Vital MX

Send us Fan Mail When it comes to rider safety, one of the things that we’ve enjoyed are the recent advances in helmet design, technology, and construction. 6D’s intro to the market was well-timed, with the introduction of their Omni-Directional Suspension (ODS). We checked in with Bob Weber at 6D to talk about what it took to get the company off the ground, what they’ve discovered during their ti...

Send us Fan Mail “Pour-in performance” is pretty much the tagline for race gas. But what is it really? How is it different than pump gas? What do octane numbers actually mean? Do you want oxygen or lead in there? Will it help a stock bike? These questions, and many more, are answered with our talk with Bruce Hendel of VP Racing Fuels, who explains all the different applications and pros and cons o...

Send us Fan Mail Just after helmets and boots, knee braces are the most complicated and expensive pieces of motowear in our garage. But unlike helmets that have universal standards and have been around for over 100 years, knee braces started in the last 30 by a Jim Castillo who is still around to this day. We talk with Brett Guerin of CTi, the current version of one of the companies Castillo creat...

Send us Fan Mail When talking about engine mods for motocross bikes, the phrase "ported and polished" gets thrown around a lot. But do we all know what that really means? Turns out, according to Andrew Flores, Engine Research and Development at Race Tech, polishing is the last thing you want to do to intake and exhaust ports. We get into all the different ways a cylinder head can be mani...

Send us Fan Mail What’s really going on with your bike’s exhaust system? More than just a tube of metal shooting out burnt gasses, exhaust pipes are a blend of hard science and artistic metallurgy.  We wanted to start with the basics of what exhaust pipes are all about and head into the weeds a bit with cone angles, gas velocities, and pressure, sound, and heat waves. With nearly 20 years at FMF,...

Send us Fan Mail One of the pleasant surprises at this year’s Monster Energy Cup was Jeremy Martin’s return to racing. If you recall, Jeremy suffered a seriously broken back at Muddy Creek during the summer of 2018 after tangling with another rider in mid-air. Even worse, he later suffered a series of infections, as well as complications from the unsuccessful initial surgery. This was obviously a...

Send us Fan Mail Are you fishing for something new to listen to? So were we, and when  we hit up James "Bones" Bacon about doing a podcast, he said, "Sure, as long as we can go fishing while we do it." Bones headed up the suspension side of Pro Circuit for over three decades,  Over the years he got to work with all of Pro Circuit's legendary riders from pro to amateur, and...

Send us Fan Mail For Broc Tickle, the last two years have been something quite different than the rest of his career. In 2011 he won the 250 West title, and he's been a reliable top ten rider in both the 250 and 450 classes ever since. After being on the sidelines for nearly the last two years following a positive test for a banned stimulant, he's counting down the days until February te...

Send us Fan Mail Just before Eli Tomac wrapped up his third-straight 450 national MX title, we sat down with his dad, John, to record this Inside Line. I've known him for quite a while, back to his early BMX days, and throughout much of his legendary mountain bike career. It's pretty easy to see how Eli would have picked up a lot of early examples of what it took to be a champ, with the...

Send us Fan Mail Normally our Inside Line podcasts are a little longer conversations, but with some of the forum chatter over the recent selection of Team USA, we wanted to drop this one in with three different voices. We've got one from the AMA side to explain a bit about the selection process, one of a rider on team U.S.A. talking about how this year's team structure and prep will be d...

Send us Fan Mail It's always fun chatting with Hall-of-Famers, and Jeff Ward is no exception. He's been at it forever, from effortlessly wheelying his minibike in the intro of the original On Any Sunday movie, to winning a whole bunch of National championships, Supercross, and Supermoto titles. And that was just his first chapter. He later moved to four wheels with Indycars, Off-Road Tru...

Send us Fan Mail If you were going to pick the most successful motocross trainer of the last 20 years or so, it'd be pretty much impossible to not to select Aldon Baker. From individual riders like Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey, to nearly the whole current Red Bull KTM and Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna rosters, he's been helping build winners for a l...

