On Track Off Road No. 190

Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: We go
testing at the start of the year in Sardinia in
January. We see the WP boys there also. We
establish a base set-up and also test it in the
pre-season races. The range of that setting
becomes so wide that whether it is sand or
hard-pack you hardly have to change it, just a
few clicks here or there or the position or balance
of the bike, that’s it. You get comments
like ‘the bike is good, I don’t want to change
anything’. In the old days riders would have
suspension for sand and for hard-pack but
that’s all done away with now.
Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: If you had a wider
track with more lines and more bumps then
you’d have safer riding because you’d slow
down as it gets more physical. People will get
tired, and you can make a difference over who
is training and who is training hard. When the
tracks are as flat as they are now then you
don’t see the difference, as you used to before.
Marc de Reuver, Rider Coach F&H Kawasaki,
former MX2 & MXGP GP winner: There
are purpose built banks and berms on many
tracks now over the years and it means riders
can go faster on the straights and just hit
them to make the corner. There is no need to
take care and measure a turn or to really look
at a camber.
Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: If we
talk about Lommel the track was even faster
in the past than it is today. I don’t think the
tracks are to blame. They can be fast but they
also put a lot of jumps and obstacles in there
to make it slower. Some places are very quick
– like Russia – but back in the day you also
had really fast tracks.
Francois Lemariey, Team Manager, Monster
Energy Kawasaki: As we saw some years ago
in F1 and MotoGP the tracks have to adapt to
the ‘new’ level of performance. I think there
are some modifications to do on tracks, maybe
reduce speed somehow with more obstacles
and bigger safety areas and not arriving
straight into the fence. Technology is better and
so are the riders, so things around them need
to move as well.
Marc de Reuver, Rider Coach F&H Kawasaki,
former MX2 & MXGP GP winner: Some more
thought to the tracks. A waves section should
start steep and end fast. In Latvia it started fast
and ended f**king steep with that jump. The
ambulance was there five times in one session
because these guys – the best in the world –
are crashing their brains out. I can see from the
body language of riders like Cairoli and Herlings
that they are having difficulty with it.
Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: Most of all
ground preparation. If you look at a wave section
then this should be ripped and watered
like the rest of the track. I also think take-offs
and landings should be done. There is a fad in
MXGP at the moment where there seems to be
a lot of polished hard-pack on jump take-offs…
and then they are watered. In America they rip
and water them and then track-them-in with
a bulldozer. They have deep lines but no real
potential for kickers. The landings here are
the same: usually rock hard and watered. So
you come from something hard and slick into
something – a rut - that is deep and watered.
Romain Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha: The
average speed needs to come down on some
tracks and that means more jumps – but technical
ones and not just another table-top or
a double. A ‘braking’ jump just to break the
speed makes sense and maybe two of them a
lap would help. Also the safety around the track
needs to be looked at. At Assen if you run off
the track then you are straight into a fence. I
don’t think these are difficult things to improve
or at least to think about.
450s: TOO FAST?