEET YOUR GUIDE TO THIS ISSUE OF DIRT RIDER

TEST & FEATURES 26 CHAMPIONS ARE MADE Cody Webb’s story of how he climbed to the top of the off-road racing world.

34 GOING UP? Webb reveals the motivation for his constant quest to improve.

40 THE FACTORY TRACKS There’s a place in California where most of the factory Supercross team tracks are built nearly side by side. Meet the man who made it all possible.

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48 2018 HONDA CRF250R TEST The newest 250F has arrived, and it’s full of innovation and performance.

52 BE MORE LIKE YOUR BROTHER Seeing if the aftermarket can bridge the gap between an XC and an XC-W. 56 TO THUMP OR NOT TO THUMP? That is the question, and the answer comes from Cody Webb.

60 A DAY AT THE RACES Webb only makes EnduroCross wins look easy. A lot more goes into his prep, his day, and his race strategy.

ON THE COVER Cody Webb invited us out to his private EnduroCross track in the Santa Cruz mountains just a quick ride (or run if you’re Carson, Cody’s dog) from the house where Cody grew up. Jeff Allen got the cover, then this shot, then got out of Carson’s way—he doesn’t chase Cody; he races ahead of him!

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DEPARTMENTS 4

HOT SHOTS

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FROM THE EDITOR

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GUEST EDITOR CODY WEBB EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PETE PETERSON PRINT CONTENT MANAGER ZACK COURTS DESIGN DIRECTOR RALPH HERMENS A RT DIR EC TION & PH OTOGR A PH Y DESIGN SPECIALIST ROBERT MARTIN PHOTO MANAGER JEFF ALLEN PHOTO SPECIALIST JULIA LAPALME VIDEO SERVIC ES VIDEO CONTENT MANAGER SPENSER ROBERT VIDEO CONTENT SPECIALISTS BERT BELTRAN, STEPHEN POTTER CONTENT SERVICES CONTENT BUSINESS MANAGER IRENE GONZALEZ COPY EDITOR JESSICA MATTESON CONTRIBUTORS ALLAN BROWN, DAVID BULMER, JONTY EDMUNDS, MARK KARIYA, SHAN MOORE, DREW RUIZ, BRETT SMITH, BRIAN SZUMSKI, DIAHANN TANKE, BROWN DOG WILSON, TANNER YEAGER D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S DIGITAL PUBLISHING DIRECTOR MATTHEW MILES GROUP TECHNICAL EDITOR KEVIN CAMERON DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER SEAN MACDONALD DIGITAL CONTENT SPECIALISTS BRODY COX, MORGAN GALES, SEAN KLINGER, ED SUBIAS, JON MCDEVITT DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALIST ALAN TAKUSHI DIGITAL CONTENT OPERATIONS SPECIALIST SERENA BLEEKER CONTENT BUSINESS MANAGER TERRY MASAOKA SUBSCRIBER SERVICES For Customer Service and Subscription questions, such as renewals, address changes, email preferences, billing, and account status, go to: dirtrider.com/cs. You can also email dricustserv@cdsfulfillment.com. com, in the US call toll-free (800) 800-3478, outside the US call (515) 237-3697, or write to Dirt Rider, P.O. Box 6364, Harlan, IA 51593-1864.

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FROM THE EDITOR

FORCED TO FOCUS STORY BY CODY WEBB PHOTO BY JEFF ALLEN eing a professional racer and having been a college student at the same time, I feel like I’ve taken a pretty unique path to get me to where I am today. I don’t think I’d change a thing, and still feel like it was the right approach for me, but it wasn’t easy—and maybe that’s turned out to be one of the best things about it.

I didn’t have a normal college experience. My plan at college was to get in, get my stuff done, and get out. I did my homework and I’d sometimes hang out with friends, but the college parties were definitely put aside because the weekends were for training or racing.

In 2013 I transferred from Cabrillo College to San Jose State University. I’d completed as many lower-division and prerequisite courses for my engineering major as possible, so once at the university it was three years of mostly engineering classes.

I had the ambition and the drive, but unfortunately I had horrible time management, which led to a lot of nights staying up until 2:30 in the morning finishing projects. But I think the tough schedule from having two

B

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goals forced me to learn how to really crack down and focus on the one thing I was doing as I was doing it. I knew I didn’t have as much time to study and get my research done, so I maximized what I had. That required me to occasionally crank down on homework and type up lab reports in the cramped area of an airliner’s seat. At 6-foot-3 I had very little elbow room, but I just put all my effort into what I had to do and never slacked off, and somehow I always got it done.

I for sure don’t think it helped my racing when I was a student.

I knew I didn’t have as much time to train as the other guys, so confidence-wise I think I always felt like I was a step behind in preparation. A guy like Mike Brown, he’s crazy fit and that’s really a big part of his game. So often when I was out pedaling

I’d think, “Mike Brown would push a little harder up this hill.

I gotta dig a little deeper right now.” I kind of used him as my motivation to push when I was training back then—probably still do now. “Mike Brown could probably beat me up this hill. I gotta try harder.”

Now I’m through my schooling.

I never really fall back on the point, “Oh, I’ve got my engineering degree if I don’t win tonight.”

That’s not an option at all. Yeah, sure, I’ve got something to fall back onto, but all my effort is going into trying to be the best.

Down the line, after my racing, I’d like to be involved with racing not as a team manager (who would want to deal with racers!?) but in a head engineer role where I’m out at the tracks working with the riders. I know the racing aspect and could con-

The contraption is real; it’s an electronic throttle engineering project Cody built.

The glasses are not real; Cody just wanted to look nerdier for the photo.

nect with the riders and maybe have a better idea developing components to improve the motorcycle.

It definitely was a great opportunity to be able to go to school and gain knowledge that way, but I also believe life experiences can be more important than championships or a little piece of paper. So no matter what path people choose I think they should just make the best of it and always work hard and be determined.

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TEAR OFFS

WESTON BEACH RACE 14 |

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igger, madder, and tougher than ever, the 2017 Weston Beach Race brought together an eclectic mix of weekend warriors and have-a-go heroes. Adding to the mix was a cross-section of Britain’s finest off-road talent, which was chaos from start to finish.

Firmly established as a “must do” end-of-season event in the UK, for more than three decades the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare has been welcoming off-road motorcyclists with open arms. For most it’s a simple case of survival, as they take on what is arguably the world’s most extreme beach circuit.

With quads, kids, and sidecars (yes, they still race them in Europe) all in on the action, it’s the main solo race that’s the real draw. It’s a straight-up mix of pros and amateurs when it comes to Weston, and it’s all about taking up the challenge.

Finishing is anything but easy.

Some fail to make it to the end of the first 2-mile-long start straight.

Many, many more are out of the race long before the end of the first hour. But for those who do survive the carnage of the opening laps and manage to keep circulating, it’s pounding out the laps during the third and final hour of the race that is the real backbreaker.

Showing just how it should be done was two-time winner Todd Kellett. Charging from start to finish, the pint-size 20-year-old never looked like he was doing anything other than winning, which he did at the end of three grueling hours of racing.

Nine months after getting his right hip replaced, former winner David Knight (next page) ended what’s been a difficult season for the Manxman with an impressive runner-up result. Rounding out the podium was Northern Irishman Martin Barr, ahead of extreme enduro star Jonny Walker.

Futur7Media

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TEAR OFFS

WESTON BEACH RACE BY THE NUMBERS 35 Years the event’s been running

1 Million tons of sand moved

6 Length of track in kilometers

1,500 Number or racers

729 Number of racers who completed at least one lap

80,000

COURTESY FUTUR7MEDIA

Number of spectators

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10,000,000 Amount of British pounds the event injects into Weston’s economy DIRTRIDER.COM

TEAR OFFS

MUSQUIN WINS TWO IN PRESEASON Marvin Musquin had a very good pre-2018 supercross season. First he won the milliondollar prize for taking down all three motos at the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas (only the second rider to sweep the night and get the big money). Then the next weekend the Factory KTM

rider won the Red Bull Straight Rhythm race in Pomona, California, the second year in a row that he has done so.

Shortly after these two events, Feld announced some changes to the 2018 supercross season. The Anaheim 2, Atlanta, and Minneapolis

rounds will be similar to Monster Cup, with overall results based on three motos, each progressively longer (6-10-12 minutes for 250Fs and 8-12-15 for 450s), a new point payout for all rounds (26 points for first then 23, 21, 19 for fourth, with each position receiving

one fewer point down to one point for 22nd place), two 250F East/West Showdown events (at Indy and Vegas), the elimination of semifinals, and amateur racing at four rounds the Sunday after the pros race.

BrOWN dOG WiLSON

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TEAR OFFS

FRANCE WINS 2017 MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS AS USA FALLS TO NINTH

DAVID BULMER

Although Team USA had one of its worst finishes at the Motocross of Nations in years, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider Zach Osborne posted a second-overall finish in the MX2 class. Osborne is no stranger to racing in Europe and spent several years racing full time overseas.

“It was fun to go back to Europe and race over there again,” Osborne said. “The Matterley Basin course is probably the closest to an American track than any other on the MXGP circuit. For the most part, they don’t groom the tracks as much as we do over here, so they usually get pretty rough and cobby. Covington has been racing the series the last few years, so I know he felt at home, but I felt pretty comfortable over there as well.”

The 2018 MXoN will be held at RedBud Track ’n’ Trail in Buchanan, Michigan. This will be the first time since 2010 the United States has hosted the event.

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JARVIS CLIMBS TO SEA TO SKY WIN Graham Jarvis won a fifth Sea to Sky title this past September. “The Sea to Sky race is unique in that it’s at elevation and most of the riders are on two-strokes, so jetting is a big concern,” Jarvis said. “You can’t very well change jetting during the race, and it’s obviously going to be different at the start of the race compared to on top of the mountain, so you have to aim for somewhere in between. Needless to say, the bikes are not running their best when we get near the top of the race.”

The event in Kemer, Turkey, starts on the beach and finishes at an altitude of 7,759 feet. Jarvis told us he has tested the new fuel-injected Husqvarna but is not racing it just yet. He added that bib mousses are the ticket for the tires, as well as a strategically placed pull strap for pulling the bike out of holes and deep ruts.

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CO DY W E B B’ S CLIMB

CHAMPIONS STORY BY BRETT SMITH | PHOTOS BY JEFF ALLEN, SHAN MOORE, DIAHANN TANKE, AND THE WEBB FAMILY

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ARE MADE

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CHAMPIONS ARE MADE

CODY WEBB WANTED A DIRT BIKE. It was 2006, and there he was, a teenager still in high school and sitting at the kitchen table of the family’s Watsonville, California, home. He had a magazine open to an advertisement for an event called EnduroCross. Geoff Aaron, the most dominant American trials rider of all time, was featured on the page and Cody tried to get his mother’s attention. Geoff was the perfect example; the family loved Geoff. Cody’s mother said no to the bike—especially ironic since Cody was already a top trials competitor.

