YZ 295 Project

How does a simple, easy to do project spiral out of control? Or....how did I get myself into this?

Leatt Corp Prevails in Ohio Lawsuit

press release

April 24, 2014, 9:28 a.m. EDT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, April 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Leatt Corporation (otcqb:LEAT) today announced that it has prevailed in the first Leatt-Brace® lawsuit to be tried in the United States. After a two-week trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Eastern) ending on April 17, 2014, a federal jury returned a defense verdict for the Company in a product liability lawsuit brought by Scott Scarvelli and his parents, Tim and Sherri Scarvelli.

An avid cyclist and motocross enthusiast, Dr. Chris Leatt, the Company's founder and head of research and development, created the Leatt-Brace® about ten years ago to help reduce catastrophic neck injuries in extreme sports. Intended to be worn with a full-face helmet, the Leatt-Brace™ is designed to reduce extreme ranges of neck motion and create an Alternative Load Path™ for forces inflicted during accidents involving unrestrained motocross, ATV, mountain bike, snowboard, and snowmobile riders.

The Scarvellis had alleged that defective product design and failure to warn had caused Scott, a then fifteen year-old motocross rider, to suffer multiple mid-thoracic spine fractures, causing immediate and permanent paraplegia, when he crashed at a relatively low speed on February 13, 2011. When the accident occurred, Scott was wearing a helmet and other safety gear from several different companies, including the Company's acclaimed Leatt-Brace®. The Company produced evidence at trial showing that Scott's thoracic paraplegia was an unavoidable consequence of his fall, not the result of wearing a Leatt-Brace®, and that the brace likely saved his life—or saved him from quadriplegia—by preventing cervical spine injury.

Mr. Macdonald commented, "We are pleased with the outcome of this case.  We have invested several years of research, development, and testing in all our products before introducing them into the marketplace, and a growing body of user experience and accident data show what we already know to be true – that the Leatt-Brace® is both effective and safe."

The Company has maintained from the onset that this and a small handful of other lawsuits are without merit and that it will vigorously defend itself in each case.

The case was tried by the Company's national trial counsel, John L. Tate, Stites & Harbison PLLC (Louisville, KY), assisted by Akron (OH) lawyers, Orville Reed and Jason Wiegand. Expert witnesses for the Company included Erick Knox, Ph.D., P.E., and Mitchell Garber, M.D., M.S. Mech. Eng., M.P.H., both with Engineering Systems, Inc., and John Bodnar, M.D., medical director for U.S. professional supercross and motocross races.

After trial the Scarvelli jury foreman said to Dr. Leatt: "Thank you for inventing the neck brace. You're saving people's lives."

Hannah Talks Loading Ramps

This weekend I was riding at one of the more popular riding areas in N. CA (Prairie City OHV) when I saw something I have not seen in many, many years. The incident reminded me of my very early years riding. I was parked next to a couple of young guys who were having a lot of fun riding. We talked about the beautiful day, the great rding conditions and they were curious as to why I would ride an old two stroke. I just laughed and told them they were just fun. They looked at me like I was crazy as they started their late model CRF450's.Towards sunset they started folding up all their high tech gear, roost protectors, neck braces, high end boots and helmets etc. Then they were ready to load the bikes in their new F150 four wheel drive pick up....this is when I had to stifle a laugh. They pulled an eight foot long 2x6 out of the truck for a loading ramp. Sure enough, even with two of them loading the bike it nearly ended up on the ground. I offered them my ramp to use but they insisted their 2x6 was just as good. I think they may have had their priorities a little mixed up. I suggested they take a look at this video and heed the words of the "Hurricane". I suspect they didn't pay much attention.

 

Charlie Beck...“I’m trying hard to do this the rest of my life.”

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck's one-time dream career: dirt bike racing

“On your marks,” a distant voice called from the dirt at Glen Helen Raceway. More than 100 motorcycles responded with a cacophony of snorting engines that dissipated into plumes of dirt as they headed into the first sweeping turn of a grueling one-hour race over hills, ruts and jumps.

