On-Track Off-Road issue 206

#GETD SHARPER

KTM 890 DUKE R The KTM 890 DUKE R delivers exactly what you’d expect from its R-rating. An aggressive, track-ready seating position, race-bred WP suspension and a blistering 121 hp compel you to slice through apexes with laser-like accuracy.

Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations!

The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.

DUKED Photo: R. Schedl

MOTOGP

GETTING A GRIP 2020 MotoGP quickly moved from one narrative to another in a frantic period of five months. Flick through the pages to see some of CormacGP’s brilliant pics from this season, some new Blogs and Neil Morrison’s fine summary of the firsttime champion Photo by CormacGP

RALLY AMA-SX

ITCHING

The 2021 Dakar Rally opens a year of racing where the majority of championships will have a ‘blind track’ ahead. The famous annual dash takes place in the Middle East for the second winter in a row and expect riders like former winner, Toby Price, to be itching for some rapid competition after lengthy pauses away from the trail. Red Bull KTM will also eager to reignite their two-decade winning streak after HRC prevailed in 2020 Photo by KTM/Marcin Kin

MX

CLOSE QUARTERS Jago Geerts and Roan Van de Moosdijk get a little tight for line choice during the 2020 MX2 campaign. See more images like this in Ray Archer’s excellent photographic spread of the year and features on MX2/MXGP, exhausts and how nutrition could make the difference at the top end of the sport Photo by Ray Archer

FEATURE

MXGP SOMEHOW BARRELLED THROUGH SIXTEEN ROUNDS FROM AUGUST UNTIL EARLY NOVEMBER AND BY VISITING JUST FOUR COUNTRIES. RAY ARCHER SELECTS SOME OF HIS FAVOURITE SHOTS FROM THE TRIPS MANAGED TO BRITAIN, HOLLAND, LATVIA, ITALY, BELGIUM AND SPAIN.

2020 MXGP SHOTS

2020 MXGP SHOTS

2020 MXGP SHOTS

2020 MXGP SHOTS

2020 MXGP SHOTS

MXGP SBK BLOG BLOG

TITULAR TITULAR LATE STARTERS I wonder if 2021 will be the year of the ‘comebacks’?

There is the prospect of MXGP ‘normality’ returning with two-day Grand Prix weekends and the end of the intense one-week triple headers. There are riders that will be hoping to kick-on from 2020 setbacks like Jeffrey Herlings, Jorge Prado, Arminas Jasikonis (yes, Rockstar Energy IceOne Husky are putting faith in a full recovery for their Lithuanian star), Mitch Evans, Shaun Simpson, Pauls Jonass, Glenn Coldenhoff and others. Then there is also the possibility of national championships having the room and potential to expand and regain some credence.

How exactly?

First of all, MXGP is tentatively aiming to start on April 3rd in the Middle East.

This is the latest Grand Prix launch since 2012 and when the series shivered into life at the (sadly) now-defunct Eurocircuit sand track at Valkenswaard. The delay has been

made to allow the longest possible time for vaccination programmes to swing into life and carry consequences for people travelling for the sport (thus shaping the paddock protocol and how an international championship crosses borders) and those organisers wholly dependent on any semblance of public attendance to consider Grand Prix.

It means more than a full month later compared to 2020 when GP started in Matterley Basin and 2019 when the show began in Argentina. It will be curious to see how competitions in Italy, UK, Belgium, Holland, Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic and other countries use those four weeks at the start of spring to engage top flite MXGP athletes keen for ‘warm-up’ fixtures and entice fans perhaps long-starved of race attendance and whom can enter sports facilities

with the appropriate safety precautions, whatever the state of their national vaccination schemes.

Domestic promoters can function within their government guidelines and regulations for public gatherings whereas a grand prix is a more complicated animal due to the amount of teams and personnel needing to fly or drive across country lines.

Not only could they potentially shape a modest and effective sporting event but also seize on the willingness of the racers based in close proximity, the fans and even industry activity. From the second-hand accounts I’ve heard so far then a healthy group of distributors and companies inside motorcycling and off-road have been weathering a weird 2020 quite well in terms of demand and business. At least in the shortterm.

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY ADAM WHEELER Typically, non-Grand Prix competition attracts interest at the end of January and February when teams are training and testing in southern Europe and take profit of the three-roundsin-three-weeks Internazionali d’Italia and then signature one-offs like the Hawkstone Park International or the Starcross at Mantova, again in Italy. There are few other chances to see the ‘names’ of the sport before MXGP gets going. Once the World Championship begins then national races are usually seen as either a distraction or obligation and, in a few cases, a decent money-maker. With March now pegged as an open calendar month (although one with a degree of risk) then promoters have the chance to build races, book entry lists and enter the spotlight of the sport until brands and companies decide that their full attention must turn to Oman.

Picking the UK for a moment, Britain has apparently

struggled for a focussed national series and keen attention on youth racing for several years.

“WITH MARCH NOW PEGGED AS AN OPEN CALENDAR MONTH (ALTHOUGH ONE WITH A DEGREE OF RISK) THEN PROMOTERS HAVE THE CHANCE TO BUILD RACES, BOOK ENTRY LISTS AND ENTER THE SPOTLIGHT...”

The ACU British Championship has fought for space in the international calendar, geographical spread and willing (and capable circuits) while also dealing with participation numbers in the MX Nationals parallel competition and then standout occurrences like the Red Bull-backed Two-Stroke Festival and the Veterans Motocross des Nations at Farleigh Castle.

Even at a distance it feels muddled in terms of prestige and importance. Former Grand Prix

promoter and Weston Beach race overseer Gareth Hockey is now pulling the strings for the British Championship and his ambitious publication of a 12-date contest (8 rounds for the senior classes) hasn’t used a March slot. Scepticism hovers over ‘the British’ generally but the will and attitude behind the plan could be the impetus the scene needs. If – and it’s a big ‘if’ because of the hot embers of the pandemic Hockey and his crew can take advantage of the altered landscape forced on the FIM World Championship and the secular circumstances enforced by COVID-19 then UK motocross might be able to benefit in a positive way.

On the track it will be heartwarming and tremendous to see Jasikonis return to the factory Husqvarna saddle after his scary and ruinous crash at Mantova during the late summer. There are still many questions surrounding the 23-year old’s capabilities but there will

MXGP SBKBLOG BLOG

be a lot of goodwill about his push to recovery and credit to Antti Pyrhonen’s team for giving their rider a chance when it would have been easier and less of a risk to simply tear up a contract and ink a new one. It will be fantastic if Jasikonis can again be that spectacular, attacking athlete that surged ahead with his progress in 2020.

While I have no doubt that Jorge Prado will go straight into world championship contention after already showing the necessary form pre-Covid contraction I’m also keen to see how his former teammate Pauls Jonass retaliates from a whole season away from the bike due to his back injury. Still on Austrian-based engineering, the Latvian – who was the 2019 rookie of the year in the premier class – has some catching up to do, but there are few riders with the devoted mentality of the likeable 23-year old.

Lastly, what about Herlings?

Arguably the fastest rider in MXGP claimed to approach 2020 with more maturity and new-found acceptance that he didn’t have to win every single Sunday. Jeffrey talked the talk but was still formidable enough to claim four rounds; the second highest total of the year despite the fact he started only seven of the eighteen Grands Prix. His neck injury scuppered another championship bid and gave the Dutchman yet another reminder of his mortality, but the hiatus has allowed him to get his physical shape sorted. The Faenza crash was partly caused by discomfort in his right foot as a result of the two hard-hitting injuries of 2019.

Application and desire will not be an issue for Jeffrey in 2021 and the first of another three years ahead with Red Bull KTM but a measure of his state-of-mind would be fascinating and how he again decides to race. Herlings will still be torn between championship objectivity and the degree of caution which this entails and the pursuit of

victory with less than ten wins separating him from the all-time record.

Comebacks indeed.

PRODUCTS

BENNETTS RIDE FREE One for prospective UK bikers this; as insurance specialists with a very active presence in motorcycling – Bennetts – are encouraging newcomers to two wheels with 90 free CBT course up for grabs as part of their ‘Ride Free’ campaign. Until mid-February any person over the age of 18 who is interested in making their first steps to be a road-legal rider simply has to fill-in a quick submission stating firstly why they want to ride and secondly what they will do after they’ve completed the course to be in with a chance. Click on the image here to go direct to the form. CBT training can cost up to 130 pounds and provides an two-year certificate.

It is the initial compulsory stage towards a full bike licence. Why ‘90’? Bennetts reached their 90th anniversary in 2020 and are promoting their Bennetts Rewards platform that offers a range of deals and discounts for riders in the UK.

www.bennetts.co.uk

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FEATURE

GRADUATION

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/JP Acevedo

MX2 TO MXGP. 250 TO 450, AND OFTEN PUSHED BY A 23rd BIRTHDAY: WHY DO SOME RIDERS FLY IN THE PREMIER CLASS AND OTHERS TAKE SEASONS TO MAKE IT WORK? WHAT LIES IN STORE FOR THE TWO GRAND PRIX WINNERS THAT MAKE THE MOVE FOR 2021?

FEATURE

I

n 2015 Romain Febvre won the FIM MXGP World Championship in his first year in the category. The Frenchman was ejected from MX2 – where he finished 3rd overall in 2014 with just one GP win to his name – by virtue of his 23rd birthday on December 31st.

He missed what would have been a sure-fire year of 250 title contention in ’15 by a mere few hours. It didn’t turn out too badly though.

Febvre started the 2015 calendar year with a broken arm. He clocked up miles on the Yamaha – his first Japanese mount after seasons of KTM and Husqvarna representation – by using a stock YZ450F. By late summer he was the second rookie #1 in the modern era of the premier class (Tony Cairoli won at the first attempt in 2009). A year later Tim Gajser entered MXGP as a 20-year old and MX2 world champion after Jeffrey Herlings had dislocated his hip and offered control of the division during that fateful 2015. The Slovenian followed Febvre’s example, and the win inadvertently put pressure on the upcoming Herlings for 2017. The Dutchman dealt with a broken right hand in the first few races and underestimated the scale of the challenge but won five of the last six races on the 450 SX-F and then slaughtered MXGP in 2018.

Steven Frossard, Jeremy Van Horebeek, Gautier Paulin, Steve Ramon, Max Nagl, Pauls Jonass: more riders that caught the eye and achieved success thanks to more ‘cc’s.

“A different power, different inertia and different energy: when riders really understand how to use the power of a 450 then they are coming good,” assesses France’s first world champion and now long-term rider coach Jacky Vimond, who has been working with Romain Febvre (and Ben Watson in the past) for the last two years. “Herlings is an example; in the first year he didn’t have the gearing right and was over-revving a lot. He is a big guy and jumped on a bigger bike but it took him half a year to learn to ride the 450. It’s strange but it’s like this.”

“Take Frossard [#183 finished as MX1 runnerup in 2011],” he adds. “When you saw him riding the 250 you thought ‘this guy will not finish the season on a 450’! Everybody said the same thing. But he finished 2nd. A big surprise. How did that happen? One explanation is that – as a 250 rider – you need to push the bike so hard. Then, the riders adapt. They are not stupid. They know that the 250 style will not work. Romain had more control and did the job better because he won the title. Van

MX2 TO MXGP Horebeek did well also [a career high of 2nd in his second term]. They did not have to push as much with the bigger bike and kept part of that 250 speed. If you are ready physically and mentally, and you make the move to the 450 at the right time, you can make that result.”

MXGP ebbs and flows with talent filtering up from MX2. 2020 saw Calvin Vlaanderen, Mitch Evans, Thomas Covington, Henry Jacobi, Michele Cervellin and Adam Sterry all trying to find their feet. These names alone have graced MX2 podium trophies and EMX250 race wins.

Although the campaign was dwarfed by the demands of a surrounding pandemic and only stopped in six countries, injuries struck each rider, with Covington deciding to end his career after health and motivation issues.

“It was way-harder than I thought,” Sterry admits. “Most people just think ‘a 450’s the same but with more power’. You spend all your time in MX2 trying to make the 250 as fast as possible and looking everywhere to get more speed and power. You’ll be hanging off the back of the bike in the starts and out of corners and using the clutch to get more power out of the bike. On a 450 it’s all the opposite!

You need to change your style and technique and the way you think the bike will behave.

You use the clutch on a 450 much more but

FEATURE to tame to power and to use it, rather than trying to maximise it. It was hard to change. I jumped on Conrad’s [Mewse, MX2 riding teammate] bike a few weeks ago because the team wanted an opinion and it felt like you couldn’t crash with it! On a 450, with the weight characteristic and the behaviour, it feels like a lot more can go wrong.”

The Brit had to deal with a mid-season team switch and a punctured lung but was touching the fringe of the top ten by the end of the year.

Sterry’s friend and former foil, Monster Energy Yamaha’s Ben Watson is one of two major incoming racers for 2021. The 23-year old was the in-form man towards the finale of the 2020 MX2 competition. His fellow ‘freshman’ is Rockstar Energy IceOne Husqvarna’s Thomas Kjer Olsen, a rider that finished in the final top three in four of his MX2 seasons….

