Frid'Eh Update #4 Presented by Orange Motorsports

Sponsored by: 

By Kyle Carruthers, Allison Kennedy, James Lissimore and Billy "Bigwave" Rainford

Welcome back everyone to the 4^th edition of the DMX Frid’eh Update here on Directmotocross.com brought to you by Ontario’s #1 KTM dealer, Orange Motorsports. It’s a bit of a sad day here at the DMX head office as I had tears start rolling down my face (thanks for the box of tissues Leanne) when I heard the soon to be 2012 MX1 Champ, Kyle Keast, broke his ankle in a crash at Wallaceburg indoor facility last weekend. But it's OK, I gave the Beast in Blue a call and he ensured me he was all good and would be off his foot for some time and then back into the grind before the snow melts here in Ontario. After hearing the news I pulled myself back together and was able to finish this update ;)

Kyle has a new program with Machine Racing and Yamaha Canada for 2012 and wanted to give a big thanks to his sponsors for making it happen: Yamaha Canada, Machine Racing, Yamalube, Troy Lee Designs, Smith Optics, Podium Grafix, Actionetix, OGIO, Ortho-flex, Works Connection, Pirrelli, LGS, Gaerne boots and everyone else who has supported him over the years. This will be the first year in a long time Kyle will be focusing on riding only and not working during the week. With his new training program and his new fitness he will be more then prepared. Heal up soon Kyle!

Kyle Keast with John Nelson of Machine Racing (L) and Bryan Hudgin of Yamaha (R) after signing his new Yamaha deal. Yamaha Canada photo

This update is once again brought to you by Orange Motorsports. Orange Motorsports has tons of great deals going on right now. One thing Orange Motorsports specializes in is bringing in new brands that most dealers don’t carry. Now in stock you can get the all new Nihilo Concepts line. Nithilo makes one off performance parts for your KTM and make some of the top products available for anything Orange on the market. You can check out the full online catalogue here and then call OMS to order it today!

WMR/Nihilo Concepts "Factory 50" has everything, and I mean everything, done to it! All done in house and all available at Orange Motorsports!

Orange Motorsports will also soon have in stock the limited Edition FOX Dungey gear that he wore at A1. This stuff looks top shelf and Orange Motorsports can hook you up with any size you need. To top it all off, when you buy a new KTM Big bike you get a set of SCOTT 450 series gear with it! Make sure you check out www.orangemotorsports.ca.

Get this gear from Orange Motorsports. James Lissimore photo

Some cool news as many of you know already, Honorary Canadian Bobby Kiniry is replacing Ryan Morais on the Star/Valli Rockstar Yamaha team. You can get all the details here in another great interview by Billy. I talked with Andre Laurin this week and he says things are shaping up nicely for the upcoming season. He said they have a great relationship with the Star/Valli team down in the states with Yamaha and Rockstar and this is one of the avenues that lead the team to Bobby K. He says they are working on many things together, right down to motor development. Look for Richard Grey and Bobby Kiniry to show up Yamaha-mounted come Naniamo.

We also got the official Press Release today that OTSFF has signed on with Motovan and Kiniry will be in Answer gear and Grey in MSR. Pretty cool stuff and we look forward to seeing their new looks.

Bobby is back in action this week on a Star/Valli Rockstar Yamaha bike. James Lissimore photo

If anyone is interested in seeing the OTSFF/Rockstar/Polaris snocross team in action this weekend you can go check out the racing at the Georgian Downs in Barrie as Iain Hayden and teammate Butler light it up under starting tonight from 6-8 p.m. and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Make sure you go over and check out the auction on MxForum for Brent Worrall. Kyle Beaton started it off with one of his autographed AMA jerseys and you can also get the one and only “Screw Hammertime Jersey” from David Vullimen as well as a Cole Thompson one. Get over there, place your bid and help a moto brother out! Awesome job, Beaton, Hammertime and CT for helping out!

Lethbridge Arenacross is coming up next weekend Feb.2^nd-4^th at the Enmax center. It looks like Pro’s Shawn Maffenbeier, Brock Hoyer (Correction: Hoyer will be at the Chilliwack AX) and Kevin Urquhart will be showing up to compete. Chilliwack is also the same weekend and guys like Ryan Lockhart and Spencer Knowles will be going for their title there. Either way there will be some great racing that weekend between Alberta and B.C.

Kyle Beaton is looking to make the main this weekend ... "Just been plugging away doing work at the gym and the track getting my aggressiveness up. Just loading the bikes up to start the long drive up to Oakland. Goal for this weekend is definitely qualify and ride 15 solid laps and grow from there". Good luck Beaton and were rooting for ya!