Lost in the fray of the first hairpin was a racer whose helmet was the only indication of his identity. “Beck” was spelled on its jawline.

Most Sundays, the head of the country’s third-largest police force can be found straddling his KTM and racing the sprawl of San Bernardino’s Glen Helen in a jersey that is, coincidentally, black and white. It’s a different type of uniform, and one he’s worn even longer than his badged and dry-cleaned blues. Beck has been racing dirt bikes since 1969.

Police work was actually Beck’s Plan B.

“Racing was what I wanted to do,” said Beck, who started competing in motocross at age 16. “I was a halfway student most of the time because all I did was work on motocross racing. My dad worried that was all I would ever do.”

Today, at 60, Beck’s dream of making a living as a professional racer is long gone, but his passion for motorcycles remains strong. His 10th-floor corner office at LAPD headquarters downtown is a shrine to modern motocross as much as it is command central for the police. A helmet from former world supercross champion Chad Reed rests on a credenza just steps away from a Ryan Villopoto poster and framed Jeremy McGrath jersey – all of them signed and given by the racers.

The 2011 X Games medal patterned after Beck’s police chief badge hangs on a wall near his desk. A bowl overflows with the awards he’s won in the police and fire motocross races in which he’s competed annually since the ’70s.

“My winning days are long gone. And my caring about winning days are long gone,” said Beck, who nevertheless competes every weekend.

On a recent Sunday, he placed third in the super senior class at Glen Helen, after which he was signing autographs.

“The groupies is what I do this for,” he deadpanned after the race, signing a photo for his friend’s 80-something mom.

Beck wasn’t accompanied by his usual bodyguard. At the track, he was just a garden-variety racer hanging out with a handful of friends, and that’s exactly how he likes it. He’s just one of the guys, doing what guys like to do.

It’s the same down-to-earth demeanor that has made Beck so popular with the 10,000 officers he oversees as chief. He is known as a “cop’s cop,” supported by the rank and file.

It’s the same kindness that prompted a prostitute he arrested more than 30 years ago to tell one of Beck’s fellow police officers at the time, “He’s nice. You should go out with him.”

She did, and they got married two years later.

Beck is so unassuming, in fact, that one of his best friends and long-standing riding buddies didn’t know his exact role within the LAPD until recently. Kirk Kovaleff had been riding and racing with Beck for 25 years before finding out.

“We knew he was LAPD, but we never talked about what he did until five years ago when we asked how many detectives he oversaw,” said Kovaleff, who met Beck through his older brother. “He has not changed one bit as chief. He’s steady Eddie.”

Beck said part of that steadiness is directly attributable to his experience as a racer.

“A lot of the things that attracted me to motocross are relevant in police work. They’re both very action oriented. There’s a lot of physicality to them. They both reward good judgment and punish bad judgment. It requires self-awareness, recognition of limitations,” Beck said.

“Making decisions on a motocross bike is very similar to making decisions in policing. You have to weigh the consequences, the risk/benefit. And they both involve adrenaline and the control of adrenaline, which is huge. A lot of mistakes police officers make it’s because they can’t control their adrenaline. Controlling adrenaline is hard.”

Beck got his first taste of racing – and the value of adrenaline control – through his dad’s brother, who lived in Lakewood and raced dirt bikes in the desert. The year was 1969, and Beck was in high school when he, too, started racing – an Ossa at first, then Husqvarnas and Maicos at the Greenhorn Enduro in Pasadena and Gardena’s Ascot Park.

For three years, he worked as a mechanic at Dowmen’s Cycle Center in his hometown of Long Beach and raced nights and weekends. Even as he attended Cal State Long Beach getting a bachelor’s degree in vocational studies, he indulged dreams of racing pro.

“It was obvious to everybody I was never going to get a whole lot better than I was,” Beck said. “I was good enough to win local races sometimes, but I was certainly never going to be a national-level rider, and that’s the only way to make any money.”

If Beck had been a more gifted motocross racer as a teen, Chief Beck would not exist.

It was only at the urging of his father, former Deputy Chief George Beck who retired in 1980, that Beck joined the Police Reserve Corps in 1975.

