The Moment: Reed Washes Out
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 | 4:20 PM
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Chad Reed turned into public enemy number one in the SX pits after igniting crashes early in both the Oakland and Anaheim 3 main events, but the San Diego race showed the type of plan he was trying to execute at those races. It’s no secret that Reed has been struggling to find the perfect setup this year, but the veteran knows full well that in a field so closely matched, if he can get an advantage early in the race, he can win.
Reed has always been a master of turning bad starts into good ones and good ones into great ones via some slick maneuvering through the first few corners. While the first laps of the previous two rounds ended up in disaster, he executed perfectly in San Diego and found himself in second behind race leader Davi Millsaps.
Then he let the San Diego magic kick in. Reed was nowhere near the front in practice, and he didn’t light the world on fire in his heat race. But in the main, he stepped up when needed and found himself closing on Millsaps. Once again, Reed looked capable of winning in San Diego…until he crashed.
Reed was tracking leader Davi Millsaps before washing out.
Simon Cudby photo
“Yeah, frustrating, if there’s ever one that got away, this would be it,” said Reed. “But you know, we’re working, man. We’ll get one. We just keep fighting. I need front end feel, and when I push it, that’s what happens.”
Lots of talk about air forks this year, and that talk returns when both Reed and Ryan Villopoto wash out on slick soil. But it’s also very much possible that Reed will figure it out. A year ago, he also suffered a series of front-end washouts, and he traced the solution back to a tire change. Here’s a clip from a Monday Conversation with Chad after last year’s third round, which he won:
You fell in a right hand turn at Anaheim 1, you fell in a right hand turn in your heat race last week, and a right hand turn in your heat race tonight. Is this in any way related? Were you having a problem washing the front?
I’ve been struggling with front-end feel. When you’re pushing on the front and everything seems good, and then all of a sudden you’re lying on the ground, that’s not good. For the main event, we went back to a tire we rode the majority of last season on. And I hadn’t used that tire since, man, I want to say Salt Lake City last year, when I started riding the factory bike. I kind of went to a different tire that was good on the factory bike, and I hadn’t really questioned it. But we were struggling with front-end feel, so I decided to open up that can of worms and use something we used last year. It gave me that feeling.
“But you know, we’re working, man. We’ll get one. We just keep fighting. I need front end feel, and when I push it, that’s what happens.” - Chad Reed
Simon Cudby photo
Once Reed changed tires, he instantly picked up his game, winning round three, then running up front each weekend before a frightening crash in Dallas (where he was battling for the lead). Clearly, last year, once he got that front-end feel, his season changed for the better.
Now he’s chasing it again. Different bike, different parts, but the bottom line is the man knows what he wants. If he can get it, he can still get after it.
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He is getting faster, and dialing the bike to his liking. It's a long season.
If it was JS7 that washed it and bit turf this thread would be a thousand comments long...Go RV go 51,41..................and go ZOOKS 18, 7
Reedy is finding what he wants. It is a long season to be sure. The rest of the field doesn't want this guy to get confident. GO 22!
I will admit it seems it is taking Chad a little longer this year to find his groove. I know he doesn't like being the pit Jester. It would be nice to see him get a few wins this year, but everything is so unpredictable this season. Guys that you could eaisly bet on are not being the favorites so far.
@tonewall - are you just looking to pick a fight with people or what? The difference between Chad and James crashing is the actual crashes. Stewart rarely washed out in corners. His crashes were always spectacular, and were almost always the result of him pushing the limit of the bike/track/ability. You don't get a reputation of "win or crash" for nothing. Reed and RV's crashes have pretty much only been washing the front end, which is a boring (and much less dangerous) crash, hence why less people talk about it.
You are probably one of those guys that always gives people crap for bringing up JS7 in the comment section of an article that has nothing to do with JS7. Well congratulations bud you just achieved the same feat.
Kxpwr18
Guess you never seen the bicycle pedal @ Millville DILL WEED !!
Tonewall was making an honest comment ..............
@
Kxpwr18 Hey Chris Dorner
lookin for you San Bernardino Mountains STYLE !!! LOL !!
@ bigtireguy
SUP !!!!
@East Coast
Wow you JS7 people really all are alike. You want him shot dead for voicing his opinion on a message board. Incredible. and putting LOL at the end of a statement like that means absolutely nothing.
Looking at the top 10 riders it is amazing that all these riders come in at about 1 second apart on lap times. One minor mistake and it changes the game. Congrats to all the riders for giving the public and intense 3013 season. Chad is finding his groove as is JS7 bring on the rest of the season as it is going to be a cracker ending........