Geoff was the big brother Cody never had. His parents trusted Geoff enough to send their only son on the road with him to trials events and demos, and Geoff treated him like any big bro would. He even gave Cody a nickname: Dirty Cody. “He always had dirt on his face,” Geoff said. “He was a grom, always in the dirt.” One time, Geoff had so many people in his motorhome at an event in the mountains that he set up a tent outside for Cody to sleep in. Then he warned his young guest to watch out for the bears. Cody didn’t get any sleep that night.

Cody had always wanted a real dirt bike, and now that Geoff was riding EnduroCross, it was the perfect excuse because his mother, Francesca, had always told him that motorcycles were too dangerous. The fact that she married Kip Webb, a professional trials rider, was ironic enough considering she was raised by parents who were disdainful toward motorcycles.

Francesca was more tolerant than her parents, however, and learned to ride when she was 19, even competing a little on the North American Trials Council (NATC) circuit.

Cody, now a professional trials competitor with a salary from Sherco, was told he’d have to buy his own motorcycle if he really wanted one. Busy as a starter

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on his high-school basketball team and simultaneously trying to win his first NATC pro title, he didn’t run out to a dealership right away. Instead, he took his Sherco trials bike to Las Vegas. In November 2007, at the sixth EnduroCross race ever held in the United States (from 2004–2006, EnduroCross was a once-a-year event), Cody came within 10 yards of qualifying for the pro class main event. Battling John Dowd, who was riding a much more powerful Suzuki RM250, Cody’s Sherco gulped so much water from the deep crossing that he couldn’t ride over the simple log climbs on the finish straightaway. While Cody was nursing a smoking engine, Dowd slammed into him from behind. Damon Huffman passed them both and took the win and the final position in the main event.

With the lights, the excitement, a sold-out arena,

ABOVE: “Always adjusting the bike from the last set of motos and trying to remember to check the fork pressure.”

OPPOSITE: “Being the guest editor of Dirt Rider made my helmet fit tighter I think.”

the spectacle, and maybe even the allure of potentially winning $10,000 in one race, Cody was hooked.

Sherco’s Brad Baumert saw the interest, and six weeks later Cody was in Kentucky sitting on a 2004 Suzuki RM-Z250 Baumert pulled from his garage.

Baumert arranged for five-time Grand National Cross Country champion Scott Summers and friends to take the freshman dirt biker for a trip through the woods.

Cody was 19 years old, and it was his first ride on a “real” dirt bike. One of Cody’s sharpest memories is that he brought his trials boots along “like a squid.”

Hours later, the group returned with stories of Cody riding over massive logs and rocks no one else would try.

“They rode some really gnarly stuff, but Summers told me that Cody couldn’t turn,” Baumert said. “Summers said, ‘He comes up on a turn and he almost stops.’”

CHAMPIONS ARE MADE

When one thinks of what a lifelong trials rider might struggle with in a racing environment, jumping, starts, and encountering other riders instantly come to mind. Cornering is an underrated (and overlooked sometimes) skill set in racing. Cody had no experience hitting any type of corner at speed. Baumert also took Cody to a motocross track to ride with his nephew.

“He literally couldn’t jump the bike,” Baumert said. “It was all new.”

Finally, in the autumn of 2008, Cody went to Moore and Sons in Santa Cruz and bought a KTM 250 SX demo bike. A few weeks later, he took his new steed and tried to qualify for the Las Vegas EnduroCross once again. Now 20 and still looking for his first professional trials championship, the former trials

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prodigy who had won the NATC high school championship before he was actually in high school, was already showing signs of having goals beyond hopping around on hard rocks with gummy trials tires. Unlike Taddy Blazusiak, who went from top 10 in the Trials World Championship to winning Erzberg and his first EnduroCross all within a one-year timespan, Cody’s road to the top of the sport was long and rocky (pun intended).

Pat Smage and Cody sort of owe each other. Cody might be responsible for having a hand in helping Pat become the nine-time NATC champion he is today, and

LEFT: “Chilling on the bikes after a trials event circa 1997 with my sister and Dirt Rider’s own Andrew Oldar.” MAIN: “Trying to do my best ‘Bubba Scrub’ attempt on my track overlooking the farm fields below.”

RIGHT: “My old man keeping an eye on me at el Trial de Espana as my minder/ mechanic. Check out that form and style with no gloves!”

Pat might be responsible for saving Cody’s career as a professional motorcycle rider.

The story starts in the summer of 2006.

Pat was in his first full year in the pro class, and he finished in seventh place (last in most cases) at each of the first six rounds. During the nine-week break between rounds five and six and seven and eight, he spent three weeks riding with Cody in California.

One of the days, Pat was already having a frustrating session when Cody took him to a place near the house called “Ridge Runners.” The terrain was loose dirt with rocks set on steep hills, which is Pat’s kryptonite.

Cody’s idea was for Pat to work on rear-wheel traction in the low-traction conditions. Today, Cody calls it the perfect riding spot for extreme enduro training.

“Cody was flying up that stuff,” Pat said. “At that time in my career, when something wasn’t fun for me, I

wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t put in the time. I look back on that day a lot. That gave me some motivation to learn and get better and focus on what I wasn’t good at.”

Pat went to Rhode Island in August for the conclusion of the 2006 season and dominated the weekend, winning both rounds. In 2007, he banged off three consecutive victories and eventually won his first pro championship. “Years after that Cody would remind me of that day at Ridge Runners,” Pat said.

In 2010, Cody entered his fourth consecutive season as the number-two ranked rider in NATC. In the previous three years, he had finished runner-up to Pat. He signed a one-year deal with GasGas and was also enrolled in a community college where he was in the early stages of earning a degree in mechanical engineering. It was a make-or-break year. “If I didn’t have a good year I was going to be done,” he said. At that point, EnduroCross was still something he was doing for fun. He had only qualified for two finals.

Cody dominated the trials season and won the title with eight wins. In EnduroCross, he not only qualified for main events, but he finished third at the finale.

After years of being number two, he finally had a reason to keep his motorcycle career going. Had Pat’s dominance continued, Cody may have quit to focus on college instead.

The foundation for Cody’s work ethic and persistence came from his father, Kip, even if son has a longer fuse than father. It wasn’t a gentle upbringing. Kip is a gruff, no-nonsense man who doesn’t accept mediocre or half-assed performances. The phrase “I can’t” is severely forbidden. Cody’s friends have a running joke that Kip brushes his teeth with battery acid. Geoff said they always called him “The Animal.”

One journalist remembers watching Kip’s foot get DIRTRIDER.COM

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CHAMPIONS ARE MADE

smashed while minding for Cody, but he didn’t seek medical attention until the end of the day. The foot was so swollen his boot had to be cut off. It’s fitting that Kip has an occupation to match his gritty style; he spends 50 hours a week overseeing a fleet of 35 concrete trucks.

Kip was a professional trials rider in the ’80s, competing a dozen times at the world level and winning the NATC expert sportsman title twice before slowing down to focus on his son’s career. He knew Cody had the talent to win, and so he demanded perfection.

“I pushed him hard—I’m not going to deny it,” Kip said. “But he responded to being pushed.” Pressed for an example of what this might look like, he said, “Hey, you [jerk]! I didn’t fly all the way to Pennsylvania to see you get second place. You’ve got to step up your game!”

When asked how he survived such an abrasive environment, Cody said, “I would just get pissed. He’s pretty intense. I’ve had people tell me they were glad I stuck with it, that they didn’t know how I got through it.”

One of Cody’s clearest memories was at a 2006 national in Oklahoma. He’d had a dismal day, sixth overall, his worst of the season. Kip was furious and so consumed with frustration he accidentally backed the rental car into a tree leaving event. “Let’s just say there was nothing said on that ride to the airport,” Cody recalled.

Maybe that hardline approach helped Cody endure the years of beatdowns in EnduroCross racing from riders like Blazusiak, Mike Brown, and others. Cody didn’t get his first win until October 2013 but then

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won three of the last four rounds and finished third in the championship. Had he not missed round two with a broken foot, he might have captured his first title too. Cody’s consistency since the 2013 season has been unprecedented; he’s been on the podium 36 of the past 37 events (as of November 6, 2017) and has won nearly half of those.

Because of bad market timing (remember when Kawasaki Off-Road folded in November 2012?) and a skill set that wasn’t as diverse as it is now, Cody didn’t

THIS PAGE, TOP: “Always had my dad there pushing me above and beyond at only eight years old.”

BOTTOM: “Pretty difficult to not find me smiling at the races. Hard to not enjoy this job.”

get full factory support until 2016. As recently as 2015, when Cody was on the RPM KTM team, Kip was still building the racebikes and driving the van to all the races. With a renewed contract with FMF KTM Red Bull Racing for 2018/2019, Cody has been granted the opportunity to expand his schedule to include the full FIM Super Enduro championship and the entire Red Bull Hard Enduro series. In 2016, he became the first American to finish on the podium at Erzberg (second).

In 2017, he took third at Erzberg and then went to work on earning back his EnduroCross championship, which he lost to Colton Haaker in 2016. In the arenas, Cody and Haaker are in a class of their own, and at the opening round in Las Vegas the two made contact with each other every single time they met on the track—heat race, bracket race, and main event.

A chorus of boos met Colton as he tried to speak on the podium after his main event win. “Either you’re going to hate or you’re going to love, but either way you’re going to talk about it, so it’s all good,” Colton said.

Even a decade after his first race, Cody was hardly an expert in aggressive race craft, but he stayed poised on that Vegas podium and in subsequent interviews.

After Vegas, Kip told Cody, “I know you don’t like to ride like that, but you’re either going to have to stop this or put up with it.”

THIS PAGE, TOP LEFT: “En route to my first AMA EnduroCross Championship in 2014.” TOP RIGHT: “Splashing my way through Last Dog Standing 2017.”

BOTTOM: “The ‘Keebler’ back when I was battling for wins in the High School class.”

When the two met in their head-to-head bracket race in the very next round in Reno, Colton tried to lean on Cody coming into the first turn. Cody held his line and Colton went down. “If you kind of ride dirty, it’s going to come back to bite you,” Cody said on the podium. Cody won the Reno final, as well as the next four rounds (as of November 6, 2017). Colton pulled out of the 2017 EnduroCross series after the fourth round with an injury, paving the way for Cody to get his third title, which he secured in Boise, with a full round left still in the series.

For a one-time trials champion, whose junior-high pudginess earned him the nickname “Keebler” from his father, Cody has transformed himself into one of the fiercest and most talented off-road competitors in the world. Even if he is winning by 18.3 seconds and lapping up to fourth place (Everett, 2017), or bettering that with a win of 43 seconds (Boise, 2017), he still has work to do. “I need to be a better moto rider,” he said. “My fitness and stamina are good, but if I go that extra 5 percent I start to fall apart. I’m efficient at my pace now.”

Of course, Cody’s life wouldn’t be complete if he wasn’t simultaneously working on something else. In May 2016 he graduated from San Jose State University with his engineering degree, and today he’s working at Bell Helmets as an intern. Yup. Cody Webb, who owns his own home, is getting married to Morgan Rogers in July (they call themselves “The NewlyWebbs”), and gets paid good money to win dirt bike races, spends 20 hours a week working a desk job as an intern. He says it’s because he doesn’t know how to say “no.”

