New Lighter Batteries?

Shorai LFX(TM) Batteries Announces Strategic Partnership With Yoshimura Racing LLC

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 21, 2014) - Shorai Inc., a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of prismatic cell, lithium iron phosphate power sports batteries, today announced a new partnership to become the official battery supplier to Yoshimura Racing's American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Superbike, Supercross and Outdoor National Motocross teams. Throughout the 2014 racing season, Shorai will provide their lightweight and powerful LFX^™ lithium iron phosphate batteries to Yoshimura's Superbike AMA racing team in addition to providing sponsorship support to both their Supercross and Outdoor National Motocross teams. Shorai's LFX™ batteries will deliver more power and its reduced weight compared to lead-acid equivalents will create improved performance and quicker start times for Yoshimura's Superbike race team.

"Shorai is proud to officially announce their partnership with Yoshimura Racing's 2014 AMA Superbike, Supercross and Outdoor National Motocross teams," said Kevin Riley, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Shorai. "Both Shorai and Yoshimura are world-class brands that provide the performance and power required of riders in all three of these top racing series."

"The partnership between Yoshimura Racing and Shorai represents a perfect combination of two widely recognized, high-quality brands that know what it takes to win," said Don Sakakura, President of Yoshimura Racing. "Shorai's LFX™ batteries have more than enough power to support the electrical requirements of our high-performance motorcycles which is exactly what we were looking for in a battery partner."

Shorai is the manufacturer of nearly two dozen LFX™ prismatic cell lithium-iron power sports batteries used in a variety of street, dirt, touring and cruiser motorcycles, scooters, all-terrain vehicles, personal watercraft, utility vehicles and riding lawnmowers. Shorai LFX™ batteries deliver more energy to starters faster and more efficiently than their heavier, lead-acid equivalents. Shorai LFX™ batteries also do not suffer from chemical degradation which happens in other types of batteries over time. Shorai LFX™ batteries are available from more than 2,500 select dealers and retailers around the world and online at www.ShoraiPower.com.

About Yoshimura R&D of America
Yoshimura is "The Leader in Performance" and has been for more than 55 years. With unmatched skills, knowledge, and passion for racing, Yoshimura is on the forefront of the aftermarket exhaust industry. Yoshimura pipes are race bred and feature the same legendary performance, fit and quality that have been their trademark for more than five decades. To learn more about Yoshimura and view their wide variety of performance products, visit www.yoshimura-rd.com.

About Shorai
Founded in 2010 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Shorai Inc. has quickly become the world's principal producer of prismatic cell, lithium iron phosphate power sports batteries. Shorai is leading the market's conversion from traditional lead-acid batteries to lighter, more efficient and higher performance lithium starter batteries. For more information about Shorai, product offerings, upcoming sponsored events or local Shorai dealers, please visit www.ShoraiPower.com.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1691850#ixzz2rN50xcep

Win Free Fly Racing Gear!!!

Seat Time and FLY Racing Announce #PintFullOfAwesome Award 

Seat Time and FLY Racing would like to announce the #PintFullOfAwesome Award brought to you by FLY Racing. This is a completely social competition where you get a chance to enter your pictures, videos and stories weekly for a chance to win FLY Racing prizes! Regardless of platform, all you need to do is use the hashtag #PintFullOfAwesome in your social media post and you will be entered.

The crew at Seat Time will browse through the postings tagged from the past week and they will pick a winner. The winner will then be announced LIVE during Seat Time’s Tuesday night shows. It’s that easy for you to win some FLY Racing gear! The first winner will be chosen on the next episode of Seat Time Live on Tuesday, January 28th.

About Seat Time:

Seat Time is an offroad podcast that bench racers through all the offroad news, race results and shenanigans that are taking place in the world of offroad racing. You can catch them live every Tuesday night on their website, seattime.co/live, at 8pm CST or subscribe to their feeds on YouTube, Stitcher and iTunes to catch up after the fact.

Show Links:

Live: http://seattime.co/live

How's the Weather in Your Neighbor Hood?

Europe can be wet, dreary and not much fun to ride this time of year. So, what's a guy to do? How about visiting So. California for some 75 degree weather and spinning a few laps at Cahuilla Creek MX. Looks pretty good especially if you see snow outside your window.