What’s your theory on why some riders do well straight away when they move to MXGP? Olsen: It’s hard to say but, for all the similarities between the bikes, the 450 is definitely a different beast and needs a different riding style, so it can suit some guys better than others. I think coming straight from the MX2 class you can bring some of that aggressive riding style that can sometimes help on the 450 too.

I think some guys can get a bit lazy on the 450 – if I’m honest. On the 250 you have to be aggressive and work the bike all the time. It’s hard to find a clear answer because you also see people coming up to the 450s and struggling in their first year.

Watson: I think there are a few things that can affect that. In my case I came into a factory MX2 team and in my first year with no pressure and nobody really looking at me I finished 4th straightaway, which was quite a big surprise for everybody. I was a bit lighter, not so experienced and nobody was looking at me; I just got the job done and when I think back

VIMOND “RIDERS WITH GOOD VIMOND: UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIENCE OF RACING A 250 & SHOW QUICK ADAPTATION TO THE POWER OF THE 450 BECOME GOOD VERY FAST. THE LINES COULD BE A BIT DIFFERENT… BUT THE GUYS NOW ARE STARTING TO USE THOSE FLAT-OUT WIDE LINES IN CORNERS THAT WERE POSSIBLE ON A 250 AND EVEN ON A 125.”

Everyone is different in how they react to situations. For me, I know I can fight for wins but it might not come until the second year. In 2020 I learned to be freer with pressure.

Do you think there will be much difference in terms of lines and intensity when it comes to racing the 450? Some riders in the past have talked about the diversity…

Olsen: I think it is still really intense but you have to handle the bike a bit differently. You have to ride the bike smoothly and if you start getting too aggressive then you’ll just go backwards. It’s true that you use different lines, especially on a track where the 450s can get away with a bit more. On a 250 you need to keep the speed up all the time whereas the 450 is a bit easier to stop and go. But in the end the 450 is still a bike, and I’ve been practicing a lot with one and also testing.

Watson: I’m trying really hard to keep everything moving on a 250 and I don’t think it is as important to do that on a 450. You can try different things like going tighter into a corner and then the power and acceleration of the bike will help. It’s there straight away. I notice on the 250 – especially with sand – if I go too deep into a corner and I’m not ‘light’ on the bike then I lose so much speed and time. It will be strange to know I can take corners in different ways. I think I will figure out a lot in the tests.

It seems that plenty of MX2 racers train with the 450…

Olsen: I’m a tall guy and heavier than my competition. I’ll ride with the 450 at home and then come back to the 250 race bike – which is an amazing machine – but the reality is that it can feel kinda slow compared to the bigger bike. On the 250 you are using all the power you can get but on the 450 you can play around more with the engine packages, and you don’t want to have too much.

MX2 TO MXGP

now I really, really enjoyed that year. After that I put too much pressure on myself to achieve and tried too hard and was making stupid mistakes. When guys move up from MX2 to MXGP I think not much expected of them and they can put more fun into it without too much stress over the results. Speaking about Romain [his training partner] in 2015, he was really ‘free’ that year and just rode his bike like he knows he can. Herlings was more of an exception because he knows what it’s like to be dominant and probably expected that from himself, perhaps that was his problem in his first season.

FEATURE Watson: Normally I ride in November each year with a 450 just to build a bit of strength and have a bit of fun on the bike in the first months when it’s not really important to be high intensity and focusing on race speed.

The bikes almost weigh the same. So how do you explain the physical difference of racing it?

Olsen: It’s about the power that’s available, getting the bike stopped and the rotating mass of the engine that makes it feel heavier.

I would say that riding the 250 in the sand was actually physically harder for me. I had to hang off the back of the bike and move around it a whole lot more, whereas on the other bike I can rely on the power and sit centred. It is easier on my arms. I can handle the power OK and that meant flowing with the bike a bit more rather than just hanging it out all the time.

Watson: The acceleration is harder. It means more exit speed and more strength is needed.

There might not be a big difference in weight but the engine characteristic means much more pull and force. If you do a 20 minute moto at an easy pace on a 250 and then a

sprint lap then the sprint lap might be 1-2 seconds quicker but physically it is much more intense and your heartrate might be 20-30 beats per minute higher on a one lap. That’s how it is with a 450. The exit speed means you are quicker and focussing more. You have to think about that next step a bit quicker. A stronger engine means a stronger physique and a stronger mind. You can only go so fast down a straight before you have to brake for a turn but it’s more the acceleration and the power needed to hold the line. You need strength so you are not fighting the bike and to have control.

Do you think your set-up will be much different compared to the 250? Will it be more technical?

Olsen: More technical if I’m honest. There is the engine technical package to sort out whereas on the 250 I don’t worry about that side of it too much: the guys give me the most powerful engine possible! On the 450 I’ll have to choose how I want it to be. I think if you don’t sort out the suspension on the 450 then you’ll be punished more than you would on a 250. The Husky is a high-revving bike and when I first got on the factory 450 I couldn’t ride it right! I think I’m quite good at

Acclimatisation. Vimond identified this factor and Sterry tried to wade through it in 2020 with a 450 SX-F at his old team and then the same bike in the Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee squad.

“At the moment, when I’m racing it is hard not to ride the bike like a 250 sometimes,” he admits. “If you have the power in the wrong places then you end up with arm-pump, getting tired and crashing. It was hard to eliminate all of that in my first year.”

“The riders with good understanding and experience of racing a 250 and show quick adaptation to the power of the 450 become good very fast,” Vimond believes. “The lines could be a bit different…but the guys now are starting to use those flat-out wide lines in corners that were possible on a 250 and even more so on a 125.

Look at Gajser: he can make the outside line really fast. It takes more energy…but he can do it.”

Rather than the unusual stories of a rider excelling with his first dance with the 450 there is another issue that perplexes Vimond and brings the subject of psychology into the equation.

MX2 TO MXGP

maintaining a lot of power with the throttle but I still like all that torque at the bottom.

Watson: The sensitivity of the throttle is higher.

With the 250 we worked on everything to gain power: as much as we could get. I had a really good chassis but I always wanted more power.

I think with the 450 next year it will be heavily focussed on putting the power where I want it and learning more about electronics. At the moment I cannot be too precise. I have only ridden a production 450 so I’ll need to see where I want more and where I want less. I don’t think the chassis and the handling will be too much of a worry comparatively. I’m not an aggressive rider. I like to be one gear higher and just roll the throttle. Some guys on the 250 like to go down two gears into a corner and then be on the clutch and get aggressive. I don’t like that and it’s why I didn’t race a 125. I did a couple of days with one when I moved from am 85 and decided to go straight to a 250. I didn’t regret it, but Jacky reckons I missed out learning shifting, aggression and throttle control with the 125…but that’s just the way I ride the bike and the way I’ve always been. That’s why some believe I’ll be better on the 450 because I’m smooth with the bike; I’m not clutching too much or revving it high. I’ll need smooth power, nothing too snappy.

FEATURE “The bigger question for me is why can’t strong riders on a 250 - who have done well immediately with the 450 - do it again the second year?” he ponders. “Jeremy Seewer, and Van Horebeek also, seem to be the exception.

Seewer learnt in his first year and then went to 2nd place in his second season. He is still there now. It must be about the mentality and the routine of working with the 450. There is a new energy in the first year, then they learn more in the second year and they are maturing in the third. It’s strange.”

Pressure, expectations and peers rather than just weight, lines and physique shouldn’t be understated. “For sure MXGP is something to get used to,” smiles Olsen “but hopefully I’m up there battling those guys. Maybe the first glimpse of them will hit me a little bit. But every time I’ve stepped up a new class I’ve

adapted quickly. I was also looking up to the riders in MX2 but as soon as it came to racing them in 2017 then I didn’t care. I respect all of them but we’re racing…and if I can see that I’m faster than some then I’m coming past.”

“Resetting my expectations will be fine for the first year but I’m racing in the world championship and that means the best and the fastest, it doesn’t matter if it’s the 250 or the 450,” reasons Watson. “I’ve raced with all of these guys before in MX2 and at the Nations, I’ve competed against Herlings and Gajser, so it doesn’t bother me who I’m up against, in fact it will give me more motivation. At the moment I’m nothing to those guys…so it will be cool to get in the mix. It’s exciting because I don’t know what to expect. I could surprise myself and I could surprise others.”

MX2 TO MXGP

PRODUCTS

KTM KTM have dropped the annual tantalising incarnation of their flagship motocross model – the KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION – with which they will contest the 2021 AMA Supercross season. The bike features a host of KTM Powerpart upgrades but also has that identical Red Bull KTM livery (including the orange frame to denote its special limited edition status). Among the increased specs over the stock 450 SX-F are: ‘factory wheels, Factory triple clamps anodized in orange, a composite skid plate, a Hinson clutch cover and an orange rear sprocket.

The spec list also boasts elements like the Akrapovic silencer, the factory start holeshot device, the semi floating front brake and the disc guard.’

www.ktm.com This model also comes with a Connectivity Unit which means owners can connect their myKTM App and adjust engine character and suspension settings thanks to the push of a few buttons. If that sounds quite advanced then the App itself has a series of menus that will assist the less technically minded right up to racers who want to quickly fine tune their KTM without the need for a specialist at the track. The FACTORY EDITION is available in a limited quantity of units and goes on sale this month. It is perhaps a little too exclusive as a Christmas gift…(!) but something that many motocrossers will have on their fantasy list regardless.

BLOW

OUT

HOW MUCH DO MXGP TEAMS REALLY RELY ON AFTERMARKETS EXHAUST TECH AND SUPPLIERS TO BE COMPETITIVE?

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer

FEATURE

“W

e sorted the suspension, threw on a pipe and went racing…” those words have cropped up many times when speaking to riders aiming for the top of the FIM Motocross World Championship. It seems that exhaust systems – provided by some renowned names in the racing world - are one of the first (or easiest) solutions to convert a stock dirtbike into a Grand Prix machine: important for squeezing every ounce of

WHO WE SPOKE TO: Dirk Gruebel Red Bull KTM, Team Manager (using Akrapovic since 2003) Jeffrey De Vries Yamaha Motor Europe, Technical Supervisor (longtime Akrapovic collaboration) Roger Shenton Team HRC, Technical Co-ordinator (using Yoshimura since 2016) Rasmus Jorgensen Rockstar Energy Husqvarna MX2, Team Manager (using FMF)

horsepower out of a 250 or helping to finesse all the speed and force of a 450.

Exhausts are curious beasts.

They are shimmering and bulbous feats of engineering with added on ‘chambers’ and fancy carbon coated silencers that twist around an engine like a reluctant snake. They have also been painted as ‘villains’ of the sport; elevated four-stroke noise being one of the key causes behind the closure of tracks and the

rising ire of environmentalists. In MXGP the limit of 115db is regularly pushed as part of pre-GP Technical Control and random post-race tests.

A full Akrapovic system can cost around 1000 euros and the customer sets evolve from valuable prototypes being used in Grand Prix racing.

Teams benefit from the work of specialist brands and their R&D to mould their machinery as they need fit.

There is a lot of variety and they have all the tooling to produce so many dimensions.

De Vries: They are so important for the starts. You have a CONTRIBUTIONS TO BIKE few seconds where you have PERFORMANCE maximum grip on the metal mesh and the throttle is inGruebel: It’s a big one. We tell stantly wide-open and the Akrapovic what we want after strongest jump forward has delivering a bike with a certain to be made. The header pipe spec. We guide them in which is really effective; if you take way they should develop the a small one then for sure it pipe and they have a big influ- is very good on the mesh but ence. We end up having more after that you lose out. If you bottom end power or more top. take a bigger one then it’s worse on the mesh. You have to compromise. The height and altitude of locations and circuits also plays a part. You might need different pipes for different races to always be on the good level.

DE VRIES: “THEY ARE SO IMPORTANT FOR THE STARTS. YOU HAVE A FEW SECONDS WHERE YOU HAVE MAXIMUM GRIP & THE THROTTLE IS INSTANTLY WIDE-OPEN AND THE STRONGEST JUMP FORWARD HAS TO BE MADE.” Shenton: It’s very essential.

It’s not just a weight issue – even though that is a big thing! It improves the performance of the engine: I cannot stress that enough. A production bike is for the standard, average customer and with the noise restricted as well.

Of course, we like to open it as much as we can and as we are allowed to do so to gain that maximum power output.

Gruebel: We also adapt our mapping towards the pipe.

We have our hardware, we get the pipe done and then the mapping. It’s all one package.

If you have a stock bike and buy any old pipe then it will have only a small influence, maybe a bit better, maybe a bit worse. Many privateers use one because of the weight and the look. They could get way-more out of it if you really went into details.

Shenton: It helps for power delivery and where we want it on the 450. The bottom part of the engine and the midpower or top: we can adjust this by different sizes of header pipes and also the muffler.

We can adjust where we want the power by changing the system.