Off-road motorcycle fans are thankful he doesn’t listen when he’s told “no” either. Cody’s rise has been a slow one built on determination. His trials riding skills have made him the rider he is today, and his fortitude has made him the champion he is today. He represents a constant will to improve, which puts very few limits on where he might go from here.

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GoinG Up? The JoUrney To The Top never STopS STORy By Shan MOORE anD PETE PETERSOn PhOTOS By JEff allEn, Shan MOORE, anD TannER yEagER

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“ “I consider myself to be David trying to beat Goliath,” Cody Webb tells us. “That’s why I’m always striving to be better.

When you have a target on your back, you’re always trying to improve. I just feel like I can keep improving because I’m not at the top yet. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.”

That’s the mentality most winners have, always striving to be better. Cody never had any kind of formal coaching, so like most of us he learned from other riders and through constant practice. Interestingly enough, Cody never even got on a dirt bike until the ripe old age of 19, spending his youth riding trials, something he excelled at.

Cody won the US National Trials Championship in 2010, and he’s utilized those unique skills to excel at EnduroCross and extreme racing, as have other former trials riders like Graham Jarvis and Taddy Blazusiak.

In addition to his dad, who helped him throughout his trials career, Cody looked to pros Kurt Caselli and Kyle Redmond as mentors when he first started racing EnduroCross.

Cody says that Caselli had a “tough love” kind of influence on him, though it always came across in a positive way.

“Kurt had his training grounds outside Palmdale where he lived,” Cody says. “He was super helpful in a sort of [jerk-ish] kind of way. He was always drilling me and being

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hard on me. Kind of calling me names, and telling me, ‘Quit doing that crap.’ Stuff like that.

It was a friendly way of just talking crap to me. He helped me a lot, but the way he said it, it was just funny. It helped me out, and a lot of things he said stuck with me. That’s kind of the only real coaching I’ve had

was just his recommendations on what I was sucking at and what to quit doing.”

Kurt gave Cody techniques to work on because he felt Cody had poor form since he was a trials rider who was now sitting down in corners.

“I was just trying to clutch it the whole way through,” he

says. “I wasn’t smooth. My outside peg, my foot was all weird and pointing outwards.

So he basically just stopped me when I went out, dead in my tracks, and told me what I was doing wrong. The next 10 minutes I’d spend trying to do it. He’d stop me again and tell me a little bit better.

Then he was happy when he saw improvement. Kurt was someone I looked up to and he was obviously good at what he did, so I was like, ‘I should probably listen to this guy because he’s winning things.’”

Turning was something Cody had to work on, and he still does today. “I’m always catch-

ing them in ruts and pulling my leg back, so I have these turn tracks I ride in the winter.

I focus on doing 20-minute motos and being consistent.”

Coming from trials, a sport that doesn’t require the high level of conditioning needed in motocross or extreme racing, Cody had to play catch-up with DIRTRIDER.COM

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GoinG Up?

his fitness. But now that he’s a full-fledged factory rider, he has the luxury of having a trainer. Former GNCC and National Enduro champion Charlie Mullins works with KTM’s off-road riders on training and conditioning.

“Charlie gives me a weekly schedule, what I should be doing and eating,” Cody shares.

“We have a whole training portal so he can go in and see all the riders and what we’re doing through the day with our watches and see what our heart rate was in motos. Sometimes it’s encouraging if I text him saying I felt great that day riding or my lap times were improved. You can look at the heart rate and you can see that your heart rate was even lower and you had faster lap times. So, it just shows you’re getting more comfortable and being more efficient.”

Cody’s mom was an additional influence on his riding.

“My mom would film all my EnduroCross races,” he says.

“We’d go watch them afterwards, and I hated watching it because we would just critique what I was doing wrong, and I knew it. I’d always come over off an obstacle and I was just lazy and didn’t have that aggression. Just lean all far forward over the front of the bike and roll on the throttle. I didn’t have great form, and I hated watching myself because the whole time we were like, ‘Look what you can do there to be better.’ It was self-critiquing and you’re just like, ‘Dangit. I suck at that right now.’”

When Cody practices on his home track, he is constantly making sections of it harder once he gets that section down—something he says is the key to improvement.

“I think it’s definitely better to practice [on something] a little bit harder than what

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the race is going to be,” Cody says. “My Matrix, it’s pretty tough to get rhythm, but it’s not super gnarly. It’s kind of a sandy base where I grew up, so it gets really chewed up and torn up. When I go to the races it’s just like a perfect, flat Matrix. It doesn’t get torn up.

It’s like riding on a highway when I get to the EnduroCross series versus my track that’s all rutted up. We went to Denver EnduroCross this year.

It was kind of sandy material too, and it was all chewed up.

I was the only guy doing the double, triple, double rhythm through it. No one else could even come close. I think it’s just because I’m used to riding a beat-up track. It was just

second nature.

“When it comes to practicing for the extreme races, I have this trail that some psycho cut,” Cody says. “I’ve taken quite a bit of people on it and everyone hates it, so that means it’s a good trail.

It’s good for like Romaniacsstyle training. So, for extreme stuff, I think it’s important to keep making stuff harder because the sport is changing so quickly and the riders are so good. But for EnduroCross I think it’s kind of like supercross where it’s so specialized now you don’t want to make it so hard that it’s dangerous.

When it comes to conditioning, gym work is low on Cody’s

priority level. He mostly trains on a bicycle.

“The gym is only supposed to be in the afternoons after I ride,” Cody says. “I never go to the gym then ride, just because your muscles will be fatigued so you’ll be riding with poorer form or be sore. I try and do most of my motos in the morning, unless I go to the moto track [which is open afternoons into the evening].

So, if I’m riding EnduroCross I’m going to ride EnduroCross motos in the morning. I’ll go home, rest, clean stuff up a little bit. Then late afternoon I’ll go on an hour to an hourand-a-half road bike ride, fat-burning zone more or less, and do little sprints here and

there but nothing crazy. All my intensity is mostly done on the dirt bike.”

For the average rider, Cody’s advice is simple: “I think a simple thing people can do right off the bat is just try and make smart lifestyle choices with your diet and your daily activities. Take the stairs instead of the elevator when you go into the office. Have grapes as a snack instead of chips as a snack. You can just start there with something simple, but that’s going to just slowly improve how you feel if you’re doing that every day.

Everyone wants to put a light exhaust on their bike, but to be honest a lot of times you can lose weight yourself. I was chunky for a while when I was a kid. I just support a positive, active lifestyle. That’s what I enjoy doing now. I’m always doing something. I don’t like being stagnant. If you just increase your active lifestyle you’ll start feeling better and when you go to ride you’re going to feel more lively. From there, you just start working on technique on the bike and practicing the little things.

Always remember to keep your fingers over the clutch and front brake. Always ride on the balls of your feet—Always kind of be in a squatted position. Listen to good advice, and just focus on the proper way to ride. No matter what, if you can just be more active and focus on technique when you’re riding, you’ll get better; you just won’t even realize it probably.”

If anyone has proven that hard work and an effort to improve can get you to the top, it’s Cody Webb, who sits at the top of the sport—but in his mind he still has a way to go to “get there.”

“I guess one day if I win Erzberg I’ll consider myself Goliath. But for now, I like the role of David.”

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THE FACTORY TRACKS

THE MAN BEHIND THE FAC T O R Y S U P E R C R O S S TEST TRACKS STORY BY BRETT SMITH PHOTOS BY SPENSER ROBERT

THE FAC T O RY TRACKS

AT 7 A.M. ON A LATE-SEPTEMBER MORNING , the sun

still hasn’t emerged above the ridgeline east of Corona, California, but the old man is ready to go. He’s patiently sitting in his office, a 1993 Ford F250 diesel pickup with 269,000 miles on it. The cab is filled with miscellaneous parts and pieces, cups and bottles, articles of clothing and items I can’t identify. The dashboard is cluttered; it holds three pairs of dusty eyeglasses, a flip phone, and dozens of keys on different key chains. The man swears he knows what they all go to. I test him.

“Y

eah, what’s this one for?”

“A 1928 Ford Model A. I just picked it up last week.” I set it back down as if worried about scratching it. The truck has no A/C or clock. Even the wristwatch hanging in the middle of the console is eternally stuck on 11:49. I never bothered to test the radio.

The old man wears a baggy green polo with gray sweatpants. He’s 84 years old, has watery eyes, a wide, open-mouthed smile, and a full head of hair in different shades of gray. As we bump along he habitually reaches over and whacks me on the arm to get my attention. Unassuming, he’s a local celebrity. A regional park bears his family’s name, and people routinely call on him for advice, a loan, or to sell him a collectible. At a local grill, the hostess comes outside to personally greet him and holds the door as he gingerly uses a walker to amble across the parking lot. Inside, every server and manager makes it a point to come by and say hello. Friends sit down and continue conversations they were having on the previous day.

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In the supercross world, anybody who’s somebody knows him, yet the octogenarian hasn’t been to a race since Jeff Ward retired 25 years ago. If supercross ever had an unheralded benefactor, it’s this old man, Jerry Deleo, who holds the curious distinction of owning the land where the factory supercross test tracks have been since the mid-’80s and early ’90s. There are nine supercross tracks on the approximately 400 acres of land he currently owns in Corona. Eight of them are within sight of each other.

S

ome history on test tracks: At the end of 1983, American Honda leased a chunk of property from Union Oil in Simi Valley, California, that became the now-legendary Hondaland. John Savitski, who was also a builder on the AMA Supercross series, built the team a supercross course. He also carved out a natural motocross track, and riders played in the canyons and used the cliffs for free riding sessions (see the movie Pros at Practice and Play). A dedicated team supercross test track was unheard of at the time.

“Until Hondaland, we didn’t even ride supercross, said 1983 SX Champion David Bailey. “We just rode around. Jeff Ward would make a rough track up in the hills in Mission Viejo. Other riders just made stuff wherever.”

When Roy Turner, Kawasaki’s team manager from 1983 to 1997, learned about Honda’s new strategy, he knew he had to act or his team was going to be in competitive trouble. “We couldn’t do testing,” he said. “We faked it the best we could.” At the time, upper management and the factory in Japan didn’t understand the need for a private facility, but Turner figured out a way to make it happen. He remembers his race budget being $1.5 million in the mid-’80s, and he was confident that Honda’s was more than

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THE FAC T O RY TRACKS

double, approximately $3.5 million. “That’s a shoestring budget compared to what Honda had. It wasn’t easy to get an additional $20,000 to $40,000.”

Turner had to keep it cheap. He first approached Ken Maely who owned a small ranch south of Corona, uphill from I-15. Maely, the “Shoe Man” was the inventor of the steel shoe that every single flat-track rider since the early 1950s had strapped to the bottom of their left boot. He had a dirt track on his property but didn’t have room for Kawasaki. He suggested talking to Deleo whose business was just down the hill from Maely’s home.

