On the Pegs - June 2021 On the Pegs - Volume 6 - Issue 6 | Page 141

I actually run overly-wide bars ; my bars are 32 inches plus the barkbusters . I ’ m almost 33 inches wide , so I ’ m one of the widest setups here in the National Enduros . The only way to make them narrow is to lean your motorcycle or turn , but if you can do both at the same time , you can take a 32-inch bar down to a 25-inch bar .
SWITCHING GEARS TO GNCC , YOU START OFF THE SEASON WITH THE DNF ; YOU MIGHT AS WELL HAVE DNF ’ D THE NEXT ONE BECAUSE YOU ONLY GOT 14TH . SO YOU ' RE IN A SUPER BIG HOLE , WHAT WAS YOUR MINDSET AT THAT POINT ?
I knew there was no other option but to win . at that point , I knew there was nothing more I could do except win . I knew I had the speed to win these races this year , and you never really know until it ' s the actual season you ' re sitting in . I might have to take more risk than I have in the past to make sure that I win , but that ' s the only way we ' re going to crawl out of this hole .
As a racer , we ' re counting up places where we ' ve lost seconds from two years ago , so when you ' re talking 30 , 40 , 50 points that we lost , 60 points almost , 54 points if we would have gone if we would have gone 1-1 there versus 0-14 . It definitely eats at me as a racer ; that could potentially have us at a 50-point lead , and that hurts . Obviously , that ' s what pays our bills , so that does make things tough to wrap our mind around , but we know moving forward what we have to do .
YOU ' RE THE ONLY GUY I KNOW , INCLUDING KAILUB RUSSELL , THAT CAN WIN AT SPRINT ENDURO , GNCC , AND NATIONAL ENDURO . HOW DO YOU JUGGLE THOSE THREE AND HOW DO YOU SHIFT FROM THE TYPE OF RIDING FROM A GNCC TO A SPRINT TO AN ENDURO ?
It ' s more difficult than I remembered it being in the past . This year , my focus is on GNCC , which means my bike is set up for a GNCC . It ' s a little bit choppered out , stiffer in the front , a little bit softer in the rear so that I can hit stuff at a higher speed without it trying to throw me over the bars . It ' s not set up for a very aggressive attack position , where in National Enduros , you want a little bit softer front end .
At the Sprint Enduros , you want an all-around stiffer bike , so the bike setup is probably one of the hardest things . I don ' t want to change it because I don ' t want to be used to my Sprint Enduro bike when I ’ m at the GNCC , and I also don ' t want to confuse myself . The hardest thing is switching the riding style to adapt to the bike from week to week .
I think the obvious answer would be to change my setting and have one for each race , but that ' s like telling a supercross guy to go ride outdoors the week before Anaheim ;
VOL . 6 ISSUE 6 - JUNE 2021 // PAGE 141