Hey Reed... get your weight forward. Maybe you should accept the responsibility and stop blaming the bike. Everyone else is running similar forks. It's not the bike. You weren't even on the seat when you fell. Lazy riding is what caused that.
Yeah, the $60 million dollar man and 2 time SX champ is lazy! That's a good evaluation, where have you been placing so far this year?
woah woah @SuperSXFanMan obviously knows his stuff watch out everyone we have a professional in here, but seriously I think its sad that guys have anything bad to say about any of the riders who bust there ass week in and week out and keep trying to progress our sport for the better I highly doubt Reed is anything but lazy considering he is in the premier class in the toughest race series in the world, your right he was probably just being lazy, these guys bikes are like a part of them and if something is different they can tell, I know that this isn't going to do any damage stopping all the negative crap on the message boards but seriously where do some of these people come up with this stuff?
I hope Reed redeems himself this week in Dallas and finishes that charge he wasn't able to finish last year
bam bam or davi would have beat him anyway thats reeds best race he will do no better just more crashing
@ yzchris76
Your a dork .. I dont care for the guy .. But me and you couldnt ride like him.
I dont think you know me to say I like JS7............Your a fool !
KXpwr18...yeah your right Havoc22's millville crash and when he broke his body at Dallas and the last couple weeks ping-pong ball act were just one long front end wash....maybe thats true on your planet..but on this one ,bud, i was just makin an honest comment..... you'll know when i'm lookin for trouble on here its well documented....by the way I was hoping for a good race from Mr Sourpush22..i'm glad hes getting back in the hunt.
Look at Reed body postion
http://www.motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/VIDEO-HOW-CHAD-REED-LOST-THE-SAN-DIEGO-SUPERCROSS-9778.aspx
JimM
Pala374
Everyone knows that Reed also has a bad knee. Yet he does not use it an an excuse like Urkel.
And as of now, both of them are leaving downed riders in their wake. But don't hate the players.
Body position?
The video above shows Davi, Chad, and Justin all with about the same technique. Reeds back tire is loose, maybe too high in the berm. Hard to tell if the front or back was loose first.
Davi is lucky that none of these keyboard jockey's aren't out there, he wouldn't stand a chance!
Last year CR did not like the new front tires and now the forks.He could just be set in his ways, new is not always better.
Anybody know if RD is running air forks? they have not been mentioned, they play with the air shock while everyone else is using air forks with no mention of the shock. kinda strange
I don't know why he dosen't just run what worked for him last year. Does anyone remember when McGrath secretly rode with a 95 frame in 96 or was it a 94 frame in 95 ?
Pretty sure it was the 93 frame. If I am not mistaken, he ran it up til they went to the aluminum frame.
Dirtwurx time for some 180's so the racing can be enjoyed by the riders and the fans...
Hey VooDoo, does Reed have a torn ACL right now??
Reed has one problem and thats he can't blaim anyone cuz his whole team is hand picked and he calls the shots on everything. I said before the year started he would take a wile to get up to speed this year but was told by many I was wrong.
I dont understand why you cant take the man at his word. He said he's struggling to find grip and front end feel. If you cant understand how important that is to these guys you shouldnt be allowed to comment,
I think it's obvious the problem with lack of feel in air forks is the need for something with a higher molecular mass to better transmit 'feel'. Instead of air or nitrogen, which both would be about a 28 mol mass, they should try argon, which is 39.94. These larger molecules are the answer, and being a noble gas is pretty much non-reactive. Want a bigger molecule? Try krypton at 83.8, or xenon at 131.3, but I think we all know about xenon's weird compressibility issues. You should have known.
I'm sure every rider would like to hit all the corners at full speed, turn the bars and have everything dig in just right, but when are they going to actually admit that they screwed up. The bikes won't be perfect. Chad was pushing the limits to pass DM and it looks to me like he came in hot and tried to turn too fast. Bam, washout.
Is it so bad to just say "I just went too fast to make that sharp of a turn"?
@endoman38....LOL thats funny stuff right there! I think they should ditch the air and run water in them. That way, you have liquid cooled forks too, and it will get more weight of front .lol.
Seriously though, Chads only real options come down to bars, clamps, and tire combos it shoudnt be that hard for the team to figure out... Maybe weight bias more to front....who knows...but that track was slick though, and personally I think 22 is still just a bit rusty. Between him and the bike getting smarter and better, I think he will win a few of these as we head east.
Can we quit using the fact that we aern't pro racers as amo. Of course we can't ride like these guys. The only time I pay money to watch some do something that I am actually better at is youth sports.And now at 51 years old most seventh graders are better than me now We are fans not contemperarys.