Moto in the USA - A lap around Cahuilla Creek MX a Motocross video by MOTO

Read more at http://mpora.com/videos/AAdovc8t0rmn#r4FLuEHAywGADpLF.99

Honda Dual Sport Bike?

2014 Dakar Stage 7 - Team HRC a Motocross video by hondaeurope

Old School Moto - Australian Style

Dirt Track News - KTM's Jeff Leisk Joins The Legends At Bayliss Classic

KTM Australia General Manager Jeff Leisk has swapped the suit for a set of leathers and slipped quietly out the back door of the office to join an impressive list of legends taking part in this weekend’s Troy Bayliss Classic at Old Bar, Taree.

During his professional career in the eighties and early nineties, Leisk was Australia’s most successful motocross export, earning factory contracts in the US and at Grand Prix level in Europe. The two-time Aussie Mister Motocross finished as Vice Champion in the premier 500cc class of the World Motocross Championships at his first attempt in 1989, before retiring from international motocross at the end of 1990. This weekend’s event, hosted by three-time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss assembles a star-studded lineup of the biggest names in Aussie road racing, motocross, speedway, enduro and dirt track for a day of fun, laughs, and of course, elbows out racing. The Old Bar circuit is one of the few remaining oil tracks, a surface which in the right conditions, and to a slick-shod, loaded up and crossed up dirt tracker, approximates the grip level of tar. Leisk will take a 450SX-F into the event, while KTM Off-Road Team heroToby Price will make his second appearance at the classic on his 350EXC-F. “I’ve had a couple of days to get some practice, both on a kart track and on a motocross track; it’s not bad planning a day of just going riding!" Leisk explaind. "The idea is to enjoy myself but it’s better to get your eye in and enjoy it more. "I’ve always liked dirt track events like King of the Mountain in Toowoomba and what was probably Australia’s first Supermoto event at Eastern Creek in the early 90s and won them both so it’s a style I like. "I think it’s great what Troy’s doing, he’s putting a lot back into the sport and it’s good to be able to support him and catch up with some mates and have fun as well. I rode with him the other day and he goes extremely hard - completely sideways everywhere and he’s a bit of a character," Leisk continued. "Troy’s on a KTM, and we’ll be supporting Toby Price, Jason Crump, Angus Reekie - who should go well - and the likes of Antony Gunter in the Legends class. "My 450 SX-F is awesome; Al Reekie prepared it for me. We’ve kept it pretty simple but it’s easily good enough for the rider! I’m feeling pretty excited, mixed in with some anxiety about the first corner, but hey, someone’s got to get in there first," he added. KTM-backed Three-time Speedway World ChampionJason Crump and 6-time national Supermoto champ Angus Reekie will also further boost stocks in the orange camp on a pair of 450SX-Fs. Also KTM mounted on the day will be the likes of Garry McCoy, Jack Miller, Stu Bennett, Dave Armstrong,Shayne King and Vaughan Style. “The event has become bigger than I imagined and probably bigger than Troy ever did." Crump commented. "I reckon it’s the biggest dirt track meeting we’ve ever seen in Australia and the support from the industry and the riders shows the level of respect we all have for him - and how much fun we all had last year. "The racing will be hard and aggressive, but my aim is to have fun and for everyone to come away in one piece. It will be heaps of fun just hanging out with everyone and being a part of it and I really want to thank KTM for this support that enables me to compete.” Angus Reekie is looking forward to his first racing experience on an oiled track. “This will be my first time on an oil track and I’m really, really looking forward to it. The lineup is incredible. I can’t believe how many talented riders will be in the same place! "I’ve been motocrossing a fair bit for training and fitness, so we’ll see how we go. We’ll give it heaps, then go have a good time with the boss.” Reekie commented. Price can't wait to be back on track with so many of Australia's past champions from all different disiplines off motorcycle racing and will certainly be aiming to beat his boss when racing gets underway. “It’s gonna be good fun to be there with so many great champions, it will be cool to see." Price stated. "I hear there’s this bloke called The Flying Freckle (Leisk) so I’ll see if I can fix that guy up. "Geez I’d better - if the boss beats me I might not have a job come Monday! For me it’s just a fun event; I’ll be running my 350SX-F and I just want to bang some bars with Leisky and have a good time.”

