Triumph was scheduled to make its 450 debut in SMX this weekend at Anaheim with Jordon Smith, but after shoulder surgery slowed his off-season, 250 racer Austin Forkner got the nod to try the big bike and line up at Anaheim. Forkner has had about a month to adjust to the bike, but he's also making his own progress after battling back from so many injuries. Here's the latest, courtesy of his appearance on Jamie "Darkside" Guida's Moto-X Pod show.
Darkside: So, Austin, first 450 race coming up this weekend. First things first, man. Mentally, do you feel like you're prepared okay, it's time to go 450 racing?
Austin Forkner: Yeah I mean, I guess I don't know for sure, but you think you're ready as far as, you know, the bike feels good on our tracks and, and my starts have been pretty good and everything. My fitness is pretty decent. I mean, for only being back on the bike for the the time that I was. It's pretty good. I'm as ready as I think I can be. I feel like I'm in a better spot this year on the 450 than I was last year on the 250.
Riding technique wise, or physically?
Both. Riding, I'm have been riding pretty well at the test track. Actually from like day one on the 450 I just feel like I've really gelled with the bike. You don't have to ride a 450 as hard. Yes, they're bigger, they're heavier, they're faster, but you can kind of just you can roll through a turn and just get on it up the face and still three-in pretty much any rhythm section you want on a supercross track. My first day on the 450, I was like, 'Dude, all it takes is balls.' You could jump whatever you want to on a 450. Like if you want to quad at any point in a rhythm section, you pretty much can. You don't have to push it or ride it as hard as, obviously, a 250. So I feel like that kind of benefits me. Right now as far as just obviously, I'm getting older, my body's kind of falling apart a little bit. So it just makes it easier for me to not have to have so much aggression. I can kind of just cruise. But cruising is still fast! I guess I'm as ready as I can be. I mean, who knows? And I don't think I've ridden at Anaheim since 2020. My last year on west coast was 2020. So I mean, that's kind of going to be gonna have to kind of relearn the tracks a little bit. But I'm excited either way. And right now it's just for the first five. And then we're kind of going to see how that goes and make our decision, if it's going to continue after that or go back to 250SX East. If we as a group team think that I'm making some sort of progress and we should keep going, then do it. If not then go to 250 East.
So the thoughts you had on the 450 were interesting because you could almost go either way with it. In '25 you were like, 'Let's get through the season healthy,' which you almost did. But you talked about a little bit of lack of confidence and kind of dealing with the injuries from the past. So you can almost say, well, this 450 has so much more power, I might be even, like more scared or not scared, probably not the right word, but you know what I mean. But instead you're taking it as it's going to make things a little easier. I don't have to be so aggressive. So it might actually be better for you in the long run.
In certain ways, yeah. Whenever you're pushing like you are on a 250, you take a bigger chance of dabbing a knee or doing doing whatever like that. We're on the 450. I can kind of just cruise it a little bit more, and I have a really kind of smooth, I guess, riding style to like, I don't know, I'm not on the clutch, really. I hardly ever even use the clutch on the track. I'm pretty just smooth. And I ride the bike in the correct part of the power, I guess. But a 250, you just kind of have to ride the piss out of it basically.
The 450, it's almost like the harder you ride it, the worse it is. At least for me. If you're riding the 450 in the meat of the power, you have to manage it somehow. Like Eli Tomac does that with the clutch. He just is always on the clutch and he rides the thing wide open. But you can't actually ride a 450 wide open, especially on a supercross track. You have to manage it somehow. So you're either dragging your rear brake, you're clutching it, you're doing whatever.
The 450, the first day on it, I was like, 'Yeah, this thing's ridiculously fast.' And then I got used to it. And then they started getting some progress with the motor and stuff and making it a little bit faster and things like that. But I mean, it's kind of just came pretty natural since the first day on it, really. Like we got new tracks here, I was a little bit worried on how my timing would be because I've been on a 250 forever. I know exactly the speed to hit, you know, supercross triples and rhythms. And the 450 is different, but I picked it up pretty much immediately.
Do you think this instance where it wasn't originally part of the plan for this year and then now now you're kind of thrown into a challenge a little bit, does that give you almost a mental break from what you were trying to do and allows you to kind of free up a little bit?
Yeah, maybe. I could see that for sure. Like the plan was to be a title contender in the 250 class, that would be obviously the the goal. So to kind of last minute, I've had like a month on the bike, but that's sort of last minute as far as prep goes to make the transfer to the 450 class and to have to set that bike up basically from, from scratch, I mean, because they didn't really have anybody, I think I was the first guy that rode it on a supercross track. I enjoyed the process of it and I it did kind of take the pressure off I guess, in a way, because I really have no expectations.
What would make you content at the end of the day?
In the 250 class, or the 450 class?
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Triumph
Just in general this year.
Well, I guess if we're not talking about results, because at the end of the day, results are kind of what makes you happy. You can ride not good and get a good result and you're still going to be kind of okay. What would I guess make me happy [beyond results] is just riding less stressed out than I was last year, especially in the first part of the season. Having more days like like I had at Charlotte. I rode more loose, I had a little bit more fun. Just try to open up on the bike more and be like...I look at videos from from early on in supercross last year and I was riding so cramped up on the bike, so tight, and and all the things I worked on with Ryno the year before to open up and stuff just went straight out the window. And a little bit of that was just me being riding, cautious, riding timid, maybe not being so comfortable with the bike at the start of the season. But since I've been riding the 450, that is something that I've noticed is I have opened up a lot more on the bike, and I've been able to to just ride the bike more with that technique and all the kind of progress that I made whenever I worked with Ryno.
Just getting to say I made progress, that would make me happy. I kind of have stopped trying to stop comparing myself to the old me or to what I used to be. Everyone else does [compare] but I'm not really hat guy anymore. Just physically, mentally, I mean, a lot is different in normal life and racing life and my body and just everything is different than than who I was five years ago, whenever I was battling for championships. And I want to work on trying to be the best version of my current self with my flaws that I have, the body parts that don't work anymore, the bad knees, the nerve issue in my arm that I can't hardly hold on with my left arm, and just all the all the stuff that I have. I'm done comparing myself to the old me because I'm not that anymore. And whenever I think about that, it honestly just pisses me off. Whenever I look back on the past, it frustrates me. So the only thing I can do is control the future or control the present. So I just need to try to be the best best version of myself.
