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For me, it's always been there waiting in the shadows. A light dirt bike, properly prepped for asphalt - flickable, with major lean angle possibilities and enough speed to make it badass. I wanted to try it for the longest time. I could never justify it with all my other irons in the fire, and it is incredibly pricey as far as initial investment.
Back in December my buddy and I pulled the trigger to head back out to the west coast for an intro and training. Last weekend I was able to receive two very different methods of instruction at SoCal Supermoto, the first being the founder Brian (intended to be dirt and asphalt, but the rains in CA made dirt impassable) and on the second day, Stuman for asphalt only who leads up the race instruction series at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.
Both offered a lot of takeaways and I thought the two days back to back complemented each other perfectly. It also allowed the opportunity to try both leg out and sport bike style riding on SM.
Amazing time learning to get the bike leaned under you while far forward, on top of the tank with leg out technique. The tight technical kart track at Adams was a ton of fun, and we even had 30% less track due to rains washing out a section. DRZ400s were perfect for a classroom setting, mild mannered but still able to carry some speed.
Student races: everyone gets a shot at a student race, with the knowledge that the reward is a high-five (if they feel like it), so race accordingly. I placed fourth the first day race (my first race ever). In the second day in a pretty substantial rain starting after our Le Mans start, we had about 7 bikes go down during the race. I kept it up and maintained second most of the race due to a quick start and learned a valuable lesson about backing off and celebrating down the front straight, as I was overtaken to third. Ha!
My previous season at NYST had me get some serious supermoto envy by observing the creation of their race series. I would also get taken in corners easily on my big bikes. I knew one way or another I was going smaller CC: either a 300 series bike, or supermoto. And let's face it, supermoto in general is just more badass. I began collecting KTM parts to build an SX-F but after finding a '19 FS450 the other week, I took this home today:
Before this thread gets too long, all of that was to say that I now count 4 supermoto race series in the Northeast (OVRP, NYST, SMEC, and clearly an LRRS class I know little about). So build/buy/mount up and let's ride! I intend to race this season as much as possible.
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99 + 02 SV650 ex-race - 91 FJ1200 street - 03 KDX220R woods - 12 WR450F motard/ice
Originally Posted by sdog30