Nathan Bles has also signed a deal for 2012 with the WMXtreme/MPH Honda team that supported Taylor Miller the past couple season. Nathan is really excited about it and has some big plans to annouce for the summer. Nathan will continue with the support from sponsors like Scott-Sports, Gopher Dunes and many others and welcomes on FMF, FXR Gear, Works Connection, RG3 and many more to be announced. Look for a full press release and interview with Nathan soon as he works on finalizing his plans for 2012.

Also make sure you mark your calenders as the Toronto Supercross is hitting town on March 24th! We will be at the Loose Moose again on the 23rd for our annual Supercross Social as well as the infamous after party that was ridiculously packed last year after the main event. Party details will be released this week!

Now over to Billy for the weekly novel!

Hello, everyone. My portion of the Update comes, as usual, from the multi-purpose, shag-carpeted, living room, floor space in front of my sectional couch. This 20 square-foot space acts as MX Forum World Headquarters (Media Division), LoudMouth Canada Corporate Head Office, and DMX Think Tank. Here’s what I have for this week…

Way back in the day, I made the switch to a bike that ‘spec’ed’ out nicely, on paper, but then when I tried to actually ride the thing it was an absolute disaster. Yes, that was back when most bikes still had drum brakes, normal forks would now be called ‘upside-down,’ safety seats were a selling feature, and my liquid-cooled Can-Am 125 still had cooling fins on the engine! I was curious to find out what Liam O’Farrell thinks of his new exotic TM ride--I’m sure they’ve eradicated the problems of ‘Mid-80s Exotic’--and he was kind enough to give us a short blurb on his thoughts so far:

Obviously, it was hard for me to do proper suspension testing on a tight track like X-Town, but in the tight turns the bike turned really well. It comes stock with 2 ignition mappings that can be changed with a switch on the bar. The 1st map was very smooth and easy to ride; good for mud riding. The 2nd was what I’m used to; it revs quicker and has more low down.

The bike also revs out a lot longer, it felt like, so I could hold my gears longer.

Overall, it has a unique feel to it that I really enjoyed, but it’s not a huge difference from anything else I have ever ridden, so it was easy to adapt to it.

Thanks, Liam. Last time I saw one of them on an outdoor track it was a 10-year old, 2-stroke 250 and it was at the front of the pack in the Pro Class at Dade City, Florida last winter!

Someone linked a page over at www.brotocross.com and I thought it was hilarious. It’s a spoof of the whole, ‘Chuck Norris Is the Toughest Guy the World Has Ever Seen’ thing, and it was pretty damn funny. Basically, it’s the same except Kevin Windham plays the part of Mr. Norris. I saw another quote along the same lines and it said, “Kevin Windham doesn’t dial the wrong number…you answer the wrong phone.”

Not a bad deal when you break it down.

Be sure to check out the auction going on over at: http://www.mxforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&p=256449 Kyle Beaton started it to raise money for Brent ‘Airmail’ Worrall. Kyle is offering a race-worn supercross jersey to the highest bidder. The word has spread and I’ve heard from several other riders who want to donate things as well. Rick ‘Hammertime’ Hamer-Jackson even placed his ‘Screw+Hammer+Time’ jersey on the block. This thing is part of motoboard folklore! There is soon to be a Cole Thompson jersey added, as well as other items.

I had a lot of fun putting together the Most Memorable Moment from 2011 article. If you haven’t seen the first one, here’s the link to what our pro women thought: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/features/2012/01/pros-2011-most-memorable-moments-women.The next one will be what our Top Ten MX2 riders remembered most from last season.

Racing gets started this Saturday at the Wallaceburg Arenacross. Here’s a link to the PR: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/breaking/2012/01/round-1-ontario-arenacross-championship-saturday-and-ontario-arenacross-oaklan Bad news about the ankle injury suffered by Kyle Keast in Wallaceburg last weekend. Looks like it might even put an end to his plan to race Daytona and Toronto.

This week’s rant isn’t really so much a rant as it is a reminder. It’s the end of January. How’s your base training coming along? How did you feel last January? Would you say you are fitter now than you were then? If not, there is really no excuse for you not getting the required miles in to get you ready for when the time comes to get back on the dirt bike and start pounding out laps. I’m going to be your invisible training partner and conscience! Also, I hate to tell you, but if you are 18, 19, or 20, you are at the age when youthful exuberance will no longer get you through. As the body matures, staying fit takes more than just going to the practice track a few times during the week. It’s a sad reality, but true none-the-less.

