This week riders and media alike have made the trek to Angel Stadium in Anaheim California for the SuperMotocross World Championship media days. Fan favorite, Aaron Plessinger sat down with the media to discuss his 2024 season (where he got his first win), MXoN, bike set up, preseason prep and more.
AP last season for you, obviously a really strong start to supercross and then just consistent throughout the year. So, how do you build on that into 2025 and take that next step again?
Aaron Plessinger: Yeah, I think it's gonna be maybe a little bit easier, I hope, this year. Last year I got my first win and a handful of podiums and unfortunately at New York, I crashed the second lap of practice and broke my elbow, so I was out for the last four rounds and that kind of stung a little bit because I was so close to finishing out what was my best supercross season. I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun this year. I'm gonna go for wins, go for contending for this title and just like I said, have fun. It's gonna be a good long season and we're all healthy at the start of A1. So, it's gonna be a wild night for sure.
You are one of the most experienced guys in the field now. So how do you continue to evolve and how much is belief a part of that?
I feel like belief has been one of the things that I've lacked for a long time, but given the past couple of years, with my good results and with me being upfront and being a contender, it helped out tremendously and I think it's only gonna get better from here on out. Especially during the win last year and just consistency. I need to work on consistency a lot this year because last year I had a few good rounds and a few bad rounds and just like up and down like pretty much my whole career. If I can get consistency down, I think it'll be that much more fun and just battling with these guys and when they do beat me trying to figure out what they did to beat me. Obviously starts are gonna be big this year. Everybody's gonna be fast and you gotta get out front and stay out.
What does your prep look like? Is it any different than preseason last year?
Yeah, pretty similar prep. Last year the team made a bike to where I can just go out and ride and not think about what I needed to do on the bike. It came so easy that I could just focus on myself more than what the bike is gonna do. So, in that sense that's carried over to this year and I can just roll through boot camp. The bike is one less thing I'm worried about so I can worry about where my elbows are, where my legs are. Where do I need to squeeze, what am I doing around these corners and focus on starts and that's another big thing. They worked on stuff with starts.
You had a real strong showing at MXoN this year. Did that affect your start to your boot camp?
Last year showed me a lot. It showed me, that our bodies can recover with only two weeks off. And I think it helps me when I do the Motocross of Nations to almost, I have my body still in shape when I do start this boot camp off season kind of training thing. It helps me just not get lazy. I go home after nations. I spend two weeks traveling around and doing what I wanna do and seeing family members and then we're right back to it. So, I think in that sense it makes it a little bit easier coming into the boot camp, my body has that muscle memory still and it's not just like jumping in after four weeks off and being a little sore and real achy and potentially injure myself. So, I think doing those races plays a little bit of a benefit.
“If I can get consistency down, it will be that much more fun.” - Aaron Plessinger 📸 #Supercross #SX2025 #ProMotocross #MX2025 #SuperMotocross #SMX2025 pic.twitter.com/Z9iebcRUvj
— Mitch Kendra (@mitch_kendra) December 4, 2024
You were running so consistently in the top five last year. What did you learn differently racing with those riders than you have in the past couple of seasons? I mean, this is kind of a given, but it showed me how being up front for a few laps is crucially important. Showed me like how hard I need to ride, when to kind of step back and watch what these guys are doing. It just showed me the intensity that these guys have and what lines to choose and obviously there's younger guys now, so I'm watching them, hopefully they're watching me and trying to figure out what I'm doing!
Over the years you've talked about bike development and how communication is very unique to you, and it takes some time for the team to figure that out. Now that you've been with the team for a while and you guys have honed everything in, how nice is that now?
It's a breath of fresh air after, it might have been November last year we got a setting that I just gelled with and I don't think I strayed away from like, maybe two clicks away from my base setting. It was just so nice not to have to try to re-invent the wheel every time I'm on the track. Last year, every day, I knew what I was riding. I knew what I was gonna get. I knew how to hit everything that I was gonna hit and I think that played a big part in why my season was so good last year. And it's so nice, talking to these guys and speaking my language and they're just, like, “Alright. Yeah, we know that, we know what to do when you say that now.” It's really been like a family over at KTM and it makes the weekends fun. So, I'm looking forward to it again. I didn't really stray too far away from that setting this year too. So, it's been kind of clicking the lapse off and yeah, I think I'm in pretty good shape and we got a couple more weeks to go and we're at A1 so I'm looking forward to it.
So, going back to that intensity, obviously training is a different aspect than the actual gate drop at A1. How are you kind of mentally preparing for that?
Obviously, training at Baker's Factory, we have some really fast guys between Malcolm [Stewart] and [Justin] Barcia and I think that in itself really helps out because. They wanna win for sure. Malcolm, he didn't have too great a year last year. So, he's looking for some revenge and then Justin as well. So, we've all been at each other's necks at the practice track but also having a good time while doing it too. So, I think training with those guys on one hand is gonna help.
We recently talked to Jade [Dungey, mechanic] and he kind of explained how you need to ride the bike low and slow in the rear. Was it hard or did it take time to get KTM to accept that's how you wanted to set up the bike?
Yeah, at first when I came over, I kinda said this is what I like and they were like, “Oh, yeah, okay. Well, we'll see you riding the bike.” The first time I told them "This bike turns like way too good." They kind of looked at me like I had three eyes! I said, the way I ride this thing, I put all the weight on the front as I'm coming to the corner. So, it does tend to tuck on me. Getting that message across was tough to do. But after a little bit I think we came to mutual agreement and they figured out what I like. I really think that this bike has a unique way of feeling. It can have a bunch of travel in the rear end, but still forks are pretty stiff and it feels like I want it to feel. It doesn't have to look like it's squatted out for me to feel that it is squatted on the back. All the other bikes I've ridden the way I like, the way it looks, it's slammed out in the back and super tall in the front. It's been a ride for sure, but we've definitely got it down now and I think between me and the suspension guys, we get along really well and they know what I like now and I know what to say to them to get it how I like it.
You mentioned KTM has done a lot of work on starts to make the bike better out of the gate. What does that look like?
Really just, I think coming off the grate, obviously most bikes are the same, have max traction. And the biggest thing is keeping the front wheel down and driving forward. What we have now is, the bike drives off the grate good and still continues to track down the line. So, about ten feet out is pretty much the most important spot. So, if you're double clutching it five times before you get 10 feet out of the gate, you're already in the back. So, the idea is to minimize the use of the clutch and just to drive forward. It's a work in progress, but we've done quite a few starts in the past four to five weeks and I think they're getting better. I wasn't really worried about starts, I still am not. Last year at the end of the year, my starts were really, really good. I was up front for most of the end of the outdoors. So, in that sense, I'm not really too worried about it but any help we can get to beat these up guys off the gate and get orange out front, I'm all for it.