Behind The Scene With Team Honda HRC - 2014 Dakar

Behind The Scenes with Team HRC - 2014 Dakar Stage 3 a Motocross video by hondaeurope

40 Years of Supercross

By Keith Lair, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Early riders, promoters, technology helped transform the sport

 

If three-time reigning Monster Energy supercross series champion Ryan Villopoto put his motorcycle in Dr. Emmett Brown’s DeLorean, dialed it in for 1974 and landed at the L.A. Coliseum for the first supercross race, he would win every time.

“Jump-wise there is a lot more double and triple jumps,” said three-time 1970s supercross series champion Bob Hannah, comparing the years. “Those courses would be easier now than when we rode them because of the development of bikes. If you took a modern-day bike on an old course, it would be pretty easy.”

Suspensions, traction, tires, power; it all adds up.

“You can’t compare,” Villopoto said on the fortnight of the 40th anniversary of the series. “Bikes have changed; the sport has changed. The amount of riders who can win races; that has changed. It was not even like that when Ricky (Carmichael) was racing or (Jeremy McGrath) was racing.

“But every one of those top guys way back when built the sport to what it is now.”

Supercross made its debut as an AMA series on March 10, 1974 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. There were only three races, the final one two months later at the L.A. Coliseum.

The fifth decade of supercross begins Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

“So many things have changed,” series vice president Todd Jendro said. “It’s changed tremendously in just my 18 years in the sport.”

Hannah, nicknamed “Hurricane,” was one of the pioneers of the sport, which has grown into an industry that generates millions of dollars. The Lancaster native won three consecutive series titles, from 1977 through ‘79, capturing 18 of the 33 races in those three years. A water skiing accident derailed his racing career. He won nine more races after the 1979 Colorado River accident. He then took up flying and eventually competed in the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nev. He operates an airplane sales business out of his Caldwell, Idaho home. 

His old Yamaha bike, Hannah said, could not handle the courses built today.

“The bikes are light years of difference,” said Tom White, who operates the The Early Years of Motocross Museum, a private collection in Villa Park. “There have been a lot of changes. When Doug Henry rode the first four-stroke in 1997, it really changed the sport. It made for huge jumps. Those old bikes just could not do these jumps.”

AMA sanctioned a motocross race inside Daytona International Speedway in 1971, but the race was more of a traditional motocross track and it had two 45-minute motos. Concert promoter Mike Goodwin took the concept a step further a year later, putting motocross in the Coliseum. Goodwin, who was convicted in a Pasadena court for murdering fellow promoter Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, called the event the “Super Bowl of Motocross,” which eventually just became supercross. 

“He’s the architect of supercross,” White said of Goodwin. “He thought it up and designed it.”

But there were no pre-race fireworks, no booming voice-overs, no theatrics before Marty Tripes won that Coliseum event or Pierre Karsmakers of The Netherlands won the first supercross series race and the 250cc series title in that first series-sanctioned year, 1974.

That first season had only three races; Daytona, the Houston Astrodome and the Coliseum. The second season added only one more date, the old Texas Stadium. Both 250cc and 500cc bikes raced, but the major champion came from the 250cc class.

“Obviously they have come a long way since Goodwin started it,” Hannah said. “There are a lot bigger sponsorships and a lot more money.”

Now, there are 17 events and each one is televised live.

“We drew 68,000, 70,000 then and stadium sizes have not changed, so the crowds are not any bigger,” Hannah said. “But it is TV that has made the sport pretty famous. We had very little TV. But once it got on TV, it got pretty popular.”

Before the races, there are fireworks, lasers and videos.

“It is a spectacle,” Jendro said. “It’s true entertainment and a well-rounded motor sports package.

“We put on a gigantic atmosphere to put a personality on these athletes, so they are not a robot. They’re great personalities and we’re trying to expose that on TV and at the stadium.”

Hannah said he watches the races on television and attends one or two events a year, usually the April race in Seattle. He will likely be in Southern California on Jan. 18 for Anaheim 2, when the series holds a ‘74 throwback race. In the meantime, he sells airplanes, from Piper Cubs to bush planes to Lear jets out of his home office, which overlooks a stream, pistol and rifle range and a grass airstrip.

He no longer races drag boats or airplanes. He rides his bicycle, something he did before turning to motorcycles as a youth at Soledad Sands in Acton, on trails nearly every day.

“I have a cushy job now,” he said. “I do not miss it.”

