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/1545725
BEHIND THE SCENES T oday's motocross has become a world where the slightest mis- take on the track can cost a rider and his sponsors a champi- onship and the millions of dollars worth of endorsements that go along with it. And amazingly, it has become a world where even a fraction of a percent of contaminant in a fuel container can turn a series upside down. In an environment like this, there is certainly no room for mistakes in the pad- docks, and that puts an immense amount of pressure on today's factory mechanics. Two of the best factory mechanics on the job today are the duo responsible for the Makita Suzuki Supercross/motocross-class program - Ricky Carmichael's mechanic, Mike Gosselaar, and Ivan Tedesco's mechanic, Tony Berluti. Both are award- winning mechanics and each has worked for championship-winning riders. Gosselaar is the only tuner out there who can boast hav- ing two perfect winning seasons. (Can you image the pressure that was on him toward the end of those two series?) Gosselaar and Berluti are responsible for the pristine look- ing Suzuki factory bikes that "magically" appear at each round of the series. Are they brand-new bikes at every round? Is everything completely disassembled and rebuilt every week? Berluti and Gosselaar answer these questions and give us the scoop on what goes on inside those factory semi trailers. Gosselaar: "We pretty much rebuild the motors every week. Each week they get pulled down just to make sure they are right. There are some things on the motors that we don't change every week, but they always get checked out." Berluti: "Some teams send their motors back to California to get rebuilt, but we prefer to do them ourselves. It works out better for us to do them, because we have everything we need right here in the trailer." Gosselaar: "We have two engines for each bike. So we try to get the chassis fin- ished up on Thursday and slip in the fresh motor. Then on Friday, we rebuild the motor that just came out of the bike. Then that one goes in for the next race. That way, the motors get rotated. It usually takes eight to 10 hours to do a motor." Berluti: "The only thing that is done at the shop is the machine work on the heads. There is a lot of time in that, so we ship those back when we need to." During the Supercross season, Berluti and Gosselaar fly home on Sunday, the day after a race, and have Monday and Tuesday off. Meanwhile, the driver takes the semi to the next race city and meets up with the mechanics at the hotel. Gosselaar: "We usually come into the track three days before the race, on Wednesday for a Supercross. We start on the bikes right away and the first day is usually spent cleaning the bikes and tear- ing them down. The bikes get taken down to the bare frame each week, and every- thing is checked out. We have certain parts that get replaced every week, but as far as a maintenance schedule, we just check each part and decide if it needs to be replaced. Sometimes it depends on what the race was like the week before. After the San Francisco "mud" round, pretty much everything got replaced. That soil had a lot of lime in it and that acted as a corrosive. Everything that wasn't chrome plated was ruined, even the hard- anodized stuff. That race cost the factories JULY 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 48 Weekly Grind The We take an inside look of the never- ending job of the factory mechanic with Team Makita Suzuki's Mike Gosselaar and Tony Berluti STORY AND PHOTOS BY SHAN MOORE (Above) Mike Gosselaar takes Ricky Carmichael's bike down to the frame, inspecting and rebuilding it from the ground up, a task he performs every week. (Below) Factory mechanics prepare for not only the race, but the show, too. "We are representing the manufacturers, so we have to make sure every- thing looks great," Berluti explains.