Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128329
By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY MIKE FARMER AND TYLER MADDOX bike to the moon all the time . I enhance the loamy, I run the ST line of tires in the rear. I power by adding the FMF Gnarly pipe with am a believer that the more mea t you can the Powercore 2 silencer. This gives the bike have on the ground, the bener, so I'm sold on even more bot tom and midrange, while not the 120/90-/ 9s. hurting the top. The added thickness of the "That' s what I do to customize my roce Gnarly pipe helps out in those rocky situamachine . The bike starts out as a really good tions, also. tool to do the job, and it could get most jobs "I have TBT clean up the cylinder with a done in stock form. I just feel that - why not mild porting job to give the output a deeper make the best bike you can, so it m akes my and broader feel. Lastly. I use a 1.6 radiator job as easy as possible? W ith these mods not cap to kee p lhe boiling point up a bit only is the bike more fun to ride but a lot eas"For protection. I rely on the Devol line of ier to go race spee d on." A knee injury has sidelined Lance guards. The full skid-plat e and radiat or And I can attest t o that . Smai l until at least the end of summer. guards are a musl in the world of off-road The Uta h race w as brutal. The w ind edge bumps, or being fully aggressive on an racing. I use the RK XW chain for added life was how ling. th e dus t was blowing, th e MX trock, the TBT stuff ge ts the job done for and lower chance of failure. co urse was ro ugh an d th e start-line w as me in the safest way. I put on a GPR stabiliz "Last but certainly not least - lires. At full. I had no pr e-rac e time on the bike , so, er for all conditions, as they [stabilizers] are every race , [tire selection] is by far the mosl to say the least , I was a little anxious sitti ng magical. Once you try one, you will never go important when il comes to setup. I've had o n the start line . After all, the first turn back to not running one. They help to slow really gaod luck with the Manis line of IT with 30 othe r bikes all aro und yo u isn't the things down in the front end, and [the GPR tires. The new SI is slarting to becom e the bes t place to d iscover that th e front brake stabilizer] is super reliable. one that I am lrying to adapt 10 since the is ultratouc hy, or not at all. But I got "Next, I like the way the stock motor wear life is better and performance is so • th roug h the start okay. about mldpack, and close. Ift~~ a~ ~~h I, I s iclW;setlled into a steady pace that I cond' i'1 runs, as f am not really a guy who revs the . ......... ~ ~.~ ~ :>. ' . • was pretty comfortable with. ... ; IL'\, . I · T.:~ • .• .•• ,.....: . It 'dn't ta ke me lo ng at al ike... well, a the taller seat easier for me to stand up, W1iiG was not an option o n this course > it was mandatory. As the race went on , the w ind and dust seemed to get worse and worse, and the track definitely got rougher. For me, it was turning into a survival run , so I was su pe r glad I was o n a lightwei ght two- str oke - even better, Smail's lightweight two-stro ke . Th e mo to r was just plain... w ell, bitchen . Thrott le response w as insta ntan eous, a nd the motor felt qu ite powerful, but no t too much diffe re nt from a stocke r, rea lly It did . seem to have a bit more bo ttom-e nd and a smoother hit, though , w hich mad e my life a littler easier on the roug h co urse, especially lat e in the race. W hen a nasty G-out or an ugly rut caught me off guard, I could just simp ly blip the thro ttle and , w it ho ut spend ing too much of my ow n prec ious energy, easily loft the front en d ove r the obstacle and le t the back e nd take the hit and do most of the w ork. T hrough the dry" slick turns, th e improved bOt'!'om-end made it simple to www,cyclenI!W6 com find the perfect throttle setting to get the rear w heel to hook up nice and controllably ex iting the turns. "Wh o says twostrokes can't track as well as four-strokes?" I thought. Surprisi ngly, Smail does not add any flywheel weights to his bike - at least in the somewhat fast WaRe S races - but he instead usually relies o n Simp le gearing changes (fro m t rack to track) and the minor engine mods to achieve tha t desired four-stro ke-like tractability. Th e Maxxis IT tires ce rtainly deserve so me of the credit he re, too. I must admit, every time I ride o n th ese tires, I come away more and mo re impressed. But I thought that Smail's suspe nsio n was th e bike's standout feature. The to<'s suspe nsio n is already pre tty darn good right out of the cra te, but Smail's Tuning by Travis mods ma de the to< fee l just plain awesome, ma inly becau se it fe lt more sup ple ove rall but didn't lose any high-im pact re silience . Afte r about a lap or two, I had complete faith in the to<'s sus pensi on , which featu res a custom , flat-rat e linkage IlIil\,. in the back that Smail says akes th", .'IL • •!ttittl<,-deepe r into the stroke, us ma mg the shock react more quickly to the bumps. I felt qu ite confident that I could hammer the bike through the dust without the bike doing anyth ing funny and that I would most likely survive a gnarly G -out or a rut or something that I didn't see in the dust at speed. The GPR steering stabilizer certainly boosted my co nfide nce he re too, as did those Enzo subtan ks, for I never felt the forks bo tt o m on ce , though the y offe red a plush ride . Th e bike was just plain sta ble as a rock ye t st ill very cushy. I can certainly say that if th is were my bike, I wouldn't change a thing w he n it came to sus pe nsion se tup, and th is amazes me when you co nside r th e Grand Canyon-like gap be twee n his riding ability and mine. He did say, how ever, t hat he tuned his suspen sion a little softer t han usual for the Utah race, whi ch is known to have plen ty of sq uare-edged bum ps . I was almost sorry to see the race come to an end; I was having so much fun on the bike. But the hurricane-like winds, the dust and the rough course had taken their toll on me, and I was loo king (okay, more like praying) for the wh ite flag. O kay, so I've had be tter finishes, but Smail's bike certainly had nothing to do with that; in fact, I'm sure I would not have done as well as I did had I been on anything e lse, even a thumper. eN CYC LE N EWS • JUN E 23, 2004 35