Pit Report: Toronto Supercross

Mar 15 2010 - 9:41am - Dan Paris

Every year when the Toronto Supercross rolls into the Rogers Centre, I spend a lot of time in the Parts Canada suite sipping cold beverages, eating and bench racing. I usually wander down to the pits to get my fill of tech bits; It's no secret I love checking out the works bikes and asking the mechanics dopey questions more than watching the actual races.

In any case, year after year I am blown away by the key element that puts these bikes ahead of the stuff that spodes like you and I flop around on. It isn't trick parts or mechanical voodoo. It is crash damage prevention. Factory mechanics put staggering attention into making sure their bikes can be crashed, smashed and otherwise mutilated without a DNF. Some of the things they do are more akin to a factory Enduro or GNCC bike than the average rider's machine at a Sunday motocross. We can all learn from them.

Remember how obnoxious the four-strokes were indoors a few years ago? Pulse Chambers, like the one on this Akrapovic exhaust, have done wonders for reducing noise.

Kyle Chislom's Yamaha was one of the best prepped bikes in the pits. Hey, I used to have a 1200 Harley with a seat sort of like his...

The giant carbon fibre coal shovel strapped to the bottom of Chislom's YZF looks like it'd be more at home on a Baja racer.

Note the fine wire mesh in front of the rads and skateboard grip tape on the side panels.

Foam was jammed into every orifice of Chislom's bike to keep out mud and rocks. Notice the brake snake attached to the pedal as well.

It's the same deal for foam on the shifter side. The skid plate has been trimmed to keep Kyle's boot from catching on it. Attention to tiny details is awesome.

Pretty much all the bikes had some version of insanely flexible crash-proof levers. Also see how the wires on the bars are held on with electrical tape instead of zip-ties? That reduces the chance of a zip-ty damaging a wire in a crash or through vibration.

The jury is still out on the orange spokes, at least until Halloween.

Neat forks eh?

Not everyone was stoked to be hanging out in the pits...

In an era of cut down saddles it was interesting to see a bike with a whole bunch of foam added. All the bikes have tons of very minor changes to make sure they fit their riders perfectly.