Gerald “Jerry” Deleo grew up in the open pit mining business, which he learned from his father, Joe. In the 1950s he went to dentistry school but dropped out. He didn’t like it and he joined the family business, Corona Clay, which started in 1948 and incorporated in 1958. The Deleos have offered various services over the decades, but the core has always been dirt, specifically clay. Deleo learned the value of real estate from his father, and by the 1980s he owned 600 acres and also held leases on property where he mined his clay. “I spent all my money on land,” Deleo says. “I always bought land. It’s the only way to do it.”

In 1973, Deleo bought a 42-acre turkey ranch, which became the new site of Corona Clay’s headquarters. When Kawasaki’s Turner approached Deleo, the two made a deal and Savitski constructed a track just a stone’s throw from Corona Clay’s front door. It was a

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2.5-acre plot only 34 miles from Kawasaki’s Irvine race shop.

Near the end of 1988, Jeff Emig put in his first-ever supercross laps there and remembers always seeing the old man. “Jerry would always be chewing on a cigar, wearing a hard hat, work clothes, and always helping his workers,” said Emig, who won the 1997 supercross title. “He’d come by for some laughs and wish us good luck.” One day in 1989, Deleo’s youngest daughter, Candice, wandered over to the Kawasaki track. In October 1991, she and Jeff Ward were married. Ward’s Kawasaki teammate Jeff Matiasevich was the best man.

In the 30 years since Turner built that track the surroundings have changed. There is now an access road between the track

and I-15, housing developments continue to spring up nearby, and it’s sandwiched between businesses that also lease from Deleo— but green bikes still turn laps there many weekdays between October and early May. “You think about the first Super Bowl of Motocross [in 1972]… It’s funny that it took that long,” Turner said of getting the first test tracks built. “And we kind of winged it building that first track.”

According to Dave Arnold, Honda’s team manager for much of the ’80s and ’90s, they were not allowed to fence in their portion of the property at Hondaland because Union Oil had cattle grazing there. In the mid-’90s, when an intruder had to be airlifted from one of the tracks, Honda’s legal department shut down the facility

and the team called up the Deleo family to join Yamaha, who, by the 1992 racing season, had moved from their first test facility at a public track in Moreno Valley, to a bluff overlooking Corona. On Deleo’s property, Yamaha and Honda had private and fenced-in facilities, separated by an operation yard where Deleo’s employees grind away.

Today, all six of the major OEMs competing in the Monster Energy Supercross series maintain at least one track on property owned by Deleo. Turner views Deleo as a true unsung hero of the sport.

“He could have done something way more lucrative with that land,” Turner said. “It was leased to us at a really low cost, maybe DIRTRIDER.COM

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THE FAC T O RY TRACKS

$5,000 a year. He just loved off-road racing. He thought it would be fun and cool. Having tracks helped elevate the sport. We could test, riders got better, equipment got better. You can’t test boundaries without having that tool.”

B

efore turning off the main road to head up into the canyons, Deleo taps me and points to a golf driving range he owns. I learn later that it has become a favorite hangout for riders after a day of testing. The range manager, Roger Forney, said Eli Tomac used to come in four times a week when he was riding for Honda. Forney also said he lost count of the number of times he stopped play on the range so James Stewart could land an incoming or outgoing helicopter.

The paved road leading up the canyon is wide enough to fit an

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aircraft carrier but rougher than the Oregon Trail. Deleo swats me on the shoulder and implores that I join him in eating the chocolate-covered almonds that are melting together on the bench seat of his truck. It’s not even 10 a.m. and it’s nearly 90 degrees. The road narrows and is flanked by two supercross tracks on the left and an airstrip for radio-controlled airplanes on the right. The Circle City Flyers of Corona are yet another user group that benefits from Deleo’s magnanimity.

While model airplanes buzz overhead, Jason Anderson and Jordon Smith burn laps on the KTM test track, which lies alongside a public road; a father and son watch from the fence. As we head toward the yard where the core of Deleo’s business happens, a Yamaha floats in and out of view from atop a ridgeline, like a fish jumping out of water. We drive up above the yard close to where

wavy topography. But moving earth is his business. When I ask Deleo about it he tells the story of the thousands of tons of rock he blasted to carve out of the hillside for Honda.

It might seem odd that these competitive companies and teams operate on the same property, all within sight of each other (Suzuki has a direct view of five different tracks). Logistically, it makes perfect sense. The teams lease the land. Craig Deleo wouldn’t disclose the current lease prices but said they were very reasonable amounts. Teams also pay for water, carry liability insurance, and, of course, pay for track building and maintenance costs. “We did look around before the Corona track was built and it was difficult to have a place where the city wasn’t going to eventually move in on us,” said Yamaha Motor Corporation’s Motorsports Racing Division Manager Keith McCarty. “It needed to be in the middle of nowhere.”

Another upshot for the teams is that the Deleos have shouldered the immense cost of permitting and legal fees over the past 30 years. Originally, they were simply listed as “testing laboratories.” Because of a new piece of legislation in 2002, Deleo was forced to get a new permit, which they’re only now close to finalizing, 15 years later. Riverside County has never understood how to classify the tracks, and keeping them has made for a bumpy permitting process, especially because city positions turn over routinely. Given the costs of obtaining the permits and working with lawyers, Craig Deleo says it doesn’t really make financial sense to keep the tracks on their property. They do it because they love the sport and its people.

“Of all the industries we deal with, they are the best,” Craig says. “We never have fights, they’re easy to negotiate with, and there isn’t a bad guy in the industry. Well, Kehoe is pretty tough,” he said, laughing. “Put that in your article!”

In Corona, the teams and riders also have a central location that’s a reasonable drive from their shops and homes. Honda’s commute from Torrance is a little more than an hour, but Kawasaki and KTM are both close to 30 minutes. And when riders or team personnel drift to another brand, this part of the routine stays consistent.

C Yamaha keeps their two tracks. Craig, Deleo’s son, is helping a crew fix the water line that feeds Yamaha’s sprinkler system.

Behind us is a ledge that overlooks the 35-acre crushing yard where Corona Clay produces its Angel Mix, the material that gets shipped in truckloads to baseball fields all over the West Coast.

The red-colored and curated dirt is $40 a ton (plus freight costs), and most fields require 125 tons of it. The yard is expansive and filled with dozens of pieces of heavy equipment, a few palm trees, and a perfect cone-shaped pile of dirt about six stories tall.

From this cliff I can see Honda’s track tucked into a corner and TLD KTM’s off to the far right. Above Honda’s lot, a sprinkler throws an arc of water. Someone is preparing to ride at Suzuki.

It’s here that I realize Deleo has literally moved mountains to create perfectly flat spaces for the tracks that lie within a naturally

hugging up a dirt road, I notice K-rail cement barriers that protect vehicles from going over the ledge onto Honda’s track where Vince Friese is riding. At the top of the hill, Deleo drives through the open fence of Suzuki’s track where a thin dark-haired man leans on a shovel. A broad smile forms on the man’s face. Deleo’s truck is instantly recognizable. It hasn’t changed in decades, and anyone who has ever spent any time around these parts knows both it and the driver. The man with the shovel is Larry Brooks, whose various roles over the past three decades have given him access to all of these tracks. He gives Deleo a warm reception. It’s immediately apparent that they have a history. Josh Hansen emerges from behind the door of a Sprinter van.

“Jerry!” he says excitedly. We watch from the fence while Brooks mentors an amateur prospect who is preparing for the Monster Energy Cup. Hansen, on a blank RM-Z450, rides with mystifying grace. After the tour, I turn to Deleo and ask him how, at 84 years old, he still finds the motivation to drive around keeping up with his businesses and clients. While he putts around in his pickup, dozens of antique and collectible automobiles yearn for his attention. A stroke in March slowed (but didn’t stall) him, and two of his three children (who have reached middle age) work in the business and seem capable of handling the operations.

He looks directly at me. “I’m the track man!” he says with enthusiasm.

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2018 Honda CRF250R Pre-Game Before The ShooTouT STORy By AnDREw OlDAR PhOTOS By BRIAn SzuMSkI

T

he highly anticipated 2018 Honda CRF250R received a plethora of changes, including a new dual overhead camshaft engine, a new frame, and an exhaust with two entirely separate systems. It also swapped its Showa SFF TAC fork for a Showa 49mm coil spring fork, gained electric start, and stole the new bodywork from its big brother, the CRF450R. We didn’t have time to get it out to the track with any of the other 2018 250Fs when this issue went to press, but we did have time on most of them—enough to offer up this idea of how the new Honda feels and how it stacks up to some of the competition we’d previously spun laps on.

ENGINE Honda has used a SOHC “Unicam” engine design since the bike’s inception back in 2004, so the switch to a DOHC is a big one and Honda did this with the goal of increasing power in the higher rpm. The new electric starter fires the bike to life immediately with a click of the button once the bike is warm, but we found it liked to be given a little bit of throttle when the engine was cold.

The new engine is very free revving and has a crisp throttle response all throughout the rpm range. The powerband is notably different than the previous-generation CRF250R. The meat of the powerband on the prior-year machine was in the bottom-end and midrange, whereas the new engine revs to the moon and makes its best power in the top-end.

The new bike’s midrange is still meaty, as this is where the engine really starts picking up and hitting harder. Honda did sacrifice some bottomend power on the new engine, but the gains made in the top-end are well DIRTRIDER.COM

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2018 honda Crf250r

worth the decreased bottom-end hit.

Similar to its big brother, the new CRF250R is equipped with three engine maps that can be selected via the bar-mounted button. Map one (standard) has excellent midrange and top-end power, map two is a mellower version of map one, and map three has a bit better bottom-end hit than map one but also slightly less top-end and over-rev. We found map three to be the best option, as it increased the bottom-end hit that we were looking for and didn’t sacrifice too much on the top-end, especially because of how high the new engine revs.

Comparing the ’18 Honda to some of the other 2018 bikes in the class, the Suzuki RM-Z250 and Kawasaki KX250F have just slightly more bottom-end hit than the red machine, while the Yamaha YZ250F, which was praised for having the most bottom-end and torque in the

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250 class last year, still stands firmly above the CRF250R in the bottom-end and torque categories. In the midrange the Honda isn’t quite as strong as the YZ250F, but we feel it does have stronger midrange than the RM-Z250 and KX250F but only a bit stronger than the KX250F; though some of this feeling likely comes because of the KX250F’s much more linear powerband, so its midrange hit is not as distinctive as the Honda’s. In the top-end, it’s too close to call before shootout days, but we’d predict the CRF250R will be a front-runner with the Yamaha as a close competitor.

SUSPENSION The new CRF250R is spec’d with the same fork that the CRF450R is equipped with but with a softer spring rate and valving to match. The new spring fork is a major improvement. It works extremely well and has an excellent balance

between a comfort and performance feel. The fork is plush in braking bumps and has fantastic bottoming resistance on big impacts, with no harshness in any part of the stroke.