Most fouth graders are better spellers.
@ East Coast
-You are absolutely right, I am a dork and a fool. I have also learned that arguing with a moron is pointless, Good luck to you when mommy kicks you out of her basement.
If Reed did not wash out, does that mean he would have won the race for sure??. We'll never know of coarse, he looked pretty good but I dont think the W was in the cards anyway.. JB51 was right on his coat tails in the main and was catching Reed (he was faster than Reed check the lap times) which is what prompted Reed to push and click it up a notch in the first place.They were both catching Milsaps after his few mistakes and Reed knew after that heat race, Barcia would surely give him a bump or two-two and on that SD track you pretty much had too.....Reed said during the week they made great progress and changes to the bike, so because he fell that automatically means it was related to bad bike set up....or could it simply be the result of "pushing it" on a slippery track...the best set up possible isnt going to guaranttee you no wash outs....."the one that got away" he said the same thing last year when RV beat him at SD..
@byrner99 Exaclty!!
Maybe Reed should rent barcias bike, then he could copy a set up that works on a Honda. I think Trey is due for a win this weekend but Villipoto will get it. Poor Reed at least maybe he will retire top ten in points. Ha ha ha
@BILLC--You are so full of sh!t it isnt funny.. Almosrt every post you write its you whining about something you supposedly said.. "Isaid this and was told I was wrong" "So-and so writes this, but when I say it I get yelled at and called a hater" I was always right but nobody admits it!!
You wonder why people on here call you a know-it-all?? You are a blow-hard if you ask me.. You "think" (i use the term loosely) you know it all but you dont.. Most people on here just ignore you and tolerate you being here..You really arent that smart Bill, and quit taking credit for crap you didnt do, and maybe start admitting you were wrong sometimes, you are alot.. i-e Millsaps...
I dont know why guys always say Reed tries to blame someone else.. I havent seen him blame anyone.. After the race he says he needs feel for his front end.. And said we need to fix that.. He said WE... I do remember Stewart blaming his bike for being "so slow" in his words becasue he lost to RC, but he beat everyone else by 25 seconds..But guys are saying Reed was whining??? I watched the interview, he didnt whine or complain about anything..just stated a fact..
Doesn't he do testing & set up stuff during the week, or is he still busy riding his go kart??? Chad was quoted earlier in the season as saying, "I'm not really worried about points right now."
For a casual rider, without professional speed or experience in other areas its easy for people to assume set up is easy. Its not. I come from road racing and I can tell you for a fact set up is subjective. Ive raced with very fast guys you rode a very 'flat' bike and would man handle the thing and other guys who rode a very 'high' bike and it was on the razor edge of stability and they rode the exact same pace. A dirt bike is exactly the same. From swingarm angle, to fork height to tire compound and pressure. There is no magic formula. Otherwise everyone would always run the same set up and it would be gravy and they wouldn't need to have half the team that they do.
@therealmofo I agree. I think it's a very weak argument to say Reed is "whining" and passing blame. Seriously....I liked his interviews about it. Very positive and like he said, "they're working on it." It's not like he was pouting after the race and throwing his helmet. Yes he screwed up! My wife and I are Reed fans and we were pissed watching him go down. We're over it now, but apparently he needs to call a press conference telling the @Racerxonline commenters, "I screwed up!! I suck! Im so sorry!" LOL
keyboardddddd thumperssssss!!! hahaha. pathetic how you all just cry and whine all day about these racers. do you even have jobs?
he said he has no front end feel...and WE need to fix that. obviously frustrated. wouldnt you be?
these guys bikes are like a body part to them. nobody on this website knows how reed likes his bikes. as andrew short said, his production 450 only has a red fender... only similarity between that and his former factory honda. everything is custom, and perfectly fine tuned. if its not right, its not right, and only he knows that. get off his nuts!
@therealmofo, one thing I believe I do differ with you on tho is @BillC, I don't think he means to come across as a know-it-all. And I'm still pretty new to commenting here and I've been reading many posts and clearly there are those here that are complete idiot trolls, with little to any knowledge of MX. I think @BillC is opinionated (like everyone else here lol) and reading his comments I can understand why he might rub some people wrong, but I don't think he means to annoy anyone. For instance I don't believe he's a Dungey or Millsap hater as some here do. It's really ok (and even healthy) to have our own favorite riders, and (God forbid) have riders we DONT like. Bottom line, it's so crazy how different things are when you're talking with people on threads vs talking in person. I know some people I've gone toe to toe with on Facebook, then in person it's like we didn't even know we were arguing. From what I can tell, at least for the most part, I could hang out and enjoy a beer with any of you.