TESTING Jorgensen: This is third year with the current generation of the FC 250 and it’s at a great level. We’ve learned so much in these last three years and will have a new bike for ’22 I believe. Austria do not give us anything unless it’s totally proven and reliable. Once in a while we’ll be given something new to test during the season if the combination

MXGP EXHAUSTS

But is the latest curvature of titanium really essential? And how many are they melting in a season? We set aside our ear defenders to ask…

FEATURE of FMF and the factory have found something. Each rider also has different preferences: some like really strong bottom-end power, some like a smoother curve. We have so many options and the factory are doing a great job with all of that. As a team it’s a dream-like situation to have the factory looking after so much of the development.

Shenton: Our riders are a little bit different. Mitch [Evans] prefers the power in a different area to Tim but there is always a compromise to where we can place that power. We are testing during the season but also at the end of the year and we’ll have updates to look at the beginning of the year.

Gruebel: It takes more than one day of testing, for sure. We have dyno results…but you need to see the feedback on the track, sand and hardpack, and it takes days to check in the various conditions.

Shenton: We like to test on hardpack first and then sand but it can be quite time-consuming. We don’t want any surprises, so we like to know exactly the feedback we’ll be getting from the system.

Jorgensen: FMF are in close contact with the factory and the guys who develop our engines and then with us for testing or significant modifications. It’s a great relationship.

CRAFT AND ART TO MAKE THE PACKAGE

Gruebel: It’s all one thing. It’s not just a bolt-on component that delivers performance.

It depends on what else you

have. You can have a nice powerband but then influence it in the wrong way with the wrong pipe.

De Vries: Electronics as well will help shape the engine.

We rely a lot on Akrapovic because they have so much knowledge of engines from different sports. It’s also very separate; you’ll never hear about what another brand is doing and that’s how it should be.

Gruebel: Akrapovic still play with length, diameters and internal cores, hole patterns

in the perforator tubes and so on. They can play the whole field.

De Vries: We can work with the electronics for the power we want on the 450 but we do more with the exhaust system.

R&D are always working on how we can gain advantages in certain areas and power and torque or what the rider requests.

A SEASON’S TOLL Shenton: Durability and manufacturing is very good. We’re changing the muffler every

MXGP EXHAUSTS

De Vries: A good exhaust is still important on the fourstroke, but perhaps not as critical as it is for the twostroke. We’ll vary the pipe on the 250 but power is not an issue with the 450 so you’ll see pipes without the chamber and the power is smoother. On difficult tracks some riders take it off. We’ll also play with the internals of the muffler and this is to reduce power to get smoother.

FEATURE

GRUEBEL: “WE HAVE CERTAIN NOISE LIMITS THAT WE HAVE TO STAY INSIDE. IT’S A BIG THING NOW BECAUSE THE ENGINES ARE HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED AND RUNNING AT HIGH RPMS AND A LOT OF COMPRESSION RATIOS. YOU CAN CREATE AN AGGRESSIVE WAVE AND WE DON’T WANT TO VIOLATE THE REGULATIONS...”

GP, that’s a normal requirement by Japan but we can get away with doing two, without any risks. The header pipe will run for two GPs but it can also do more. With the world championship at stake we don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

Gruebel: It depends but we get plenty of material from Akrapovic. We could put a new one every race but we don’t need to. We’ll do three-four

GPs with one but it depends on how hard the conditions have been. A stony track can be harder on the material and the sand more forgiving.

De Vries: I’d say we are making four GPs with an exhaust system and then it goes to the training bike. The technology is really strong and reliable.

Jorgensen: The FMF pipes are really strong. We can easily run more than one race with

them but it also depends on the track and the conditions.

Gruebel: We weigh them. We put them on the scales when they are new and we know when they are 300g lighter

we don’t want to violate the regulations.

and some technology on the combustion must be helping.

NOISY THINGS

De Vries: KTM are very quiet.

We have 1-1.5db more, so we are right on the limit and that is something we have to improve in the winter. We have the air in-take on the front because of the reversed cylinder and this is always very noisy.

Jorgensen: It really is a fine line to be inside the limit but also keep maximum power.

We’re on the edge but we are where we need to be.

Shenton: We work a lot on noise. Some guys will have different mapping for neutral gear. We never do that. Our sound is the same in every gear. We quite strict with that.

We’re in the ballpark of where we need to be. We don’t want to be too low because that means we’re losing power. We want to be as ‘safely close’ to the limit as we can.

Gruebel: At the moment we are in a good ballpark. The limit is 115db and we’re wayunder that, we’re barely touching 114 lately, so it’s good.

Gruebel: We have certain noise limits that we have to stay inside. We have a bit of a safety margin. On a deep sand track you might burnout a bit more, and after the

De Vries: We are asking Akrapovic to help us reduce the noise. But I’ll say to them ‘we want to keep the same power’ and they start laughing because it is the eternal ques-

race you still need to be inside the rules. It’s a big thing now because the engines are highly sophisticated and running at high RPMs and a lot of compression ratios. You can create an aggressive wave and

tion: more power but lower noise. The intake and the ignition and the power make a difference. It is not so easy. I’m almost jealous of how KTM do it because they have power but less noise. The rear intake

Shenton: Honda Japan are very strict, and we just have to get the maximum performance from what we are given and what we have to work with. R&D work constantly throughout the year. There is good constant communication.

There is a lot of people behind the scenes working on this.

MXGP EXHAUSTS

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FEATURE

EAT IT!

TALKING WITH A SPORT SCIENTIST ABOUT HOW AND WHY NUTRITION COULD BE THE NEXT GREAT UNEXPLORED AREA OF TRAINING

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/Source

A

n athlete looks in the mirror. Any doubts they see regarding physicality, injury recovery and mentality can all be answered by a number of specialists they might have in their camp or at their call. The sportsperson that stares at the reflection and keeps asking ‘what else?’ might do well to turn their gaze to the refrigerator. This is the opinion of Sports Scientist Stephan Nuesser. The German advocates that a dedicated and specialised approach to nutrition is the next frontier for marginal gains…and a whole lot more.

Asking the trainer behind the SNDC company and concept for some insight (and he has worked with a range of MXGP athletes in the last fifteen years) produced a revealing conversation that just might banish the cookie jar…

Haven’t people already factored a lot of knowledge about nutrition into their training?

I’d say that in the past people looked at food and nutrition in terms of replacing energy that they need to perform. They would say ‘I need to perform like this, and I need this much energy to make it happen’. Ten years ago, I wasn’t looking that much at nutrition and focussing more on the training activity. Now we know a lot more and have more information about how certain nutrients influence metabolic processes.

FEATURE The three macro-nutrients that play an important role are: carbohydrates, fat and proteins.

These three and their composition are vital in everyday use but also for the training and the competition someone does. Total energy is important but, in my view, not essential. For sure you still need a balance for what goes in and what comes out but what is more important is how these macro-nutrients affect metabolic processes.

OK, so break that down a bit more…

Well, let’s start with carbohydrates. They are basically just energy. They have no other important role in the metabolism of the human body. If you look at proteins then they are also a source of energy, but they do more: they synthesise enzymes and antibodies and they maintain and repair tissue like muscles and organs, hair and skin. They produce hormones and they also carry haemoglobins.

Is that why people go crazy over protein foods and shakes?

Yes, protein is an important macro-nutrient, particularly for athletes. But the third macronutrient – fat – is also a source of energy but it’s important for vitamin absorption, for example vitamins E, D, A and K. It also has a role in structural material for cells, membranes, and hormone production and inflammation. It is also an insulator for core and body temperature. So, these three have quite different functions for metabolism in the human body. You mentioned the proteins. It’s important that you have enough per day. Roughly we should look between 1.5 and 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

What would be an example of that?

First of all it depends on the body weight, so for 80kg (140g) per day you might need: 200g Skyr or Greek yogurt (20g), 200g chicken breast (45g), 3 eggs (18g), 100g Gouda cheese (24g), 100g lentils (25g), 250g Broccoli (8g).

“THERE IS A LOT OF POTENTIAL IN NUTRITION. IN OTHER SPORTS LIKE CYCLING THEY HAVE BEEN PUTTING A LOT OF EMPHASIS INTO IT DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS WHICH THEY DIDN’T A DECADE AGO...”

late muscle tissue synthesis more than others.

Broad chain amino acids stimulate muscle repair and growth to a higher extent than others. Animal based protein has a better function that plant based. That’s why it’s difficult if you are a vegan to get all the right nutrients and the right amounts.

Carbs?

A glycaemic index tells you how quick sugars go into your bloodstream. A ‘100’ is like glucose or fructose – pure sugars – and they go super quick into the blood. If you have a high rate on the glycaemic index then it also has a high insulin response: once your blood sugar goes

NUTRITION

I have a saying: ‘you cannot manage what you don’t measure’. To know your intake of the three macro-nutrients you need to keep a food diary for a few days. There are certain Apps that can help with that and tell you a calorie, fats, protein and carb count. These are the first steps to optimise nutrition. You need to know where you start, what you ingest and what demands you have. Proteins are built from twenty amino acids and there are nine that are essential and should come through food; in other words the body cannot produce these by itself.

You have to look at the distribution of the amino acids to have the best results or ‘function’ of your proteins. Certain amino acids stimu-

FEATURE up the pancreas secrete insulin, which immediately reduces these sugar ‘peaks’. They become a very quick booster instead an energy supply.

It would be better to have carbohydrate foods with a lower glycaemic index, so they go slower into the bloodstream and have a slower insulin response and be more stable and more available for the period of time you need it.

Once you have worked out the base - measuring to manage – and are knowing what you eat for a period of five days then you can start to optimise it. You might already have some good parts in your nutrition which you can maintain and some others that are not so good for your performance, which you can then reduce or swap. If riders are seeking nutrition or performance improvements then, firstly, I would see What would be an example? what they eat, then try to reduce the items that Starch. A potato. It will deliver energy much are not helping. I’ll make them a food list. You longer than a spoon of sugar. Wholemeal foods can eat as many ‘green’ foods as you want. ‘Yelgenerally have a lower glycaemic index. Brown low’ ones are ones you should try to limit and bread will be slower than white, the same for ‘red’ should be avoided if possible. The athletes rice. Generally, lookcan look at these trafing at the metabolic fic lights and make “ALL DIETS WILL WORK FOR processes of foods is their selection without important if you want to any big limitations on WEIGHT LOSS, BUT THE BIG have everything about quantity. We’ll keep QUESTION IS HOW LONG CAN your sport on a higher an eye on calories level. For recovery nutribut the type of food is YOU MAINTAIN IT AND KEEP tion plays a huge part. more essential. Then THAT BODY WEIGHT? SO You can’t really improve it is about support it through training. advice and practical THAT’S WHY YOU NEED TO With a combination tips, like what meals FIND A WAY OF NUTRITION YOU of food you can really they can have in the influence your recovery CAN HOLD FOR A LONG PERIOD morning and before processes. High loads races, between races OF TIME...” of carbohydrates supand what drinks they port a lot of inflammashould have. Mostly tion process in the body it is based on natural which is not so helpful to increase recovery. The food - pure food as the base - and then some right amount and combination of carbs plus supplements to meet demand. In motorsport proteins influence the time frame and efficiency - and motocross especially - there is a high of processes quite a lot. demand for electrolytes. I measure sodium loss, which can be done with small systems now like Typically, a guy who is just starting to aim for patches on your body where you collect and a professional level in a motorcycle racing analyse sweat so we can manage the sodium career, especially for something as physical as implementation over a race day. If you look at motocross, will be pretty young. Specific it roughly then you can say you need 1g of salt nutrition seems like a minefield for them. or sodium per hour in warm conditions, it easily Weighing food seems like an easy first step comes up to 5-6g of salt per day and we know although the whole subject feels complicathow to apply it to the drinks needed. Like most ed… things in sport now it is becoming more speI think it is not as complicated as it might look. cific and specialised and more about details.

Will that really make a difference? Again, young guys will be learning about their bodies and their potential so will swapping a protein set really make gains for their performance, say, late into a moto?

Swapping products from normal food to wholemeal food will make a difference but looking at the distribution of the macro-nutrients also. Not eating 600-800g of carbs a day: what effect will that have? If I lower it then I increase my fat metabolism and can improve my recovery.

There is a lot of potential in nutrition. In other sports like cycling they have been putting a lot of emphasis into it during the last few years which they didn’t a decade ago. Cycling and other sports rely on body weight. You’ll see endurance athletes getting super-skinny because that has a big bearing on performance: the more power-per-kilo you produce the better you are up the hill! Many sports like to have the optimum balance between power and body weight. I never really had that too much in mind for motocross but it could apply to the MX2 class and the search for the best bodyweight for the start. If you are looking to get your bike as light as possible with titanium and carbon,

NUTRITION

MXGP NETHERLANDS

FEATURE and if you can lose another 2-3kg on body weight then it’s worth getting into the details and getting more specialised.

