On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 87

On The Pegs VOL. 4 ISSUE 7 - July 2020 87 RICKY RUSELL Does she go underneath the plane? She goes right by my feet. They let you do that? Yeah. It’s $125 each way but she goes right by my feet. Do you have to say that she’s a service dog in order to be able to do that? No, just a pet. So switching to the 350, you were riding the 450 on the Yamaha, right? Yeah. I rode the 450 for many years, even on Suzuki in ’16 and the Yamaha in ’17, ’18, and ’19. I got on the 350 for this year. For me, you can almost be more aggressive on it for the whole three hours, where the 450 you have to be a little more patient. The 350 for racing-wise I can be more aggressive and attack harder without it wearing me out as much. Tell me about the difference in steering and handling between a Japanese bike and a European bike. Is there a big difference in the way they handle? Yeah. There is, but there isn’t. The frame flex is a lot different because the frame is steel on the European bikes and the Japanese bikes are aluminum, so the steel frame is a little less rigid. Other than that, it’s a dirt bike. It’s not like dramatically different. Each person has their own setup they like for bar position and whatnot. It seems like I’m still pretty close to my same, typical setup. I’ve been liking it since day one. So wherre does the extra flex help? It really just makes the suspension a little bit softer. So you can actually run it a little stiffer, which is a good thing because then it doesn’t feel as stiff but you get