There are still a few of our top riders who haven’t finalized their racing plans for the 2012 season and I make it my business to pester them ceaselessly each week. Grand Bend, Ontario’s Dylan Kaelin finished the MX2 season in 9^th place, but we all know he has the speed to be closer to the front. All I’ve heard is that there might be a blue bike in his garage. I spoke briefly to him this week and here’s what he can tell us, at this point:

Things haven't changed too much on my end. I’ve just been working part-time and hitting the gym. I’m still going hard at the sponsorship end of things, trying to piece everything together for this summer. I am heading down to Florida next Friday (Feb 3) with Cody McCulloch and the whole MCR crew. I will be staying with those guys for most of Feb and I am hoping to get some time in at GPF with the Medaglia's and Colt (Facciotti). Other than that, I’ve just been ordering parts for my shiny new bike sitting in the garage! Look for a PR to be sent out sooner than later regarding my plans and some sponsors for this season!

Swift Current, Saskatchewan’s Shawn Maffenbeier showed good arenacross skills at the last two rounds in Chilliwack, but we heard that he will compete in the Lethbridge AX next weekend instead of the final two Chilliwack rounds. I spoke very briefly to him this week and asked him if the rumour was true:

It is. I'm going home this weekend and then picking my bikes up, going to race Lethbridge, and then straight to California.

I also spoke, very briefly, to Keiran Leigh this week and, although nothing seemed finalized, he has every intention of returning to Canada next summer to take another run at our series. He mentioned that he did the final round of their New Zealand supercross series last weekend and their outdoor series starts in four weeks. If you’re interested in following along with the action, he mentioned www.bikesportnz.comis as good a site as any. ‘Goose it,’ Kieran!

After posting the women’s Most Memorable Moments this week, I wanted to check on how things are progressing for this coming season. All I could dig up was that, at this point, there is a chance there will be 3 West rounds and 3 East rounds all done on the Saturdays before the Sunday Pro Nationals. It sounds like Camille Baker and Denaye Giroux are working hard spearheading this campaign. Stay tuned…

I was digging through some old pictures and had planned on chatting about an old Ross Pederson or maybe a Doug Hoover shot, but then I saw this one from Hully Gully in 1983. It points out so many things NOT to do that I thought I’d go with it.

Go get 'em Billy!

1. No matter how muddy it is and how hot, wet, and slippery your hands get, NEVER stop to take your gloves off!

2. On a hot, wet, August day, don’t head out for a race in yellow rain pants and a zip-up rain jacket! It may seem like a good idea as you sit at the line laughing at all the other suckers sitting there getting wet, but, once the gate drops, the laughs turn against you.The rain pants are ripped to shreds and catching on anything and everything that sticks out off the bike and I had to stop and unzip my rain jacket just so I could breathe.

3. No matter how much your dad says, “We ALWAYS used this Red X oil in our engines back in the 60s. It’ll work great in your 1983 Kawasaki KX80!” My bike seized solid on the ‘dam straightaway’ early in the second moto. I switched to my 1982 KX80 and promptly seized it soon after. Live and learn? I wish. We also cracked two different pressure washer pumps, but that’s another story…

4. I forgot to mention that when I stopped in the whoops section to unzip my jacket and remove my gloves, it was brought to my attention later that I was leading the race at the time…and it was the last lap. Try your best not to stop for prolonged periods on the last lap. Sure, I was 14 and it was 80B, but it was the most important race I was in that day.

5. Finally, if you MUST race in conditions like these, I wouldn’t suggest using hard plastic boots that you couldn’t feel anything through at the best of times. Add 20 pounds of mud to the mix and you literally have no idea where your feet are or what the hell they are doing!

Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself…

Cole Thompson was at it again last weekend competing in the Arenacross Tour. Last weekend it was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Cole went undefeated in the Clash for Cash and AX Pro class. This weekend they are in Starkville, MS. All this winning should set Cole up nicely as he soon makes his pro supercross debut in the East Coast Lites class starting February 18^th in Dallas. They had both their practice and race 250s stolen a while back, but have since recovered both of them from Alabama.

There’s a new practice facility opening in California and run by Canadians. Here’s a Press Release on the track:

And finally, it just wouldn’t be Friday if I didn’t place a call to Tyler Medaglia, and it finally happened…he didn’t answer. I’m just going to go ahead and assume he’s somewhere without his phone or maybe swimming lengths in a pool and was just unable to answer. Either way, we can conclude that there hasn’t been a press release about his upcoming season and team. From what I could gather, it sounds like the ink might be drying. Hopefully, we hear some good news very soon.