That’s the puzzle: making the weight but keeping the same power and strength…

Yeah, and reducing your weight but still optimising metabolic processes. Your energy metabolism works, your recovery, you have less inflammation: you can manipulate this in a positive way with the right foods and the right macro-nutrient combination.

To do that would you need to stay in a constant cycle of testing? Could you notice a performance difference just from seeing data and results in a blood test?

The first biggest improvement or change would be felt first-hand. I did it and I felt it personally.

The athletes following a programme provide anecdotal accounts of feeling better and that affects performance in competition. Not specifically motocross but also runners, cyclists and all kinds of endurance athletes. Also, they feel fresher in recovery after an intense training session. Those subjective changes are noticeable but they can also be seen in the lab. We can measure inflammation markers, we can measure blood values, we can also see fuel distribution during exercise thanks to biometrics tests, like the amount of carb burn and the percentages. We can measure the metabolism through exercise and training.

Is that a complicated or slow testing process?

The blood tests are specific but that’s done in my lab and with a next-day delivery. But you wouldn’t need to make that test every day. You need to give your body time for adaptation.

The metabolic pathways need to get used to the situation. A blood test every three months would be enough. When we do a performance test then we also get the information on how the energy distribution is in terms of fats and carbohydrates. It is not like athletes are coming

What about the psychological side of this?

Can nutrition be a placebo in some cases?

Another box for an athlete to tick in the search for elite-level confidence? Also, some athletes have commented on how much a nutrition plan can be so hard to follow for a sustained period of time….

Hmm, I don’t think you can directly apply it to just elite performance. I’d apply my approach to nutrition as a benefit for health and longevity. High loads of carbs produce stages of insulin resistance and that means you need to release more and more insulin to control blood-sugar levels. That’s the first step to diabetes and is related to other diseases such as coronary – strokes, heart attacks - and sometimes Alzheimer’s and cancer. So, I don’t want the athlete just to be fitter but also less at risk of suffering from metabolic-based diseases. The type of athlete also comes into play. If I have a marathon runner or a cyclist at Tour de France level then they will be looking at all possibilities to improve physical performance. They are also open-minded and motivated to work on each piece of the puzzle to get it better.

My feeling with motocrossers at the moment is that quite a few are coming into GPs younger and they don’t have that fully commitment professional mindset. Many do their training because it is necessary and they need a level on the bike. Many of them could already do more. Once they look at nutrition and see and feel the differences then there is no question about maintaining it. It is also important to have a coach or trainer that helps support you through that adaptation and change. It is quite complex, and there are always questions. You need someone to give practical and knowledgeable advice.

Find someone with experience and who can apply it to your daily structure with the foods you like to eat so it becomes maintainable. It doesn’t make sense to completely change your diet and eat spinach all day if you hate it.

Motocrossers do their hardcore base work in the winter then tide-over their training during the season. Would a decent nutrition plan have to last 365 days a year or would there be times when they could blow-out?

Time away or ‘off’ from training means they can also take a break from nutrition guidance. They should be able to eat what they want. But what I see is that people who have kept a plan don’t go over the limit anyway. They will eat some of the pizza but not gorge on it because they want to feel good. They might go ‘left and right’ a bit but not way-off the reservation. When it comes to macro-nutrients then the daily intake varies depending on the training. It will be different if the day is hard endurance training or a riding day or a gym day or high intensity. With the nutrients you can stimulate and support metabolic pathways, so if I want to improve my aerobic fitness then fat metabolism is quite important. If I reduce my carbohydrates then I increase my fat metabolism. If I do high-intensity then I need the Type 2 muscles fibres, like short intense power output and they need carbs so we need to see what combination we have to make before that exercise. If we have a heavy day then how much protein do you need for recovery for the coming days? So, with the amount and the combination you can support your training methods, load and stress.

How quickly does the body react to the in-take? If I have a month off then getting back on plan will be a swift turnaround? I know everybody is different but is there a general term?

Hmm, I’d say between four-six weeks.

Wow. Quite a while then. You see people crashdieting and achieving a lot quite quickly…

NUTRITION

every couple of weeks and wanting evidence of changes, once they feel it subjectively they are already quite happy. They don’t need it in black and white and on paper.

FEATURE People need to find a new structure and routine. That is a process that takes two weeks and knowing what to eat. If you go into more detail for endurance athletes then estimate four weeks. Crash diets are just a tool for quick weight loss but not for durable metabolic changes. All diets will work for weight loss, but the big question is how long can you maintain it and keep that body weight? So that’s why you need to find a way of nutrition you can hold for a long period of time.

Are we talking about a field that is evolving quickly but mainly for those types of athletes that – for example – will be wanting a bit extra to try and beat Tim Gajser or Jeffrey Herlings at the weekend? Or is it something that a parent who thinks their kid could be a professional athlete should also be looking into?

I would say definitely yes to both. As I said, it’s not just about performance but the general metabolic health. You could say that any second person, in any country, struggles with one type of a metabolic disease or being overweight. This is the case in Germany at least.

Looking into nutrition also means looking into long-term health. Don’t just follow the guidelines or the knowledge from the 1970s, which could actually lead to a public health disaster.

Is sugar really the big huge enemy? There seems to be food ‘fashions’. What should people be avoiding?

Sugar! In my view it is highly toxic.

That’s very depressing.

It’s dangerous. It is highly addictive. There were tests done with mice where they gave them heroin and sugar and then allowed them to go for a second dose and they selected sugar. It has huge addictive potential. I know what you are saying about fashion foods but if you get into the small details then most of the information we receive about nutrition is industrycontrolled. As an example: in the 1970s in the

U.S. there was a big debate because President Eisenhower had a few heart attacks in the ‘60s and they wanted to find out why it was happening and about heart health generally. There was one group of researchers who said ‘It’s the cholesterol! High cholesterol plug the arterial walls and if you eat animal fats then you have a higher risk’. There was another group that said ‘It’s the sugars! We are eating more and more carbohydrates and more sugar, that’s the reason for the plug and heart disease’. The American food and drug administration group started a task force to find out the cause. The leader of the group was a titan of the sugar industry! So, in the end it was the cholesterol and the animal fats that were demonised for the heart diseases. In the ‘70s we were then told not to eat much fat or butter or eggs or foods that maintain cholesterol. This turned out to completely unproven. Cholesterol is actually a super-minor factor in the risk of coronary heart disease. Now we are eating more and more processed food.

If you look in the supermarket and pick up a product that has more than five ingredients then it is not a natural food any more. In all processed foods we either put sugar, fats or salt to make it tastier. We use special corn syrup that is super-cheap to produce. Or we have plantbased fat oils which also have a high health risk because they are very unstable. If you heat them up then they produce trend sets which are connected to cancer development and so on. The more processed foods you eat then the higher the risk of disease or getting ill. Eating how we used to in the 1950-60s is the way to go to get better public health.

It must be difficult to avoid processed food these days, especially with all the plant-based options like burgers, tofu etc…

You just have to be aware of it. If you buy meat then get it from the butchers. If you buy veg then get it from the fresh counter in the supermarket. Vegetables in a can or a glass? Then check what’s in there, look for preservatives.

NUTRITION If you buy fresh then it is not so difficult to avoid processed. Most dairy is fine. If you buy a plain Greek yoghurt then get some berries to put inside. You don’t need to buy the yoghurt with the berries and the sugar already in there.

Use butter and olive oil for cooking and avoid the ready-mixed stuff. You could make your own mayonnaise; it’s not so difficult with three ingredients and is better than the supermarket one with ten ingredients. Nowadays you can also buy ketchup without added sugar. It takes a bit more time and effort, but I think that’s needed so you don’t have a heart attack by the age of fifty, or diabetes. People need to realise that keeping it simple and nutrition and exercise are the best things for you. People exercise but they are missing the knowledge and the view on nutrition and the impact it can have.

Lastly, what’s the first step? Is it finding a book? An App? Usually the beginning of any scheme is the toughest part…

The first step would be to measure what you eat. Take a few days – it doesn’t have to be many, say from Wednesday to Sunday – and use a free, available app to type in exactly what you eat and how much. You’ll need to have a little kitchen scale. Many Apps already have a barcode system so you just need to scan the food and then just evaluate the quantity. You’ll

then have an overview of the daily calories, liquids and what your macro-nutrient distribution looks like. It becomes quite an easy daily practice. Once you have the daily calories and the nutrients then it becomes a bit more complicated because you need to have someone with some knowledge to give you advice on what direction you should go and that also depends on what sport you do. Unfortunately, there are not so many good sports nutritionists. It’s not that easy to find them, and they know enough about the whole picture. Every sports club will have nutrition advice but it’s the standard ‘eat enough fruit and vegetables and eats enough carbs’. It’s not individual enough in my opinion.

You’ll need practical guidance and a structure that you can retain for a long period of time. It is also a field that is still developing, and the training keeps getting specialised. Nutrition is still in the early stages for improved sports performance.

SX BLOG

YOUR 2021 SX RUNNERS Just over a month to go until the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross series starts here in America. Of course, due to the COVID crisis this championship will be like no other before it. Yes, we did the seven races in Salt Lake City, but this agenda - 17 races in all with not all rounds announced - will indeed be pretty unique.

One thing we may see (if looking at mainstream sports is any indication) is that a rider’s season could be affected by testing positive for COVID. We’ve seen many top athletes contract the virus and be forced out of the races. There will be precautions of course for the riders but you can’t help but wonder if, in the end, the virus will determine the championship more than the racing on the track.

Let’s run through some of the favorites and where they stand as I see it.

We’ve had four different 450SX champions the last four years and finally, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac got his first in 2020.

He should be ready to go

for 2021, all’s quiet in his camp currently and that’s the way he likes it. He’ll go into the season as the bookie’s favorite. If I’m Eli, I don’t change a thing on my bike or program for the new year.

If you’re looking for the next guy in line then you might want to slap your money down on someone that’s never won a 450SX before in Tomac’s teammate, Adam Cianciarulo. Yeah, that’s right.

The kid who showed so much speed might be a titleholder in 2021. At least we can all agree that he will win some races right?

The 2019 champion, Cooper Webb, will also be a player.

He certainly started slow in 2020 but picked it up quickly

before getting hurt in Atlanta.

And of course, he’s the rider who scored the most points out of the seven SLC races to wrap up the 2020 series. He’ll be fired up and ready to go.

I think we’ll see Rockstar Husqvarna rider Zach Osborne also there. Zacho won the very last 450SX main of the year for his first win indoors then captured the 450MX title in motocross. He took that “leap” in my eyes and will be one of the main contenders indoors. Like AC, mistakes from trying too hard tend to hit Zacho but you can’t underestimate the confidence that one win gives a rider.

I think it will be Honda’s Ken Roczen after that.

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY STEVE MATTHES Yes, he was neck and neck with Tomac for the points lead when the series hit pause but Roczen’s SLC period wasn’t very good and of course, he sat out the outdoors trying to get healthy. Again. Add in the all-new 2021 Honda CRF 450R that the team needs to get going and I think Kenny will find himself behind the eight-ball to start the year.

He’s a champion, he’s a winner and he will find his level but I can’t tell you how many riders I’ve seen struggle a bit with a brand new bike. I think him and Chase Sexton, another rookie, will have their issues here and there that could hold them back.

Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson will be next.

Anderson, the champion in 2018, seems to be doing thing ‘his way’ this off-season by splitting with Aldon Baker and being very low profile. Don’t let the social media stuff fool you though, he’s a very hard worker and will be there to

rack up podiums when the other top guys can’t. I like Jason to be up there in the points due to attrition but I’m not sure he’s got the same fire to win the amount of races it’s going to take to be champion.

TLD GAS-GAS comes in with Justin Barcia and I don’t believe the move to the red KTM will be the magic potion for the #51 that maybe he, or the people around him, think it will be. I think Justin will be good and if there’s an outdoor mudder, he becomes a favorite but I look for more of the same from 51. He’ll be very good some weeks and some weeks he’ll be back of the top ten. Through it all, he’ll try very hard and he’ll always be exciting!

Next up we have Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin. Marv missed 2020 450SX with a knee injury and of course, he’s another year older. I think Marv will struggle a bit indoors as his return to racing in the outdoors didn’t go that

well (it wasn’t bad but not up to his usual standards) and I think the riders that are newer to the class like Osborne, like Cianciarulo, pass him by a bit.

I think Dylan Ferrandis will be the top BLUCRU rider most weeks, he’s fresh off two 250SX titles and he’ll be hungry to prove that he can be a player in the big class.

How will the Yamaha 450 be for him? Well, that will be interesting to watch because of the new ‘cru’ around the ‘blu’. Will the addition of the Star Racing guys developing the bike help? It remains to be seen.

And of course riders like Malcolm Stewart, Justin Brayton, Dean Wilson, Aaron Plessinger, Shane McElrath, Max Anstie, etc will get into the mix here and there but I see the title and all of the wins coming from the above list. Either way you slice it, the series is going to be interesting next year.

