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35715
Joined
7/10/2006
Location
Aliso Viejo, CA
US
Fantasy
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Edited Date/Time
7/2/2017 8:31am
This week's guest in the Vital MX Forum QNA is Kyle Bentley. Kyle has worked his way up through the ranks on the technical side, wrenching back in the day over at Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki with Christophe Pourcel (and scoring the '09 and '10 250 East SX titles). Over the last handful of years, he's been at RCH/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing, moving into the Team Manager's spot. Of course, they wrapped up the 450 outdoor title with Ken Roczen last summer, and they've been putting in some good results this summer with Broc Tickle and Justin Bogle.
Bring your best questions, and he'll be peeking in here this week to answer them. As always, keep it respectful, and ask questions that you would like in a face-to-face meeting.
If you want to see previous Vital MX Forum QNAs, click the Forum QNA tag below the subject line. (Check below to see what it looks like.)
So I guess my quesiton is, are you and Larry Brooks cool with each other after the Wilson/ Langston rumble years ago?
Who would win the following contests between yourself, Carey, or RC?
1) Arm Wrestling
2) Swedish log rolling
3) Hot Dog eating
Thanks!
i read a lot of times than chris pourcel was a weird guy, who like to train alone at his home, who don't like to stay in touch with the race team and other things like this, so my questions are
what was it like to work with him ?
are you still in touch ?
what is your best moment together ?
and the worst ?
and the last one what is the best race bike you ever work on?
thanks for your answers
The Shop
Another question is, how is Mitch to work for? I always imagined he's pretty down to earth and cuts the crap. If you're not doing what you should, I imagine he could give a pretty wild scolding. I don't know why I think that but it seems like he would have some of the highest pressured expectations of any of the team managers.
Lastly, can you give any other insight to the KRoc dad situation that went down when he gave the German (??) magazine the interview where he went karawack on the RCH team? It seemed like there was a lot of turmoil but then shortly after that, the ship righted itself and you guys won a championship or two.
1) I hope i would be able to beat both of them as i have 100 to 150lbs on both of them. I'm sure they would say they could take me, but if we were to ever win another championship maybe we could do battle like KR94 vs RC4 after clinching the 2016 450 motocross championship had a arm wresting contest. see link below
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJYGQn4gLPq/?hl=en
2) I didn't know what this was, so i used my friend google to tell me all about it. Im a water guy and self pro claimed athlete so i think i would be pretty good at this , but feel RC might have the upper hand with his low center of gravity.
3) This is a good one!!!! Hart loves hot dogs, we used to have the 7 eleven hot dog type roller in our hospitality tent at the races and he would make sure that was up and running every weekend. I love baseball and have put down my fair share of hot dogs at the ball park. RC has to be good at something beside moto so maybe this could be his calling??? LOL. To pick a clear cut winner would be unfair but maybe we can do one at some point for charity and some good laughs.
I really enjoyed working for him as his mechanic, we won a lot and winning always makes things better. I felt we had a great professional and personal relationship. Yes, I still talk to him quite often and even rented him my families vacation home during the SX season this year while the series was on the west coast.
I would say our first win together in 2007 in phoenix. How fast we were able to bond as rider/ Mechanic winning in only our second race together solidifying our relationship, which i believe gave confidence in one another that we would be able to win again going into the 2009 and 10 season.
The first Moto at Pala in 2010. Canard had just beat us straight up the weekend before in steel city and we had a 7 point lead going into the last national. We got a good start and Canard was right in front of us. A few laps into the moto Canard had a tip over and CP377 got by. I felt at that moment we had it in the bag a were going to win the title that slipped away from us the year before. To this day i don't understand how he crashed in the section he did with the lead he had, other then it wasn't meant to be, and just like that our mechanic/ rider relationship was over as we didn't line up for the second moto. I still have the number 1 jersey form the podium that day that never came to be.