Both of our test riders opted to go two clicks stiffer on the fork compression to help the front end feel more stable and alleviate an occasional, slight twitchy feeling on deceleration prior to corner entry. The firmer setting helped the fork stay higher up in the plusher part of the stroke, which helped the front end stay better connected to the ground and not try to wander in search of traction. The shock works in unison with the fork with a plush feel up higher in the stroke, helping the bike stay planted in the rougher, choppier parts of the track. Similar to the fork, the shock has excellent bottoming resistance and predictability.

The new Showa 49mm fork rivals the widely praised KYB SSS fork found on

2018 honda Crf250r mSrP: $7999 Weight (tank full): 238 lb.

Seat height: 37.0 in. fuel capacity: 1.6 gal. powersportshonda.com

WhaT’S hoT • Strong top-end power • Balanced suspension • Razor-sharp handling

WhaT’S noT • Mellow bottom-end power • Occasional twitchy feel on deceleration • Electric start needs coaxing with throttle in colder temperatures

the YZ250F. The YZ250F fork still has a plusher, more comfortable feel on a wide variety of terrain. However, the Honda fork is the perfect choice for those looking to trade a little bit of the cushiony feeling for a little more precision and feel from the front end. The Honda fork still feels much plusher than the Showa SFF fork on the KX250F and the KYB PSF2 fork on the RM-Z250.

CHASSIS/HANDLING The new chassis shares many of the same great characteristics the previousgeneration machine had but is improved in nearly every way. It feels even lighter and nimbler than the 2017 model and turns on a dime. The chassis is sensitive to rider input and responds immediately, making direction changes quick and easy. The bike corners effortlessly and has a small overall feel to it. The Honda feels stable at speed but every once in

a while had some minor headshake on deceleration, which we were able to fix with those two clicks stiffer on the fork compression. After the adjustment, the bike had an excellent balance between great cornering ability and confidenceinspiring straight-line stability.

The CRF250R still doesn’t turn quite as intuitively or as easily as the RMZ250, but it’s close, and it does corner better than the KX250F and YZ250F. The CRF250R has good straight-line stability, better than the RM-Z’s, but doesn’t feel as planted as the Yamaha or the Kawasaki (the Kawasaki has the best straight-line stability of the bunch). The Honda and Kawasaki both feel small in a positive way, with the CRF250R feeling just a bit smaller and easier to throw around than the green machine.

CONCLUSION The all-new Honda CRF250R is a major

improvement over the previous-generation model. Honda’s decision to develop a DOHC engine for the bike accomplished exactly what most riders yearned for from the small-bore red machine: more top-end power. The bike retains its meaty midrange power and quickly transitions into the higher-revving, stronger top-end. Losing a little bit of bottom-end is a small price to pay for the big gains made up top. The suspension provides a near-perfect combination between comfort and performance; both ends are well balanced with a plush feel in the chop and plenty of bottoming resistance on bigger impacts. The chassis has razor-sharp handling and is easy to corner and put where you want it. It also stays planted on the high-speed sections of the track with minor clicker adjustments. The 250F MX Shootout is right around the corner, and Honda is bringing a very potent new weapon.

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Be More Like Modding Two KTM s Toward Each oThEr STORy By AllAn BROwn | PhOTOS By SEAn KlIngER

ktM has done an exceLLent joB in offering an off-road bike for almost every application, and two of its popular off-road models are the 300cc two-stroke XC and the XC-W bikes—though one might be more popular than the other. The XC is designed more for off-road competition while the XC-W is more trail oriented. The more-popular XC sometimes has limited availability, or the ones that are available are commanding a higher price than the XC-W. Fortunately, project bike builder Jay Clark has demonstrated how you can buy either bike and pretty much cover both categories.

It was Jay’s goal to make the XC a little more trail friendly and the XC-W a little more competitive. He started by adding a rear taillight and front headlight from a Husky TE (to keep with the white plastic) onto the XC, allowing you to ride past dark.

He also added a 51T Supersprox Stealth sprocket to match the final drive gearing of the XC-W. On the XC-W he added a JD Jetting kit to the new Mikuni carb, V-Force reed cage, and had Metaltek machine 0.015–0.018inch off the head to tighten the piston/ head squish. This was enough to raise the compression a noticeable amount but still not too much to require race gas.

Some other notable upgrades included FMF Gnarly pipes with Powercore 2 silencers, Vertex piston kits, IMS oversize fuel tanks, IMS coolant overflow catch bottles, Trail Tech radiator fans, Cycra Racing Ultra Pro-Bend hand guards and plastic kits, DeCal Works graphics, Hinson clutch kits, and to keep us totally connected to the ground, some Dunlop tires (AT81 front, 756 EX rear ultra gummy EnduroCross race spec).

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Your Brother

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OpiniOn sean klinger, Age 31, 215 lb., Vet Novice

The XC’s power was much more aggressive and instant, where the XC-W was like the master of traction. It really, really didn’t want to break the back end loose. It was also harder, or I should say it took more effort, to get the front end light. That being said, I loved the XC-W on the trail that we rode. I have a small issue with heights and trails with big drop-offs. It was a conscious decision to ride the XC-W up that trail. Its mellow, less-exciting bottom end still had plenty of torque to let me just cruise up any of the rocks and small ledges. I felt in complete control without having to cover the clutch constantly. Also, the PDS shock and Xplor fork work excellent at the first- and second-gear trail speed.

There was comfort and an active, lively feel from the suspension that feels like the bike is helping you get over rocks. I felt the XC was more of an aggressive, racy bike that would be better for racing or for someone who wants maximum performance. I do feel that its suspension isn’t as comfortable as the XC-W’s.

Not that it was bad for off-road—just that it didn’t have that extremely buttery smooth feel that the W has.

Jay also wanted to bump up the performance orientation of the XC-W’s suspension, so he got Factory Connection to revalve the WP 48 Xplor fork. The new settings offered more hold-up but still remained plush for nasty trails. Then they gave the PDS shock a plusher setting than stock to improve traction and small-bump absorption. To be fair to the XC, Jay asked Race Tech to go over the WP 48 AER air fork and WP shock. A full service to both fork and shock and an upgrade on the rear spring to a 4.6 (one rate higher than stock) were completed by Race Tech.

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The testing location we chose for these bikes included areas with large rocks, trials-type terrain, some faster-flowing trails, and a very technical mountain trail with plenty of elevation and tight switchbacks.

Initially, one of the small drawbacks was a noticeable weight increase with all the added accessories, mainly the IMS 3.5-gallon fuel tank (not so much the tank but the fuel in it). However, after about 20 minutes of riding, it just seemed normal and was no longer an issue.

The one thing we couldn’t modify was the gearbox. The first difference between

the machines that stood out was the XCW’s wide ratio compared to the XC’s semiclose ratio. The XC-W had exceptionally low first and second gears compared to the XC, making it a little easier to spin the rear tire in the sandy, lower-speed sections.

Entering one of the trial rock sections the XC seemed to offer a little more torque, making it much easier to carry the front wheel up and over an obstacle. For the most part both bikes soaked up the rocks with ease. The XC-W with the Xplor fork had a small advantage, offering very little feedback to our testers’ hands—a comfortable feeling for the times when we did not get the front wheel high enough to clear a step up onto a rock. With offsetting benefits, we called it a draw between the bikes for the trial section.

Next, we headed out to some faster trails with a few hill climbs. The torque of the KTM 300cc two-stroke counterbalanced engines was fantastic. The company has certainly done its homework on how to make these engines lug at what seemingly is 1,000 rpm and never stall. Once up to third gear, the engines felt almost identical. Both bikes worked equally well in the

wooded, single-track, tighter trails.

We moved on to riding in more open, flowing trails to see how the bikes felt above third gear. Tusk Racing provided some wheels for the testbikes and included oversize rotors. KTM offers some of the best brakes on the market, though, at times, they can be a little overpowering. In this application, the Tusk rotors seemed to offer a more progressive feel, which was a big help in the dry sand conditions. The suspension was somewhat comparable on both bikes. Each had a free, light feel at lower speeds, but the XC-W still lacked some control at higher speeds. Even with the complete revalve from Factory Connection the PDS shock still has a hard time offering the performance of the XC’s linkage system. At third gear speeds and above, the advantage goes to the XC. We stopped several times to plan photos.

Each time the Trail Tech radiator fans would cycle on and off for about five minutes. This was not a problem but more of a nuisance. To resolve this, we would just raise the temperature trigger point (a cool option the fans provide).

After lunch we rode across the valley and began a mountain trail loop. One of our test riders commented that the clutch action on the XC felt soft. He said this was mostly noticeable when releasing the clutch with the throttle on, where it would

OpiniOn andrew oldar, Age 26, 130 lb., Off-Road Intermediate

I liked the XC engine because it felt much livelier than the XC-W, which made it easier to blip over obstacles.

When I hopped on the XC-W for the first time, it almost felt like the engine timing was slowed down in comparison to the XC. It had a slower-revving, less snappy bottom-end with a more sluggish throttle response throughout the entire rpm range. The WP Aer 48 fork on the XC felt better than the WP Xplor fork on the XC-W. The Aer 48 fork felt more supple on the smaller impacts and had a plusher feel at the bottom of the stroke with better bottoming resistance on the larger impacts, such as drop-offs.

The linkage-equipped WP shock on the XC felt more lively than the PDS unit on the XC-W. I’m not completely sure if the suspension performance was affected by the difference in power, but the XC shined brighter in the suspension category for me. Both bikes felt super light and nimble, which made riding the challenging trails we rode that much more fun. At the end of the day, the XC was more fun to ride because of its snappier engine and livelier suspension.

slip longer than usual. We were unable to determine if the issue was in the bike’s clutch or the rider’s head.

This fun but technical mountainside single-track trail featured several rock step-up sections that were perfect for the XC-W. This was the kind of trail you certainly don’t want to let your bike slide off the low side; the XC-W’s low first gear allowed us to crawl through the rocks and switchbacks with ease. The XC also performed very well, but the advantage went to the XC-W thanks to a lower pucker factor.

By the end of the day we had ridden in a wide range of conditions. Both bikes performed well and are much closer in function than how they sit on the showroom floor. While the XC-W’s performance was increased and it certainly can hold its own everywhere we took it, we would say if you are looking for a competition off-road bike you would be better off starting with the XC model. If you are looking for a serious trailbike that performs extremely well, with the conveniences of a headlight and a taillight, a lower-hassle Xplor fork, and lessmaintenance PDS rear end, then the XC-W is for you. From either starting point you can tune toward exactly the type of riding you want to do.

WANT more? For more on the mods and the full parts list, check out dirtrider.com/xcvsxcw2017.

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To Thump or NoT To Thump CODy WEbb bREaks DOWn ThE aDvanTagEs Of TWO-sTROkEs vERsus fOuR-sTROkEs sTORy by shan MOORE anD PETE PETERsOn PhOTOs by shan MOORE, DIahann TankE, anD TannER yEagER There are few racers in the country with a better handle on the differences between a two-stroke and a four-stroke—and knowing the benefits of each—than Cody Webb. The factory KTM rider has spent the past several years jumping back and forth between the two platforms—racing extreme events like Erzberg and the Tennessee Knockout on a two-stroke, as well as the 2017 ISDE—yet has been competing in the EnduroCross series on a four-stroke.