“My dad always put it out there: You might want to try this. He thought police work might fit, and he was right. He knew me better than I knew myself,” said Beck, who joined the LAPD two years later as a gang officer and began working his way up the ranks in narcotics and surveillance, from sergeant to lieutenant to captain to commander to deputy chief and, finally, chief in November 2009, succeeding William Bratton.

Beck has presided over one of the most dramatic reductions in violent crime in Los Angeles in the 41/2 years he has been in charge of the force; 2013 saw the lowest murder rate in the city since 1967. Since 2008, the city’s gang crime has fallen by half, he said.

“I don’t take personal credit. Law enforcement takes credit,” said Beck, who, even as chief, works once a month on patrol. “I go out, I roll on calls. I talk to cops, talk to people on the street in uniform, in a black and white just like everybody else. If you don’t pay attention to the folks that do the work, you’re a fool.”

Despite his decades as an off-road racer, Beck only recently completed LAPD training to be able to ride the BMW R1200RTP street bikes used by many of the city’s 280 motor officers.

Beck doesn’t just ride motorcycles. He has built dozens from scratch and owned at least 100.

Beck’s home garage picks up where his LAPD office leaves off. Lined with helmets and tool chests, it’s packed full with the nine motorcycles he currently owns, including the KTM 450 SX he races weekly and the vintage bikes he races less often – a 1981 Maico 490, 1967 Maico 360 and 1970 Norton Commando.

“I’ve had ’em all,” said Beck, the evidence of which he keeps in a plastic box. It’s stuffed with Polaroids of the popular Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki dirt bikes he’s owned, as well as more obscure models from BSA, Greeves and Montessa.

Beck and his wife, Cindy, have two daughters, ages 32 and 24, with “no interest in motorcycles,” Beck said. Their son, age 28, owns one of the KTMs parked in Beck’s garage but doesn’t ride it very often because “he spends too much time working and being friendly,” said Beck, whose son and one of his daughters are LAPD officers.

How much of Beck’s leisure time is spent riding or hanging out around motorcycles?

“If you ask my wife, she’d say all of my time,” he said. “I’m trying hard to do this the rest of my life.”

Reprint from OC Register

Susan Carpenter scarpenter@losangelesregister.com

Road to Hell...New Zealand Style

Motocross: Hell on wheels just got tougher

By Andy McGechan

Two riders out of 60 finished, so they made it harder, writes Andy McGechan

Adrian Smith (above) of Mokau (Yamaha YZ250) is a contender but Glen Eden's Chris Birch (KTM 350XC-F) is favoured to win(below). Pictures / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com

Ever been told to "go to Hell"? This is probably the place they meant ... the No Way In Hell enduro, the country's premier extreme enduro event, run by the man who should know, Tokoroa enduro wizard Sean Clarke.

This weekend's KTM and Kiwi Rider magazine-sponsored extreme enduro will be the fifth No Way In Hell (NWIH) - quite a surprise as so few riders survived the inaugural event in 2010 ... in fact, only two out of more than 60 starters.

Again set for Oparau near Kawhia, on April 20 and 21, this year's NWIH will be a little different because its soul-destroying and body-breaking qualities have been ramped up considerably.

Riders have been warned to brace themselves for The Big Three, the fifth round of six in the New Zealand Enduro Championships at Oparau on April 19, before subjecting their battered bodies to NWIH action over the next two days. Also, they might consider riding the Hauturu Trail Ride at the same venue on April 20 - just to keep the muscles warmed up.

The NWIH extreme enduro is a stand-alone event but also doubles as the fifth and final round of the annual KTM Extreme Enduro Series, a competition that runs separately but parallel to the enduro nationals.

"There will be some pretty hard sections to test the riders but it's actually the weather that may play the biggest part in how tough the course becomes," said Clarke.

"The course won't be impossible but the riders will certainly have to be on their toes just to finish it."

Kiwi international Clarke is a multi-time New Zealand champion and a four-time medallist at the Olympic Games of enduro racing, the International Six Days Enduro.