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MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE RANGE 2020

FEATURE

AT ONE STAGE 2020 MotoGP WAS LOOKING INCREASINGLY UNLIKELY BUT A FOURTEEN-RACE SCHEDULE DODGED SOME OF THE WORST TRAPPINGS OF THE PANDEMIC AND FINISHED IN SPECTACULAR STYLE IN PORTUGAL. CORMACGP WAS ONE OF THE FEW TO BE PRESENT AT EACH EVENT AND THE RELENTLESS MOTION OF PCR TESTS, ISOLATION, ‘BUBBLES’ AND COMPETITION IN A VACUUM.

2020 MotoGP SHOTS

2020 MotoGP SHOTS

2020 MotoGP SHOTS

2020 MotoGP SHOTS

MotoGP BLOG

THE VOTES ARE IN...

Forget November’s big vote. These are the results that really matter. It’s time to cast a nostalgic eye over a stupefying year in MotoGP. Here we hand out awards for the very best – and worst – of a season like no other.

Man of the year: Joan Mir – A bit of perspective: back in July not one of MotoGP’s six leading names thought the relatively inexperienced Suzuki star was capable of ending 2020 in the top five, let alone as champion. But Mir’s cool head, steadfast consistency, and delight at pouncing in late, controlled attacks won out in a season when consistency became an alien concept to many of his peers. This wasn’t the most emphatic title win, sure. But it didn’t need to be. By October Mir knew third places would suffice. And the thing is: there’s a lot more in his locker.

Those close to him reckon the

23-year old is only at “80-85%” of his development. He should be even better in ’21.

Race of the year: Styrian Grand Prix, MotoGP – What Austria’s Red Bull Ring lacks in variety, it more than makes up for in racing. The Styrian Grand Prix was headed toward a sleepy conclusion before a red flag. The resulting eleven-lap sprint was epic in every sense. Six riders on four brands contesting the podium places, four changes of the lead on the final lap between Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro.

And best saved to the end: Miller’s move under Espargaro at the final turn, both wide, Miguel Oliveira’s cutback to win. Sensational, clean racing, an unexpected winner and a first MotoGP win for Tech3 to boot.

The ‘Oh, you lucky boy’ award: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales – Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli’s 170mph collision in the Austrian Grand Prix was terrifying in itself. Thrown from their bikes at one of the scariest points on the calendar, both were lucky to walk away.

But it was the subsequent moments that still send a shiver down the spine. Zarco’s machine missed Viñales’ head by a matter of inches while Morbidelli’s M1 whizzed by Rossi by similarly close margins. But for a few inches and we’d be reflecting on one of the saddest seasons in history. “They’re the guys that should light a candle for the angels,” said Miguel Oliveira afterwards. The pale, withdrawn expression on Rossi’s face that evening said it all.

Yeah, that was a bit stupid award: Yamaha – After four largely frustrating years, Yamaha had finally got its act together.

Two wins and an all-Yamaha podium in the first two rounds.

All was well with the world. Er, not quite. Rossi, Viñales and Franco Morbidelli suffered engine failures. And it later emerged the engines used in those weekends were fitted with valves that differed to what the factory submitted to MotoGP’s technical director in March. Not only were they unreliable; they were illegal (components in all engines must be identical in dimension

and composition to what was presented in March). The factory was docked 50 points in the Constructor’s Championship.

And Viñales and Morbidelli had to complete the year with just two motors apiece. Doh! The ‘stop walking under ladders’ award: Marc Marquez – A comeback from serious shoulder surgery at the start of 2019, coupled with performances in Thailand and Malaysia soon after brutal crashes, gave the impression Marquez was some kind of bionic, otherworldly being. But the Catalan’s knack of dodging bullets could last for only so long. We all know the consequences of his botched return from that Spanish Grand Prix spill. Since then Marc has been unable to catch a break.

Another long winter of recovery lies ahead. Having been starved of his antics for six months, we can only hope his luck changes for the better. And fast.

The tough nut award for bravery: Sam Lowes – It didn’t look good in the aftermath of his free practice spill at the

penultimate round. Brother Alex shouted ‘It’s f***ed’ from the gates of the medical centre. Not only did Sam keep quiet the fact he broke two bones in his right hand. He rode to 14th the following day. And then fought Remy Gardner and Marini for the win in Portugal eight days later with the title on the line. Proper hard.

The ‘Pinch yourself: is this really happening?’ award: Brad Binder, Brno – the rookie’s pace in Jerez 1 was mighty. But, we said, he had clear track and had little to lose. He was fast through all of Jerez 2. But, we said, he ultimately walked away with no points. For the South African to crush everyone in sight in just his third race was… well… words still fail me.

The ‘I’m at the end of my tether’ award: Moto3 - Is it possible to give an award to an entire class?

The kids in this category are exceptionally talented. But time and time again we witnessed pea-brained tactics in qualifying, with riders exiting pit lane too late to post a flying lap or dallying in wait of a tow - antics that

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY NEIL MORRISON

MotoGP BLOG

are not quite befitting competition at this level. At least the FIM Stewards were willing to get really tough. A new set of penalties were imposed in October meaning repeated acts of stupidity could result in disqualification.

That should teach ‘em. But, this being Moto3, you’re never quite sure.

The ‘You Better Check the small print’ award: Andrea Iannone – it was the fallout that stalked the season. Only the colourful Italian knows whether he did or didn’t take anabolic steroid Drostanolone. But his failed case against the FIM International Disciplinary Court and the World AntiDoping Agency was let down by a lack of detail. Who knew that producing a receipt with the description ‘GP BF Dinner’ wasn’t sufficient proof that he had eaten “meat” or “beef” that he claimed had been contaminated with the banned substance? That he or his team of his lawyers and experts couldn’t produce a receipt of any other meals in which he claims he may have eaten said meat was a bad look for all involved.

The ‘he’s the new messiah’ award: Jeremy Alcoba – the reigning Junior Moto3 World Champion didn’t make many friends in his rookie season. He was fast but erratic. He paid no heed to penalties handed out mid-race.

And on more than one occasion he ticked off a more experienced name by being too aggressive with his overtakes, even by Moto3 standards. But there was speed in abundance. Even at tracks he didn’t know (Brno, Red Bull Ring), Alcoba was in the mix. He beat talented teenagers Deniz Oncu and Carlos Tatay to the Rookie of the Year prize. And his debut podium scored at the final round is a sign of things to come.

2020 MotoGP SHOTS

MotoGP BLOG

FIGURING IT OUT WITH JOAN...

Congrats to some guy with a laptop. He won a championship and I learned something.

More later. Over here in the States, I’m a broadcaster for National Broadcast Network (NBC), one of America’s ‘big four’ television broadcasters, as well as its cable subsidiary, NBC Sports Network.

Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross is my primary TV announcing gig, but when NBC picked up the U.S. broadcast rights for MotoGP in 2020, they asked me to host the pre and post-race shows. I was excited to do it, but then COVID hit, the season was delayed, and by the time MotoGP returned I was deep into the motocross season.

I never got to be part of the broadcasts, but I operated all season thinking I might, this being the year of the unpredictable racing calendar.

I’d watched MotoGP from afar previously, but I was deep into it for 2020. It didn’t seem that hard to grasp. In the pre-season tests, Fabio Quartararo

extended his rookie-season 2019 hype with blazing-tofast times, and Yamaha’s 2020 bike, overall, seemed to have fixed some previous issues. This was buffered against the specter of Marc Marquez, who was slowly returning to form after offseason shoulder surgery.

Seemed like a simple story to follow: could the Yamahas hang with Marquez?

Well, Marquez, as we know, went down early in Jerez, Quartararo and Maverick Vinales went 1-2 at the first two races, and this show was over. Easy! I got this! I was a MotoGP expert! Yamaha would romp all season, and Quartararo would emerge as the new superstar. Then we would wait for the Marquez v. Quartararo showdown in the future—I even started rehearsing the talking points I would use when this matchup finally came to fruition.

Then some strange things happened. Yamahas weren’t as good at the next races in Austria, but the experts said this was expected. Ducati would do better there, but what wasn’t expected was KTM to suddenly show form.

Then, later in the season, Suzuki. I kept waiting, though, for Fabio to restake his claim. Or, at the very least, Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati to make this a more predictable chase. With Dovi, you had the established next-best-to-Marquez presence and with Fabio the next-big-thing. How could anyone outside of those two obvious storylines emerge as a real contender?

Well, I was consulting the wrong manual. I come primarily from the motocross world, which is arguably more athlete-versus-athlete than any other form of motorsport. Bikes barely blur the lines.

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY JASON WEIGANDT Jefferey Herlings, Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen were essentially destined and anointed for ultimate success on dirt bikes, no matter what machine they ended up riding. In motocross, we don’t speak of horses for courses.

That would not be the case in MotoGP this year. Or maybe any year that doesn’t feature Marc Marquez? The Yamahas spiked all over the charts, winning half of the races but also suffering embarrassing technical issues.

Still, I kept waiting for the expected storyline to come to fruition. When would Fabio go back on a win streak?

When would Dovi figure it out?

Finally, at round nine in Catalunya, Quartararo won again. On Wednesday, I whirled over to my new habit, the Paddock Pass podcast, to hear experts David Emmett and Neil Morrison remind me how smart I was for picking Quartararo.

Only, they didn’t. Emmett kept praising the consistency of Joan Mir and his Suzuki.

Emmett, in fact, talked about Mir strengthening his title bid in a race where he finished second to Quartararo, the points leader!

Michelin rear tire, to the weirdo schedule, and every other 2020 challenge. Mir then did his part, but his teammate Alex Rins overcame injury to rally to third in the standings, further proving Suzuki’s superiority.

By this point I think turned from a journalist to biased fan. I had forgotten that I knew way, way less about MotoGP than Emmett and Morrison (this is why you need to read OTOR, people!)

Their praise of Mir and his Suzuki was based not on accepting a pre-set narrative like I did, but by getting real data and information, all of which indicated that over the bulk of a season, on a variety of racetracks, this was best combination. It wasn’t expected, but it was true.

From the motocross world, I wasn’t accustomed to this.

We never talk bikes and tires at the same level as riders. In MotoGP, apparently, sometimes what wins isn’t the heroics of the heroes but the science of the scientists.

Unless Marquez is racing. Or maybe there’s some science to that, too? I’d better listen to more from the experts.

See you in 2021.

Meanwhile, I learned that in the word of MotoGP, the results come not from the storybooks but from the laptops. Suzuki’s staff had adapted best to a new

M

FEATURE

THE CALM ONE

NO ONE WALKS AWAY WITH A MotoGP CHAMPIONSHIP IN JUST THEIR SECOND YEAR WITHOUT BEING SPECIAL. BUT JOAN MIR’S SURPRISE 2020 SUCCESS OWES AS MUCH TO HIS CALMNESS AND INTELLIGENCE AS IT DOES TO HIS BLINDING SPEED.

By Neil Morrison, Photos by CormacGP/Polarity Photo

C

ommon sense dictates that approaching the pinnacle achievement in your chosen sport would lead to some kind of pressure. But Joan Mir, 2020’s outstanding candidate, rarely appeared flustered. By November three of his closest challengers imploded while the 23-year old asserted, “Pressure? Pressure is what is happening with COVID-19 or with people who can’t pay rent.” Calm, intelligent and aware – traits that were apparent in Mir as a person throughout his victorious campaign, as well as in his riding.

Those attributes were called on more than ever across the past six months. For 2020 was no ordinary season. A highly revised, intensified calendar was as emotionally demanding (or punishing depending on how you view it) as anything witnessed in grand prix history. There was little room for error, with injuries given no time to heal.

Marc Marquez’s arm break led to a whole host of young names stepping forward to grab a piece of the pie. And Michelin’s new rear slick seemed to skew results and, as Andrea Dovizioso said, adjust the way of riding at each track, in each condition “every time.”

From this, Mir’s measured approach won out. Yes, his win haul (just the one victory) is the lowest in 500cc/MotoGP history and there remain very obvious areas for improvement in his title defence. But at just 23 years and 75 days, he became the seventh youngest premier class champion in history.

And he did so with Suzuki, a factory whose budget and sales numbers pale in comparison to Japanese heavyweights Honda and Yamaha.

You’d be hard pressed to point out a rider who was more poised and delivered on a more regular basis.

“WHILE MIR’S RISE THROUGH THE GRAND PRIX CLASSES HAS BEEN STRATOSPHERIC – HE CLAIMED THE MotoGP TITLE IN JUST HIS FIFTH YEAR AS A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RIDER, ONE LESS THAN MARQUEZ AND ROSSI – IT WASN’T ALWAYS A ‘GIVEN’ HE WOULD MAKE IT THIS FAR...”

JOAN MIR

Cast your eye across the 14 races and there was ample evidence of Mir’s wizardry aboard a bike: his late dash under Jack Miller for second place in Austria, his demolition of the field in the first part of the Styrian Grand Prix when his machine, on average, was only the 18th fastest through the speed traps. The ruthless moves in both Misano

FEATURE

encounters as he staged late comebacks to rescue podium finishes, and, of course, his stalking of team-mate Alex Rins in the European Grand Prix, before pouncing and breaking clear – a ride worthy of a champion that all-butsealed the title.

