Vital MX Pit Bits: 2018 San Diego Supercross 2

Military Appreciation night brings out some trick stuff and we have the goods to show off.

ML512
2/10/2018 5:34pm
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It's military appreciation night in San Diego! It's become a tradition, with the majority of teams and brands going all in with different designs to honor the branches and those who have served. Without further-ado, dig in!

Chad Reed isn't from the US, but he still pays tribute to it when he can. While most went with camo looks, he went full red, white, and blue.

Chad paid tribute in another way as well, honoring Nicky Hayden with a replica helmet, similar to what Nicky would use.

Spy the ghosted 69s, Hayden's long-time racing number.

Throwing in a buttpatch to boot.

Factory Effex did up a fighter plane theme for CR22 this weekeend, going well with his gear.

Pro Circuit pipe stickers were customized per team for the occasion.

Chad also got some new goodies this weekend, in the form of a custom made, billet works KYB shocks. Due to the late nature of Reed's program, only cast style kit bodies were available with a production sized adjuster. KYB was able to whip these bad boys up, and they were custom made to fit Reed's Husqvarna.

Part of Chad Reed's VIP program includes race radios for each guest, so they can stay in the loop during qualifying and the races with team chatter/updates.

With Matt Bisceglia out injured, Josh Hansen's bike was alone under the LVN100 tent.

Josh's AMA assigned number is 72 this year, but the 100 isn't far away if you look closely. We're still not sure what round Hansen is returning to racing at.

With Mitchell Oldenburg and Justin Cooper out injured, Aaron Plessinger is the solo man under the Star Racing tent.

Rekluse added a splash with this custom clutch cover for the Star team.

Aaron Plessinger's YZ250F uses a stock link arm coupled with a factory Yamaha bell crank.

Pro Circuit's pipe stickers for their own bikes.

Fox's latest 180 SE launch for military appreciation night is available to purchase. The Pro Circuit team are rocking it tonight.

Fox made some custom pockets for Cianciarulo and Savatgy's wrist braces. All-Sport does these themselves but Fox took them in house so they could match the logo into their gloves. Pretty sano.

The Pro Circuit team is the only major outfit we noticed that run the Excel A60 rim, while other Excel teams run their standard rim. Why? The A60 is stronger, but weighs a bit more and is noticeably stiffer. It seems a good amount of riders prefer the flex found with the standard version.

The Geico team ran the names of each soldier than passed away while on deployment in 2017, along with the logo of San Diego's local Marine regime, the 1st recon battalion, which trains along the coast above San Diego.

Geico Honda was looking for just a bit more flex, thus the small drilled hole in the upper engine brackets.

The Geico crew has joined the under-mounted injector club. They tried these style throttle bodies on the previous generation CRF250R and they didn't respond well to them...the latest version however must be a different story.

The stock black CRF ignition covers don't hold up very well in the looks department, so the Geico team freshens them up with a cerakote treatment.

Cooper Webb's Bell Moto-9 Flex featured some small Nebulas to match Thor's gear release last weekend.

Jason Anderson has gone away from the drilled sideplate he had during the first few rounds, meaning he now has a smoother power delivery.

The latest collection of Pro Taper bar pads were released this week, here Dean Wilson's bike has one of the new sets.

Justin Barcia and IG moto sensation Beeg Creations. Barcia was presented with a copy of Beeg's latest work, featuring BamBam himself.

Check out Beeg Creations on Instagram for more awesome works.

Yamaha's custom PC can stickers were color coordinated.

Davi Millsaps display bike featured a Brembo hydraulic clutch he had been testing at the time of his injury. He mentioned it had much better feel than the Nissin versions he had used in his Honda days.

In the past, Yamaha's hydraulic clutch units have come from Rinaldi racing but we're not too sure if this version was still made by them...as this version is much different.

Roost MX went all in for the Cycle Trader/Rock River Yamaha team, she's a looker.

A-Ray's 450 version.

Fox has been going all out with custom designs for Ken Roczen this year.

These Instincts are reminiscent of the ole Fox F3s that James Stewart used to have, all white with silver accents. Fox, can we please have these?

Ken has mentioned multiple times that the Mobius wrist brace has been a huge help in riding after his injury.

Cole was rocking the latest version of TLD's stars and stripes gear for the night.

Who needs a buttpatch sown in when it can just be made as a part of the design.

We noticed Ken Roczen's fork tubes have had a stock look to them for a few rounds now...

Well that's because they are stock, sorta...usually HRC's works forks have a large taper jump near the top of the fork going into the top clamp but these tubes are standard. We even heard they're pre-19 part, so they're basically "stock" in a sense.

Spy the extra material around the kill and map switch? This keeps things from accidentally getting bumped.

HRC runs DID's LT-X rim in SX as it's a bit lighter but swap to the ST-X for the outdoor season for a bit more strength.

Honda packed a lil foam between the rear seat and fender. We've noticed the stock Honda seats sometimes squish down on the rear too easily. This could be the team's way of combating this, or helping out with sound tests, or keeping waters out of the airbox...or maybe all the above?

Fly's Army inspired gear that is found on the Rocky Mountain team and Josh Grant this evening.