A prologue race on Sunday determines the start order for Monday's main event, where riders will be started a minute apart.

The current national enduro champion and points leader after four of six rounds in this year's championships, Auckland's Chris Birch, is clear favourite to win both the nationals round and the NWIH event at Oparau, but three-time national cross-country champion Adrian Smith might have something to say about that, the man from Mokau having stolen Birch's thunder in winning the previous round of the enduro nationals near Christchurch a fortnight ago.

Glen Eden's Birch was winner of the inaugural NWIH event, the only one to finish unaided, in a time of 3 hours 12 minutes. Hokianga's Mitchell Nield was 2 hours behind in second place. Following Nield, in finishing order, were Taupo's Mark De Lautour, Mokau's Smith and Marton's Cam Smith (no relation), who each took more than eight hours to complete the race.

Kiwi international Birch also won last year's event and rates as favourite to collect the trophy this weekend too, although last year's NWIH runner-up, Hawkes Bay's multi-time national moto trials champion Warren Laugesen, last season's KTM Extreme Series winner Mike Skinner, of Auckland, and seven-time and current national moto trials champion Jake Whitaker, of Wainuiomata, can't be discounted.

Other experienced NWIH riders such as Nield, De Lautour, the two Smiths and Tauranga's rising star Jim Lowe-Pattie should also threaten to steal Birch's glory.

A rider's skill, strength and stamina will be stretched to the limit and bike reliability pushed to the brink, but luck may also play a huge part in this least heavenly of all off-road events.

- NZ Herald

Coming June 20th ...The John Penton Story!

It has been six years in the making but this amazing story is finally on film. If you've ridden a dirt bike in the last forty years you have benifited from the work and passion of John Penton. This Todd Huffman directed film finally has come togther with the help of "crowd funding" and Kickstarter.com. Here is a sneak peak at some of the scenes. This will be a must see for all dirt riders!

Another MX Track Reopens

Hungry Horse Moto Cross Back On Track!

Hungry Horse News 4/2/2014

After three years of hard work and labor, the Hungry Horse Motocross track is back in shape and ready to hold races.

Located a mile east of the Hungry Horse Ranger Station below the dam, the track was used by dirt bikes and ATVs from 1980 to 2007. Races in the past have drawn more than 500 riders in 33 events. Many riders consider it one of the toughest in the state.

The track fell into disrepair after the last race there in 2007, but through the work of Jeff Wentzel and the Flathead Dirt Riders Association, a sanctioned race will be held there this spring.

“The track was falling apart, getting degraded,” Wentzel said. “I approached the Forest Service about trying to do some work on it. The Forest Service was kind of apprehensive about it because they didn’t want someone to do some work and just leave it alone. They wanted a club to take care of it and take responsibility for it and do maintenance on a repetitive basis.”

Wentzel started the Flathead Dirt Riders Association and got the work started. Unable to get a state grant for the work, he landed a grant from the Yamaha Motor Co., which paid for not only repair of the current track but helped add a children’s track.

“A lot of smaller bikes, like 50 cc, can’t ride on the bigger track,” Wentzel said. “For less experienced people, too, so they have a place to ride and not get in the way of the more experienced riders if they didn’t want to run side by side.”

To reduce future maintenance costs, the association re-routed the track to improve drainage and prevent erosion. They repaired ruts, cleared rocks and added jumps to return the site to its former glory.

“It was pretty bad,” Wentzel said. “It’s a hilly track. So a lot of the hills had deep ravines. You get the snow runoff. People were circumventing the track and going into the woods on certain parts because it was washed out.”

In certain areas, he said, the track is 15 feet across but riders stuck to a 2-3 foot wide space.

“Then the water — you’d get huge puddles and have to ride around those,” Wentzel said. “With the ’dozer, we were able to make culverts and stuff like that to let it all run off.”

The High Country Motocross Association approached Wentzel this winter about bringing racing back to the track The first race will take place Sunday, May 4.

