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/774093
ANDREW SHORT H onda HRC was glad to welcome back Andrew Short for the 2017 season, and even though he's not on the starting line, Shorty is enjoying his new role with the team. We caught up with him to find out more about his post racing career, test riding the new 2017 CRF450R and his new fascination with off-road—namely rally racing. Q. How are you en- joying your new role with Honda? It's really exciting for me. Obviously not racing week to week is a big adjustment. I'm transitioning into a new chapter not only in my life but also from the racing standpoint. I'm really excited that I still get to stay in touch with the paddock and I'm really involved with the race team, which helps. I still get to ride amazing bikes and be involved with the crew. Q. What kind of things are you doing? I'm trying to find out ways I can help racers, Ken [Roczen] and Cole [Seely]. I just basi- cally test and try to find future packages that if they do come across an issue, we have a direction to go in. They haven't ridden a lot of the stuff that I tried, but if need be it's there. Throughout the season, hopefully that can be an asset to help them. I also look forward to doing some production testing. I've done a lot of the media events, which has been a lot of fun, but also some off-road riding, which I really like. Q. A lot of moto guys have made a successful transition into off-road racing. Is that something that has ever crossed your mind? Yeah, I would like to. But I feel like the GNCC guys are so special- ized. All the guys, whether it's WORCS or Hare & Hound, what- ever it is, all those guys are at the highest level because that's what they dedicate them- selves to, so I don't think I could just hop in and be successful. But what I enjoy most is just going trail riding, seeing new places, being around good people that have similar passion to what I have. That's what I enjoy most about riding off-road. I would like to learn how to navigate and learn some rally stuff. I know that's a whole other animal in itself. I have the fever right now and I feel like I caught the bug, but I don't know exactly what I'm getting myself into quite yet. I still love supercross; but I feel like it's new and exciting to ride off-road. If I'm going to go do something, that's what I want to go do. Q. Talk about the 2017 CRF450R. For one, I think the new bike is a big improvement over the previous model. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the 2016 just because the main focus was getting the '17 ready, but in gen- eral, the 2017 bike is a lot closer to the pro- duction machine that they're racing right now compared to the 2016, where I feel like it was heavily modified. They did a lot to it. So I feel like the guys have a good baseline. Q. They say that the 2017 was a step back toward the 2008. Do you agree with that? Yeah. The new bike is definitely a step in the right direction. The electric start is good for the consumer to have as an option. The bike, it has obviously more power, but it gets a lot of traction to the rear wheel. Jean Turner CHAT ROOM IN THE WIND P42