Vital MX Pit Bits: Washougal

Here's a closer look at the trophies for Washougal. Each one was hand-carved from a tree on the property and took something in the neighborhood of 20 hours each to create.

Turn and burn...

There was a whole bunch of things on the fashion front. We dug the Washougal Alpinestars LE boot.

You can tell when it's catalog shoot time, when you spot the 100% photog, and things like Marvin rocking new shades on the line.

There were also a couple new flavors of the 100% Racecraft+ floating around.

The Thor-sponsored guys had a couple new batches of gear for the weekend.

The Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha crew was highly-visible at the start of each moto, running up front in their electric blue Thor gear. Of course, it helped that they were all riding together.

Fly had a big gear intro last week and were outfitting all their teams with new gear.

That meant stickering up new batches of helmets.

Michael Mosiman in some new red/gray Fly gear.

With Blake Baggett on the sidelines, and Benny Bloss crashing out in moto one, Justin Bogle got to show off the KTM-flavored gear.

Zach Osborne in the black/white/checkers.

Fox has been rolling out new gear, and this is what the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki crew got to wear this weekend.

Ken Roczen's new Fox goodies.

Remember last week's Pit Bits, where we showed off the bar XTrig bar mounts that Joey Savatgy was using? They're designed to fit somewhere in between a solid mount, and something like a PHDS system in shock absorption.

Dubbed the FlexFix, they have different durometer bumpers to insert between the clamp pieces and the bar mounts and triple clamps themselves.

Big B and Brian Kranz double-teaming Eli Tomac's Kawasaki after practice.

It's interesting to see where 3D printed parts show up...like the spacer between the sprocket cover and cases.

Speaking of 3D printing, it's also used to make the shroud boot guards on Dean Wilson's bike.

Look for Jalek Swoll to join the Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna crew at Unadilla after he wraps up his amateur career at Loretta's this week.

The Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS guys have added some CRM carbon fork guards to their arsenal of goodies, but because of the way the clamps work, they have to do some custom openings.

Like this...

This is as low as Frankie can get with a scrub.

You can pretty much always expect something different from the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM bikes at Washougal. The turquoise additions were cool, and matched nicely with their gear and helmets.

Kibby deep in the land of laptop tuning...

If you looked at the coatings on these forks and guessed that they're a leftover from the lime damage at San Diego earlier this year, you wouldn't be wrong...

We asked Shawn Bell how he knew the proper torque for grip safety wire. He replied, "Well, after you break a few hundred of them..." He did suggest that after using the safety wire tool to spin the wire tight to let the it cool for a few seconds, and that helps to prevent it from breaking as he does the final snugging.

In case you ever wondered what the Yamaha shroud airbox protectors look like off the bike...

Ty Masterpool getting in his morning warmup. He's had some solid rides this summer, but has often had to work his way up through the pack.

Fish tales? Who knows? We do know that the Yamaha rig hung out the day after the race to get in some testing time.

Jimmy Button and his old boss at Yamaha, Keith McCarty talking shop.

The CycleTrader.com/Rock River/Yamaha crew, ready to head out onto the track.

Alex Martin and Buddy Antunez discuss which gate to pick. After the sloppy starting area at Spring Creek, the hardpack on the gate at Washougal was quite a change.

Schnikey making sure Ryan Villopoto's PC-built Yamaha was jetted nice and crispy. He mentioned that Ryan had a crew working with him to document the Washougal trip, so look for that in the future.

This was about as good a view of the pack got of Ryan during the 125 All-Star race. He quickly pulled a disappearing act.

Tevin Tapia grabbed third overall in the 125 race on his Yamaha.

Was Ryan Villopoto hooked up? Oh yeah.

This tip-over was costly for Jaron Forney, as he had a whole batch of guys hot on his tail.

Ryan Villopoto in full tuck heading up Horsepower Hill.

Chris Johnson made up for missing the previous week's race at Spring Creek with a second-place finish on the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS 125. He was rocking a helmet cam for us, so check the homepage for an onboard video.

That looks like Utah's Dalton Oxborrow floating over the crowd on his way to eighth place.

Here's your top three in the 125 All-Star action.

Speaking of 125s, Gared Steinke was lucky to walk away after his bike died on the face of the step-up during practice. He opted out for the day, but will give it another shot at Unadilla.