“Most of the tracks in the state are on flat ground,” Wentzel said. “They’ll bring in dirt and build up jumps and what not. Hungry Horse just follows a natural terrain. There’s a lot of steep uphills and steep downhills. You don’t really have that at a lot of the other tracks. A lot of people say it’s one of the harder tracks to ride — it takes a lot of physical ability.”

“I’m really amped up about it,” Wentzel said. “You go there on a weekend and there’s a dozen or so people on the track. They’re in and out of there all day long. It’s a big deal to the local riding community. They’ve had races for about three decades or so.”

Nanaimo, BC A Great Vacation Spot?

Mike Alessi To Race Canadian Outdoor Motocross Series

By Shan Moore | 3/29/2014 Cycle News

St. Louis, Missouri (March 29, 2014) – Tony Alessi let the cat out of the bag today in St. Louis, basically confirming rumors that Mike Alessi will be racing the Canadian outdoor series, at least for the first race.

According to Alessi, the entire Team SmartTop/MotoConcept team (Mike Alessi and Kyle Cunningham) will race the AMA Motocross opener at Glen Helen, and then regardless of their finish, the team will skip the following week’s round at Hangtown to contest the first round of the Canadian outdoor series in Nanaimo, in Western Canada.

“Glen Helen is Mike’s hometown race, that’s in our back yard, so we’re going to start the summer there, and then we’ll go to Canada and see how it goes,” said Tony Alessi. “After that, we’re going to evaluate our situation and see what’s best for the team and what’s best for the riders.”

Tony Alessi made it very clear that they were not “blocked” from the AMA series. “This is not like we are running away from the AMA series in any way,” Tony Alessi said. “We’re looking for new horizons, new choices, new options.”

Honda Factory Riders Ready For Brazilian Treatment

For round three of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the cream of the crop head to South America this weekend for the MXGP of Brazil.

Held at one of the nation’s largest theme parks, Beto Carrero, it’s a typically Brazilian festival of a grand prix. The Beto Carrero track is unique in that it’s the only event of the year based within a theme park, and the Brazilian passion for sport, in what is a significant sporting year for the nation, makes it a true spectacle.

Following impressive showings in both Qatar and Thailand, Team HRC’s Max Nagl will be looking to build upon his current standing of 2nd overall in this year’s championship riding the Honda CRF450RW.

The young German won the season opener in Qatar and currently lies just shy of championship leader Antonio Cairoli.

“I’ve been doing a little bit of training since Thailand and getting on the bike a bit, but I had pretty long jet lag after the race – for almost the whole week I was really tired." Nagl explained. "But now I’m fine again and looking forward to Brazil.

Last year was already going pretty good there. It’s a nice track with a stadium feeling and a lot of jumps that I like. This year it’s run earlier in the year though during their rain time.

It looks pretty wet out there already, but I hope not too much as it’s really difficult to ride if it’s too wet. But it’s always a fun place to go and the food is really good!”

Evgeny Bobryshev will also be looking to build on a solid start to the season, though his focus in Brazil will be on safely continuing the rehabilitation of his ankle following recent surgery.

"I like the GP of Brazil a lot." Bobryshev admitted. "It’s one of the best runs of the year, and it’s very good for the spectators too. You could call it a Honda event because Honda Brazil put lots of effort into it and the second round in Goiania.

"It’s a very good track for me – the compound and the design. It’s a technical track with lots of good jumps. It’s a busy lap – high speed with big jumps, and it’s really beautiful.

"I really enjoy riding this track. It’s usually very tight between riders with lots in the same second, so the start is very important. I have to get my ankle a bit better but I’ve started to train a little on it with some cycling and swimming.

"But after the operation I feel fine and am really looking forward to getting back on the bike."

The infamous Brazilian weather is set to play a part once again in 2014, particularly as this season the race is held earlier in the year, during the region’s rainy season.


Credit: Honda Racing

Another Track Opening...Sign of the Times?

Buckman motocross track nears opening, to delight of riders

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 5:50 pm 

By Edmundo Carrillo, The New Mexican 

Daniel Coriz loves motocross, and he wants to share that passion with the people of Santa Fe.

