This week offered us the first glimpses of some very big changes among several top riders. Has this been the best, most interesting off-season ever? Think about it. We've watched two of the biggest stars in the sport switch teams at the same time, #3 Eli Tomac and #4 Chase Sexton. Add in #21 Jason Anderson and you have three 450SX Champions all making off-season moves. We've watched multi-time FIM Motocross World Champion Jorge Prado and Monster Energy Kawasaki mutually part ways after their "Season in Hell" together. By the end of the off-season, we will have watched another two-time FIM Motocross World MX2 Champion and two-time 250SX East Champion Tom Vialle take his #1 plate back to Europe, back to the MXGP series, and now over to Honda. We have Ducati coming online with a couple of other very big names in Justin Barcia and Dylan Ferrandis. And we have the unanswered question of when exactly we may see Haiden Deegan on a 450 full-time in the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX).

Wait, there's more. Next weekend is the Paris Supercross, which means our first glimpse of the Lawrence brothers, Hunter and Jett, back in supercross form. At the same time the second round of WSX will go off in Vancouver, and that will be our first look at the aforementioned Eli Tomac in competition on his new Red Bull KTM. And then one week after that is the AUS-X Open and the homecoming event for the brothers Lawrence. 

Of course, the one team without any real changes is Honda HRC Progressive. While they did not win any of the SX titles this year due to injuries, they dominated the 450 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, went 1-2 in 450SMX and won the 250SMX title, and then were the best brand at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, courtesy of the Lawrences and Jo Shimoda. With a healthy Chance Hymas back for 2026, Honda will field the same lineup for the third season in a row.

And this crazy busy off-season didn't solely belong to the U.S. Over in Europe two five-time FIM World Champions—Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser—are also on the move, Herlings to Honda and Gajser to Yamaha, each after having spent more than a decade with KTM and Honda, respectively. Also, with Vialle returning, as well as former MX2 World Champions Kay de Wolf and Andrea Adamo moving up to MXGP, that's quite an influx of talent. And the union of Ducati and the Louis Vosters' Wilvo team, and the addition of veteran Calvin Vlaanderen to the squad, could add another podium contender to the MXGP mix.

But back to U.S. stuff for a minute. Are folks making too big a deal of Sexton's three-teams-in-four-years? It's not unprecedented. A lot of very good riders have made a lot of changes with teams over the years. Jeremy McGrath went from Honda-to-Suzuki-to-Yamaha between 1996 and the start of '98, then won three more SX titles to add to his previous four on red. Ricky Carmichael went from Kawi-to-Honda-to-Suzuki between the end of '01 and the end of '04 and never missed a beat, winning MX titles every year and every SX title that he competed for from '01 to '06. And maybe most successfully of all is the Yamaha-to-Honda-Can-Am of Gary Jones in '72, '73, and '74, winning the 250 Pro Motocross Championship at all three stops. Chase told Matthes on the PulpMX Show that it’s a three-year deal with Kawasaki, as he’s over switching teams. Here’s part of that interview:

Before we move on, Denny Stephenson had a little AI fun with the Sexton announcement on social media:

75-Day/Jersey Countdown to Anaheim 1 Continued (DC)

Our friend Josh Gagnon has been a prolific jersey collector for some time. As a way to share them on his social (@alwaysbelieve331 on Instagram), he does an annual jersey countdown to the Anaheim 1 opener, which takes place on January 10, 2026. This year, Josh decided to begin the countdown at 70 days, starting this past Monday. Here are the jerseys he has posted so far in his 75-Day Countdown to Anaheim...

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

Several of the SMX regulars are headed to South America this weekend, most notably Monster Yamaha Star Racing's Haiden Deegan. These off-season races are not a normalcy for Deegs, he's usually putting in practice laps and filming their family vlog during November. This year will be a big departure, though, as he will be attending races in both Argentina and Australia. These races are extremely lucrative for a rider with the star power of Haiden, but they also present a chance to test the 450 waters. With limited global viewing and lesser competition than stateside SMX, it's a profitable, risk averse way to see where he stands. That doesn't mean there isn't any risk, though. Injury is always a concern at these events and why some elite riders chose to avoid anything outside of their scheduled events. The money is enticing, though, as a rider like Deegan or Roczen can pull six-figure pay days for a weekend's work. 