Send us Fan Mail Freddie is the last man standing from the MX Heaven Swedish invasion of 2011. Since then he's done everything from a full privateer effort to filling in with Team Honda HRC. Now it's a family affair, with his wife Amy, and daughter, Jolie, making the rounds. We caught up with him after the third round of the 2019 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Thunder Valley.

Send us Fan Mail Christina Denney has been the team manager of the CycleTrader.com/Rock River/Yamaha team for the last decade, and she had a rather interesting route to ending up in the team manager's spot. She lets us in on that story, plus what it's like to be the lone female team manager in the paddock in this week's Inside Line. 

Send us Fan Mail Mike Williamson's recent departure as Eli Tomac's crew chief at Monster Energy Kawasaki had lots of tongues wagging in the forum. We know people were looking for answers, and we covered an assortment of topics with him, including some distant and recent history. We also chatted about some of the riders he's worked with in the past, including Ryan Villopoto and James...

Send us Fan Mail Trey Canard had plenty of highs during his race career with wins, as well as Supercross and outdoor titles. But he also scored more than his share of pain and injuries, and announced his retirement during the latter half of the 2017 outdoor season. While we're not likely to see him racing in the future, we were happy to see that he's found a new way to enjoy riding. We&a...

Send us Fan Mail John Gallagher may have the toughest gig in the sport. As the race director for the Monster Energy Supercross series, he's part of the crew that has to make decisions and has to dispense penalties when things get out of line. Being a ref in any sport is tough. But  judging from some of the comments that we've seen in the forum lately, people misunderstand not only what h...

Send us Fan Mail We're back with another old-schooler, and I have to admit, I've got a fondness for storytellers, and riders who can tell tales from back in the day. Jim Holley definitely falls into that category, and he's definitely not afraid to let it fly. Nearly every weekend during the Supercross season, you can catch him on Raceday Live, getting the scoop from the current day...

Send us Fan Mail Forrest has been the driving force behind Butler Brothers racing since the days that he and his brothers were the team. Now known as the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS team, it's a program that he's been steadily building, through good times (like partnering with KTM, and picking up their first 450 class wins), and bad (which includes some shady sponsor deals). He covers...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest is Jeremy Albrecht, AKA J-Bone. These days he keeps things moving as the team manager for the JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing team. But he's been around forever, first as a rider and racer, and later taking on wrenching duties for the Kawasaki factory team for the likes of Jeff Emig and James Stewart. He's got some interesting stories, plus h...

Send us Fan Mail This time around we’re checking in with a trio of folks at Feld Motorsports, who run on the Supercross series. A lot of fans don’t know the faces behind the scenes, so this serves not only as a bit of an introduction, but also as a way to answer some questions on the inner workings of the series. The bulk of our time was spent with Mike Muye, who’s sort of the field general, but w...

Send us Fan Mail This is part two of our conversation  with Broc Glover. If you missed part one, you might want to go back and listen to that first, and then dive in here. Either way, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Sit back and enjoy. This one moves forward on his career timeline, including his time at Dunlop, and a whole host of other topics.

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest is Broc Glover. We cover a ton of ground in this one, from his early days and championships to a crack at the GPs, but that’s only the half of it. This one is a two-parter, and we’ll post up the second half of the conversation in a few days.

Send us Fan Mail Tony Alessi has always been a polarizing figure in the sport...especially while going racing with his sons, Mike and Jeff. These days, however, he sees things in a completely different way as team manager for Smartop MotoConcepts Racing. It's more about business, and there's less family emotion to make things crazy. He's also promoting Minicross events, and helping...

Send us Fan Mail Dan has worked through the ranks, going from test rider and mechanic, to winning championships wrenching for Jeff Stanton. He later made the jump to Team Manager at Team Honda HRC, and he's currently the team manager for Geico Honda.