Sean Finley: One thing I like about Editor Jimmy Lewis is that he loves to ride and wants his staff to ride as much as possible. Hence his decision to have the entire Dirt Rider staff use Glen Helen Raceway Park's annual 24-hour team race as the testing ground for the 2005 KTM 525 MXC. Since this was a bike test, Jimmy insisted the beast remain largely stock. Knowing that the Glen Helen loop would be a punishing mix of whoops, rocks and high-speed straights, I pleaded to install my Scotts steering stabilizer but was denied-this was going to be a true test of the stock bike: no stabilizer, no trick lighting system; and the suspension would be asked to perform for six staffers who vary as widely in weight, speed and preferred settings as dogs differ at the pound.
As for lights, we took a headlight shell from a 2004 450 EXC and installed Baja Designs' glass lens and 80-watt bulb, the idea being to have as much light as possible without higher output and perhaps more finicky setups that required additional modifications. The biggest priority in a 24-hour event is finishing, so we muscled in some 4mm-thick Bridgestone tubes. We also started with fresh Bridgestone tires. The rear was an M402, which is what the bike came with, but we opted for the matching M401 front rather than the stock M59. One modification to accommodate Jimmy's tender wrist was the 909 Team-bend bar, which has a little more sweep (I reminded him that a stabilizer would have helped). We mounted a set of Acerbis hand guards to protect the controls from the ground. One thing was for sure, this was definitely going to be a great test of KTM's "Ready to Race" slogan.
Jimmy Lewis: I ran to the bike on the LeMans start and thumbed the start button while the rest of the Business/Family class started kicking. Although low on battery power from our tinkering with headlights, the KTM fired in time to barely get the jump off the line. That meaty 525 power worked the front end up into one mean wheelie. Then I was monoing my way through the gears down the length of the start, straight into the first turn and the class lead. Only 23 hours 59 minutes 40 seconds left to go!
I rode mistake-free for almost five laps. While being easy on the bike, I moved up into the top 15 out of 59 teams. We were even in front of our women's team, which had started on the Expert wave! After a little testing and judging from our experience with the identically suspended 450 EXC, we set the bike sag (no rider, just the weight of the bike on the suspension) at 33mm then stiffened up the suspension with the clickers, mostly to get that extremely long-travel sensation to disappear. That meant tightening up the fork 13 clicks on compression and 7 on rebound. For the shock, we went 8 stiffer on compression and 4 on rebound. This gave the bike a much racier feel and eliminated a lot of its wallowy nature. And from the first jump I hit on the MX track, I knew we had gone in the right direction. Once off the track and on Glen Helen's beat off-road sections, the MXC still felt plush and controlled without any signs of instability. And luckily for me, the ride height was on the money for my weight but would still handle the other riders (with staff weights ranging from 150 to 205 pounds).
Then on the nastiest downhill, I hit a rock in the silt, did a nice flip and landed on my feet, but the bike was buried in the dust. As the dust cleared, I grabbed the bike and rode in to hand it over to Corey Neuer.
Corey Neuer: "Does the bar feel bent?" Those were not the words I wanted to hear as I hopped on the KTM for my first stint. Luckily, Jimmy managed to crash as gracefully as he rides, and the bike and the bar were straight. It took a while to get comfortable with the big gas tank, but other than that, the Katoom was super-easy to ride. This was my second time racing the 24 Hours of Glen Helen, and I was stressed with the dust. But who wasn't?