Vital MX Pit Bits: 2018 Anaheim 2 2

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Ready for the best from the track, the pits, bikes, gear, tech and more from Anaheim 2? Dive in and get it with the latest Pit Bits!

Aaron Plessinger's Monster Energy/Yamalube Star Racing YZ250F looks pretty good with a splash of red.

Kenny's lid this weekend is sick, check out all the wording.

Check the names and phrases, all of Kenny's personal team and his determination on display.

Check the tag, official Red Bull helmet.

Cole Seely was seventh in qualifying, but way up the list on style.

We love seeing new riders getting their first taste of two wheels. Honda has a sweet setup in the pits for first-timers.

Ben LaMay got by Matt Bisceglia in the final turn of the 450 LCQ to grab the last transfer spot.

Jeremy Martin's CRF450R he's been riding these first three rounds is provided by HRC but with a couple small tweaks.

The biggest change we noticed was the removal of the hydraulic clutch, as J-Mart has gone cable. With this, a larger block plate was added to cover up the hole created for the slave cylinder. Considering Martin runs a cable clutch on his GEICO CRF250R, it makes sense he wants it on his 450 as well.

Fresh Factory Connection/KYB stickers. J-Mart is running KYB on both his CRF450R and CRF250R this year...both being equipped with PSF1 air forks.

Johnny getting things just right on J-Mart's ride.

Richard "Pedro" Sterling doing a little trimming.

Chase Sexton is another GEICO rider on KYB, albeit his are AOSS spring forks.

Peek at the small hole drilled in the GEICO 250 engine hangers. Just a lil extra flex...

The GEICO guys utilizing some foam to reduce decibels and damped vibration noises in sound testing.

Synchronized clutch changes with the GEICO Honda team.

Less friction, please. The GEICO boys run a DLC coated brake pin to keep the pads moving smoothly.

Titanium shift lever? Umm, where's our HRC catalog, we want!

The team now has some sano Factory Connection linkages for their race bikes...instead of non-anodized machined ones.

Here's a peek at Bradley Taft's CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha.

Rock River Yamaha has partnered with Yoshimura for not just exhausts this year but also a full engine package...instead of their previously deal leasing GYTR engines from Yamaha directly.

Bradley Taft can see what his heart rate is at all times...

Although the Rock River team has reverted to stock clamps like the factory team, they still have a one piece top bar mount to keep things from twisting in a crash. Also note the KYB PSF1 air forks for Taft.

Cee-Lo gets the Jason's freshly minted red-plated FC 450 ready for the day.

Pff, who needs a fancy transponder holder?

As long as we can remember, Jason Anderson has used a Showa steering damper on his Rockstar Racing rides...even though most of the KTM and Husky teams have gone away from running one.

Dean Wilson's machine doesn't have one, as we can see.

Anderson's rear brake line guide has been drilled out to drop a lil extra weight.

Dean Wilson is back racing and flying the Shift MX flag.

The LitPro guys have some interesting new goodies, by matching up the LitPro with a new app on an iOS device, they can get realtime info on heartrate, G forces, speed, and more. You may see some of that on tonight's TV broadcast. We had a chance to personally test this early in the week, check back for more on LITPro Live.

It's awfully good to see Marvin Musquin back after his shoulder injury last week. Talking with some of the Red Bull KTM crew, they said if we'd have asked on Thursday if he'd be in action, the answer probably would have been no. It came around a lot in the latter half of the week.

Equally good to see back in action is Eli Tomac. He looked much better in qualifying here then he did in Houston.

Jade Dungey making sure Broc Tickle's LITPro is firmly attached.

What you likely won't see is how the Red Bull KTM team is using the LITPro and an onboard phone to transfer info on their bike's performance.

The Red Bull KTM squad was taking on a bit more work this weekend with data acquisition on their suspension with both Marvin Musquin and Broc Tickle...

Little shock data as well...

The all orange on Blake Baggett's Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-WPS-KTM just works.

Baggett runs his start device lowwww...

Non-folding ASV levers with a very small carbon fiber guard for the master cylinder.

ProPegs supplies the Rocky Mountain team's titanium pegs and even a ti brake pedal tip.

Blake Bagggett's machine featured a stock link arm, surprisingly.

FMF has some larger volume megabomb headpipes for Baggett's 450 SX-F Factory Edition.

Nate Alexander took a bit more weight off of Blake's machine.

The Rocky Mountain team has some new work stations this year, courtesy of Beta tools.

Dakota Alix had a weird one, with a swollen eyelid that required a butterfly bandage to keep it out of his line of sight.

There's always a lot of trainer's tape in use. Usually you just don't see it. Coop getting the ankle treatment.

