Ask Ping

Jim,

I think it’s important that we clarify that I am not Roger DeCoster. My best impersonation of “The Man” ends up sounding more like Inspector Clouseau than a Belgian motocross icon. Still, I think any team manager would share the same tactic in that situation. In this sport, championships are the ultimate goal. Race wins are great and podiums are nice, but it’s that number-one plate that brings the bonus checks and the prestige. Once Roger knows he has the 450 supercross title locked up he will switch gears and immediately begin focusing on the outdoor season. That doesn’t mean he abandons his riders for the remaining stadium rounds, but his mind is already on the gate in Sacramento. I’m sure the KTM boys have already begun preparations for the motocross series, but once they have the SX title in the bag they will hit the outdoor stuff hard. Despite that shift in focus, these guys want to win every time they line up; that’s what makes them so good. So don’t expect to see Ryan sitting out the last couple rounds or mailing it in. My guess is he keeps winning through Vegas.

PING

 

Dear David Pingree,

This question seems kind of silly, but I find the topic comes up surprisingly often between me and my riding buddies. The whole thing started when I was browsing through Craigslist and found someone selling Josh Grants Subway-sponsored machine from something like 2005 I'm assuming. I showed my friend and his response was, "Dude, you should buy that thing you could dominate on it!" My thoughts were more along the lines of you could have better luck on a brand new stock bike than a heavily modified or even factory race bike that is that many years older. So my question is: If you put the same rider on the same track, on the same day under the same conditions, how many years older could the said factory race machine be and still feel better than a brand new stock bike? Hope to hear from you and, as always, love the column man!

Cheers -Ryan B.

Ryan, 

I was touring the GEICO Honda race shop a couple months back and I had the same thought as I came across Kevin Windham’s 2008 CRF450R race bike. That was the gold standard for four-strokes until they made the major switch in 2009. I wondered how competitive that bike would be against one of today’s race bikes or even today’s production machines. This question is tough to answer because a race bike is set up specifically for a rider. That means his suspension, whether it is works suspension or kit or stock stuff that has been valved is dialed in for his riding style. The gearing, chassis, controls, seat grips—everything down to the last detail is tailored to that rider. So, even if today’s stock bikes were better than Kevin Windham’s race bike from 2008 he would probably still hop on that thing and it would feel like an old pair of sneakers—a very fast pair of sneakers, but you know what I’m saying. If you put a gun to my head and make me give you a number I would say modern bikes would feel better simply because of the EFI so the cut off would be any carbureted bike. One more thing: Your odds of catastrophic engine failure are exponentially higher with a race bike setup over stock so you also have to consider the reliability of buying a new bike. Hope this helps the next time you guys are solving the world’s problems over a twenty-four pack of PBR. 

PING

 

Ping, 

Hey, I'm going straight to the point here. Both Yamaha and KTM make awesome 250 and 125 two strokes. I’m sure they could find a couple of competitive riders to hop aboard their smoking steeds. Here’s the catch… they would pay them a small salary with huge race win bonuses. Come on, that's what a lot of us are longing for, the sound of 1000 bees buzzing on the gate… can't anyone remember??? I love 4 strokes but they sound like a grizzly bear Farting. Please don't tell us they can't compete cause that's simply not true; a race prepped 250 can hang with a 450 with the right rider. So the question is.... Why not????