For Deegan, it's about more than the money. His 450 career is coming in 2026 but the question of exactly when in 2026 looms. If he comes out swinging at these two pseudo SX's, I could see him lean into an A1 appearance. If he struggles in any way or just can't match pace quite yet, the odds of him racing a 450 in January go down significantly in my humble opinion. The most interesting scenario for fans but most challenging for family Deegan would be a mixed result. Speed but not quite a home run, bad starts but charging forward, winning but then a crash. That type of nuance would leave it all up to a judgment call on whether he will or won't steal the A1 headlines. 

The first piece of information is a day away. 

Buongiorno from Italy (Jason Weigandt)

Ciao! I’ve been in Milan, Italy, all week for EICMA, the largest motorcycle show in the world. Check out three episodes of The Weege Show (thanks to OGIO Powersports for backing us this week) on our YouTube Channel to get a look at this massive event, which packs eight huge convention halls, filled with bikes, helmets, gear, parts, and accessories. For the first few days, EICMA is an industry show, with dealers, distributors and industry heavies from around the world checking out the latest stuff and holding cappuccino-fueled meetings from dawn until dusk. It’s the best chance of the year to meet all the people you do business with in one spot and also get a feeling for what new product is coming. By the weekend, the public is allowed to attend, and they tell me 100,000 people will roll through these gates. The fans also get to watch some action on a pseudo-supercross track built next to the hall. The first thing I saw in the morning were some race quads ripping around it, and then adventure bikes, but over the weekend there’s some Legends race going on which includes Stefan Everts and Michael Pichon! Plus, a run with legendary vintage bikes of the Dakar Rally (at least, I think so, if my translating is correct). Tony Cairoli told me he will be here, as well. The public days are said to be jam-packed to the point where it’s absolutely out of control. Last night the Twin Air guys told me eventually all you can do is nail everything down in your display booth and hand out stickers in rapid-fire fashion, because there’s no time to talk at peak hours.

Why is this show so big? Well, two-wheels is a much bigger part of everyday life in Italy than what we would ever see in America. Scooters and motorcycles are common commuter machines. I’ll make a very rough estimate here and say for every two cars I see here, I see at least one motorcycle or scooter. Now you know how a guy like Valentino Rossi can become a true mainstream national sports hero here. This market skews heavily street, though. A lot of the big displays, like Kawasaki and Honda, for example, just throw motocross and enduro bikes in a smaller, separate space off the side. Street riding is always the center of the action at this show. What is cool is seeing different, weirdo bikes, like full-sized 50s and 125s (due to tiered licensing and taxes based on displacement here). Also, it feels like there are 1,000 Chinese brands trying to break through with “motorcross” bikes, electric bikes, scooters, tiny cars and more. They’re getting better at design, at least, as my colleague Dustin Williamson says even just last year, most Chinese “motorcross” bikes looked like KTM clones. Just a year later, most have unique looks. And they look legit! Do they actually perform that way? Doubtful.

To give you an idea of how the American moto scene registers here, we had to dig really hard to find much Jett Lawrence at this show. Honda’s display, run by Honda Italy, had a poster this year, which is the first time Honda has shown him at all. They had Tim Gajser bikes on display. I later found a Jett replica bike at the GET and Cycra booths. It’s really hard to understand how the industry works until you come here. Jett Lawrence is paid exclusively by American Honda. He’s not on the radar on Honda Italy the way you would think. On the outside, you’d think Honda is just Honda, a worldwide, global brand. That’s not actually how it works. The world features Honda importers in each country, and they have to create their own profit and loss, marketing, and more. Only at EICMA do some of those streams cross, but often only with meetings, not an exchange of funds. The world is a smaller place than it once, was, but it’s still pretty big!

Ducati (Keefer)

We finally got our Ducati Desmo450 MX last week and took it out to Glen Helen Raceway to see if the feelings we had in Italy were the same. We can tell you that the Desmo did get an ECU update since we rode it in Italy and that helped HUGE when it comes to better low-end power. It still is a smoother engine power (similar to a KTM) with tons of mid- to top-end but now some of that rich feeling that was felt in Italy is a bit better/cleaned up. I did manage to grab Steve Matthes and Tyler Renshaw to help give you some thoughts on the Ducati so make sure you watch the complete breakdown of the Desmo right here. 