I’ll end my portion of this Update with a funny quote from this week and if you know where this is from then you have no leg to stand on if you want to mock me:

“I have a collection of 11, 000 air guitars. I think there’s a guy in Belgium who has five more than I do though”

Here's James

Finally, after three weeks on the road I’m back typing this update from the comfort of my own home. Sadly though, the power is out and it’s freezing in here so I’m ready to head back down to Vegas. I had a great time covering the first three rounds of the AMA Supercross series, hanging out at Matthes’ PulpMX global media empire in Las Vegas and hooking up with some of our Canadians and almost Canadians down in SoCal to shoot some photos and video.

Los Angeles Lites podium finisher, Zach Osborne, was in studio at the PulpMX show on Monday night. James Lissimore photo

I just finished up my latest video creation yesterday with our lone Canadian competitor who’s been contesting the Supercross series so far, Kyle Beaton. Last year KD Beets made both main events that he signed up for but this year, after missing the entire outdoor season recovering from knee surgery, an overall deeper field and bad starts have hampered his attempts so far to qualify for a main event. His speed has been there, but if you don’t get the start there’s just not enough time to make up ground. And good luck in the LCQ – with the talent level this year, chances are good that there’s going to be at least two top-level riders on the line. Beaton came the closest yet this past weekend as he finished 10^th in his heat race and was gaining on Nick Paluzzi for the 9^th and final transfer spot but ran out of time.

Kyle Beaton has been putting in the practice, trying to make his first main event of 2012. James Lissimore photo

With any luck, Kyle’s patented holeshots will return this weekend in Oakland and he can make his first main event of the season. I still maintain that even though he hasn’t been making mains, come summer time all this racing experience will help him out. He’s essentially missed much of the past three outdoor seasons so just being on the line and battling with all those top guys, in that environment will make him that much more prepared when the Canadian season kicks off in Nanaimo.

If you haven’t checked it out already, here’s the video I shot with Beets out at Riverside’s Milestone MX Park:

Kyle Beaton SX Practice from James Lissimore on Vimeo.

One rider who has been making main events is our almost Canadian friend, Teddy Maier, who will be teaming up with Beaton on the Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki team come summer time. For Supercross, he’s been teamed up with another Canadian National competitor, Brad Nauditt, on Honda’s and the former Canadian MX2 champ has finished 13^th, 15^th and 14^th so far. I know from talking to him that he expects better but like I mentioned with Beaton, it’s a stacked field this year and he hasn’t raced SX in a long time. Making mains is a good starting point and he’s sure to crack the top 10 before season’s end.

Teddy Maier is currently 16th in the standings in the West Coast Lites series. James Lissimore photo

By San Diego we should have another Canadian on the line as Kevin Lepp pulled a crazy marathon drive last week, driving all the way back home from So Cal to race the Chilliwack AX and then turning around and driving straight back to continue his SX preparations. With both Lepp and Beaton on the line for SD I knew I had to get back down there so I’ll heading back to capture all the action.

Ok, that’s going to be it for me this week. I’m going to wrap this up and enjoy the lone off weekend I’m going to get for a while.

Dusty picked up his shiny new KTM this week.

Klatt photo

Thanks James, it's Allison here to wrap things up with a few short notes from the Campbell River crusher, Dusty Klatt. I noticed on Facebook (an alarmingly good source of information these days) that the Klattster had picked up his new #2 KTM yesterday so I gave him a quick call. "Yep, I drove down to Spunky's to pick it up and it looks really good," said Klatt. "I did a few rips up the road just to try and figure out the electric start. It works well but I was definitely searching for the kickstart for sure. I'm not sure if I will get to ride it here before I head south. Riding spots are a bit limited. I have about two more weeks til I am heading to California to start riding. It's an earlier start than last year because I will be coming back to Campell River for the end of April when our son is due. I've been spending Monday to Friday in the gym and doing family stuff and keeping busy for now but I am looking forward to getting ready for the season." And that was pretty chatty for Dusty I thought. Actually, after we also got chatting about the gnarly Trey Canard/Ryan Morais crash and Dusty was saying how missing the triple on the opening lap of a supercross was one thing he definitely does NOT miss about racing down south. It is just a no win situation, as we saw last weekend, I can barely watch that video, and I saw a glimpse of an x-ray of Morais jaw floating around that made me throw up a little. In better news, I also saw a few shots of Trey Canard up and walking with a brace in the hospital. While both riders have a long road back, it could have been much worse... 

Last but not least, I am going to say good luck, yet again, to Kyle Beaton this weekend in Oakland. Beaton is a class act, which he proved again this week when he started a jersey auction for Brent Worall over on MXForum. Kudos again to him for heading south and putting in the work to make a main. It's got to happen soon. Have a great weekend, Beets and all our DMX readers.