Chad Reed | Ageless

Reprint from Transworld Motocross

The Australian Veteran Is Fighting Fit And Ready For More

December 20, 2016 By Donn Maeda

 

Chad Reed is one of those guys whom you can never count out of any race, even now when he is one of the elder statesmen of the sport. When he’s feeling it, Reed can tap into his bank of speed and style and put on a racing clinic, much like he did this Fall at the Aus-X Open in his home country of Australia. When the gate drops at Anaheim 1 in a couple weeks, it will mark Reed’s second season on the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Chaparral/Yamaha Financial Service/Yamaha squad, and we’re betting that he returns to the top of the podium at least once…

So Chad we are entering the 2017 and you don’t show any signs of letting up; you just went down to Australia and spanked everyone at the Aus-X Open…

Yeah, I don’t know if I would claim to have spanked them, but it was a nice weekend. Did a lot more winning than I did losing. The goal is to keep at it; I want to be better and find ways to still be competitive. At the end of the day, I feel that’s why I still do it. Every day I go to sleep thinking about how and which way I think I can be better then I wake up ready to achieve it. Why put an end to that just because it’s not normal that somebody my age is competitive. I love it and I’m willing to do all those things so I’m having a good time.

How old are you right now?

34.

Do you remember looking at John Dowd wondering how he did it? And now you’re 34 and as quick as you’ve ever been. Mentally, do you still feel like you’re in your 20s?

Nothing feels different, I don’t feel less committed in any way. There are some good days and bad days, but that still happened in my teen years and 20s. There’s nothing that really restricts me. I feel mentally stronger than I’ve ever been, I feel physically in the best shape I’ve ever in. The feeling with the bike is there too. In my mind it’s all lining up for a good season.

The years of experience, it’s more than just a saying; you really have more knowledge and you know what’s gonna happen when you do things on your motorcycle…

My whole life, I’ve been hearing about the experience that some of the old riders did. It’s something you can’t buy. I’ve lost races early in my career and my rookie season, probably lost a championship because of things I didn’t do because of what you know now. I would never go back, through the ups and downs, it’s been fun and makes you appreciative of who you are. I’m really happy with what I’ve done, achieved, and plan to still do.

 

I enjoy watching your social media and your interactions with the kids. Are you all in on being a motocross dad?

Tate likes it, I wouldn’t say he loves it. My little guy, my two-year-old, loves it. He loves getting on a bike and as soon as you get him off, he’s kicking and screaming, turns into a real two-year-old and acts out. I posted a video on my Instagram once of him crying. That to me right there wakes you up and brings back memories of things you used to do! Man, I remember that no matter who was around, that nobody has been able to ride as much as I wanted to ride. Ever since my very early age of three, four, or five years old, I’ve been able to go through tanks and tanks of gas more than anybody. To see your kids act like you when you act when you take something away from them..it makes me appreciate of what I get to do at this age.

When you posted that you loved being part of Shift, I saw that and wondered what that meant. And then, the next day it was announced you had switched to Fox…

It was a change that I wanted to make, and I’m excited about it. I think I fit the Fox brand more at this point in my life and career. With the kids, I enjoy a lot of things away from the bike as well. If I’m out surfing or wakeboarding, I’m always in Fox products and it was really difficult for that crossover with Shift. I think that the family and I embrace and fit the Fox brand a little better.

It’s funny because, off the record, other racers talk about how they want to ride for Fox someday…

You always look at people that you’ve looked up to like Rick Johnson to Jeremy McGrath. All my heroes have been Fox guys and I think it’s the elite and always will be. My Shift relationship actually started out with me wearing Fox. I feel proud and honored to be a Fox guy with all the history.

I’m sure you’ve been asked this already, but how much longer?

If the results are there that I feel I am capable of, my goal and my plan is to push and negotiate a two-year extension so that would take me through 2019, I would be 37. Then reevaluate. That’s the goal, but the results have to be there, I don’t want to go out there and make up the numbers, I want to work hard.

It’s pretty awesome how you can just buckle down, cut weight, and get into great race shape, but then when you don’t have to train you really enjoy yourself.

Yeah! (Laughs) It gets harder to be honest with you. I’m forever trying and feeling out new diets and new ways to train. I’m a fat kid at heart: May through September is my happy place. The September through May is rough, it feels like you’re living on rations while working hard. It is what it is, by choice. Right now, I’m quite a bit lighter than I was last year, but nothing before. It’s not like I’m crazy light.

There have been years where you come into Anaheim a bit heavier, then cut weight as the season goes on right?

Yeah, it seems like weight has always been a weird thing for me. Some years I’m a bit thicker and some I’m thinner for no reason. I don’t know that I feel comfortable saying it’s one thing or another. There was a year where I felt I had an awesome off-season and worked really hard, and I felt I wasn’t as thin for as hard as I worked. Like shit, I’ve won championships on the thicker side. I don’t look at an individual myself and go, “Wow I need to be 155 pounds.” I feel great and we’ll see if it works out.