Brock Tickle getting his warm up in with Concept2's new spin bike.

Tyler Bowers is beat up, bruised, and a bit broken...but he needs that diaper money, so he's pushing on! The Bear is a tough one...

Josh Grant getting his Dr. Navarro supplied deep stretch.

Privateer, Gage Schehr went full camo.

It's good to have Justin Bogle back at the races and smiling, along with some new Answer gear we haven't seen and the latest LE Alpinestar Tech 10s.

IBcorp racing has grown by one this weekend, with a new total of four riders.

RaceTrack Supercross Contest runner-up, Noah McConahy, has been added on...congrats Noah!

The JMC team got in on the action with their own graphics changes for the night's festivities.

Chris Howell's bike featured KYB forks...

While Chase Marquier's had WP forks. Both are tuned by Enzo racing, so it's cool to see a smaller outfit offering up options to their riders. Big commitment.

East coast, are you ready for Zach Osborne?

With the ever-expanding San Diego skyline in the background, Petco Park is one of the more scenic open stadiums we race in.

Timmy Weigand (left) has one of his minions participating in the KTM Junior Supercross Challenge. Doc Bodnar (right) found a good way to repurpose a kids knee brace for his injured arm.

This was the first time we'd seen all three Knich Yamahas parked in the Factory rig. With the announcement of Davi's retirement (he'll do a lap of honor in Atlanta), and Justin's signing for the rest of the year, all the cards were on the table.

How about some cool helmets we spotted? Justin Hill had this one last weekend, but it's one of our recent favorites from Tagger Designs.

Aaron Plessinger's new Bell helmet (left) also featured a gender reveal for the new addition to the family.

No, that's not dust or dirt. The digital camo design in the DecalWorks graphics are pretty subtle.

Alex Ray's CycleTrader.com/Rock River/Yamaha.

Henry Miller is out this weekend with a separated shoulder, but should be back soon. It's a shame, because the H.E.P. Suzukis looked pretty sweet this weekend, especially mated up with the red, white, and blue FXR gear.

A closer look at what 180 Decals made up for the HEP team.

Julio Zambrano's Husqvarna has a unique camo theme.

As usual here, the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS are showing love to all the branches of the military.

All the branches are onboard.

Cool coordination by Seat Concepts.

Justin Starling's AJE Husqvarna is looking pretty mint this weekend.

Dakota Tedder had a white camo theme for his Lucas Oil/Monster-backed KTM.

Shane McElrath and Alex Martin will be rocking red/white/blue and stars/stripes this weekend.

This is the icon that the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM guys get for a win. Obviously this is Shane McElrath's jersey.

The skid plate on Eli Tomac's bike showed some damage from the contact between himself and Justin Barcia last weekend.

Scott did some really cool red/white/blue goggles for this weekend.

Joey Savatgy crashed in practice, and was pinned under his bike. As one of the course workers went to help get it off of him, he grabbed a handful of throttle, which ripped up Joey's left wrist brace, glove, and hand. It's swollen and scuffed up, and he skipped the second practice, but he's giving it a go.

From mini to 450, they've got it all covered in the Suzuki demo area.

Ken Roczen's Military Appreciation helmet? Awesome.

A closer look at K-Roc's lid.

Johnny Jelderda might be one of the fastest off-the-couch racers we know. He's been pretty decent, and making the night shows at the races he's been at, despite minimal preparation.

Ryan Breece and Ryan Clark hanging out in the Rockwell/Nuclear Blast pits.

Ouch. Tyler Bowers is beaten and bruised, but despite some broken ribs, a broken finger, and a less-than-stellar look for this eye, he's racing here.

The GEICO Honda crew was sporting a snow camo Alias gear. This is the hometown race for Christian, and he's third quickest among the 250s.

The crew here mad some sheds that do a good job of hiding the Cat equipment on the field.

Eli Tomac had a black/gold helmet that did a nice job of matching the new Alpinestars boots.

Dean Wilson keeping an eye on Broc Tickle during qualifying.

All the Alpinestars guys had new gear that was a little more subdued than usual. We liked the clean looks.

Alex Ray had a cool camo lid.

Justin Barcia getting twisted over the finish line jump.

Josh Grant doing some serious flattracking as he crosses the start straight. Fly had some gear for this weekend that we hadn't seen before.

Marvin Musquin's black/gold Thor gear goes well with the LE Alpinestars boots that they debuted this weekend.

Strikt had some cool camo gear for

GEICO Honda's Dan Betley keeping an eye on things before the final 250 practice.

Justin Hill easily topped the 250 time sheets.

Dean Wilson's Fro-style camo Shift gear is cool.

Justin Brayton continues to impress, qualifying fourth.

Ken Roczen getting stylish over the finish line jump. He's third on the time sheets.

Eli Tomac's shoulder is getting closer to healed up, and he had the pack covered in 450 qualifying.


Related:
Vital MX Pit Bits
San Diego
Military Appreciation
Supercross 2018
Pit Bits 2018 - San Diego
2 comments

View replies to: Vital MX Pit Bits: 2018 San Diego Supercross

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tp4
6 years ago
the gear is so sweet looking..as well the bikes... great job with the pics!