FOUR Cody feels more at home on the four-stroke when it comes to EnduroCross and Super Enduro. In 2016, he rode a 250 XC-F in the EnduroCross series, but for 2017 he has graduated to the 350 EXC-F. “We started prepping for 2017 the day after the 2016 championship,” Cody says. “I started testing the 350 PDS the next day after I lost the championship to Colton Haaker. I was scrambling trying to find something better. So, I basically just started riding Taddy’s [Blazusiak] bike and I liked it.”

One early issue with the 350 was that he tended to stall it, something he never did on the 250. But, “KTM slowed down the engine with a heavier crank and pretty much turned the bike into a tractor,” Cody says. “At the same time they made it rev quicker [with some ECU changes].”

The bike pulled really good and Cody didn’t stall as much. As for an auto clutch solution? “I love the auto clutch and I hate it at the same time,” he says. “It almost becomes a crutch for some people, and for me the biggest benefit was

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To T h u m p o r N oT To T h u m p only when I had arm-pump. I still prefer the feel of a stock clutch just from riding trials, but I think they’re great for someone like me who suffers from really bad arm-pump.”

“The two-stroke motor was great in the rocks and good in the Matrix. It was definitely lighter, but it just felt twitchy when I was jumping off stuff. I had no consistency hitting the jumps… I would go off something and maybe I wouldn’t be on the gas enough, so it kind of bogged down a little bit too much off the lip. The next lap you come out and you’re like, ‘Oh, I got [to give it] a little bit more.’ You would do it just too much and the thing would sky-shoot you too high and too far. I knew EnduroCross was supposed to be kind of changing gears a little bit this year with the tracks, and they were trying to make things easier.

So I just figured I’m fast on either bike, but if I’m feeling more consistent and I can do things lap after lap with less effort on the four-stroke I’m going to stick with that.

“There’s more weight with the four-stroke, but you can kind of just get in a rhythm,” Cody continues. “You don’t have to try as hard to go as fast. With EnduroCross usually being pretty hard-packed— corners and jumps that are pretty hardpack, and a lot of times they water it a little bit too much so it gets pretty greasy. I just figured riding the four-stroke with that easy torque, I can get better grip going around the corners than having to clutch it like crazy to build power and not bog down too much. Then with how much easier it is to jump for me on a four-stroke, it was a no-brainer.

“I don’t know if it’s the weight or just the inertia of the motor and everything else going on there why it feels heavier and more planted, but I think it’s definitely a mixture

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of both,” he says. “I think all that circulating mass in the motor definitely has an effect where it makes the bike feel like it’s driving straighter.

“This year I feel like the rocks look gnarly in EnduroCross, but I’ve been riding them without much effort,” Cody says. “I don’t know if it’s the bike or my confidence. But if the rock sections had bigger holes in them and [the tracks

had a] tougher Matrix, for sure I’d be on a two-stroke.”

TWO “The two-stroke does have a little bit of a traction deficit, but you’re not going to be wide open in the rocks spinning the tire,” Cody says. “That’s just not how you ride rocks. You’d be a little bit lower in the meat end of the power where it pulls.

With the two-stroke I find I

can almost dance and pick my way through the rocks and hit points. Sometimes with the four-stroke if you get bogged off your line a little bit, it’s a lot more effort to get re-situated and get going again. So, either a long, straight rock garden or one with turns, the twostroke just feels a lot more nimble, which can get you in trouble, but it can get you out of trouble a lot easier than the

it all, but in terms of longevity and getting the bike to survive it’s way more risky to be on a four-stroke versus a two-stroke—at least in an extreme race.”

Overheating (and the resulting clutch fade from it) plus extra weight are the big concerns with the fourstroke, which is why you’ll see Cody on a two-stroke at the longer extreme races.

YOU

four-stroke does.

“A lot of times the front end will kind of skate and dance with the two-stroke,” Cody continues. “But it’s kind of easier to get it back in line again… On my two-stroke if I’m going through something I can almost be in the rocks and kick the rear end off a rock and land on another one and keep going. With the four-stroke it’s trickier to do that. Probably

because it’s firing every other time. That makes the bike feel a little heavier. If there’s a hole right in front of me and I see a big rock I want to hit over there; on the two-stroke you can flick the bike around a lot easier in the rocks.”

Cody, sounding like the engineer that he is, points out that the two-stroke power curve is, “more of an exponential curve where it kind of

just ramps up slowly and then all of a sudden it will start pulling up really quick, and then it just shoots up.” But in an extreme enduro Cody can stay in that low-end meat the whole time without having to pin it, unless he’s doing a hill climb.

“For the extreme stuff, without a doubt I would be on a two-stroke and nothing else,” Cody says. “You can do

“For getting the front end up in the air [to get over an obstacle], a two-stroke is probably a little bit easier. You can flick it around a lot easier, but it takes a little bit more effort with the clutch and throttle. The four-stroke has an instantaneous little pull right off the bat, but it’s more of a torque pull instead of a quick pop. So, the four-stroke you can have a short drive at something and it’ll just pull you off something. It doesn’t have that nimble feeling that the two-stroke does. I find myself using the clutch more on the two-strokes than the four-strokes for sure, just to get the bike to snap quick on the two-stroke.”

For the average off-road rider, Cody suggests a twostroke. His pick for the rider not going to the track would be, giving examples through the KTM line, the 250 or 300 XC-W because of the suspension that’s easier to live with (no linkage to grease and no air fork pressure to check) as well as no linkage to hang up on obstacles. The XC would be for the off-road rider who might occasionally hit a moto track. And for the rider who foresees jumps ahead of the handlebar, Cody would steer that rider to the four-stroke.

It’s great to have choices and unique that a current rider at the top of the sport actually moves back and forth from two-stroke to four-stroke throughout the season based on the event he’s facing.

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CODY WEBB’S ENDUROCROSS GAME PLAN AND STRATEGY STORY BY SHAN MOORE PHOTOS BY TANNER YEAGER AND DIAHANN TANKE

Y

ou see the racing, watch the racers on the line, maybe stroll through the pits to catch a glimpse of the prep, but not many people know all that goes into a typical race day, as well as what goes on inside the head of a top-level rider. Cody Webb walked us through his day and led us through his thought process of a typical EnduroCross.

DAY BEFORE “I’m always making sure I’m hydrated before any race. Sometimes for the super-gnarly extreme races I’ll be hydrating four to five days ahead of time. For dinner I usually have fish or chicken and rice or vegetables, something simple like that.

Then usually I’ll stretch at the hotel and listen to music or play the TV in the background and go to bed at a decent hour.

MORNING OF RACE “The morning of an EnduroCross race I sleep in just a little bit because the night show ends at almost 11 p.m.

A lot of times after I wake up I’ll go and hop on the elliptical or stationary bike at the hotel gym and get warmed up to loosen up a little bit.

Then I stretch. After that I’ll have breakfast and a cup of coffee. I usually get to the track around 9:30 or 10 and watch some of amateur practice and qualifying.

CHECKING OUT THE TRACK “When I first get to the track, I’m looking to see how gnarly the rocks are.

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A DAY AT THE

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A DAY AT THE

RACES I want to be standing in the arena and basically watch the amateurs in the trouble zones and then focus on the track walk.

PRACTICE “I used to make a lot of changes to the bike after practice. Last year I felt like I was fighting to find the right setup a little bit. It depends track by track what we’re changing. Usually we do the shock, just the clickers to give a little more pop. But this year I feel like the 350 has been pretty versatile. I think right now for me it’s also a confidence thing. I tell myself my bike is great. I trust it.

There’s nothing I should do.

ADJUSTMENTS “We video all the practices, so they’ll video me and other riders. In Everett I had an issue where my muscles were tight from a previous crash, so I was laying there stretching and analyzing the videos.

Then after hot laps we’ll have split times from the videos, so I’ll know which section of the track I need to make up time

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on compared to other racers. This also is key with trying to better my time for the racing that night.

TIRES “We basically run our ‘sticky’ tire because there’s nothing else I feel comfortable with in EnduroCross. So, I never change the rear. I’ve debated changing the front tire but have a good feel for the MX52.

We run tire balls on the rear and front just because they’re lighter and you can precisely set the pressure and feel you’re looking for. In Everett I was doing that jump though the water hole and there were these steel-bin-type obstacles. I could feel the bike just blowing through.

The tire balls are free to slightly move around in the tire and I could feel the rim nearly crushing. Since I didn’t want to worry about popping some of the tire balls and potentially losing the bead, I decided to swap out to a mousse. That was the first time I’d used a mousse in the last three years and it ended up working to my advantage.

OBSTACLES “My main focus is always the rock section because that’s where you can make

up the most time. I want to have a lot of options available, but obviously I want to find a hot line that I can take lap after lap.

These last couple years I knew my weakness was other sections of the course, like the jumps and whatnot, so I was setting the bike up more for that. Then I felt like I was just a little bit behind on my setup.

This year I basically have the bike set up for what I’m good at, and I’m making do with other parts of the track.

WEAK POINTS “I didn’t come from a moto background, so I kind of lose some of that aggression.

Some of the corners I’m not hitting as fast and carrying as much speed. My braking and acceleration points aren’t quite as good as some of the other riders.

You watch some of the younger kids now doing EnduroCross, they’re doing the doubles and kind of scrubbing and staying low. I just hit it full ‘dead sailor’ style and kind of float until I land again.

Sometimes when you’re walking the track you’re like, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’

If it’s a really sketchy jump it will be a couple laps before anyone hits it in practice, or maybe no one will even hit it until the second practice. It’s not too often,

but sometimes people will think we’ll do something and no one ends up doing it. I usually enjoy when no one ends up doing it, so I don’t have to.

STARTS “It’s important to watch the other starts before your race to see if they’re holding the gate for a long time that night or if it’s dropping right away. That kind of gives you a clue of how hard to get on the throttle when the board turns. You don’t want to sit there wide open and get your clutch hot. That changes things for the first lap before it cools down again.

CONDITIONING “To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m riding at 100 percent at an EnduroCross.

Cardio-wise it’s not really an issue. I’m obviously winded and sweating, but I can ride at 90 percent all day and be super efficient and click off the same time, lap after lap. But for me to go the extra 5 or 10 percent, I’m still solid cardio-wise but my arms start locking up and I start making mistakes and floundering. I can sprint like that for a lap, but to go lap after lap at 100 percent I start making those mistakes.

STRATEGY “As I get better I find it’s often better if I ease up a little bit more coming into an obstacle. It’s almost like treating a rock section like a whoop section in supercross.

Coming in a little slower and building speed as I go. It doesn’t look like that to the human eye, but I’ll kind of come in and I’ve been jumping in and landing, almost just with a light throttle. Then I’ve been accelerating as I go through, versus coming in hot and spinning the rear wheel right off the bat.

