Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

For the future you have to have bikes for the young riders and fortunately Gas Gas is making one now. Q Tell us about your shows. well, we created "Team Extreme" and we do shows all over the country, including the Cycle A World motorcycle shows last year, and we'll do them this winter as well. Those are important, because there about 40,000 people per week that will see us, which will help the sport grow. What we are doing is we are going into different kinds of happenings: motorcycle shows, car shows, fertilizer shows (laughs), anything really to reach a new crowd. The people really like it, because it is something they have never seen before. They can't believe the things that we can do on a motorcycle. They don't think that's possible. Even if you don't like motorcycles, you'll still like the show. Q Ahvala is a former World Trials Champion from Finland who is trying to spread the trials word in America. But is it working? Your rig that you use for the shows is quite unique. Tell us a little about how it works. When we came to the States we wanted to look impressive. We wanted to show that we are seriA ous about what we are doing, and I had one exhibition tower that was about 13 feet tall, but when you had to unload it, build it and load it every time, it got a little hard. So, we built this new rig. It is easier to set up. It is a modified version of the old rig with all the same spectacular things, but we have added a few more things. Basically it comes away from the truck with electric jacks and goes up to 12-feet high and is kind of my own little "transformer." It looks like a truck in the beginning, but in the end it doesn't look anything like one. We ride the motorcycle over the box on three sides then we have different platforms coming out at lower levels and there are actually four different levels we ride on. We can set it up almost anywhere, so it's really convenient for the people who ask us to do the shows. Q Q What things do you like best here? A few things like there are a lot of choices here, you are not stuck with one product, and you can A always choose the best one. Q HOW much traveling have you done since you have been here? Who are you actually riding for? MainlY the Gas Gas factory sent me over here. I made a contract with the factory and the A Importer (Dale Malasek of Gas Gas USA) is helping me too. Of course, Dale is helping me quite a bit, because he knows how things work here, but generally it was the factory that sent me here. The first year we did about 35,000 miles and we've already done that amount so far this year, A so we'll probably end up doing 50,000 this year. We've seen a lot of country already. QHOW many shows does that include? QAnd the shows are a separate deal? well, we are pretty much booked five to six months ahead for every weekend and some durA ing the week. AThe shows are kind of my personal thing. the Q The last year that you competed at This world championship level was in '97. Q year you minded for the Gas Gas team at the two U.S. rounds. Did you find yourself missing that level of competition? well, yes and no. I didn't miss the actual competition, because I've done it for so many years, A but then when I saw the sections were very reasonable, I think I still could have done well. I kind of started missing it a little. I've seen the world-round circus once and it's time to do something else. Your brother Jommi was your minder Q today here in Wyoming. Did he mind for you before? Yeah, actually we had three minders in the World Championships. He minded for me quite A a few years. You've seen a lot of the U.S. in the last two Q years. Have you picked up any American habits? well, I stop at Dunkin' Donuts every once in a while if you could call that a habit (laughs). But, A I don't drink coffee. We notice that we get a little more Americanized all the time. The things that, in the beginning, we thought, "Why do only Americans do that?" Now we notice that we do the exact same things. But, it's also that we are on the road all the time, and we have less time for certain things, and we need to have some conveniences. Q For instance? Probabl Y a few simple things like when grocery stores are open all night. Now you can go shopA ping in the middle of the night when you have nothing else to do. What are your plans for 2000? We just agreed to stay one more year here with Gas Gas. They seem to be happy with what we A are doing and with the results. It's kind of logical since we have invested all our money in the shows, so it would be kind of stupid to let it go to waste after two years. At least we'll stay next year, but I see myself staying a few more, doing more shows and probably try to get that indoor series started and help with that. I am probably the only one in this country with a background in the indoor series. I have quite a bit of knowledge to offer here. Q And where do you see yourself in five to 10 years? well, when I was younger I thought I didn't want to have anything to do with motorcycles, maybe A something else. People have to eat and they have to wear something. But, it looks like I'm kind of stuck in the motorcycle business in one way or another. But, we never plan too many years ahead. We will wait and see what happens. I will do this for a few more years then see what the world has to offer. eN cycle n ... _ S • FEBRUARY 16. 2000 21

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