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/1437138
INTERVIEW I 2 0 21 A M A G N C C N A T I O N A L C H A M P I O N B E N K E L L E Y P110 and follow along with him and have Charlie there to give us good routines and just keep us in check—it was a good part of getting me to where I am now." At 6'2", Kelley is one of the taller riders on the circuit, however it certainly doesn't seem like an issue. "I think it's a benefit, actually," says Kelley. "Just being a little bit taller when conditions get rough, it's kind of easier for me to paddle lift my bike if I need to; put my leg down if I'm in a hole or some- thing. Just being a little taller and bigger, you can muscle the bike around a little bit more if you needed to. I just think it's a ben- efit overall. I don't set my bike up any differently, really, to be honest. I've tried doing different things, taller bars, higher seats, all this kind of stuff and it always just felt weird. It makes the bike handle weird. So, I just run it as it is. I have a slightly taller seat. It's not much taller than stock, just very little. My footpegs are five millimeters down and back. Other than that, I just run the bike stock. I run the A21 Fat Bar, which is a lower bar than stock. That's about it." Kelley's aggressive but smooth style makes for a striking image when he's blasting down the trail, leaning forward, always up over the bars. "My style I would say comes from where I grew up riding and the terrain and being so rocky and rooty," says Kelley. "We had a lot of races that were wet, so you had to be really smooth on the throttle. So, for years that's how I rode, just super smooth, low RPMs. That was something I had to kind of work on getting away from at times to get more aggressive and not be afraid to give it more throttle. Kind of racing J Days, the faster races, helped me do that. That's what I would say I got my style from. I am a lot taller, so I feel kind of cramped up when I'm sitting on the bike. People always comment that I stand up all the time. That's kind of why." With his size, one might think Kelley would prefer the power of KTM's 450, but this year he went with the maneuverability of the 350. "Last year I raced the 450 at the GNCC's and a 350 at the national enduros," says Kelley. "I was jumping back and forth between the two. I like both bikes, but it kind of got to the point where it was a little too hard to be as good as I wanted to be on both of them, just with the amount of time we have be- tween the races with them being back to back. So, I wanted to choose just one. In my opinion, I feel the 450 is just a lot at the national enduros. The 350 is good. It's strong. I did a lot of testing this off-season going back and forth between the two and just decided to go with the 350. It's worked for a lot of people. All the bikes are good, which is what made the decision hard because I just like them all. They all have certain little benefits. At the end of the day, I went for the 350. Definitely happy with my decision." CN The number-one plate didn't travel far. It's still on a KTM motorcycle.