The 34-year-old has been riding motorcycles since he was a child, but he often didn’t have a place to ride. That’s why he has spent so much of his free time renovating and maintaining the Buckman Track west of N.M. 599, which is expected to reopen in the next few weeks.

The 55-acre track was carved out by users over the past four decades or so and was largely developed by volunteers such as Coriz, who has helped maintain the track since 2008.

The spot became so popular that the city completed major access improvements as part of its master plan for parks. In October 2012, a “grand opening” celebration marked the completion of more than $450,000 in city spending on a road, parking lot and perimeter fence.

But shortly after the opening, the track was closed because of safety concerns, and Coriz has done everything he could to get it reopened.

Coriz has competed in motocross, arenacross and bicycle motocross — and everything between. As he learned all the ropes, he found it was difficult to ride on a proper track, which is why he is so passionate about Buckman.

“I couldn’t afford to get out to the tracks in Moriarty and Albuquerque,” Coriz said. “That’s why I want to see [Buckman] open to the public, and I hope other places in New Mexico will follow.”

The track is owned by the city, which is rare, according to Coriz. People don’t usually have access to public motocross facilities, and that might entice people who don’t have the resources to ride dirt bikes to give it a try.

“Normally, only your privileged riders are riding tracks,” Coriz said. “For a track like this to be opened to the public is a big deal.”

The track was closed all of 2013 because of liability concerns. The city hired Great Outdoors Consultants out of Fort Collins, Colo., to make the necessary safety changes.

Work on the course is complete; all that’s left to finish are fencing that keeps different lines from intersecting with one another and a spectator area. Once those are done, city officials will meet with Travelers Insurance — the city’s liability policyholder — and the city’s Risk Management and Safety Department to determine if the track is fit to be opened.

While there is no exact date for the relaunch, people can expect the track to be open very soon.

“We are making an effort to finish it before the end of the month,” said Ike Pino, the director of the Public Works Department. “We are very close.”

Once the facility is reopened, it will have to be maintained, and that’s where Coriz steps in again. He doesn’t want Buckman to be like Montessa Park, a public off-road vehicle area in Albuquerque that is not managed regularly.

But maintenance takes a lot of time and money, as well as heavy equipment like loaders and backhoes. Coriz, along with Jason Perdue, the owner of Southwest Motorsport Resource, started a nonprofit called I Ride NM dedicated to maintaining Buckman Track.

In order to gather funds, Coriz and Perdue reached out to different shop owners around town for donations to rent all the necessary equipment.

The duo also needed the manpower to help out with the maintenance, but that wasn’t too hard to find. An army of volunteers has assisted with its own shovels, rakes and other equipment. The heavy equipment is normally used every once in a while to build jumps and other obstacles. Once that is done, the normal maintenance is to remove trash, shovel dirt, rake rocks and take care of other safety issues.

Cyrus Armijo, 21, is one of those volunteers. Like Coriz, he is involved in anything that has two wheels, and he can’t wait for the track to be reopened.

“It’s great because we all have a spot to come together,” Armijo said. “It’s nice to have a place to ride that is legal and has parking. If not, then you have people riding on private land.”

Armijo has been riding bikes since he was 14, and now he specializes in doing stunts. Like any daredevil on two wheels, he has had his share of injuries, including broken bones and concussions. But the real reason Armijo lives on a bike is because of all the camaraderie that comes with riding them.

“It brings people together,” Armijo said. “There’s a lot of fellowship that goes on. It’s more than just being a hooligan on a motorcycle.”

Armijo also said a public motocross track is important because it can keep riders from getting into trouble. A lot of people ride dirt bikes to escape their harsh realities.

“People use motocross as an outlet,” Armijo said. “You’d be surprised how many people who ride motorcycles have problems in their lives. It keeps us from riding in the street and doing drugs and other things that break the law.”

Soon, all of those “hooligans on motorcycles” will have a place to legally ride, just in time for the warmer weather. The track will be open to everyone, but Great Outdoors recommends that all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) do not ride the track due to how narrow it is.

Coriz also recommends that a beginning rider learn on flat terrain before taking on jumps and obstacles.