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2010 Factory Off-Road Race Bikes – Dirt Rider Magazine

By: Karel Kramer

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

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<p>Top off-road racing machinery used to be quite different in quality and intensity from high-end moto weapons. But recently, that gap is narrowing in many ways. Off-road bikes are as modified as moto weapons, and many show extreme care, time and attention like high-end track bikes. The difference is that fewer mods are aimed at all-out, slam-dance performance increases, and more finesse the machinery for the specific racing tasks expected. While moto tracks can and do vary in soil and terrain, the length of the competition is static. In comparison, a WORCS race, GNCC, National Enduro, the Baja 1000 and a National Hare & Hound demand very different strengths. Off-road guys spend a great deal of time and thought on fuel capacity and rapid pit stops, and both subjects barely make the radar screen for a moto guy. Off-road demands more attention to mechanical protection and armor, too. Suspension is every bit as critical as it is in moto, but settings are generally softer, and sometimes are much so. Power is also a priority, but with races that last anywhere from a minimum of two hours to all day and part of the night grinds like Baja, “good” power that favors traction and doesn’t abuse the pilot is the goal.Recently we gathered a wide cross-section of top-flight off-road race bikes, much like the collection of EnduroCross weapons that you saw in our December 2009 issue. Some were rounded up at the opening of the National Enduro Series in South Carolina, and the rest came to play with us at the Dirt Rider Ride Day at Glen Helen. Each is finely honed for a specific task, and that makes each a thing of beauty-the most satisfying sort of performance art.
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A sanitary SDR oil cooler setup keeps the lines tucked in and protected, and it drops the engine temps 28 degrees. HRC provides the adapter that replaces the oil filter. The cooler is only needed for races with extended high-rpm running like in Baja./></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A sanitary SDR oil cooler setup keeps the lines tucked in and protected, and it drops the engine temps 28 degrees. HRC provides the adapter that replaces the oil filter. The cooler is only needed for races with extended high-rpm running like in Baja.</p>
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<p><strong>BMW: One-Man Band</strong><br/><br />
BMW is taking it slow in the U.S., and the only BMW-supported rider is Jordan Brandt. Amazingly enough, BMW has Brandt running all sorts of events from National Enduros to Hare & Hounds. He has an East Coast bike and a West Coast bike that differ in setup, but less than you might think. The true Eastern enduros are new to him, and he learned a lot about basic setup at the opener After many years on KTM and one on Beta, Brandt had very little difficulty adjusting to the Bimmer. Remember, the BMW starts as a street-legal bike, so much of the prep involved removing the street equipment to get the weight down.<strong>Honda: Johnny Campbell Racing Baja Blaster</strong><br/><br />
Another name for Johnny Campbell Racing could be “the X Men.” The ubiquitous CRF450X is a capable trail machine, but the JCR Baja bike has little in common with a stock X. Years of competition with the X have uncovered any weakness that long-distance high-speed racing exploits, and JCR now has fixes for the lights, the small oil capacity and the engine heat. The result is a bike that does what it was never designed to do, and does it in dominating fashion.
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Since Zip-Ty Racing designs and manufactures lots of cool off-road components, if the team sees the need for a modification, it simply designs and makes the parts. This sweet brake pedal stop is an example of a part the team needed but could not buy./></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Since Zip-Ty Racing designs and manufactures lots of cool off-road components, if the team sees the need for a modification, it simply designs and makes the parts. This sweet brake pedal stop is an example of a part the team needed but could not buy.</p>
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<p><strong>Kawasaki: Full Factory</strong><br/><br />
Like many companies, Kawasaki has downsized its number of factory-level off-road racers, but the men at the leading edge of Team Green off-road racing have support as close to the factory motocross level as any. Team Green continues to support a variety of riders at other levels, but the quality of the bikes for those who ride out of the team semi is extremely high. The team concentrates on WORCS, H&H and EnduroCross. Both the #2 and #10 bikes are for Destry<br />
Abbott. One is for WORCS and the other is for National Hare & Hound.<strong>KTM: Off-Road Powerhouse</strong><br/><br />
At the factory level in motocross KTM may still be seen as “the other team,” meaning not one of the major four, but the roles are reversed in off-road racing. While few of the other off-road teams are racing bikes designed for the racing for which they’re used, KTM riders can chose bikes built for specific off-road tasks. Then the bikes are further modified and personalized for the riders. For example, defending Rekluse/AMA National Enduro Champion Russell Bobbitt prefers the light weight and feel of the two-stroke for tight woods riding and has won each of his three national titles on one of KTM’s 250 two-bangers. Bobbitt admits the bike is changed very little from last year, which suits him just fine.
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Pro Circuit is new to the team, but the performance is obviously right where it needs to be with both riders running strong early in the season./></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Pro Circuit is new to the team, but the performance is obviously right where it needs to be with both riders running strong early in the season.</p>
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<p><strong>Suzuki: The Elite</strong><br/><br />
Team Suzuki Off-Road provides a full-factory experience for its riders like Kawasaki does, but the team has never been as large or as widely focused. It has always had a few well-supported riders contesting only select racing series, with the largest effort focused at GNCC competition in recent years. For 2010, the team is Aussie Josh Strang in the pro class and Rodney Smith debuting the RMX450 in the industry class. Over the years Suzuki has earned a stunning quantity of number one plates in National Enduro, Reliability Trials (the ISDE qualifier series), National Hare Scrambles, WORCS and GNCC. For 2010, Suzuki has an electric-start off-road model in the RMX450, but the team has selected the tried-and-true kickstart RM-Z450 as the weapon of choice. We met with Strang to check out the new bike. Suzuki has always had some of the best-looking and most detailed race bikes, and this year is no exception.<strong>Yamaha:<br />
Brave New World</strong><br/><br />
Frankly, we wondered how a 2010 Yamaha YZ450F would work off-road with a tiny tank and no way that we could see to make a bigger one. Valli Racing and Taylor Robert answered the question by winning the first round of the 2010 WORCS. That was with a dry-break attached to the stock tank. The YZ riders still required three more fuel stops than the riders they were competing against. IMS is supposed to have a 2.5-gallon tank available soon. Suspension is handled in-house, but the rest of the bikes are surprisingly stock. That could be because the bikes are working quite well as is, or the fact that there are very few products available for the bike yet, or a combination of both.</div>

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