Malcolm Stewart is on the last race with Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing squad, as we hear that Justin Bogle should be back next weekend. Look for Malcolm to go to his own privateer Kawasaki effort.

Ben Schiermeyer feeding Malcolm Stewart's bike a new clutch.

The Showa tags might not seem like much, but in this case it's because Justin Hill has received a bit extra help this week. Being on the West coast currently, the Showa tech assigned to the 450 team stepped in to test with Justin this week. The JGR 250 team suspension duties are normally handled by Rob from RG3.

Hill has reverted to a stock link arm and bell crank, instead of the works Suzuki pieces.

So many wires, so many sensors, so much data...

Spencer Bloom whipped up some trick guards to keep the second injector safe on the RM-Z250s.

After the first practice session, Malcolm Stewart's RM-Z450 was pushed off the track. Initially we saw the team unbolting the engine, making us believe there'd be a swap. Instead, it looked as if they were moving the engine to access something on the electronics. Everything was bolted back in place and the bike went out for the next session.

The FMF have an off-road/camping theme for this year's booth.

A tight shot of MotoConcept's Justin Brayton's Showa works forks. This shot shows off the inserts for sensors and the location of the air valve for these spring forks with "air assist".

Vince Friese and Jake Weimer's machines are running KYB PSF1 air forks instead.

Some extra grip applied to Vince Friese's machine.

Joey Savatgy was fourth in qualifying here.

Adam Cianciarulo is having a weird day. He's fast, but also had a couple crashes. This one was easy, but the one at the end of the final session? Not so much. He rode out on the Alpinestars Mobile Medical Mule.

Need some flex? Drill some holes.

Mechanical chain tensioners for the Pro Circuit squad.

What''s the white silicon for? Keeping the lock ring for the front sprocket in place.

The PC team keeps the master link on their chains easy to spot, by running red links at the location of the clip.

Adam Cianciarulo is kicking off a video blog, we think...here his practice mechanic gets all the behind the scene shots. Oh we hope this makes the light of day, the commentary was gold.

We're guessing the top work is Japanese for Kawasaki? Anyone care to translate?

Knowles keeps the PC team stocked with plenty of Scott goggles for each race day.

Holy radiator, the PC boys are ready to stay cool.

It's in the details...

Guess what Vital member made these...hint, his name has to do with the color of these bikes.

Eli Tomac's KYB shock features high and low speed compression on this adjuster, along with low speed rebound.

We noticed another small difference in Tomac and Grant's bikes...Grant's ride features 5mm taller titanium pegs.

While Tomac sticks with the standard height.

Grant has also reverted to the stock engine mounts...

Compared to these custom machined version that Tomac is still using.

Grant's production upper engine hangars.

Braap!

Justin Barcia has a sweet new Arai lid here.

The 100% crew was busting out some of their new Spring designs here, and we spotted some new stuff on Chase Sexton, Aaron Plessinger, and Cooper Webb.

Given their experience with e-start on their road race bikes, the Yamaha factory team has an interesting setup for batteries and charging. There's a port under the sideplate that allows them to use a battery to keep the onboard battery charged, balanced, and ready to go. There's also and LED readout to show the voltage. When in the pits, the bike will be fired via the external battery.

The Factory Yamaha guys have this small guard on the under side of the brake caliper mount to keep the caliper a bit safer in the deep ruts.

Alex Ray is on air forks...Keefer, you okay with this?

The Milestone crew were here scanning riders for their upcoming Supercross game release.

Doh! Apparently fifth-grade gym classes are dangerous. Lurch was helping out at his daughter's school, and is dealing with a tweaked leg this weekend. That might slow him down a little, but likely won't reduce his decibel levels.

Golf legend and former amateur motocross racer Rickie Fowler came out to cheer on his buddy Kyle Chisholm.

Hmm, we hadn't noticed these Rockwell straps before.

Jesse Rooke had a sweet bike over at the Oakley booth.

AJ Catanzaro had a scary moment in the first timed practice when he ran out of fuel over the finish line jump.

FELD partnered with each OEM to make these Ride Right boards to promote youth safety gear. Here's the TLD KTM version.

This Week's KJSC rider list.

If you follow along on the Vital MX Forum, you've likely seen Bryan Friday post in there. His son, Ryder, is in the KTM Junior Supercross Challenge this weekend.

Who's stoked about a tour of the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM rig?

Everyone has that one bike that they remember from their youth. For ASV's Bob Morales, it was a '75 Yamaha YZ80, like the one he's riding here at the World Mini in '76. He recently found the same year and model bike, and picked it up. Yeah, he's stoked. Which bike is it for you?


Pit Bits 2018 - Anaheim 2
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