Vital MX Pit Bits: High Point 3

As the series moves East, it's time for a rut-filled and laid-over edition of Pit Bits.

GuyB
6/17/2019 3:26pm
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This year maybe more than any time in recent memory, we've seen people experimenting with different motor mounts. We spotted these new bits on the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS bikes. Did it have anything to do with Blake Baggett's first moto win? Who knows? But they do look good on there.

That's Carlos Rivera, doing the final polish on Cooper Webb's bike before race day.

Marvin Musquin has been experimenting with different bar bends and positioning, and is back to using something a little lower and further back like he used during Supercross. Frankie likes this setup because it's easier to make clicker adjustments. We also noted how he's carried over something he learned at Team Honda...to lightlysnug up the front of the clamps so that they're touching, and then do the torquing on the back bolts.

Justin Cooper and the Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha team made a rather big setup change this week, but he quickly decided after practice that it might not be the direction that he wanted to go, and they went to work to get back to his base setting.

Dylan Ferrandis' mechanic, Alex Campbell, was doing some serious thrashing after the first practice, changing to a different set of bearing races (among other things).

We know they work great, but occasionally the open look of these pegs still freak us out.

A good portion of the Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha guys are using the Neken SFS clamp setup. Talking with some of the mechanics, they said that the Neken guys have been great to work with.

That bike is so 100. It belongs to Dirco van der Westhuizen, a South African riding out of Cairo, GA.

Fredrik Noren was scheduled to ride press day, but as the time approached, he was still getting parked. It was a bit of a scramble to get geared up and ready to go. He helped us out by wearing our helmet cam for this week's One Lap video.

Dave Feeney dialing in Zach Osborne's bike on Friday.

Zach Osborne's another one who has been making some changes to his setup. After the first round or two, he was asked to hop on the team's 250, and offer some feedback. Apparently, he said he wished the bikes had worked that well when he was still in the quarter-liter class. But he also decided that he really liked the rear shock setup, and is working with WP to try and replicate the feel of that shock on his 450. Martijn Hendriks from WP had come over from to work with some of the KTM and Husqvarna riders on settings this week, so they were able to dial him in.

It was a bummer to see Shane McElrath's bike sitting in the top of the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM rig after he got injured earlier in the week. With Shane and Jordon Smith out of commission, the team put out the call to Cameron McAdoo to help fill in.

It was good to see Benny Bloss back in action this weekend.

No harm, no foul. Benny got cross-rutted in the first practice of the day and had to step off of his Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS in the nasty ruts, but got out of it okay.

Kyle Chisholm got the call to fill in for Justin Hill after Justin's shoulder popped out after a hard landing early in the week. Kyle had already been talking to JGR about dialing him in with a bike, but got the full factory deal instead. He also hooked up a gear deal with Shot.

Kyle was expecting to have another week or two of prep before hitting the track. We expect that he'll show more speed in the coming weeks.

JGR also dialed in Isaac Teasdale with one of their kit 450s.

Of course, there might have been a couple tidbits on Isaac's bike that fell outside the normal consumer setup, like this Showa shock...

...and these forks.

Monster Energy Kawasaki has the best pizza tray holders.

Anyone interested in a cool motorhome? Eli's looking to get a new rig.

It was cool to see Rich Simmons back under the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM tent. He'd worked with Cole Seely there, and over at Team Honda before taking a detour into the world of retail management. He was looking over the setups for the riders, and seeing if he could offer any advice.

A fist bump and a signed jersey from Christian Craig? That's a good day.

After injuring some ribs at Hangtown, Martin Davalos has been working his way back up to speed.

With Benny Bloss returning to the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS team, Tony Archer will now wrench for Justin Bogle, and Derek Rankin goes back to dialing in Benny.

Steven Jewell from MotoHose had some of his new Honda works hose kits to dial in Ben LaMay and Fredrik Noren, and to try and keep their bikes a bit cooler.

Use a fuel pump to fill the smaller fuel cans? Nah, just manhandle the big drum.

Marvin's new helmet had a bit of a tropical feel.

The 450 class will have co-leaders next week, with both Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac running red plates.

Alpinestars has been rolling out a bunch of new gear for their riders this summer. Example A.

Here's example B on Justin Barcia. As you can see here (and in a few of the following photoso), this off-camber corner turned into quite the bar-dragging affair.

Eli Tomac getting in on the action.

As well as Fredrik Noren...

...Blake Baggett...

...and Benny Bloss.

We were happy to see that the trophies were all one piece, with no lids to fall off.

Rider counts have gone up as the series has moved east. When you have a full gate for the LCQ, you know you have a whole lot of riders on hand.

We were also stoked to see a much better turnout for the 125 All-Star race than there was out west. In fact, they had to run qualifiers to trim down the field to 40 riders.

There was quite a pile-up heading into the second corner of the 125 race that created a bunch of havoc.

Maccoy Shine was the early leader in the race, but Chase Yentzer was on the move and was well-positioned as they headed into the late stages of the race.

Chase Yentzer got by Maccoy, and quickly pulled out a solid lead.

John Ayers Jr. finished in the top ten.

Maccoy and Chase after the finish.

Thomas Covington was on the sidelines for this race at least, to try and recover from his bout with Epstien-Barr.

After a dry race day on Saturday, we got treated to a bit of a light show on Sunday night.

The lightning stayed hidden in the clouds, but it did make for some interesting lighting.

Okay, let's get a little blast of style before we go. First up is Dylan Ferrandis.

We've also got a couple of sick scrubs from Zach Osborne (who actually does occasionally use his pegs)...

...and Marvin Musquin, who got a little dirty on press day. That's it for this week. We'll see you at WW Ranch next week.


Related:
Dylan Ferrandis
Marvin Musquin
Thomas Covington
Zach Osborne
Vital MX Pit Bits
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John Ayers
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Cole Seely
Eli Tomac
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Shane McElrath
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Frank Latham
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Dave Feeney
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Pit Bits 2019
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