I feel our Suzuki's are pretty trick in there current condition and love the way the 2017 Bike looks, But the amount of time and money Mitch Payton puts into is program and bikes in unreal. Any of the factory supported 250's is where your going to see the coolest things as they are trying to be on that weight limit and trying to squeeze every pony out of them they can to gain that advantage over one another .
That article came out of left field and i believe Kenny did not know about his dads interview with that german magazine. We signed up to win when we signed Roczen, and although we had early success we weren't winning every weekend and thats not what we signed up for, so with that comes hard ache. I remember sitting everyone down at the race shop after that article was released and telling everyone we can't control every aspect of every situation involving Ken, but as his race team all we can do is put our heads down, block out all the noise and get back to work giving him our all and give him everything he needed to get back to his winning ways. A lot of things came together both on and off the track for Kenny personally and professionally with the team after that. The one thing that never happened and probably the most important thing is no one gave up on one another, he did not give up on us and we never gave up on him and thats what lead us to be able to win the 2016 Motocross Championship.
First off, congrats on the recent success of Justin and Broc's results, they have both been riding very well. It's funny that so many people have written off the "old/ Heavy" RMZ, yet they seem to be doing pretty well. I'm sure the pit has had a good vibe lately with the results being put in.
What role does Watson currently hold on the RCH team ? I noticed that Georgia had interviewed him after the pit fire and referred to him as the Team Manager. I was curious why he didn't correct her in the interview, but he may have missed it...
Rumors are already flying about 2018 and the future of the team, what can you tell us about the future of RCH ?
Thanks for your time, Shaun (Fantasy Fools member
Who was the most technically proficient rider you've worked with? The guy who could best verbalize the changes he wanted, or even do them himself if he needed?
Who was the worst? Ever have a rider who just couldn't make you understand the changes he wanted, or even worse, thought a crescent wrench was the be-all-end-all of tools?
What's in your toolbox?
PS: I'm still pulling for Broc to get a W before the season ends!
Waston's been in this industry for a very long time and has held many titles, most of them being team manager. He's the one who called and hired me to come on the H&H team in 2010. As an industry staple people see him an automatically think team manager, as he was for many here with H&H and RCH. As for why he didn't correct Georgia, i believe he didn't hear her, as things were a bit hectic at that particular moment and he's also getting up there in age and with age sometimes your hearing goes too.
I love rumors, its what keeps the interest going in the sport and keeps the excitement (within all rumors lies little bit of truth). Since Team inception we (RCH) has always held a title sponsor with the exception of the current year. Thankfully we have built and sustained a great partnership with Suzuki and when push came to shove this year they (Suzuki) were able to help out when we need it. With that said we have been working hard to build new relationship to carry on into the coming years. We have a lot going on right now and look to have something buckled done in the coming weeks.
The youngster's are the least experienced. The big teams are catering to them at such a young age now a days that they always have someone else around to fix or repair the bike when something goes wrong they lack the basic skills of working on something. Also i believe this effects there ability to test. Someone is always around telling them what they need to go fast, or use this part because it helps the chassis or bolt this on it gives you an extra horse. Not so much my era, but some of the older guys before me would go out and tinker with things on there own to figure out what worked for them and what didn't which let them learn there motorcycle. They probably couldn't tell you why it worked for them other then it just did. Now a days most the teams have mechanical engineers or a "technical Specialist" who can explain why something felt the way it felt and help explain to the rider why it felt the way it did or why it didn't to bridge that knowledge gap. Finding those right people and placing those personalities together so that the team works and trusts in on another is key to having a successful team.
Pit Row
Thanks for your thorough and well spoken answers. Some of the Answerers in the Q&A leave a bit to be desired. Ha.