THE ROCKS “The rock gardens this season have had pretty big rocks, to be honest. They’ve done a great job of stacking them in there and piling them up to kind of have a couple lines. If you get off a certain line you’re not screwed. In years past they’d have a lot of big holes, and that would get people in trouble… I feel like this year I’m okay to take the risk of launching in because there’s not the bad consequences as there have been in years past.

JOKER LANE “I’ve been trying to work out a strategy for the Joker Lane. But right now, I have no strategy. We just determine in practice

how long it takes compared to the normal direction of the track and we will take the joker lane in the main depending on the gap we have compared to the extra time it takes to get through it.

MAIN EVENT “On the starting line sometimes I realize I have horrible posture so I try and open up my chest and shoulders and kind of get more blood flow going. Then on the bike before we take off I’m stretching out my forearms just trying to be loose. It’s pretty important to keep my arms from tightening up from how intense EnduroCross is.

When they raise the 30-second board, that’s when I usually put my goggles on. I have a weird habit of adjusting my goggles like crazy, non-stop. Because I’m going to be bouncing around for the next 12 or 15 minutes, I want to make sure the goggles are as straight on my face as possible. I kind of shake my head and get comfortable.

Once I can tell they’re about to turn the 30-second board over I shift into second and all I’m focused on is the gate at that point. From that point on, I charge hard, try to open up a nice gap on the competition, and ride consistent mistake-free laps to the finish line hopefully with the win.”

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PRO SECRET: RIDING 2

3

1 STORY BY PETE PETERSON | PHOTOS BY JEFF ALLEN

We got Cody to share five riding tips from three sections of his EnduroCross track. He had fun showing us and explaining the techniques.

FOOT PLANT 1. Step one, put your foot down [laughs].

For my front tire, I try to find a rock that’s not going to move out on me when I push down, and obviously for my foot I don’t want to put it on a rock that’s going to roll out. I’m pretty much at a dead stop right here and I’m compressing down on the forks so I can build rebound.

2. Now the forks are rebounding and I’m pulling up on the bars. I’m probably not even at a quarter throttle here. I pop the clutch just a little to get the bike up then I pull it in and feather it so I don’t stall.

3. You don’t want to crank the bars because you’re off the side of your bike and off axis so that outside arm, if you’re turning your bars, would be in an awkward position and would be hard to reach.

4. I use the balance point of the bike to conserve energy—that’s why I get the front end up high. I’m pulling the bike around more with my outside arm, and my inside arm’s just a guide to keep the bike balanced. I have a decent amount of weight on the outside peg. For the foot on the ground, I’m usually on the ball of my foot a little bit because, you know, a ballerina doesn’t slide around on her whole foot [laughs].

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5. The rear end’s been tracking underneath the front around the corner, and it looks like I’m not even pulling or pushing on the bike at all. I’m just kind of guiding the bike along. I’m just feathering the clutch with light throttle. You can use your rear brake if it starts looping out at this point. There’s definitely still weight on that peg pushing, so the rear tire doesn’t slide out and to keep the bike from falling down in on my inside leg. It looks like my head’s down but I’m definitely looking out of the rocks to see where I’m going to go next.

6. So here the front end’s going down.

My leg does look very extended, but I’m bringing the bike back in line straight with where I want to head next. I’m letting off on the throttle just a hair to let the front end come back down. I should be hopefully looking out of the exit of the corner at this point. I’ll push off quite a bit sometimes to pop back up onto the bike and also give a little push at the same time.

TIP: I recommend trying to use your rear brake learning this technique right off the bat so you don’t loop out. And obviously rocks are a very advanced version of this technique; practice it on flat ground first.

4

5

6

1 2

M AT R I X T I R E TA P M E T H O D 1. I plan on tire tapping, so I have the front end really high so I don’t drop it into that third log because dropping your front end in the Matrix is a trip over the bars. I’m digging into the back of the pegs pretty good, and I’m in kind of a squat position so I don’t get kicked.

2. I’m off the throttle here. I didn’t give it too much throttle because I’m planning on tire tapping, so I’m just kind of in the air, neutral, hanging out right now until I hit the next log.

3. I’m kind of letting the bike drop away from me right now. I’m tire tapping that second one and I want the bike to fall forward. My front tire’s going to fall on the back side of that third log, and I’m throwing my weight forward so the back of the bike rebounds off this second log, which will

3

4

5

help the bike unweight over the third log.

4. I hardly use the clutch at all in the Matrix on the four-stroke. But on this tire tap I’ll pull it in and almost pop the throttle just for a second to get the drive because you’re casing it on purpose, basically. So when I tap the second one I’ll want a little acceleration to just propel forward and get my rear tire to hop across that gap.

5. Hitting the second log to drop the front end, it’s a brake basically.

6. If there’s another obstacle right after the third log you can have a quicker reaction time using this tapping method.

TIP: I don’t use any brake for this because there’s not enough time to get your foot off the brake again to go into the next triple or double or log.

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| 65

PRO SECRET: RIDING

1

2

3

4

5

T R I P L I N G T H E M AT R I X 1. To clear all three logs I just hit the first one a lot harder. I’m preloading and keeping the power on a little longer.

2. If you go slower into it you need to give it more gas and you get more pop and you shoot out kinda high, which wastes time. If you come in a little faster you can just use the speed of the bike and just plow into it; it’s not very fun but it takes less time.

3. After I hit it I lean back and the natural motion of hitting the log with my rear tire drives the front end down in the air; that’s why you take off leaning back.

4. My legs are open a little bit to be able to react quicker.

5. Notice I’m landing my front tire right on top or on the back side of that last log?

6. That’s so the rear tire basically cases and slows me down for the next log. My knees are bent and I’m prepping for impact right now. If I was landing to flat I would just jump out farther, but there’s another log after this.

TIP: It’s tricky to stay straight in this Matrix because it’s all rutted in the dirt between the logs. At races, they use real trees so there’s a lot of knots and bumps that stick out, so I just try and avoid hitting those with my tire… As for [hitting] the bark or slick log under the bark, I know in the stadiums it doesn’t look like any line is better than the other from the seats, but sections of the log will be smaller that you hit or have less undercut; or maybe there will be just like a hair more dirt on one side or the other, so I’ll hit the greasy spot if I need to just stay lower or be able to have a smoother hit on the log.

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6

1

2

3

HITTING EACH LOG, A.K.A. THE GEOFF AARON METHOD 1. I’m not quite as aggressive; you don’t see as much roost off the rear tire. I’m kind of in attack mode, and I want my front tire to land basically right on top of that second log.

2. At this point I know my rear tire is going to hook and send the front down. You have to adjust your body weight either farther back or father forward depending on how quickly you want the front end to drop. I don’t want the front tire to drop right now because it’s not on top of the log so I’m leaning back so the bike kind of drives up the log more.

3. If I did it perfectly I would land the front tire just right in front of the top of the log, to get that rebound effect to bounce off and get to the next one.

But here I landed my front wheel a little too far and my front end is rolling down the backside of that second log; this isn’t great, but I’m just about to start accelerating. My rear tire is on top of the first log. You don’t want to accelerate on the front side of the log with the rear tire because the tire’s just going to spin and all your weight’s going to fall forward. So right about now I’m going to start accelerating but not aggressively.

4. That might be dust from the top of the log. At this point I’m starting to accelerate because I’m going down the backside of that log. I’m pushing into the back of the pegs because I know I need traction because it

4 looks like the front end is not going to make it to that next log. I’m not using the clutch; it’s just kind of like a “burp, burp, burp,” little bit of throttle over each one. I’m leaning back because I’m going to accelerate and the front end needs to come up at this point.

5. And here the front end’s just about to come down again, so I’m leaning forward, I’m pushing down on the bars, because when the front end hits the rear tire is just about to hit too, and it’s going to compress.

I’m leaning forward to kind of unweight the bike and get it to clear that third log.

6. Both tires are on top of a log, and it looks like I’m in a squatted position, but I think I’m in the process of unweighting. It looks like I’m aggressive but I think I’m weightless on the bike in a squatted position. I don’t know if you see that but that’s how I feel.

TIP: I’m in second gear, but a normal geared bike would be in first, so I’ll say first gear so everyone doesn’t try it in second and say, “That [jerk]!

There’s no way!” because on my bike I have a 12-tooth countershaft sprocket… This [method through the Matrix] is a way to be really consistent. It’s not necessarily going to be the fastest, but if it’s a really hard Matrix with awkward spacing usually you can get by just by playing with the front end and throttle.

5

6

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| 67

PRO SECRET: RIDING

1

2

3

4

LOOSE ROCK GARDEN 1. Keep the front end light.

People think I’m in the attack mode, but I’m definitely hanging off the back of the bike.

My toes are up, and that’s because I’m weighting the back of the pegs so I’ve got all the pressure on the rear tire. Most of my weight’s on the pegs.

I’m not pushing on the grips.

I’m just using a push-and-pull effect to keep it stable.

2. I was thinking about this—my heels are so far back and down if they catch it’s possibly going to pull my leg off the bike. That’s one reason why I say on the high line, not in the cracks, because I dig my heels down.

Surprisingly I’ve never caught my heel on a rock.

3. I’ve got a lot of pressure on the rear tire. You see how my heels are digging in? And I’m doing a little wheelie because there’s a hole or something probably. I’m definitely squeezing with my boots at the area right above my ankles, but I never try to grip too much in the rocks; you have to let the bike dance a little bit sometimes underneath you.

68 |

DIRTRIDER.COM

4. I’m never wide open in the rocks unless I’ve got a good momentum and I’m at the exit of them. I come in and I’m gentle off the bat so I get a good drive and make my way through. I don’t use the brakes. I don’t want anything to slow me down, and you don’t want to pull the front brake in because it can grab on a rock and unsettle you.

5. I’m using my feet a little bit to change and unweight off rocks if I want to change my line. And I’ll move with the front too sometimes, but, for example, in this rock section the rocks move so much it’s really hard to keep a straight line because if you try and use your front end to hit a different line you’ll push a rock out and it’ll mess you up.

6. In the rock sections you’re definitely not looking as far ahead as you would in other scenarios. I try and just avoid all holes so I’m looking for the bigger rocks that I want to hit with the front end that I know will keep me out of trouble.

Focus on the front end and the rear end should follow.

TIP: Keep the front end light and your feet on the pegs. If you dab or end up sitting down it’s really difficult to build your momentum again. If you get hung up in the rocks it’s crucial that you at least try to keep one foot on the peg at all times, and it’s really helpful to, as you dab, weight that peg and keep pushing along to keep momentum going. If I sit down I’ll put weight on the seat to get out of something, but I always try to stand up again as soon as possible because I’m in more control standing. If you’re sitting down it’s just a direct line of travel through your butt and through your back and you’re just working against yourself. Sure, you’re getting a lot of traction, but you’re not working with the bike. It’ll be hitting you and it’s out of sync and not balanced. And if you have a foot on the peg and you’re pushing, that kind of lets the bike do its thing and crawl through like a caterpillar [laughs].