But with 14 races crammed into 19 weeks, this year was always going to be about pacing oneself. Consistent podiums trumped the occasional flash of brilliance. And Mir’s temperament stood out even

more than his riding ability.

“We found out how strong mentally Joan is this season,” said Suzuki team boss Davide Brivio. “He was always very relaxed (but) always focused on the race.” All year he was engaging, alert and polite in conversation. There were no hissy-fits, major strops or signs of ego. And he had a canny ability of keeping his head in decisive moments – much to the surprise of those around him.

Having a close group around him also helps. He quickly developed a close relationship with crew chief Frankie Carchedi from their first moments working together at the end of 2018. Even during weekends of high stress they maintained perspective. “We never really talked about the championship between us,” Carchedi said. “We always have a chat on the Friday and Saturday night in his motorhome. At Valencia (2) the first thing we did was open a Youtube page with karts then motocross. It’s just talking about the moment or the day, about how to get through qualifying. Whether I start the first row or the fourth row, there is an extra.

But aside from herbal teas, what was his secret? “He has a lot of self-belief,” according to Sanchez. “He trains so hard every day and that gives him a lot of confidence. This is why he’s so determined to overtake, every day he’s training like he’s competing. Every day. He’s going with Tito (Rabat) or another rider. If you see him, he’s competing, not just enjoying. It’s not a party.

It’s not a game. It’s a real job.

When you do that every day, you become calm. You think, ‘OK, I can do this on a Monday or Tuesday, so I will do it on Sunday.”

“In two years there have been a couple of moments, a few bits of frustration, when something hasn’t happened or someone on track has maybe upset him. But generally he’s (like you see on TV).”

THE NORMAL ONE While Mir’s rise through the grand prix classes has been stratospheric – he claimed the MotoGP title in just his fifth year as a world championship rider, one less than Marquez and Rossi – it wasn’t always a given he would make it this far. The Majorcan was relatively late in starting his racing career, at ten years of age.

JOAN MIR

“In the last races I was so nervous but he was calm. I couldn’t understand,” said Paco Sanchez, the Majorcan’s personal manager. “He’s 23, and fighting to be MotoGP champion, a one-off opportunity and he was so, so, so quiet, so calm.” During the European Grand Prix at Valencia a host of events – Yamaha riders avoiding penalties despite riding in Jerez with illegal engines and wet weather, not his strong suit, chief among them – could have seen him come unstuck. Yet Mir just shrugged it all off and produced his best ride of the year on Sunday. Asked how he remained so tranquil in Valencia, he quipped, ‘Chamomile!’”

FEATURE And a lack of funds stymied some of his teenage years, forcing him to remain in the Red Bull Rookies Cup. Sanchez explains, “Joan’s father has a skate shop. He could survive, he has a good life. But he had no money to pay €100,000 or €200,000 per season to go in all the categories. So, Joan had to find another way to grow up [de-

velop]. That way was the Cuna de Campeones. Then he did the Rookies Cup. But there are many riders who do the Rookies Cup and also the FIM Junior World Championship.

“He didn’t have the money to do that. He was concentrated on the Rookies because he didn’t have the chance to pay

for that category. So, he grew up slowly compared to others, who arrived in the world championship at 15 or 16. He was 18. Fortunately, we found a solution in 2015 otherwise Joan could be at home now selling skates.”

It was six years ago when Mir’s career chances hung by a thread. The young Spaniard was due to join the FIM Moto3 Junior World Championship

His relatively humble beginnings may have helped him maintain this perspective.

“Every rider has their own character. For sure Joan had a good education from his parents (father Juan and mother Ana). If you grow in a good environment, it’s natural,” said Sanchez. “Sometimes there is a bad influence from a teacher or from friends, and the character is completely

in 2015 when his proposed team folded at the eleventh hour. The teenager turned to Sanchez at this moment to scrape together a deal. “(We got) One Ioda bike from 2012.

I said to Joan, ‘This is our only opportunity.’” He didn’t disappoint. Mir racked up four wins and sealed a seat on the world stage for 2016.

different. He has a really good atmosphere around him. Everybody – parents, teachers, friends – contributed.”

All champions have drive and belief. But Mir’s doesn’t result in arrogance. “He’s one of the most normal people,” said Pete Benson, Mir’s crew chief in Moto2, back in 2018.

skiing. In summer he goes waterskiing. But his focus is to train on bikes in all disciplines: trial, motocross, supermotard, flat track. That’s the most important thing.

Sanchez added, “He’s not extravagant. He likes to go training. When we had confinement [lockdown] he was afraid because he couldn’t train – not because he couldn’t go to the cinema or the party. His focus is on training with the bike more than the gym and bicycle. He loves sport. In winter he goes

ing is to be at home with Alejandra (Lopez), his girlfriend, and with Tito (Rabat). A really normal life. Nothing special.”

“The rest of the time he likes to be at home, watching TV. He’s not so focussed on his phone or social media. He’s more focussed on action series, Netflix and HBO. Relax-

CAUTION In 2020 the fighting on track was only part of the battle.

Mir also had to contend with the paranoia that comes in a

time of a global pandemic. This was a doubly nerve-wracking Autumn as he and his team went to great lengths to avoid contact with the outside world.

The team didn’t go home after Aragon, preferring to remain in a hotel in Spain in anticipation of the final push. “Even his girlfriend Alejandra stopped working over a month ago so she wasn’t in contact with anyone,” Carchedi says.

Again, that intelligence was evident as he took the situation more seriously than most.

Sanchez was instrumental in his approach. “I volunteered for the Red Cross during lockdown,” Sanchez said. “And my wife is a nurse. I have a lot of information about how to avoid the virus. So, we set up a protocol for Joan. From the middle

JOAN MIR

“He’s like Frankie [Morbidelli, the man Mir replaced at Marc VDS] – very easy to get along with. He has a broad knowledge of life and also a good balance. As much as he wants to win races, he also has another side to him, where he has good fun and enjoys himself. He’s just an everyday kind of guy with a special talent.”

FEATURE of the season when I realised we could fight for the title I said to Joan we needed to do one step more. We prepared a special protocol with the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

We had our own tests and we tested more or less everyone that was going to be around Joan, the people that live with him. He didn’t go to any restaurants or shops. We always went by car. We tried to minimise his contact with his team. A lot of meetings were via Zoom. He was in real isolation.

“I told him you can’t trust anybody. I asked him not to take off his mask. Even if he is in a meeting with Frankie or Davide Brivio. You could make the PCR on Tuesday and arrive at the circuit on Thursday. But you can’t guarantee anything. If you lost the title on the track, OK; this can happen. But if you lost the title because you tested positive and are at home then it could be a disaster. Joan is a really intelligent person and he realised this.”

MORE TO COME There is much more to come from the 23-year old. It’s fair to say this wasn’t the most emphatic championship win.

And until the man Mir dethroned returns there will always be the question: would he have beaten Marquez?

But this is still a rider in the infancy of his premier class career. The riding ability and current skill set point to Mir having the humility and dedication to keep progressing. “You can split the bike in areas of where you want to work,” said Carchedi. “And it’s the same with him. Obviously qualifying isn’t our forte. But it’s an element where there is margin to improve, and I speak as a team.”

“There are other aspects as well.” Sanchez adds, “He can grow up. He can learn more.

Joan is not at 100% of his potential. In my thinking he’s at 80 or 85%. I’m sure that in one or two years more he will be stronger.”

With five first time winners in the premier class in 2020, there was a clear changing of the guard. But of all the young names, recent evidence has shown it is Mir that is best equipped to build on this unlikely success.

JOAN MIR

MotoGP BLOG

GETTING A HEAD IN THE GAME After almost 4000km of cycling in the Dutch Mountains, with an unexpectedly high number of crashes, David Emmett is taking a well-deserved break from his On Track Off Road blog this month.

Being asked by Adam to fill the space brought with it a lot of responsibility. How do you replace a legend?

First things first. I had to buy a hat then, donning a second pair of glasses and cracking open a bottle of red wine, I contemplated fate. Replacing a legend... what would that be like? Of course, I didn’t have to look too hard to find some inspiration. In MotoGP legends are made and replaced on a regular basis but one has endured for decades; Valentino Rossi.

Imagine what it’s like to replace Rossi?

Garrett Gerloff has already found out and it turns out it’s terrifying!

He was constantly reminded of the price of everything in MotoGP and not to crash. With the #46 on the walls of the Valencia garage he came back to the pits to see Rossi waiting and ready to debrief him. Replacing a legend?

Gerloff was just a placeholder.

Fabio Quartararo though is facing the real thing. The Frenchman will step into the factory Yamaha garage for the first time at the opening test of 2021 and everything will have changed for him. The plucky underdog story of 2019 has been long forgotten because the narrative changed this year. He was expected to win. He was expected to secure a title once Marc Marquez was sidelined by injury. He wasn’t able to deliver.

The storyline was that he couldn’t handle the pressure. He couldn’t produce results on a consistent basis.

Three race victories meant that nobody won more premier class races in 2020 but ultimately inconsistency meant that he was the third-best Yamaha in the title chase.

When ‘Fast’ Fabio ‘turned up’ on Sunday this year he was unbeatable. Three podiums yielded those three wins. Unfortunately, he only had one other top five finish. ‘Fragile’ Fabio was a much more regular visitor to the MotoGP paddock. Next year, replacing Rossi on the factory Monster Energy Yamaha, the expectation is that he can right the ship and bring forth the title. It won’t be easy.

We’ve seen over the last number of years that on the other side of the garage Maverick Viñales hasn’t been up to the task. The Spaniard is incredibly fast but also prone to wild swings of result dependent on the equipment and his starting prowess – or lack of it – is baffling. Since joining Yamaha in 2017 he’s finished third in the World Championship twice and is a regular podium finisher.

The problem for Viñales is that he’s not paid to be a front runner. Yamaha pays him to win and be a champion.

Quartararo isn’t the only rider replacing Rossi; so is Viñales.

Yamaha are losing their talisman. The man that has, for the most part, been their public face since 2004. Yamaha clearly has a lot of faith in both riders but now they need to produce, and help erase a worrying 2020 where they lost a lot of face. The heady days of Rossi and the championships of Jorge Lorenzo feel a long way away. Between them they won 100 races and seven MotoGP titles for the Iwata concern. Viñales and Quartararo have ten wins and plenty of question marks hanging over their heads. For Quartararo the goal is key.

“Over the winter I want to be able to switch off,” he said at the final round of the year in Portimao. “I’ll disconnect 100% from racing and then start to work on next year. I’ll have to do a lot of work on myself and I’ll use my psychologist to do this.

I’ll work on how to manage my emotions and the stress of a race weekend.”

Emotion is the one word that encapsulates Quartararo. We see him on the cool down after a pole position celebrating like a race win and then equally dramatic when a session hasn’t gone to plan but his times and grid position is still respectable.

We’ve seen him look dejected when times have been hard.

Finding a balance is the key for him. The highs and lows of racing make it easy to get swept along by the tides of good times.

Being swept along makes it even easier to drown in difficult waters however.

His teammate couldn’t be more different. For Viñales there’s times when he has struggled to embrace his role. Times where success hasn’t been enjoyed because it’s what he expected. His pole position at Misano was an exception where he celebrated so vigorously that he set off his airbag.

The Yamaha riders are facing up to the challenge of replacing a legend. Talent will never be in question for Quartararo or Viñales but temperament certainly will be.

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’s NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY STEVE ENGLISH

WorldSBK BLOG

BIGGING THE BEAMER 2020 has to come to an end. Thank goodness I hear many of you say.

It’s been a strange year for all and a very tough year for some. With the news that Covid vaccines are now being rolled out we can see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but I don’t think we are out of the woods just yet.

Whilst WorldSBK has ended, motorsport still continues around the globe. Formula 1 had its last race this past weekend and WRC the weekend before. I enjoyed watching WRC at Monza as it’s been a few years since I was last there and it was fun recognizing the bits of the public park where we used to bomb around on scooters, getting from corner to corner during the race weekend.

The WRC event coincided with the publication of the 2021 WorldSBK calendar and it was noticeable that there was only one Italian round, Misano, on it.

How times change. In years gone by people were critical that the championship was ‘too Italian’ with Flammini in charge, Ducati’s domination, Pirelli tyres and sometimes three Italian fixtures. Spain was never a strong territory for Superbike racing, with poorly attended events, but now we have three Spanish dates on the calendar, Motorland Aragon, Jerez and Barcelona.

There are a few other changes from previous years but nothing that hadn’t been rumoured or predicted.

Perhaps the most noticeable and worrying element is that the date for the Phillip Island round still hasn’t been secured. There was never any prospect of it taking place in February as normal but I had thought that a slot at the end of the year would have been confirmed. The best guess is it will take place sometime in the gap between the races in

Argentina and Indonesia but looking at the media portal for WorldSBK, Australia falls in as round 12, so that could mean that we will be racing until late November to get the season completed.