GH & GH (Matthes)

The first GH I experienced this week was an interview with Grant Harlan, who has taken his talents to Moranz Racing KTM for 2026. Grant's a good privateer dude whose had some really awesome results over the years. We talked about going to Moranz's team for next year, and what if he has to take his team owner out for the last spot into the main event, and more. You can listen here: pulpmx.com/podcast/fxr-one-on-one-grant-harlan.

The other GH was my day at Glen Helen with my friend Kris. I don't ride dirt bikes a ton, it's not always easy to load up and drive somewhere up here in Vegas. I find it easier to grab a bicycle and get a workout in, but yeah, there's nothing like riding a dirt bike, that's for sure. I have to say though that I had a great time at GH yesterday and that's not always the case there. The weather was perfect, there weren't many people there, the track layout was fun and, yeah, it's days like yesterday that make you wish all the days on a dirt bike could be like that. I felt like I rode pretty well, also, which always helps. My friend Kris let me spin some laps on the new Ducati and also a Triumph TF 450-X, so that was pretty cool. I stepped in the video to help give some first impressions also. And I also got a Cudby photo! Maybe cover worthy, DC?

Rider Files on Facebook (DC)

Larry Lawrence is a longtime friend and sometimes contributor to Racer X. He's also a dedicated moto historian who enjoys preserving the history of motorcycle racing of all kinds: road racing, flat track, motocross and supercross. He was a huge help in building out our results Vault and more recently he's been helping the crew at Cycle News to digitize and preserve all of their old photo archives. Going back to 1965, Cycle News was "the weekly bible" of motorcycle racing, so their archives are immense. Lawrence has been using a variety of scanners to move the images from prints to digital files, and every now and then he reaches out to me because he's either found some of any old photos that I sent in (my first Cycle News contributions were sent in while I was in junior high) or he has questions about who/what/where/when on other people's photos. On one occasion he sent me photos from the late Henny Ray Abrams asking if I knew which races had four Honda riders in matching all-white JT Racing riding gear and using sequential numbers... It was Henny Ray's never-before-scene photos of Team USA at the 1981 FIM Trophee and Motocross des Nations! 

Lawrence has been sharing his finds with everyone on Facebook, from contact sheets from the 1980 Oakland SX to candid shots of the Wheelie King, to World Mini GP photos shot by Tony Alessi back in the day, to just randomly cool finds like this post-race tussle between KTM's Kelly Smith and the entire Yamaha of Troy squad at the 1999 St. Louis 125 SX. If you love seeing rare old photos from back in the day, follow "Larry's Rider Files" on Facebook—it's the gift that keeps giving!

Hey, Watch It!

Check out the battle between the Stark VARG electric bike of off-roader Trevor Stewart and the YZ450F of longtime pro and MXA test rider/editor Josh Mosiman from last weekend 41st Annual Dubya USA World Vet Championships at Glen Helen, as narrated by "Racing Jack" Korpela and Mark Tilley from Dirt Bike Magazine:

Lawrence Brothers' Homecoming to Australia preview:

Coty Schock | 2-Smokin | Club MX Open House Insta360 ACE Pro 2

150cc Battle Between Carson Brown and Justin Barcia

Haiden Deegans First Ride In Fox Gear!

Axell Hodges’ latest: Slay’s World

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"How Hershey’s chocolate survived an attack from Mars − and adopted a business strategy alien to its founder"-Inquirer

"Tom Brady Discloses Dog Junie as Clone of Late Pet Lua"-TMZ

"This seat taken? Thieves busted for stealing over 1,000 restaurant chairs in Spain" -AP News

"Kim Kardashian Mini-Series, Produced by Ryan Murphy, Scores a Zero on Rotten Tomatoes: “Stiff and Affectless Without a Single Authentic Note”-ShowBiz411

Random Notes

Unfortunately, GNCC legend Kailub Russell had his garage broken into in North Carolina last night. Thieves stole 17 motorcycles, including all of his championship bikes. Here’s more on what happened, and the video that KR557 posted this morning: