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/689331
MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 / JUNE 4, 2016 LAKEWOOD, COLORADO / THUNDER VALLEY RACEWAY P62 Silly Season is in full swing in the AMA Pro pits. Rumors are still pick- ing up steam that Ken Roczen has signed a five-year deal with HRC Honda, joining Cole Seely. But what about Trey Canard? Well, the rumors have him landing at Red Bull KTM in 2017, which could be a great fit for him and for the team. Everyone in the pits knows that Canard has yet to achieve his full potential, and a move to KTM, alongside one of the most successful racers in history and un- der the tutelage of Roger DeCoster, could be the final piece of the puzzle. The thing to ponder about this sce- nario is that Roczen hasn't won a lot in the last two years on his Suzuki; he just sorted out his RM-Z450 and has turned into an absolutely domi- nant force both indoors and out. It might be smart to stick with that bike for the foreseeable future. Not only that, but the 2017 Honda CRF450R is supposed to be an entirely new bike, which means Roczen would be essentially starting from scratch, without even having reliable race data from Canard and Seely on how to set the bike up. Stay tuned as this develops. We reported in the last issue that the part failure that RCH Suzuki's Ken Roczen suffered in regard to his forks at Glen Helen was due to a piece of data-acquisition equip- ment that the team had installed in his forks to monitor pressures and temperatures. However, although that's still the team's official story, there is another story circulating. As most of us learned in basic chemis- try classes, if you heat air in a con- tainer, it increases pressure. This is why race teams typically fill their tires with nitrogen rather than air, but nitrogen also increases pressure when heated, just to a much lesser extent. It's also why the GEICO Honda that Eli Tomac raced in 2015 was often spotted with fork warmers around his front forks prior to him hitting the track—it was to heat the nitrogen inside the air forks so that he could be as close to the correct operating temperature as possible from the very start of the race, giv- ing him a consistent feel through the entire race and preventing the forks from building up pressure and be- coming stiffer as the race wore on. Well, according to a source close to the team, the device on the front of Roczen's RCH Suzuki RM-Z450 was apparently a bleeder valve that was supposed to release air pressure in his forks as they got hotter during the moto. It was apparently tested prior to Hangtown and the team ran it at Hangtown and during moto one at Glen Helen. But when the valve failed, or the way they attached the valve failed, it simply bled all of the air out of Roczen's forks instead of just a certain amount. The team didn't run the device in Colorado. Last week, we reported that Matt Bisceglia had been let go from the MAD Racing Suzuki team, but Briefly... 33 JOSH GRANT 450MX 6TH O/A (4-7) Monster Energy Ka- wasaki's Josh Grant continues to put in strong rides while filling in for the injured Wil Hahn. The highlight for him was a fourth in the first moto. "The weekend was really good," said Grant. "I always like coming to Colorado, it's one of my favorite places. The track, especially the ruts, were really gnarly this weekend and it made for some interesting racing. I'm happy with how I've been riding the last couple weeks and this weekend was more of the same. I made a few minor mistakes that held me back a bit but overall I'm re- ally happy and I'm looking forward to the next one." 38 JORDON SMITH 250MX 7TH O/A (5-12) GEICO Honda's Jordon Smith rode well at Colorado but has so far struggled to put in two solid rides in a single day. "I had a pretty good weekend. I like the track here in Colorado and my bike was good today," said Smith. "I got off to a good start in the first moto and was running up front pressuring the leaders for the first few laps. I ended up getting a little arm pump around half way and dropped back to fifth. Second moto I had a decent top 10 start and ended up falling on the first lap. I fell pretty far back, not exactly sure what place I was in but put my head down and charged back to 12th in the moto for a seventh overall. Definitely need to put two motos together for the rest of the season. I know that's what I need to work on." My Own Race: