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FEATURE<br />
I feel the team is top level<br />
and the difference is that they<br />
invest in the rider instead of<br />
spending all the money they<br />
get on the bike and letting the<br />
rider do what he wants.<br />
I have a question: you’ll obviously<br />
do all your testing and<br />
have your settings ready but<br />
what will you change on the<br />
race bike over a weekend?<br />
What are the main go-to<br />
things?<br />
BW: The main thing is the mix<br />
between a hard-pack track<br />
and the sand where you’ll<br />
have to adjust the position of<br />
the fork and having it ‘running<br />
through’ a bit more, sitting a<br />
bit higher for sand and changing<br />
the tyre to a scoop tread<br />
pattern.<br />
JR: Electronics?<br />
BW: <strong>No</strong>t really. Some people<br />
like a more aggressive power<br />
delivery…<br />
JR: Ride heights? Chassis balance?<br />
Spring rates?<br />
BW: Definitely no spring rates.<br />
It will just be a few clicks here<br />
and there. <strong>On</strong>ce you have your<br />
technical package then you<br />
just make minor changes and<br />
clicks for each track.<br />
JR: You see, in road racing it<br />
is so ‘deep’ now with set-up<br />
and the amount of things you<br />
can change like head pipe<br />
angles, offsets, pivot points on<br />
the swing arm, rear springs,<br />
oil levels, preload compression<br />
and electronics.<br />
BW: We’ll just play around<br />
with engine mappings to have<br />
a softer or more aggressive<br />
option. We’ll have just one<br />
button on the bars to switch<br />
between one or another. Some<br />
people have a light system,<br />
which is an RPM reader, for<br />
the starts. I use it to set the<br />
throttle at a certain point for<br />
the gate. As soon as you go<br />
over a certain RPM it cuts off.<br />
JR: It sounds technical but in<br />
road racing it can be a minefield<br />
and it is so easy to get<br />
lost and then your confidence<br />
can drop. You could be riding<br />
a garden gate but if you have<br />
the most confidence in the<br />
world then it will feel great!<br />
Motocross is ultimately easier<br />
for a rider to make the difference<br />
though. It is not as<br />
restrictive as road racing…<br />
BW: Yes, I mean if you look at<br />
riding position alone then it is<br />
much more consistent.<br />
JR: In the second round of<br />
the series in Thailand the top<br />
six in race one was the top<br />
six in race two and then also<br />
race three and the gaps were<br />
probably the same because<br />
you are riding around and the<br />
lap-time range is not dropping<br />
a lot. I know at the top of<br />
motocross the lap-time range<br />
is not too big but it will still be<br />
bigger compared to road racing<br />
where if you are a couple<br />
of tenths of a second away<br />
then you are not competing.<br />
BW: At Lommel [Belgian<br />
Grand Prix and a deep sand<br />
track] the lap-time of the first<br />
lap until the last one of the<br />
race can vary between ten<br />
seconds! That’s an extreme<br />
example: it is typically five<br />
seconds…but then the track is<br />
getting rougher.<br />
JR: For us doing exactly the<br />
same lap-time over and over<br />
becomes the buzz. In motocross<br />
the buzz always came<br />
from jumping, which is the<br />
closest thing to a human flying.<br />
It’s quite cool because<br />
you are managing that horsepower<br />
through the air and<br />
everything feels nice. In road<br />
racing there isn’t that buzz.<br />
Instead it comes from that<br />
search for perfection and repetition.<br />
In motocross I doubt<br />
many riders in the world will<br />
have a perfect lap and it is<br />
hard to do in road racing even<br />
if the conditions are, comparatively,<br />
controlled…but you<br />
come close to it all the time.<br />
The coolest thing about motocross<br />
is line choice, and that’s<br />
what makes it cool from the<br />
outside.<br />
BW: Yeah, in road racing, you<br />
normally just have one line.<br />
JR: I guess in motocross there<br />
is also just that ‘optimum’<br />
line. It must be frustrating if<br />
you are in ‘traffic’ and having<br />
to use the line that is not<br />
so great. You have to plough<br />
through all thr lines to try and<br />
overtake the guy who is going<br />
a tenth of a second slower.<br />
BW: In motocross you can<br />
have an inside and outside<br />
line but the speed can depend.
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