WorldSBK boss Gregorio Lavilla was also reported to have said there would be a 13 round championship with three circuits that WorldSBK had never visited before.

As we sit there are only 11 confirmed rounds, with Phillip Island TBC and another event to be scheduled. No details of a possible track have been forthcoming and speculation centres around Russia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oschersleben. It also seems strange that there is once again a huge gap in the middle of the calendar, from the Donington Park round on the weekend of July 3-4 till Magny Cours on Sept 4-5, a full two months. Will the additional race be placed in

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY GRAEME BROWN that gap? Time will tell but I read over the weekend that the local promoter feels Oschersleben has only a 20% chance of going ahead and if the plan is to have the long haul races at the end of the season, that only leaves a race in Russia to fill in the gap. It means there is currently only one new track on the schedule at the moment in Indonesia and with only one other to be added clearly something has gone awry since Lavilla made his initial statement.

The bums on seats list has all but been finalized with Chaz Davies finding a ride with privateer Ducati team GoEleven. It really just means a swap in teams with Michael Ruben Rinaldi as I am sure Davies will be getting the same equipment and support as afforded to the Feel Racing Aruba.it squad. It’s good news for Davies as he deserves a bike that can win races and it makes perfect sense for Ducati.

Chaz is someone who can consistently score podium finishes and in order to wrest domination away from Kawasaki this can only benefit the Italian marque.

What also surprised me was that BMW have confirmed two separate satellite squads with Bonovo Action and RC Squadra Corse. Bonovo Action will retain Jonas Folger for 2021 after a couple of wildcard entries on a Yamaha in 2020. Some reports suggest that Folger wasn’t happy with the R1 and others that Yamaha didn’t want to offer a full ‘factory’ support package so the German will ride the M1000RR this season for a full tilt at the championship. RC Squadra Corse on the other hand will swap marques from MV Agusta to BMW and have Eugene Laverty ride for them. It was looking increasingly likely that Laverty would find himself without a world championship ride in 2021, so this will be something of a lifeline for the

likeable Irishman. BMW obviously still have some faith him as well, playing a key role in choosing the team and riders that will join their ‘family’, as Markus Schramm, Director of BMW Motorrad put it.

It remains to be seen if BMW can offer a serious challenge for the world title and their main riders could offer a conundrum in achieving that goal. History is littered with examples where race machinery has either been developed to specifically suit one rider or the development path has suited one rider more than another. Much has been written over the last few years about the apparent change in development direction at Kawasaki when Jonathan Rea arrived and started winning from the outset. Tom Sykes felt that it moved away from a set up that suited his natural riding style. That didn’t stop Sykes winning and scoring podium finishes, the latter was something he managed

WorldSBK BLOG

in his first season with BMW in 2019 but a podium finish eluded BMW in 2020. Laverty’s pole position at a wet Magny Cours this year was their only real success, and we know how that ended.

Michael van der Mark will obviously come to the team with a fresh sheet of paper.

He too is a race winner and will have certain expectations but will he step on a bike that has been developed to suit Sykes or Laverty and find it a handful, or will he sit on a bike that fits him like a glove and start winning races straight off the bat?

For me VD Mark is taking a gamble. In Yamaha he is leaving a team and a manufacturer that has given him a maiden victory in WorldSBK, and who, each season, takes a step closer to separating Kawasaki and Ducati in the fight for the championship.

The last race in Estoril was undoubtedly Yamaha’s finest hour in recent WorldSBK history, achieving a clean sweep of the podium places

with Toprak Razgatlioglu, VD Mark and Garrett Gerloff. Maybe he feels he has reached the limit of what he can achieve at Yamaha, or maybe he sees something in the package at BMW that he feels he can work with but up until now BMW have failed to set the heather alight and finished fifth, behind Honda, in the manufacturers standings in 2020. It has taken Yamaha five years to come to within striking distance of Ducati for the runner’s up spot in that race so it is going to be a monumental task for BMW to even match that in the coming seasons. That said, if VD Mark can win with BMW in the coming year it will underline his standing as one of the top riders in the world.

We will have a long wait to find out as racing won’t get back underway until the last weekend in April 2021 at Assen. Now that would be a dream start for VD Mark, winning his first race for BMW at home.

With that thought in mind it is time to sign off. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you do you have a happy and healthy festive season and that 2021 will, as hoped, bring some normality back to our lives.

Stay safe.

FEATURE

HAVING THE

CAKE OTOR MEETS THE MAN WHO COULD THRUST E-BIKING FORWARDS

By Adam Wheeler, Photos provided by Cake

FEATURE

S

tefan Ytterborn fills the iPhone screen and he’s flipping the bird. The charismatic Swede is holding digital court from the confines of his workshop where the latest development work for the curious Cake electric motorcycles is ongoing.

“I’m not a motorcycle guy,” the creator of the ski and cycling safety brand POC, fifteen years ago claims. “I’m the sort of person who will flip the finger to a Ducati passing in the street because of the disturbance. So, there is no romance here,” he adds with a handy demonstration for emphasis.

Ytterborn might not be motivated by a passion for biking but he definitely comes across as motivated. Looking at Cake and the two principal models – the off-road Kalk (also in urban form) and the outlandish ösa – the company is trying to tackle a deficiency in the electric motorcycle market where allround, traditional two-wheeled engineering is not cutting the mustard as practical and desirable e-mobility vehicles. The Kalk’s purpose is immediately identifiable from its aspect: trail/enduro/motocross riding.

A key difference to industry peers is the amount of knowhow that as gone into the design and fabrication: the presence of suspension giants Öhlins says a lot.

If Ytterborn’s four-year project gathers enough success and traction to match the volume of his conviction, then the Swedish company will be going places. The Kalk is certainly convincing. After our chat, a rapid surf of the website reveals several videos, one of which being a recent ‘race’ meeting of the bikes in central St Tropez in France. The footage is exciting: an actual competitive motorcycle race in a town setting with a fascinated and bewildered crowd. It looks like the concept of innercity competition and the vast catchment of interest it might attain (something that has been touted as one of the benefits of electric motorcycles for years) could actually lay some ground for optimism. “We are trying to reconfigure the category…” Ytterborn understates.

Through the course of 30 minutes he recycles some of the well-worn sales patter about battery-powered bikes but is also forceful about why Cake is silently – and quickly – moving along its own path…

So, how does a non-motorcyclist end up establishing and running a motorcycle brand?

I’ve been into gravity and extreme sports my whole life, and it’s not like I don’t enjoy riding motorcycles because I really had to get into it when I entered this industry: I had to ride a range of gasoline-

driven enduro bikes to learn their characteristics, what they do, what they don’t and how to really savour riding, basically. I did come to realise that electric technology will flip the motorcycle industry upside down. With my previous company – POC – the mission was to save lives and reduce the consequences of accidents for skiers, snowboarders and cyclists, and we’d go to a big show in Germany each year and that’s where I first saw an electric motorcycle. It must have been six-seven years ago and immediately I could see myself on one, enjoying the trails near my house without disturbing and polluting and I thought the possibilities where mind-blowing. So, I started gathering all the electric bikes that were on the market. There were around sixteen-seventeen, from the KTMs, Altas, Sur-rons; you name them. Far from being a business idea I wanted to figure out what these bikes were and what their technology was about.

After a while I had some ideas and we decided to take a few steps and were very energised by what we were able to do for two reasons. One, the motorcycle Pros who were riding the product were totally stoked by the experience and two the appeal of young riders and firsttimers. It’s been said many times before but to see the reaction of people who put on a helmet, goggles and boots

CAKE & E-BIKES

“THE MISSION IS ALL ABOUT INSPIRING THE MARKET BECAUSE THE FASTER WE CAN CHANGE PERSPECTIVE AND ACTIVATE PEOPLE ON WHETHER THEY WILL DRIVE A CAR TO WORK OR WILL CONSIDER A MOTORCYCLE THEN THINGS WILL MOVE A BIT FASTER. WE ARE PUTTING ENERGY INTO SOMETHING THAT WILL PLACE US INTO WHAT IS A FAR BIGGER MOVEMENT...”

FEATURE for the first time and want to try something that scared them off before because they felt they didn’t have the knowhow for the clutch or gearing or were put-off by the roaring engine and the macho, aggressive idea around normal motorcycles was amazing. It [electric motorcycling] became something that anyone can do, it was not complicated even though it has a high entry price but even that is changing over time. The lack of maintenance, the lack of time and knowledge needed, it all came together for me. I’m driven by values in basically whatever I do and in this case we can support ‘premium’ all the way through and that means sustainability, purpose

and a certain level of innovation and something that supports performance at a measurable level and quality. It also has to be embraced by deliberate engineering and design.

All this delivers something that has long life cycles and is representative of its time.

We not only care about sustainability and responsibility but we dream of being able to run an active lifestyle. When we speak about the brand and what we do then we have a mission to inspire the market by zero emissions and combining excitement with responsibility: it is much more ‘patagonia’ than, say, Kawasaki. I realise motorcyclists might take a different view,

but we do this without laughing at the motorcycle industry or the cultures within. In my heart I have total sympathy with anyone who has a big interest in whatever field it might be but I also realise have tried these sixteen-seventeen bikes with hundreds of grams that there were certain limitations in terms of what is going on in this industry.

That’s a reason why we got started.

Despite all the hype, e-bikes are really still the ‘David’ versus ‘Goliath’…

I’m really humble about this because it is going to be a fierce competition down the line. I believe the majority of bikes sold ten years

worlds and pointing out the things that we then somehow commercialised. It is a totally different challenge to optimise the character of the drive train than just swapping a system from gas to electric. That said we realised there was nothing on the market that was truly premium. The hybrids – and full respect to the guys – but the mountain bike material was too weak and the motorcycle parts were too heavy and together they formed something that showed the direction but after fifteen minutes on the trail they broke down.

How difficult was it then to find the architecture and design for something like Kalk?

It’s really minimal, functional…

I hired a few motorcycling guys here in Stockholm. We have been operational now for four years and on the market for two. I hooked up a few mechanical and electric engineers with a guy called David Earle, who does suspension and kinematics for downhill bikes and has worked with brands like Cannondale and Specialized over the years.

Then I went to Öhlins and said ‘guys, we need something from scratch’. The only standard components on the bike were the footpegs and levers, everything else is designed and engineered specifically for the bike and whatever we needed in terms of strength,

CAKE & E-BIKES

from now will not be run on gasoline; that’s my subjective take. What the majority of bike brands out there are doing now is swapping the drive train from gasoline to electric. Everything else is the same; geometry, kinematics, sizing, weight and whatever.

When they try to replicate the performance of gasoline bikes in that chassis then they need to put on tons of battery, and it ends up being somethings over 170kg instead of 110. This was my first deduction: it was not the right direction. The guys that really inspired me were the small tech guys, the ‘garage’ guys that started tinkering by themselves and creating these hybrids between the bicycle and motorcycle

FEATURE

CAKE & E-BIKES

FEATURE

geometry or sizing. David Earle, Öhlins and internal engineering: that’s the story.

Everything is produced and manufactured in Taiwan. We’ve been with our vendors for quite a while and I can tell you that the first meetings with them were tough. I was trying to explain what Cake was, what I had done with POC and what was the business plan and a few were like ‘you have no experience in this industry….’ but we managed to convince a number of qualitative guys that have been vendors for many of the big brands out there and now they are extremely happy about the fact that they came along with us.

Having Öhlins is a big thing both for quality of the product and also symbolically…

Absolutely. It clearly emphasises that we are not taking any shortcuts or leaving anything ‘on the side’. It shows that we ‘get it’. From an awareness point of view and establishing a level of quality, Öhlins has been really important.

Cake bikes seem like a visualisation of low maintenance.

It looks very simplistic with clean lines. It looks like it popped out a 3D printer…

Yes, the approach when developing the product has been Lego. We wanted to decrease the number of moving parts.

Sometimes we get the question: ‘why do you have such a big rear sprocket? It’s looks stupid…’. It might look that way when you are not used to it, but that sprocket means removing the gearbox and twenty-one moving parts from the bike and all we needed to do was extend the diameter of the sprocket.

Are you one of a large group of companies and engineers just waiting for battery tech to catch-up and progress?

I have a very patient perspective in whatever I do! I think we need to be patient about the big questions when it comes to sustainability. What we are not doing is pounding our chest and shouting ‘guys!

We’re changing the world because we’re electric’ because there are so many challenges connected to the electric infrastructure that we need to be aware of. Lithium from Bolivia or Cobalt from Africa or the general perspective on battery cells; looking at the cells these days then the majority are being produced in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China and they are using coal for

power to produce them. So, we are just moving an issue from one place to another. But the interesting thing is that in ten years from now it is going to be so much better because the industry is aware of it and there are so many processes going on at the same time.