You’re coming into ’17 feeling good, any big changes or is it just business as usual?

I would say there’s been big changes, but there’s not. In some way I would say we’ve made progress, but when you look at what we’ve changed and how we achieved it. It’s nothing crazy. No one goes and makes a huge gain by a huge change. They come from such small little tweaks here and there. In my opinion, I’m happy with the bike, it’s come a long way. We’re at a point where we need to go racing. I think that Monster Cup was a roll out on some new parts, I felt that we left Monster Cup feeling like the direction we were heading was right. I went to Australia and was able to do a lot of winning over there and the feeling that I needed was good. Some of the things we needed to work on in Australia, I was finally able to go to California this past week and to some testing. I think we have made the next step and are ready to go to Anaheim among the elite, the best of the best. I feel like right now I’ve ticked all the boxes and now we just need to go racing and adapt from there.

Robbie Maddison...Spectacular Showman!

Look, Ma, No Wheels

By Alyssa Roenigk | Dec 19, 2016
XGames.com

Yeti Snow MX

Motocross star Robbie Maddison has conquered earth, wind and water on his dirt bike. His next quest? The snow at X Games Aspen.

It's been nearly five years since Australian motocross star Robbie Maddison took on freestyle courses at the X Games. But when he makes his return at X Games Aspen 2017 (Jan. 26-29), he won't be kicking up dirt -- he'll be making tracks in the snow.

Maddison will be one of 16 riders debuting Snow BikeCross, a motocross-style, closed-course competition featuring rollers, banked turns and jumps. The first rider to the finish wins. "It's going to be a stacked field," says Maddison, a freestyle motocross champion famous for his groundbreaking stunts. "I'm excited to get back to racing, to how I started in motocross."

Snow bike is, in fact, only the latest in a series of innovations by Maddison that have prolonged his career. At 35, an age when most freestyle riders have retired from competition or traded two wheels for four, he is as relevant as ever. One of the most creative action sports athletes, he's won freestyle titles, set Guinness world records for distance-jumping his dirt bike and executed some of the most audacious motorcycle stunts since Evel Knievel. He has jumped onto a replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas, backflipped London's Tower Bridge and launched across the Corinth Canal in Greece.

But it was a life-altering crash four and a half years ago that led him to rethink the potential of his machine. In 2012, while practicing for Moto X Speed & Style at X Games Los Angeles, he crashed in the whoops section and broke several ribs, one of which collapsed a lung and pushed against his aorta. "I almost died there on the dirt," Maddison says. "The doctors said, 'You'll never ride a motorcycle again. You need to change your lifestyle.' I spent a week in the hospital feeling totally demoralized and contemplating my future." After months of intense physical therapy, Maddison defied the doctors and got back onto his bike. But he decided competing in freestyle was no longer worth the risk. Instead, while at his home in Australia the following winter, he rekindled a thought he'd had many times before while surfing and wakeboarding. "I'm fascinated by the way water moves around boats," Maddison says. "My mind started wandering. I knew with the right speed and the right skis, water has enough surface tension that I should be able to ride my dirt bike on water."

Enter Bill King, a former rocket scientist who as VP of 2Moto engineered one of the first snow conversion kits for dirt bikes. King flew from Boise to Maddison's home in California, looked at his sketches of a ski attached to the front and back wheels of his dirt bike and declared, "This will work." After experimenting with various bike manufacturers and several design modifications, Maddison rode a KTM 300 XC two-stroke 7½ miles across California's Lake Elsinore. Once he proved it possible to ride a motorcycle on water for long distances, he set his sights on the seemingly impossible.

After two years of endless trial and error, countless failures and dozens of sunk bikes, Maddison and DC Shoes released Pipe Dream in August 2015. The action sports video features him surfing his KTM on Tahiti's Teahupo'o, known as the heaviest wave in the world. The video has about 25 million YouTube views. "That project solidified to me having the confidence to follow my passions," he says. "It excites me to think about what's possible as human beings. What else am I capable of? That's the question I wake up with most days."

Pipe Dream reinvigorated Maddison's career. In the spring, he got a call from D.J. Caruso, the director of xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the Vin Diesel action movie due out in January. Caruso invited Maddison, who had previously doubled James Bond in Skyfall, to bring his moto surfer to the Dominican Republic. He wanted Maddison to re-create his water bike stunts for the film. One small problem: Maddison looks nothing like Vin Diesel. A bigger problem: No one else could maneuver the machine. So Maddison shaved his head and donned a muscle suit to double Diesel racing across waves on a dirt bike.

Now Maddison is shooting Pipe Dream 2 on a second-generation version of his water bike, with plans to release the first footage around Christmas-before he shifts his attention from water to snow. He's proved he can surf on a dirt bike; now he'll see how he stacks up racing one on snow against some of the best motocross riders in the world.

"I'm trying to ride every terrain possible," he says. "I'm returning to X Games with a lot on my shoulders. I haven't been the most successful X Games athlete-I only have one medal. I've had a lot of injuries. But I don't have the ability to give up in my DNA."

