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/776700
VOL. 53 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 24, 2017 P127 it open, usually in a few places, to provide more elasticity and thus provide more room for the muscle underneath. It's possible that Tomac has developed com- partment syndrome, but my bet is that this isn't the case because it likely would've happened before the Anaheim I main event. THE MOTORCYCLE We reported last year on setup problems that Tomac was running into with his factory Kawasaki. He has had a year to learn, and at the Anaheim I press conference, he said that his bike is really good now. Of course, he said that last year, because most racers will not badmouth their motorcycle, since the manufacturer pays them a lot of money to endorse the product. It's important for fans and motorcycle buyers to under- stand that Tomac's bike suffering setup woes last year does not, in any way, mean that you or I would not like a new Kawasaki KX450F. Manufacturers still frown on it talking bad about bike setup, but in truth, the stock versions of all of the motorcycles on the track at any AMA Pro MX/SX event are good enough that 99% of us would be perfectly fine. And that's not even bringing up the fact that Tomac is running parts that we would never run anyway. That being said, it's possible that Tomac is having some sort of issues with his setup still. Most of the time, top racers concen- trate on getting a setup based on "comfort" before they start worrying about going fast. That's because a comfortable racer is a fast racer. When a racer is "out of his comfort zone," or is constantly correcting for unpre- dictable things his motorcycle is doing, he will hang on tighter, and sometimes even forget to breathe. Those things will cause arm-pump. Arm-pump can be caused similarly by an engine that hits too hard, or has too much power, too. That's pretty unlikely in this case, as most of these guys like their bikes to have a lot of power, and if it were too powerful for Eli, they'd have addressed that prior to Anaheim I. SUPPLEMENTS/FOOD A few years ago, Davi Millsaps was suffering from arm-pump—it came out of nowhere. It turned out he was taking a supplement that had changed its formula to include a substance called "creatine." Creatine is a muscle- building supplement that helps muscles appear bigger by caus- ing them to retain fluid. If you're following me so far, you know why that stuff will give you arm-pump. And there are likely other foods and supplements that do similarly. As an aside, knowing about blood flow being an issue, I tested a medication for arm-pump a few years ago, and in my own case, it worked. This is not a scientific study, by any means— it's entirely anecdotal—but the medication I tried was Viagra. Viagra is a vasodilator, meaning it opens up your blood vessels. That's good for arm-pump, in theory, and it did improve mine. However, I knew I took it, so the placebo effect could've been at play as well. NERVES/PRESSURE The last cause is nerves. I found when I made a conscious effort to relax at a race, I would go much farther without arm-pump (and sometimes avoid it altogeth- er). As a teenage racer, I won a lot of races after I gave up on trying to win races out of frus- tration. I'd get arm-pump every week, fight it out for fourth or something, and then after months of that, I'd show up at a race and just say, "Screw it. I'm going to go have fun." I'd win those races al- most every time. Sometimes try- ing to push that extra couple feet into a turn before you brake, and get on the gas earlier, and overall push just a little harder than you'd normally push, will lead to you rid- ing "tight" and getting arm-pump. This is a possibility for Tomac, too. It's hard to say how likely it is, but it's possible that he is trying harder or feeling more pressure than usual. Any of these can be the prob- lem. Actually, they could literally all be the cause of the problem for Tomac, as none of them exclude any others. Hopefully, Tomac can get past whatever the cause is soon, because this championship will be out of reach within just a month or so at this rate. CN