I wish i could forecast riders for next year, I'm happy both with Broc and Justin. Broc continues to improve as he's been with us for awhile now and Justin made comments to change mid season, which lead us to a glimpse (Colorado 1st Moto) of what he could possibly bring to the table with a full off season to prepare with RC4 down in Florida. I would love to go into the 2018 season with a 3rd rider, heck even a 4th. For me the more riders just better the odds of success for RCH and Suzuki, but a lot of those decisions are budget dependent. Like i said above in another answer if i were to guess i would say we are in a good position already with the 18 model for next year.
PS: Lets look for this weekend to be a good one for BT20.
In all of my time spent in this industry, Tickle is one of the most self-maintained riders I've worked with. The guy deserves all that he's earned and even more. He worked with Gareth Swanepoel the last couple seasons, but is currently maintaining mostly on his own. I do see Gareth stop by the truck on the race weekend, which leads me to think they still talk quite a bit and he is still overseeing things from a distance possibly.
I was just wondering what you would say your favourite moment or race would be from your mechanic days? Obviously the wins and titles are a highlight but maybe a day or race that wasn't exactly the best result but something you'll never forget? Seems most you guys have some cool story to tell. Thanks and have a good one!
Really enjoying reading your answers to some of these questions, so I'd thought I'd throw a few more in for you!
If your life hadn't gone down the wrenching road, what career path would you have taken?
If you could wake up tomorrow in the body of someone else, who would you pick and what would you do?
What's the most embarrassing moment that ever happened to you?
What would you rather take home today, an RMZ-450 or an RM250?
Cheers and all the best!
http://derestricted.com/racing/monsterpro-circuitkawasaki
Without a doubt I would want to be Mike Trout (baseball player for the Anaheim Angel, I refuse to call them Los Angeles Angels) I'm a big stick and ball guy and really enjoy baseball. I played softball with high school friends every Wednesday night and try to take my boys to a ball game during the week while I'm home.
I'm not sure, I don't get embarrassed very easily. I got kicked out of the mechanic's area one time when I was a mechanic at the Colorado national when it was a night race. A little misunderstanding between me, an AMA official and a hay bale. I had a couple mechanicals I wasn't too stoked on myself about early in my career (paper towel in the airbox, started it and ran it through the engine and an upside down slide plate in a carburetor, couldn't get the bike to start). Personally outside the sport I had a Mexico fishing trip that went bad, my stomach, the boat and the dock ended up getting into a fight and the ocean got the short end of the stick. LOL.
No doubt right now I would take an RM250. Down at the race shop we've built three of them over the last year (Roczen, Bogle and HART) and currently one is in transit from Florida as RC4 wants his rebuilt for some special projects he has going on coming up later this year. Chris Wheeler from Suzuki is loving us right now because it's two-stroke mania going on. I think it's coming full circle and hope Suzuki jumps back on board and sees the overwhelming demand for two-strokes again. Every amateur race the largest classes are the two-stroke schoolboy classes. I know Suzuki R&D has built an aluminum frame prototype (they did a beta test survey at Loretta Lynn's last year) and also an aluminum-framed 250 (Jake Weimer recently rode on the Suzuki test track in California a few weeks ago). Will keep our fingers crossed.
Is the new 2018 RMZ450 stock suspension really as good as RC said in the promo video, or was he just payed to go off a script?
I am one of those die hard Suzuki guys who just keeps buying parts for RMs. I don't race anymore, and to me 2 strokes are more fun. My RMZ250 and 450 were easier to go fast on, but the fun factor wasnt as high.
How close was RCH to signing Dean Wilson or was that just a rumor and nothing more? If so did he do any tests with the team, howd he do in those tests?
How close was RCH to signing Jeremy Martin? Did he test the bike and with the team at all and if so howd he look on the 450?
Have you guys thought about hiring a 250 rider? With Suzuki and Yosh handling a lot of the bike duties for the 250 at JGR would you guys be able to do something similar? Or have an up and comer that you guys can groom to have them jump up to the 450? Id love to see Suzuki have a championship contender indoors and out on the 250 class like they used for years and years.
Thank you for your time and good luck this weekend!
Jon454
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