Chatting With: Luke Renzland 2

We caught up with the CycleTrader.com/Rock River/Yamaha crew while they were testing out here in California, and they've got a whole bunch of new things to work on. Yamaha has boosted their support, so the team will now have plug-and-play replacement of the powerplants. While we were there, Dan Rambert and Bob Oliver from Yamaha were working with Alex Martin, Luke Renzland, and the crew on the mechanical and electronic side of the bike, and Will Decker and Yoshi from Enzo were working with them on dialing them into the KYB suspension that they'll be using this year.

We’re checking in with CycleTrader.com/Rock River/Yamaha's Luke Renzland. It's the rookie Supercross season for you. What are you looking forward to, and what do you have to learn?

I’m just looking forward to a whole season on the pros and really looking forward to the schedule of getting in one day and getting back out that night, compared to the amateurs where you’re stuck at the track for a week kind of twiddling your thumbs, waiting for your race for half the day. That’s my main excitement is just looking forward to the new schedule and riding with bigger and better competition and looking to improve myself as a person and a rider.

How about learning Supercross as a craft? I’m guessing you probably haven’t spent a lot of time doing it. I hear you’ve got about a month in?

Yeah, I have about a month in on my Supercross track back in Florida at Dreamland. I’ve been adapting pretty quickly I guess. Everyone here in California at Yamaha and CycleTrader.com and Rock River is happy with my improvement. I’m just looking to go back home after this and really get to boot camp here pretty soon and start making improvements even faster.

It looks like you're doing East Coast this year, so you get to watch some of the West Coast races. Are you looking forward to that and kind of figuring out the program?

Yeah, actually I’m going to fly out to Anaheim and check out the first race of the season and kind of get an idea for what it’s all about with track walk, and the lap times and practice. Just checking out the schedule just to see what I’m going to have to adapt to. I think it’s definitely a good idea for me to do East so I can check out all the West Coast rounds and see what everyone’s doing and include that into my program.

Out here now you’re working with the Yamaha guys. With all the dials and switches on the bars, it looks sort of like an Indy car dashboard that you have to learn, too.

Yeah, it’s actually really cool. The bike setup that Yamaha has for us this year, it’s all new to me and it’s still quite the learning curve getting on the bike and having all sorts of knobs and dials to play around with while I’m riding right in my cockpit on the handlebars. It’s definitely super cool, the technology they have into the bike, and I’m super thankful that they’re giving us the opportunity to run the bikes this year.

What would make a good season for you on the East?

I’m definitely expecting to be top 10 this year, but I would be super-pumped with a podium or two. I’m just looking to plant myself definitely in the top five and expecting top 10s.

What have you done to change up your prep for this year, training or otherwise?

I’m kind of sticking to the same people in my corner. My brother, Cody, is doing my riding coaching and my off-the-bike training. I still have my mechanic Jelly who’s full-time with me on my practice bike, and he’ll be with me at the races as well. I have all the same people in my corner, it’s just we’re adapting to the different style of Supercross and switching up the program here and there, just making little tweaks and not trying to change everything up too much.