Yamaha's Africa Twin?

YAMAHA T7

Yamaha hasn’t let the arrival of Honda’s Africa Twin go unnoticed. At the EICMA show in Milan there was a concept Tenere shown that got a lot of attention. That doesn’t mean much; the Milan show is a big tease on many levels. There are always bikes shown that never see the light of day.

But apparently the T7, as it’s called, is more than a show bike. It’s a real prototype slated for a late 2018 release in Europe. Oliver Grill, Yamaha Europe’s Product Planning manager, was quoted in Cycle News saying that the bike will be light, slim and suited to off-road riding. It will still have a large tank and range will be a high priority. If the final production bike delivers on all this, it will probably be the most dirt-worthy adventure bike yet. There’s still no word on a U.S. release.

Australian Overview: 2017 Honda CRF450R launch

MotoOnline.com.au rides the all-new 2017 Honda CRF450R at the Australian launch.

Supercross Is Just Around The Corner

Monster Energy® AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, is the premier off-road motorcycle racing circuit in the world, produced inside the world's most elite stadiums. Monster Energy® Supercross tracks are man-made inside the stadium. Some of the sport's marquee names include Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac, Trey Canard, Jason Anderson, Chad Reed, David Millsaps and former supercross greats Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael. Regarded as the king of action sports, supercross has been described as one of the most physically demanding sports.

Check Out The KTM Dakar Bike

By Tim Sturtridge on 16 December 2016

The very nature of the Dakar Rally makes it an unpredictable beast. A lot can happen as the convoy of competitors voyage 10,000km in two weeks over perilous terrain. Simply finishing the rally is a triumph for most, with the podium remaining a distant dream. However, the Red Bull KTM Factory Team enter each Dakar with aim of winning the bike race and for the last 15 editions of the desert classic they have managed to do just that.

Watch the clip above to see reigning Dakar champion Toby Price explain what sets his KTM 450 Rally apart from other bikes.

“The main part of a rally bike that’s different to any motocross bike is the navigation tower,” explains Price. “We have a Garmin GPS which tracks and logs the course we’ve done for the day. I call our roadbook holder ‘the lunchbox’ which is where we put the information of each day’s stage.”

We need a lot of fuel onboard, so we have one tank at the rear and two tanks at the front. The rear tank holds about 17 litres and front tanks hold about seven or eight litres each.

Toby Price

Fly Racing Grabs Josh Grant

FLY Racing Signs Josh Grant

December 14th, 2016 – Boise, ID – FLY Racing is proud to announce the signing of Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Josh Grant for the 2017 SX/MX season. FLY Racing welcomes Josh to the team to wear its 2017 lineup of Evolution, Lite Hydrogen and Kinetic lines of gear. “We are happy to add such a well-known and dedicated racer to the FLY Racing Family,” stated Craig Shoemaker, CEO of Western Power Sports/FLY Racing. Watch for Grant at the SX season opener on January 7th, 2017.

For more information about FLY Racing, visit www.flyracing.com.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FlyRacingUSA/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FLYRacing
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlyRacingUSA
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyRacingUSA

About FLY Racing
Established in 1998, FLY Racing is one of the fastest growing off road motorcycle riding apparel and hard part brands in the powersports industry. FLY Racing develops quality products for the competitive North American market and is distributed worldwide in 40+ countries. In the United States, FLY Racing products are distributed exclusively by Western Power Sports (WPS).

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Denmark also go 2-strokes

Denmark also go 2-strokes

From 2017 the Danish motorsport federation (DMU) has decided to let 250cc 4-stroke and 250cc 2-stroke compete on equal terms in the MX2 class. A change that will be effected in all classes from rookie to elite.

Denmark has previous been first movers with 2-strokes as they were one of the first countries to re-introduce the 125cc 2-stroke class as a junior class. Something that was successfully picked up by FIM-Europe and other countries.

Other federations are already allowing 250cc 2-strokes in MX2 and this might be the next trend since the 250 4-strokes are now way more competitive than when they were first introduced.

In Denmark most people has received this news in a very positive way. You will probably not see the frontrunners in the Danish Championship come out on 2-strokes, but you might see young guns like Mikkel Haarup switch to a 250cc 2-stroke, instead of his normal 125cc 2-stroke, when competing in the Danish Championship.

For the normal day-to-day rider this is also good news since the 2-stroke machine is a lot easier and cheaper to maintain for people in their own garage.

Racer X Films: Eli Tomac Extended Interview

Breakthrough 33 : The Braxton McGee Story | Episode 1

FLY Racing presents the three-part series, “Breakthrough 33: The Braxton McGee Story.” In this series we attempt to answer the question: What does it take to make the move from the amateur to pro ranks in GNCC racing? How much hard work, dedication, and teamwork is required for an emerging offroad racer and his family to make the transition from amateur to the XC2 pro class in 2017 GNCC series?

In Episode 1 we get to know Braxton, his family and friends; as well as how he got started racing and his aspirations for the future.