VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 9, 2014 P179
Grand National Cross Country
Series, which he also follows,
rapidly approaching, he made a
decision to stick to one bike for
both series to simplify his testing
and training.
"Things at that point were be-
coming pretty difficult, to be hon-
est," says DeLong. "After riding
the 350 I decided that was the
bike I felt most comfortable on,
so I decided to just ride it in both
the enduro series and in the
GNCC series, because it's eas-
ier to develop one bike than two.
That way, I wouldn't have to jump
back and forth between bikes."
The 2014 Husqvarna was a
night-and-day difference from
the BMW-built Huskys DeLong
had been riding the previous two
years, which added to the com-
plication.
"Everything was completely
different, the frame, the mo-
tors, the way it handled," says
DeLong. "The suspension was
now WP instead of KYB. I even
had different tires; we were us-
ing Dunlops now and I was run-
ning Maxxis before. It was a
very steep learning curve, which
made it difficult.
