Red Bull Factory KTM team riders Ryan Dungey and Dean Wilson will debut the new Factory Edition models tomorrow night at the opening round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series at Anaheim’s Angel Stadium. Team manager Roger DeCoster had a major role in the design of the new bikes, which he says are better suited for supercross racing than last year’s models.
Cycle News spoke with DeCoster during today’s press conference to get the lowdown on the team and the new bikes as they prepare for tomorrow’s race.
What was your main concern coming into the series opener?
Pretty much everything because both the 450 and the 250 are completely new bikes, so we had to make sure everything was correct and ready to go. Everything went well during the offseason, so we’re hoping all goes well tomorrow night.
What makes the new bike a better Supercross bike than last year’s model?
It’s lots of little things. First of all, we’ve managed to make the bike substantially lighter. We are very close to the weight limit, which is very hard to do since we are also running the electric start, which adds a little weight. We also worked on the turning ability, and making the bike more stable. We did a lot with the suspension, as well.
You have a couple of new riders with Dean Wilson on the 450 and Justin Hill on a 250. How did the transition go for those guys?
Both Dean and Justin have been easy to work with and everything went smoothly. Our settings are very close between all the riders, which is a good thing. When the riders pick the same setting from a menu of choices, it’s a good sign, so I’m very confident in the final product.
Are some of these changes to the new bike things you ran during the season in 2014?
Yes, some of them were, but a lot of it is new because of the rules limitations. A lot of this stuff we wanted to test on the track last year, but we couldn’t because we weren’t able to because of the homologation rule. But we still had a lot of input on this bike from the very beginning, and Austria has done a very good job going through everything.
How are your guys looking coming into Anaheim 1?
They look very good, but we don’t practice against the competition, so you really don’t know until race day. We have our own track and they have their own track, so it’s hard to judge what kind of progress we’re making compared to the competition.
You must feel very proud that the factory trusted your input enough to develop this bike according to your specs.
We worked really close with engineers and the design people at the factory and they’ve been very good to work with. They took all of our suggestions seriously and we discussed everything. We have a really good crew and they are all motorcycle people and they love their job, so it’s been good.
