Industry Insights | Ft. Travis Preston

In this installment of Industry Insights we talk to Travis Preston about his racing career, winning the 2002 125SX West championship, and being the Testing Technician for Yamaha Motor USA.

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here, which includes some tech talk with Yamaha engineer Steven Vincent on the '25 Yamaha YZ450F. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: Where did you grow up, and what is your first memory of dirt bikes?

Travis Preston: I was born in Orange County, California. My first memory of dirt bikes was my dad riding at Saddleback on the weekends. He got me a bike when I was six or seven years old, and I rode at Saddleback Park just before it closed. I rode there for about a year before it closed, and then at DeAnza MX, where I started racing.

Vital MX: You eventually moved to Hesperia, CA, where Honda Valley is located. There are endless riding areas. Does riding dirt bikes start to consume you at this point?

TP: We started riding every weekend, and my dad would drive us to Glen Helen or Honda Valley. Then my mom got a job opportunity in the High Desert, and my dad said, "Let's do that." She got the job, and then I could ride after school. Kris Keefer and I talked about how it was an amazing place to grow up because everyone our age rode motorcycles, and after school, we all went riding.

Vital MX: How does your amateur career go when you start racing? You did Loretta's in '93 and '95 but didn't have an extensive list of amateur national results.

TP: I did a lot of local racing, like the Golden State and Summer series. I went to Ponca and Loretta's a couple of times, but back then, you pretty much had to win to get noticed. Guys like Kevin Windham were winning, and I was getting thirds and fourths, which wasn't good enough to get a Team Green ride.

Vital MX: There weren't many other OEMs with amateur support back then.

TP: Yeah. Suzuki would support Charley Bogard, but he was unbelievably fast. My whole amateur career was my parents paying for everything.

Vital MX: You went pro in '96 with little to no help. At that time, there weren't any facilities or even many places to go and learn how to ride Supercross. Did you have much Supercross experience when you went pro?

TP: No, I didn't. It was basically me riding out in Honda Valley. Some local guys made a makeshift supercross track, which was one place I'd ride. In '95, we built a track at my parents' house, so I had a Supercross track. Those were the only places I had to ride.

Vital MX: Was it eye-opening when you lined up for your first pro race at Anaheim?

TP: It was super eye-opening. Nothing compared to when you got to the race. The jumps were bigger and steeper, and we wouldn't water the tracks back then. We just rode them dry. Riding a dry track compared to a watered, tacky track with ruts was completely different.

Vital MX: In '97, you rode for Chapparal Yamaha with a salary and a Supercross-only deal. It didn't go well, and as I recall, you actually had to work a 'real job' during the Summer.

TP: That was a difficult time for me because I was young and making a little money. I started going out and doing things I shouldn't have done. It took away from the training, so I had a terrible year in Supercross. So, I worked for a company that made big oil tanks down in Long Beach. I would follow the welders with a grinder to remove the slag or be on fire duty to ensure they didn't start any fires. It sucked.

Vital MX: You didn't have a ride lined up for '98, but you won some money from a lottery scratch-off and used that to buy some bikes and help finance your season.

TP: Yeah, I came into some money to buy bikes and use for fuel, and then my parents kicked in some. That was going to be my last hoorah. I did the West Coast Supercross series and most of the outdoors in '98 and did ok.

Vital MX: When you look back on how your pro career started to winning a 125SX title in 2002, the trajectory appears unlikely to have been so successful. I feel you're one of those who weren't the most talented but outworked the others.

TP: I just never gave up. I kept working, and of course, you have to have some luck on your side, but I kept going for it, and it worked out.

Vital MX: The late nineties were still the era of box vans. Did you drive yourself from race to race in your box van?

TP: Yeah. Those were such good times and memories I'll never forget. We would have a Rand-McNally map, and my friends from high school or whoever didn't have a job would go on the road with me. I'd pay them a couple hundred bucks and feed them, and we'd go on the road and stay at friend's houses across the country. I remember driving the box van, and it broke down in Oklahoma or Texas, and it was icy cold with snow and sleet. I had to change the alternator but wasn't a good mechanic. We didn't have cell phones like we do now, but I had one of those old bag phones for emergencies. I was on that phone in the snow beside the freeway as my dad explained how to change the alternator. I remember that was an expensive bill.

Vital MX: 2002, you rode for Amsoil Honda and won the 125SX West championship against James Stewart. Talk about that season.

TP: That was Stew's first-year pro. That year was nice because I was coming from Husqvarna, where I didn't have the best overall results, but I won one race. Coming into the '02 season, nobody was looking at me to win. James had all the hype with his first year of racing, so I was under the radar. I knew I had a great opportunity, so I trained hard and had a great off-season. I was able to ride on the Honda track every day, and I came out well by winning the first race. From there on things went well. It was a good career. I raced for thirteen years. Although I never made a 450 Supercross podium, I got close a couple of times. I had one podium at Glen Helen, also.

Vital MX: Your career spanned some years of transition in our sport. You were a pro when the four-stroke era started. Was that a difficult transition?

TP: That was a tough journey. They had the four-stroke 250 at Honda, but they got it late. We started preparing just a few months before the season started, and we couldn't get the bike to go through the whoops. I would go into them, and about halfway, it would bog, and I'd drop a wheel and go over the bars. It got so bad I stopped riding the bike and started riding the 250 two-stroke. It took them a couple of weeks to find the fix, and it literally was right before the season that we got rid of the bog. That year, Mitch (Payton) was on his game, and the Pro Circuit bikes would holeshot every race and be gone.

Vital MX: You retired in 2009. Was that when you went to work for Yamaha in the R&D department?

TP: No. I stopped racing and didn't know what to do, so I just hung out for a bit. My old mechanic, Shawn Ulikowski, had moved to North Carolina and loved the area. There were a lot of people riding great tracks, so I went out there in the Fall of '09 and fell in love with the place. I started coaching some riders, and Coy Gibbs started the JGR team. I started doing a little testing with them and became friends with Coy and Jeremy Albrecht. Jeremy then got me started with Yamaha. For two years, he kept saying, you should go work for Steve Butler and Yamaha, but I never took it seriously. Then, I was back in California for the winter, and I was out at Competitive Edge with some buddies and parked next to Steve Butler. He was testing with KYB, and I thought, "This is the opportunity." I told him, "If you ever need help with anything, give me a call." I didn't get the feeling he was interested, and a couple of months went by, but he called out of the blue. He said, "We have a test coming up if you want to come out." I went out, and the rest is history. I started working as a contractor with Yamaha in 2012.

Vital MX: What is your day-to-day role? Do you ride every day or spend time in the office and do other things?

TP: What's fun about our job is that we do so many different things. Whether it's media relations, intros with the journalists, or we may get a call from Star Racing to help test something, we may get a call from Japan to test some parts, and the box van could need some work, or parts in the shop might need to be restocked, there's always work to be done.

Vital MX: What do you look for when developing a new platform, and how do you ensure it translates to the average rider?

TP: We have a bunch of riders at different levels that test with us. So, we try to cover all the bases regarding speed, weight, and other considerations. I want a stable bike and, most of all, has a consistent bump reaction. When going down the hill at Glen Helen, you want the bike to react the same way every time. I don't want something harsh. I want it to be plush and stuck to the ground with power that is easy to control. Also, something easy to corner.