Decal Works Presents Monday Gate Drop

Good morning and welcome to another edition of the Monday Gate Drop presented by DeCal Works. As I’ve said many times if you need a brand new awesome set of custom graphics then DeCal Works is the place to go. Just log onto www.decalmx.com and in minutes you can design any type of graphics that you want. It’s that easy, you design it and they will ship it right to your door with detailed installation instructions.

All I can say is ‘Wow!’ What a difference a week makes in the fast paced world of Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Seven days ago all everyone could talk about was the Reed/ Canard incident and how it might affect SX moving forward. Well, here we are a week later and we’re all feeling the utmost admiration these two superstars as they picked themselves up, refocused and both made their way onto the podium in Oakland. While Canard took home his first SX main event win since 2011, Reed actually lead his first laps of 2015 and eventually finished third. It never ceases to amaze me how today’s top athletes are able to block out all the distractions and not just compete, but compete at the highest level possible. I know athletes have been doing this for ages, however in today’s world with Social Media and everyone being able to voice their opinions, it definitely can’t be easy being in the spotlight in this day and age.

Another interesting occurrence we saw on Saturday night was a very rare mistake from the now former points leader Ken Roczen. Perhaps he got a bit to anxious while trying to get by Reed for the lead, or perhaps he was trying to get by his older Australian buddy without making any contact. Regardless, after Roczen dove to the inside of Reed he still tried to jump the massive triple right after and it didn‘t work out. To watch Roczen come down from thirty feet in the air and come up five feet short made my bones ache, I can only imagine how much it stung our favourite German rider. He’s very lucky…I repeat, very lucky to come away without something seriously wrong, and I’m assuming that nothing is wrong with him as he eventually remounted and finished the race.

You definitely don’t see mistakes like that from the top riders, I guess we’re all to assume that Roczen thought Reed would square up that corner and jump the triple as well. I can’t think of any other logical reason why he would still go for it? What I think it showed was a tiny crack in the armour of Roczen with a little bit of his youth and inexperience showing through. At the end of the day as smart and mature he is, he’s also still only twenty years old. As much as it’s true what I wrote last week about Chad Reed when I quoted Kevin Windham stating that there’s a good reason why you don’t see a lot of thirty year old pro motocross riders. The same can be said that there’s a good reason you don’t see a lot of twenty year old 450 supercross champions. We’ll see how Kenny bounces back this weekend at Anaheim 3?

Somewhat lost in all of the hoopla and drama of Roczen winning two of the first three races and then crashing this weekend, Canard landing on Reed and then winning this past weekend, and Reed getting landed on, then taking out Canard and then having a shot at winning Oakland. Lost in all of this has been the quiet and consistent riding of Ryan Dungey. This guy gets criticized quite regularly for his lack of aggression on the track, heck even one former SX rider with loose Twitter thumbs criticized Dungey’s bars at round one in Anaheim. However, at the end of the day this kid gets it done with class each and every weekend. While he may not win as much as he wants or his fans want, he rarely makes a mistake (like we’ve seen the last few weekends from Roczen and Canard) and he competes for every title he’s present for. After four crazy rounds of SX in 2015, Ryan Dungey is now your 450 points leader heading into the final Anaheim SX of 2015.

After my travel plans got nixed for Anaheim One, I decided to make plans to head to California this weekend for Anaheim Three. I can’t wait to witness all of this excitement is person, however just like a month ago, I have to get there first. Another item I will be working on this this coming weekend is an in depth story on Cycle North Honda rider Adam Enticknap. The Seven Deuce Deuce has been racing the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross under the Cycle North Honda umbrella and even though he hasn’t made a main event yet, he’s been riding very well and it’s only a matter of time. Also, how about Cycle North? In the last few years they’ve not only been responsible for putting pro riders like Enticknap, Ross Johnson, Brad Nauditt and Shawn Maffenbeier on the track in various Canadian Series, but the Prince George, BC dealership has also assisted a long list of talented BC Amateur riders who some might not even be racing if it wasn’t for Cycle North. Anyway, not to get off topic but here’s a big thank-you to them and all the dealerships across Canada who take it upon themselves to help this Countries riders get to the track.

Speaking of Prince George, BC, one of it’s fast riders Jess Pettis surprised everyone last week when he posted a photo of himself with a beautiful white Yamaha. It seems Pettis felt like a change of scenery for 2015 so he put together a nice little deal with a few local dealers and Yamaha Motor Canada to race all ten rounds of the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals. I spoke with Jess last night so be sure to check this web site later today for an interview with him. Here’s hoping that this kid can stay clear of the injury bug and get to where he belongs in the MX2 class. As you will read he’s very excited for this coming season.

Another rider who is looking forward to a change of brands in 2015 in Ontario rider Kyle Keast. We spoke with Kyle last week and he definitely expressed his excitement to be back on Honda for this season. On Thursday I dropped by the brand new GDR Honda race shop in Tillsonburg, Ontario where Derek Schuster was in the process of putting the finishing touches on Keast’s CRF450. With the dual Yoshimura exhausts and the SSS Suspension, Keast is no doubt going to have a great bike underneath him in 2015. Here are a few I-Phone photos I professionally shot of the spanking new GDR shop.

Well that’s it for me this week, I hope everyone has a great week and judging by a few social media posts, people are starting to get very excited about heading south to ride soon. In closing I want to send our best wishes to Dean Wilson. While practicing last week Dean injured his knee and will undergo surgery this week to repair his ACL. While there’s no telling how long he’ll be out of action, I would think it would be at least three to four months. That timetable would put him back on the bike in June and that would allow Dean to join the outdoor series at some point. This sport certainly has some huge highs and some massive lows, all the best Dean as you once again battle back from this low.