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/1484691
Roczen Continues Testing the Waters K en Roczen continued his now-weekly trend of breaking the internet with more posts of his off-season bike testing. After leaving the factory Honda HRC team, Roczen has still been racing and winning on a private Honda CRF450R during the World Super- cross rounds and at the Paris Su- percross. He's been riding a Fire- power Honda in the U.S., which is also the Factory Honda team in Australia. The Firepower team uses its own unique sponsors and lacks some of the "works" parts found on Roczen's former HRC bikes. Over the past few weeks, Roc- zen made three posts in which he's testing three different motorcycles. First, he was seen riding the new 2023 Yamaha YZ450F at Club MX in South Carolina. The bike was predominantly stock and outfitted with a few parts from the Club MX race team. Sources say it's likely the bike was sent directly to the Club facility after Yamaha's recent 2023 model introduction. While in Europe for the Paris Supercross, Roczen then headed over to Spain to ride the all-electric Stark Varg. This came as a shock, as Roczen joins a small group of riders in the world that have ridden this new machine. Videos surfaced of him riding the supercross track at the MX Golf facility in the Bar- celona foothills. This is the same location where Stark hosted its media intro in May. "I'm blown away," Roczen said of the Stark in an Instagram video that racked up over one million views. To complete the new-bike trifecta, Roczen then flew stateside to ride the HEP Team Suzuki. It was almost like 2016 all over again to see Roczen on the yellow RM- Z450. He won the 2016 450 Pro MX title on an RCH Suzuki. Roc- zen spun laps at the team's Califor- nia headquarters and looked quite comfortable on the supercross track. Roczen quoted the singer, Russ, on his Instagram photo with the Suzuki: "I do whatever I want whenever I want, I love it." Still no videos yet of Roczen riding a Kawasaki or any of the Austrian-branded bikes. Further, there's no word on which team he'll actually land on for 2023. At the moment, his long-time relationship with Red Bull seems to be a large factor in his final decision. Ryan Nitzen IN THE WIND P28 The HEP Suzuki RM-Z450 is one of the several bikes Ken Roczen has been testing lately.