After Ben Townley mid-season depature due to internal injuries, little known Lithuanian rider Arminas Jasikonis had the opportunity of a lifetime to fill-in aboard a factory MXGP bike at only 18 years old. The team sees something in him after his couple races with them, and has been hired on full time for 2017.
The Yoshimura Suzuki crew had a full house, supporting four rider's from Stefan Evert's Suzuki World MXGP and MX2 teams.
What's Red Sand? It's a motocross and enduro park based in Spain. You can check it out here: RedSandMXPark.es
The controls behind a Suzuki World MXGP RM-Z450WS.
Kevin Strijbos machine had a one piece top triple clamp and bar mount combo, which we've seen this team use in the past.
While they've had to modify the ones for fill-in rider, Arminas Jasikonis, by using some rough spacers to change it as he adapts to the bike.
If you were looking, you'll have noticed both bikes feature KYB's PSF1 air forks. These have the factory top caps, which offer more adjustment than the production version. Normally, the production cap has a compression adjuster and air fill. This version has four things. To the left is "Ten", which stands for tension, signifying rebound. This is a low-speed rebound adjustment, with the high-speed rebound adjustment being found below the fork lug, as on a normal fork. In the middle is "comp low", which is low-speed compression. On the right is "comp high", signifying high-speed compression. Above these three adjusters is the air fill to change the fork's air pressure/air spring.
Protecting these expensive investments are some trick carbon fiber guards that cover not only the fork legs, but the bottom triple clamps as well.
As you look throughout their bikes, there's carbon giber everywhere. Such as the Akrapovic skidplates to even the front engine mounts. Also, the team uses the same factory sourced water pump and oil filter combination found on the US team's RM-Z450s.
Looking at the rear of Kevin Strijbos bike, you'll find even more carbon with his all-in-one carbon fiber airbox/subframe, but not on
In this case, the team has moved the mid-pipe mount to the main frame, as it's normally attached to the subframe.
More CRM Karbotanks.
We wish some Akrapovic's carbon goodies were available to the public.
Or these badass "raw works" looking rear sprockets from Renthal.
At least you can get these titanium bike stands from Akrapovic, but they aren't cheap...
Got to have that wire-tie to keep your titanium bolt holding the airboot to your carbon fiber airbox/subframe.
We also noticed Strijbos bike had some heavy material removal on the brake pedal, to allow it to sit much higher against the travel stop, per his personal preference.
Down low, we noticed another minimal fork lug/brake mounting point, with what appears to be a polished version of Suzuki's latest production front brake caliper from Nissin.
Also while down low, we spotted another rear holeshot linkage.
Along with catching a good view of the underside mounted injector unit used on this throttle body, which is different from the stock layout. (Check out the Kawasaki KX450F-SR slide for more information on these throttle bodies).
Check the clutch actuation arm, save weight wherever you can!
GET's MD40 Data logging box is a common sight throughout the pits, even if the ECUs aren't used in conjunction.
The Suzuki MXGP team keeps their GPS sensor clear and in the open by sticking it the top of the rear fender.
These wider radiators are something we've seen on the Yoshimura and RCH bikes as well. Although many parts on these bikes are different, there are a few shared components from Factory Suzuki.
Blackbird does quite a few of the GP teams graphics and seat covers, going the extra mile to blend them together when possible.
The US flag in the graphics is a nice little touch by the visiting team.
The Suzuki World teams had the nicest mobile work areas, by far.
Featuring fool work cabinets, tool chest, bench areas front and back, backboards with sponsor logos, along with electrical plugins.
Along with some giant shop towel rolls and area under them to stash spare wheels.