We are taking huge leaps on a yearly basis, even a daily basis. We are changing all of our battery cells in the next fourteen months or so and there will be almost no fossil fuels in the way they are produced. We can also see that from when we started Cake the level of battery performance has increased by 20% since we made the first prototypes three-and-a-half years ago. It is moving really quickly. From our side we are unable to lead battery development and we know we are not the biggest client in town but we know the best ingredients to make the cocktail in conjunction with the software that is being developed.

What’s the marketing pitch then? You won’t be targeting green-laners and people that want to ride all day with a product like Kalk. Is it for mountain bikers or motocrossers?

CAKE & E-BIKES

FEATURE We’ll never replace products for people that want to ride across Europe or make long trips. The way electric bikes are viewed right now – and I have to say it is strange there aren’t any hybrid bikes on the road where you could have an electric drive train for urban use and gasoline for the highway, as with cars – but in our case we want to support the fun and the possibilities of riding. For some enduro or motocross I think the battery capabilities of a couple of hours would be sufficient and most people would be content with that. We are trying to reconfigure the category by going light – our bike is 68kg compared to something on the gasoline side which would

be 100kg plus. That also supports the ability for endurance and how far you can ride. You can have 2-3 hours of fun on a track or trail but you can also commute, arrive and plug-in. You have the ideal blend between the commuter runaround and urban machine and for someone who wants to take it to the country house on a weekend and venture into a trail. We know the lion’s share of our sales will come from urban bikes and different kinds of models further down the road. We need to really enhance something that we believe supports what the electric drive train is about in conjunction with a specific chassis. We need to learn and to develop and new compe-

tition will always come. We need to come up with new product and when it comes to performance bikes then if we compare it to skiing then you develop skis that will be able to win downhill competition but also to sell to the broader market. We deal with this as most sports or motorcycle companies. This first bike is for anyone who has an interest in exploring the outback or flying down a trail silently without disturbing the people or environment. In the beginning I was a little too shy to address the motorcycling market. We showed the bike for the first time at the Outdoor Retailer show in Denver and it was all about the Patagonia/ North Face guys and so on…

when it comes to our ambassadors and opinion-makers.

What about racing then: could Cake step-up and fill that hole – as much for promotion as development because it seems organisers are lacking the product?

We are dialogue with the FIM as to whether we should be part of their infrastructure when it comes to racing. We will hopefully get there at one point. But, without lambasting them, they are also a bit slow in terms of decision-making on which way to go. If I am frank about the situation then motorcycles and racing is still conservative and trying to make electric bikes based on gasoline models instead of

thinking about what could be new and what can we build around an electric drive train to maximise this specific vessel. That’s my main objection when it comes to the automotive and motorcycling industry for taking the step towards the electric future. Racing? I’m sports guy and I’ve been into ski racing all my life. My previous journey with POC was all about bringing products to market to support our athletes to compete in the Olympics, World Championships, Cups X Games and so forth. It is important for a brand to put out product that can be put to high demand sporting use, and also benefit from the experience in competition for our product development.

CAKE & E-BIKES

but it turns out that most of the attention was coming from the motorcycle industry.

We had an amazing race in St Tropez a few weeks ago where we invited MX guys to attend in the middle of a city centre. It was in a square 70x100m: thanks to the lightness of the bike we don’t need long stretches for braking and acceleration. They come to an event sceptical but left on Sunday barely believing what we had pulled-off. So, I’m embracing everyone who is interested in anyone who likes new technology, fun or speed and a snappy, flighty ride together with anyone who shows any concern for environmental sustainability because I think that is important, especially

FEATURE To me it is core. We need to have a world champion. But I also have a softer approach for how we get there because I want this to be a one-design class. In sailing there was a boat called a Laser that came along in the ‘70s and it totally changed from being a very specific, very high-maintenance and tinkery sport.

The Laser weighed 62kg, you could put it on the roof of your car get out there and race. For more than twenty years you could become an Olympic gold medallist in a Laser. So, there is an opportunity for the market. Due to the high entry price it is going to be slow in the beginning but speaking about buyers there is a big second market evolving where cells can be re-used for power streams that are not that intense, things like solar power and housing for another twenty years. This is beginning to happen. If we can reduce the battery price and have the customers subscribe to that then we’ll have the bikes coming down to new levels in terms of pricing and that will open it up to more people to get going. I want this to broaden and reawaken the whole racing scene when it comes to motorcycling. Not because I have the history or heritage or connection but because I love sports and I love racing and I see the opportunity. You can do the world championship scene but it is

also the perfect local sport tool for any small village or any big city. It’s so easy. You don’t need to be super-rich to support your kit to get into the sport which is pretty much the opposite of what racing is all about. Importantly, it’s inclusive, instead of being exclusive. Whether it is us or someone else, it is a great chance to ignite a big passion for racing and competition.

We want to try and bring that.

What about a personal philosophy in between wanting to excite niche customers and then make a business case with more ‘functional’ models and urban mobility…?

The Ösa is a modular system built on a powerful battery; so powerful that you can run your power tools or hook a projector to it and show a movie to a group of friends.

A bike like this shows what electric can do when it is fitted with a proper chassis built for use but also puts a finger on a few philosophical points about life and where we are going. You can enhance the idea of using space and being off the grid, being independent and not limited by infrastructure. If the Kalk is pointing towards aspects of off-road and racing then the Ösa points to how this new technology can bring new meanings to transportation.

What materials and composites are used and for what reason?

Materials are mostly aluminium, and fibre matrix layups. All take into account weight and strength needed, and of course cost.

DAVID EARLE Was the minimalism of the Kalk hard to achieve? Or was it as simple as it looks?

Changing suspension systems around is always complicated to get correct.

In this case the changes happened to work out fairly well on the early revisions we did. It ended up being not that difficult, but for sure not just as easy as removing the link and adding an attachment in its place.

Why do other bikes not look like a Cake if the process is basic? Is it fair to say people either love or hate the aesthetic?

The Kalk seems highly practical for weight-saving, handling and riding but lacks the practicality and functionality of other bikes with comfort and carrying potential…

This very much depends on the user case. There are so many new electric bikes/motorcycles that span from motorcycles that compete against high performance gas bikes to electric bikes and scooters that don’t go any faster than 20km/hour and only have short ranges. Electric is really redefining what a motorcycle is and what a bicycle is and where they overlap.

The Cake is part of this range and it is impossible to compare it to things that do not occupy this same space within it.

CAKE & E-BIKES

Isn’t the real question, why doesn’t the Cake look like other motorcycles?

Other motorcycles for the most part came first. The answer to that I think is that Stefan’s vision was a motorcycle for non-motorcycle people. Friendlier and more approachable. Without that racing look. Do people love it or hate it? I think the bike has a broad spectrum of reactions that range from ‘love it’ all the way to ‘hate it’ and in between. I think the main difference is that motorcycle people and nonmotorcycle people see it as something different than they have seen before and therefore have a different reaction.

This was Stefan’s goal.

TEST

THE BIG ADVENTURE IN A LITTLE PACKAGE

By Roland Brown Photos by KTM

RIDING KTM’S ENTRY-WAY TO ADVENTURING

TEST

A

small-capacity Adventure for global consumption must have been the Brief From Hell for KTM’s design team. All dualpurpose bikes are challenging, given their requirement to excel everywhere from motorways via city streets to off-road. The 390 Adventure also had to appeal to Western riders of varying experience levels, while being both aspirational and competitively priced in emerging markets including India, where it’s produced.

It’s a big ask from one smallbore motorbike, but KTM had a few factors on their side.

One was the Austrian firm’s long experience of off-road competition and larger Adventure models. Another was the well established 390 Duke, the naked single that was launched back in 2013, and whose latest 373cc, dohc fourvalve engine is used, complete with its maximum output of 43bhp.

The Adventure sticks to a traditional KTM chassis layout with its new tubular steel frame, fitted with longer-travel suspension than the Duke’s.

Styling mimics the bigger 790 and 890 Adventures, complete with insect-like nose, sharp lines and standard-fitment hand-guards. KTM’s decision to pitch the 390 mainly as a roadster is clear from its 19-

inch cast front wheel, rather than the wire-spoked 21-inchers of more dirt-focused Adventure models.

Despite that shared powerplant it immediately feels like a very different bike to the Duke: larger and more substantial, if less engagingly light and manoeuvrable. The riding position is quite roomy, and at 855mm the seat is tall enough to put shorter riders on tiptoe. An LCD instrument panel and the left handlebar’s multi-function switchgear add to the impression of riding a grown-up bike.

That mostly holds true on the road, where those 43 horses are sufficient to give lively acceleration to a useful cruising speed of 75mph or slightly more; and on towards an indicated 100mph if you’re keen. There’s a bit of vibration at higher revs, but I didn’t find it annoying. I was however disappointed that the adjustable screen’s settings seem to be limited to low and very low, both of which generated substantial wind noise.

The single’s midrange performance is respectable, and throttle response very clean,

KTM 390 ADVENTURE but you’ll need to use plenty of revs to get the best out of it.

Thankfully the six-speed gearbox shifts sweetly, and there’s even an accessory quick-shifter available to help. It’s not so long ago that a shifter seemed glamorous even on a big bike, so it’s impressive that the 390 has that option, plus Bosch traction control and cornering ABS.

The Adventure can’t be flicked through a set of bends quite like the shorter, lighter Duke but at 158kg dry it’s still light by most standards, and steers notably more easily than the 790 Adventure, helped by relatively narrow Continental tyres that still provide decent grip. It stops hard too, thanks mainly to the single Bybre front disc and caliper.

It also has very decent cornering ability, thanks partly to WP suspension that has sufficient travel for good ride quality and enough damping to give composed handling.

It adds up to a very capable, learner-friendly (A2 compliant) roadster that has a very wide-ranging ability for a bike of such modest capacity. The Adventure is sufficiently

“IT’S NOT SO LONG AGO THAT A QUICKSHIFTER SEEMED GLAMOROUS EVEN ON A BIG BIKE, SO IT’S IMPRESSIVE THAT THE 390 HAS THAT OPTION, PLUS BOSCH TRACTION CONTROL AND CORNERING ABS...”

TEST

KTM 390 ADVENTURE

“...IT WAS CLEAR THAT THE BASICS OF AN EXCELLENT OFF-ROADER WERE IN PLACE....”

TEST economical for its 14.5-litre tank to give a very adequate range of around 150 miles.

Two-up riding would be a struggle unless you’re both small (I didn’t try) but at least a pillion gets hand-holds that also help secure luggage.

And although the 390 is clearly not intended primarily as an off-roader, those cast wheels didn’t prevent it from being entertaining and respectably capable on a gentle dirt ride.

The only moderately knobbly tyres weren’t ideal, and the suspension kicked and occasionally bottomed on bigger bumps, but my only real problem was that, being tall, I found the handlebar too low to allow comfortable standing-up riding for long.

Those limitations ensured that my dirt diversion was brief, but even so it was clear that the basics of an excellent off-roader were in place.

I couldn’t help feeling it’s a shame that KTM developed just one 390 Adventure, at least initially. A more dirtfocused Adventure R model, with higher bars as well as longer suspension, wire wheels and other familiar mods, would sit very well alongside this bike, just as higher up the Adventure family tree. Maybe one day...

KTM’s decision to keep things simple is understandable, though, especially as they have also managed to make the 390 affordable. It’s 25 per cent more expensive than the 390 Duke (at £5499 in the UK, plus £218 for the shifter) but not much more than half the price of the 790 Adventure, and competitive with alternatives from rival firms. Creating a small-bore Adventure for global consumption might have been a big ask, but the 390 handles its diverse tasks with some style.

KTM 390 ADVENTURE

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MXGP life by JP Acevedo

ON TRACK OFF ROAD

‘On-track Off-road’ is a free, monthly publication for the screen focussed on bringing the latest perspectives on events, blogs and some of the very finest photography from the three worlds of MXGP, the AMA Motocross and Supercross series’, MotoGP, WorldSBK as well as the latest bike tests.

‘On-track Off-road’ will be published online at www.ontrackoffroad.com on the last Wednesday of the month. To receive an email notification that a new issue available with a brief description of each edition’s contents simply enter an address in the box provided on the homepage. All email addresses will be kept strictly confidential and only used for purposes connected with OTOR. Adam Wheeler Editor and MXGP/MotoGP correspondent Ray Archer Photographer Steve Matthes AMA MX and SX correspondent James Lissimore AMA SX Photographer Cormac Ryan-Meenan MotoGP Photographer www.cormacgp.com Rob Gray MotoGP Photographer David Emmett MotoGP Blogger Neil Morrison MotoGP Blogger & Feature writer Graeme Brown WSB Blogger and Photographer Roland Brown Tester/Columnist Núria Garcia Cover Design Gabi Álvarez Web developer Hosting FireThumb7 - www.firethumb7.co.uk Thanks to www.mototribu.com for the share PHOTO CREDITS Ray Archer, CormacGP, Polarity Photo, Simon Cudby, Husqvarna, KTM JP Acevedo Cover shot: 2020 champions selection This publication took a lot of time and effort to put together so please respect it! Nothing in this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the editorial team. For more information please visit www.ontrackoffroad.com and click ‘Contact us’.