It’s the body, the 57-year-old said of why the sport is a young man’s game.

“Once I started to (race), it was in me to win,” he said. “You have to have the ego to do that stuff. And some talent and some heart. You have to have all three. But really, you need heart to win races.

“You have to be a kid to do that. I never missed it after I quit. When you’re young it’s the greatest thing to be at the top of a world-class event, but it beats the tar out of you. After 10 years, you’re beat up pretty good.”

Last season, Villopoto passed Hannah and Ricky Johnson for supercross wins. His 34 series victories ranks fifth. McGrath, Ricky Stewart, James Stewart and Chad Reeds have more.

“A lot more stuff is going on with lights and big screens,” Hannah said. “It was purely racing then.”

Colorado Boy Workin Hard!

Tomac preparing for new season

Cortez native moving up to 450cc

By Ian MacLaren Journal staff writer

 

Courtesy Photo/Simon Cudby

Eli Tomac catches air during a Monster Energy Supercross race in 2013.

To fans that have followed pro motocross star Eli Tomac over the last decade, the 21-year-old’s quick ascension to the top of his sport has hardly been surprising.

 

After all, Cortez’s youngest superstar has always had a knack for speed.

Fresh off a 2013 season that saw him win the 2013 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship in the 250cc class, Tomac is currently preparing to kick off the 2014 season competing in the 450cc class.

Tomac will begin the year racing in Anaheim on Jan. 4 for the first round of the seventeen round AMA Supercross Series.

“(Moving to the 450) class is a pretty big step, but I’ll try to make it as small as I can,” said Tomac, discussing his upcoming season. “I’ve spent the past two months on the 450 full time, so that has been nice.”

Among the many challenges that will confront Tomac in motocross’s elite class, handling the bigger bike, competing against the sport’s top talented and a demanding seventeen-race schedule will be the most daunting.

“The biggest challenge for us will be racing the seventeen rounds of Supercross,” said Tomac.

Even with the challenges however, Tomac remains confident in his ability to enjoy success against the sport’s best.

“I would like to say that I could get a few wins,” said Tomac. “The goal would be a few wins and as many podiums as I can get.”

To accomplish those goals, Tomac will rely heavily on his GEICO-Honda team, as well as a level of fitness developed after months of hard work during the offseason.

“I ride mountain bikes and road bikes,” said Tomac, a McElmo Canyon native. “I go to the gym.”

Among Tomac’s many races during the Supercross season, events in Phoenix (Jan. 12) and Salt Lack City (April 27) will be the closest to the Cortez area.

Thus, while it may be hard for local fans to watch Tomac in person, those interested in watching Tomac race can generally tune in to Supercross races on Fox Sports Networks.

With any luck, fans tuning in will have the opportunity to watch Cortez’s most famous professional athlete serve his hometown proud.

Got an Extra $100k Layin Around?

Steve McQueen Husqvarna motocross bike to go up for auction

by Tom Walsh

Motorbike enthusiasts will be able to get their hands on some unique memorabilia as Steve McQueen's motocross bike is due to go up for auction in California.

The famous movie star, and renowned motorbike lover, was the proud owner of a 1971 Husqvarna Moto-Cross 250, which will go under the hammer at the Profiles in History offices in Calabasas.

McQueen's model comes with an invoice date of 19 October 1971 and states that Solar Productions, McQueen's production company, was the buyer of the vehicle.

When the movie star first purchased this motocross bike it cost just $898 (£543) but this figure is expected to soar given its prominence within the biking community.

Profiles in History stated: "This Husqvarna 250 Cross is just like the bike McQueen rode at Lake Elsinore when he competed and raced in 1970 and 1971 in 'expert' class.

"The motorcycle has been restored; with the exception of some paint loss on the front fender, it remains in excellent running condition."

It is not the first bike to be owned by McQueen that has gone under the hammer. In 2011, a 1971 Husqvarna 500 Cross model set a new world record after it was sold for $144,500.

#33 Pre Run Baja 1000

There are lots of good Baja riding videos but very few that allow you to actually see and hear what riding Baja is all about. This short video allows you to ride along with Eric and see exactly what he sees. This is his last pre run before the 2013 Baja 1000 race. The Liquid Image Impact goggles he wears allows him to clearly comment as he rides at speed. The difference between practice speed and race speed is also clearly demonstrated.