Fact: Reed made it around the same turn, at approx. the same speed on the same bike 19 other times in the main without incident. Was the bike bad on those other 19 laps, or just that one? Did he just get "lucky" on those other 19 laps? If so, then he was riding beyond his limit that night and was "lucky" 19 times, and "unlucky" once. If not, then he made a rider error. It can only be one or the other. Yes, the track changed. But it changed for everyone. His approach, his line selection, his body position, throttle, brakes - those are all controlled by the rider. If he had just said, "I blew that one", that would likely have been the end of it. Even if the bike wasn't right, he could have taken one for the team. He's the owner, so it's ultimately all on him anyway, right?
And Moto4Life, I didn't say Reed was lazy. I said Lazy Riding, and there's a difference. When a rider loses concentration and/or is physically pushing the limit, what happens? Bad things. Their arms and elbows droop, their legs don't get extended in the turns, they don't move around on the seat as much. They, subconsciously mostly, begin to minimize their movements to conserve energy. That's what I meant by "lazy riding". That can and does happen to any rider - even the pros. I believe he was on the seat to attempt to ride through the rough on the pegs and he made a bobble. Nothing more than that. His forks may well be set up wrong. But they worked well enough for the whole 20 laps, less that one turn. I think for Reed to be hard on other riders for making the same mistakes as he's done lately is why he doesn't get the slack cut. What goes 'round ... you know.
Billyjams77 - "And I'm still pretty new to commenting here' . Give it some time and you will probably agree more with what therealmofo said.
@spagina.... I can only speak for myself - but my point was the "front end feel", good or bad - was not the reason he crashed....A few weeks ago he said the bike was perfect and it was " the rider" where he even joked about finding a replacement ride......so now it is the bike (for one turn) and not the rider?
Billyjams77, Thanks for the voice of reason. Therealmofo is always looking for something to fight with me about. He seems to dislike me and say's my post's are crap....BUT he keeps reading them and that I just don't get.
@ KilloMoto......His bike could have been perfect a couple weeks ago on different track conditions. These guys search and need good settings for every possible track condition week to week. His settings from a couple weeks ago wouldn't have meant anything at San Diego where it was the slickest yet. With something new like air forks some days they will be on, some they will be off. Something is up because we haven't seen Reed and Villopoto washing out this much ever, although it happens to everyone who's pushing it to some extent.
@BillC--If you read Billyjams77 post, he said he was new here, he will get to know you soon--LOL!!!
WHY NOT RIDE THE 2012 BIKE? IT WAS DIALED IN. SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN.
I think BillC and Billyjams77 are one and the same!!!!
I see the hydraulic clutch on his bike - that indicates he's on a Factory Honda, generally.
Not a chance of him being on last years model - it's a totally different frame, and would be spotted from a mile off. Whereas MC could run plastics (well, I think they were the same, year to year at that time, it was geometry differences).
And, I'd say he Has to run the Forks that Honda give him.
He looked just a tad loose in the same corner the lap previous to the crash, so he just lucked out, with not being able to save it, that time.
They are all on the edge out there, and the tiniest of things can catch them out.
Prangs happen. Luckily, he was able to get back up - remember the fairly innocuous front end loose that trashed RVs knee last year?
@Red44, Funny...LOL. My dad has always went by "Bill", and while I love the guy, for some reason I've always hated it when people referred to me as "Bill". Been "Billy" all my life.
@BillC, I guess you better enjoy me thinking you're cool right now, because as you can see I'm being told I'll eventually think you're a jerk. LOL
@retardcross - I gotcha on the week to week settings, but he made it seem like its been an ongoing issue aside from the week to week tweaks...again, he was going down regardledd....
Also from what I recall, San Diego was the first time Reed has had the front ends wash out, no?? Oakland and A3 were obviously not "front end feel" related
After looking at the video of Reed washing out the front end of the corner, I came to realize it was mostly his fault! He says he is looking for front end feel when he pushes it but I did not see him pushing it when he went into the corner. Usually when you apply pressure with speed, momentum and positioning yourself on the bike to put weight centralized over the bike, he shouldn't have lost the front end. He lost the front end because he was stand up on the bike and leaning away from the bike causing the weight distribution to be located from the bike. This caused the front end to lose traction. I have done this many times myself when I got lazy and stood up while going into a turn leaning over with no pressure on the bike for the front end to grab the soil. Same case here. Reed got lazy in the turn or lost focus and fell down. Not the bike's fault!
I totally agree with SuperSXFanman! Reed was either lazy or got relaxed to the point he lost focus on his riding. It was not the bike's fault! He didn't apply good riding form when he entered the turn. Plain and simple!