5

6

TRAIL TIPS

VALVE STEM CAPS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

BY ALLAN BROWN | PHOTO BY CHRIS TEDESCO

The valve stem cap keeps dirt out of your tube’s Schrader valve, which is very important on dirt bikes, but that is not all that they do. Any good valve stem cap has a rubber

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Some aftermarket companies

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U.S. POSTAL SERVICE STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 USC 3685) 1. Publication Title: Dirt Rider; 2. Publication No. 07354355; 3. Filing Date: 10/1/2017; 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly except Dec/Jan and Feb/Mar; 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 10; 6. Annual Subscription Price: $20.00; 7.

Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016; 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016; 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher: Andrew Leisner, Bonnier Corporation, 15255 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92618; Editor: Pete Peterson, 15255 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92618; Managing Editor: Terry Masaoka, 15255 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92618. 10.

Owner: Bonnier Corporation, P O Box 8500, Winter Park, Orange County, Florida 32790; 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Securities: None; 12. Tax Status (for completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at nonprofit rates): Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months; 13. Publication Title: Dirt Rider 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September 2017; 15a. Total Number of Copies: 63,288 (September 2017: 57,993); b. Paid Circulation: (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 46,405 (September 2017: 41,686); (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: 2,546 (September 2017: 2,270), c. Total Paid Distribution: 48,951 (September 2017: 43,956); d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 809 (September 2017: 762); (4) Free or Nominal Rate distribution Outside the Mail: 36 (September 2017: 0); e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 845 (September 2017: 762); f. Total Distribution: 49,796 (September 2017: 44,718); g. Copies not Distributed: 13,568 (September 2017: 12,832); h. Total: 63,288 (September 2017: 57,993); i. Percent Paid: 98.30% (September 2017: 98.30%). PS FORM 3526: a: Requested and Paid Electronic Copies: 613 (September 2017: 551); b. total Requested and Paid Print copies & Paid Electronic copies: 49,563 (September 2017: 44,507); c. Total Print Distribution & Paid Electronic copies: 50,408 (September 2017: 45,269); d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 98.32% (September 2017: 98.32%).

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LONG HAUL

2018 HUSQVARNA FX 350 STORY BY ALLAN BROWN | PHOTO BY PETE PETERSON love riding dirt bikes, whether it’s trail riding with buddies, motos at the local track, or testing my nerve in a desert sand wash or across a dry lake bed—I just can’t get enough. Unfortunately, maximizing the enjoyment of these different disciplines within “dirt biking” can be a little challenging on just one bike model. This is where the Husquvarna FX 350 comes in.

I first rode the FX 350 at a motocross track for a comparison against the KTM 350 SX. Naturally, the do-all FX was not quite as aggressive as the 350 SX-F in suspension performance, and it was a little down on power delivery hit, but overall it was still plenty fast. At the end of the day I got to take the FX home for Long Haul testing.

I rode the bike a second day at the same track with a few adjustments to the suspension (raised the fork air pressure from 9.4 bar to 10.0 bar, went four clicks stiffer on both fork and shock compression and three clicks slower on the shock rebound) and found it to be quite enjoyable. Two days later I took it out to some single-track

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trails, and these settings were a touch harsh. So the stock fork settings went back, and the setup was really good for the trails. After only two weeks the hourmeter read 15 hours, and I was starting to think I’d maybe underestimated this bike’s potential.

Then a group of buddies and I went out to ride in a more open desert area. Several of them had new, tricked-out 450s. My thoughts were, “This is going to be a long day for me trying to keep up. My bike is underpowered, and the tires have 15-plus hours on them.”

On top of that, this small group of riders normally offers up as much as I can handle, this area was 100 percent new to me, and we had some late-summer rain the night before to make the conditions just about perfect; these guys were fired up and really wanted to put the hammer down.

The ride began through a few fun canyons with some technical and rocky hills—great conditions for this bike. Then we reached the first big hill climb, where two of my buddies were already struggling.

As I approached the base of the hill I made sure I was in third gear and

PRIMARY USE: Riding everywhere.

MAIN MODS: Optional black (gray is the stock slightly smaller one) throttle reel for quicker throttle opening. Raised air pressure in the fork and adjusted clickers for some motocross days.

MOMENT OF GLORY: Climbing a hill on the first try and riding by my buddies while they were struggling.

FORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE: Not getting one of these bikes sooner.

HOURS: 40 AFTERMATH: Two sets of Dunlop AT81 tires, one set of Dunlop heavy-duty tubes, one set of rear brake pads, four oil changes, and four air filter cleanings.

twisted the throttle. To my amazement, at no point did I get the sensation I was not going to make it.

As the day went on it became clear that this bike did not give up much, if anything, to its 450 big brothers. Its ability to climb hills and its stability in the higher-speed sand washes was fantastic.

The six-speed gearbox offers good first-through-third-gear close-ratio performance, and when you want to pick up the pace the bike has enough power to pull fifth and sixth gears with ease. While the suspension is a touch soft for a local moto track with jumps, I would say it performed excellently everywhere else.

In only two months I have logged more than 40 hours. I had one flat tire at about the 20-hour mark, and I installed the optional throttle reel that is included with the bike to reduce the throttle pull travel. This is a bike that can do everything very well. Its weakest point might be the softer suspension on a motocross track with big jumps, but it does not hold you back from having fun unless you plan on aggressively racing motocross on it.

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Beta 300 RR Race Editions come stock with a quick release front wheel pin.

2018 250 RR Race Edition 2-Stroke

Available at one of these fine Beta dealers S&T Cycles, North Clanton AL, 205-755-1001

Sandpoint Marine & Motorsports, Ponderay ID, 208-263-1535

Steve’s Custom Cycle, Lockport NY, 716-625-4372

Al’s Cycle Center, Dr North Little Rock AR, 501-758-4800

Braaap Shop, Mendota IL, 815-538-6686

Beaver Creek Cycle, Lisbon OH, 330-386-7353

Dirt Riders, East Butherus Dr Scottsdale AZ, 800-467-0604

C&D Motorsports, Robinson IL, 618-544-7433

Championship Powersports, Wauseon OH, 419-335-8600

On Any Moto, Tucson AZ, 520-269-6606

The Cycle Shed, Vernon IN, 812-346-8620

Pony Powersports, Westerville OH, 614-212-7888

Auburn Extreme Powersports, Auburn CA, 530-885-7105

Miller Cycle Shop, Inman KS, 620-712-1165

Airhead Sales & Service, Klamath Falls OR, 541-882-3572

Browns Cycles Joey Brown, Paso Robles CA, 805-238-1240

Morgan’s Suspension Service, Louisville KY, 502-239-1870

Beaverton Motorcycles, Tigard OR , 503-718-6670

C&D Cycle Center, San Diego CA, 858-277-3298

Knight Cycles, Southbridge MA, 508-764-4356

Dan’s Motorsports Outlet, Aumsville OR, 503-385-8108

Capitol Yamaha, Sacramento CA, 916-485-9200

Xtreme Powersports, Accident MD, 301-387-2095

Bromley Motorcycle, Trevose PA, 215-357-1534

Douglas Motorcycles, San Bernardino CA, 909-884-4776

Bennett Powersports, Marlette MI, 989-635-5500

Bromley Motorsports, Stevensville PA, 215-450-5487

Honda Kawasaki Beta of Modesto, Modesto CA, 209-529-5424

MX Parts Now, Watervliet MI, 269-201-7064

Kissell Motorsports, State College PA, 814-861-7890

Jetworld Powersports, Castaic CA, 661-294-0072

Plus One Performance, Dearborn MI, 313-918-8944

Pro Motorsports, Carnnegie PA, 724-444-6555

Moore & Sons, Santa Cruz CA 831-475-3619

Bonecutter Body Shop, California MO, 573-796-8685

RyanCo Cycle Works, Bloomsburg PA, 570-437-4034

MotoXotica, Vacaville CA, 707-446-4282

Donnell’s Motorcycles, Independence MO, 816-478-9393

South Mtn Cycle Shop, Dillsburg PA, 717-432-4997

Mountain Motorsports, Ontario CA, 909-988-8988

Motorcycles and More, Marthasville MO, 636-433-2384

Upstate Cycle, Greenville SC, 864-232-7223

North Kern Motorsports, Delano CA, 661-721-1400

QC Moto, Springfield MO, 417-862-4343

Rosco’s Motorcycle & ATV, Rapid City SD, 605-348-3946

Simi Valley Cycles, Simi Valley CA, 805-522-3434

Fastoys, Kalispell MT, 406-257-8697

Garry Griffith Cycle, Chattanooga TN, 423-867-0423

Uptite Husky, Santa Ana CA, 714-540-2920

Hanson’s Motorsports, Billings MT, 406-545-7338

Big Country Motorsports, Magnolia TX, 281-356-2506

Apex Sports, Colorado Springs CO, 719-475-2437

Kurt’s Polaris, Missoula MT, 406-541-3651

Ridgeline Motorsports, Vernal UT, 435-789-7433

Extreme Power Sports, Steamboat, CO 970-879-9175

Poet Motorcycles, Helena MT, 406-457-8230

Steadmans Recreation, Tooele UT, 435-882-3344

Grand Mesa Motorsports, Delta CO ,970-874-8621

Brewer Cycles, Henderson NC, 252-492-8553

Sunny Offroad, George UT, 435-632-8481

MotoAdventure, Loveland CO, 970-669-5377

Johnny’s Cycle, Nebraska City NE, 402-873-6913

Sunny Offroad, Perry UT, 801-430-1101

Spirit Lake Motorsports, Grand Lake CO, 970-627-9288

Naults Powersports, Manchester NH, 603-669-7220

Allsport Cycles, Roanoke VA, 540-772-2500

Cycle Tech, Fremont IA, 641-632-8201

Town & Country Cycle Center, Hamburg NJ, 973-875-2111

Frank’s Motor Bikes, Bellevue WA, 425-603-9000

Hicklin PowerSports, Grimes IA, 515-986-4880

Trapani Race Setups, Waretown NJ, 609-693-3773

Smitty’s Outdoor Power & Cycle, Yakima WA, 509-453-9966

Action Cycles N Sleds, Twin Falls ID, 208-736-8118

DT Motorsports, Alamogordo NM, 575-434-0454

Sprocket Sport Sales, Spokane WA, 509-489-7331

Dennis Dillon RV & Marine, Boise ID, 208-343-2830

Sierra BMW Motorcycle, Sparks NV, 775-355-0655

Metro Motorcycle, Neenah WI, 920-722-0700

Kolby Offroad, Idaho Falls ID, 208-881-9646

Sportsman Cycle, Las Vegas NV, 702-641-6401

Appalachian Offroad, Lanes WV, 304-932-0437

Revolution Motorsports, Moscow ID, 208-883-7800

3 Seas Recreation, Mayville NY, 716-753-2628

Alpine Motorsports, Casper WY, 307-234-4944

Powerline Cycles, Mahopac NY, 845-528-3401

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