Transworld Motocross August 2018

“I NEVER LEARN ANYTHING TALKING. I ONLY LEARN THINGS WHEN I ASK QUESTIONS.”—LOU HOLTZ As the 20-year anniversary of TransWorld Motocross has begun to appear on the horizon, I’ve often marveled at just how much motocross media has changed through the years. When we launched in 2000, magazines were it, man. Would you believe that back then, being one of only two all-color magazines was a big deal? That’s right, only 18 years ago, many magazines were only part color and the rest of the pages were black and white. Oh, and get this, it wasn’t until we were a few issues old that we joined in on the party known as the World Wide Web! TransWorldMX.com started out as a modest, simple website that had only a few stories…

“I’m not doing this to re-spark a career or anything like that. I’m just really happy to get this great opportunity with Yamaha,” said Josh Hill, who came out of retirement to line up for the Monster Energy/Yamaha Factory Racing team at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Three years had passed since Hill had raced at the pro level, when he raced the Daytona Supercross. On that night, the Oregon native’s racing came to a grinding halt when he smacked the ground during practice. Fast-forward to April of 2018, when Hill was called up by Keith McCarty to fill in for the injured Justin Barcia. The offer was too good to pass up, and in just a week Hill went from the couch to racing in the mud in Seattle.…

A few weeks back, an official press release from the FIM and the World Anti-Doping Agency, more commonly known as WADA, revealed that Broc Tickle had been provisionally suspended for failing a drug test at the 2018 San Diego Supercross. The news quickly spread, and soon everyone was trying to figure out what exactly methylhexanamine was. For over a month, Tickle and the Red Bull KTM team waited for a test of his B sample to find out his fate, sharing only a handful of details in official statements. When the second test came back positive, Tickle was able to open up about the details of his side of the story. “FOR OUR SPORT, I DON’T THINK FOUR YEARS SHOULD BE A SENTENCE UNLESS YOU’RE REALLY INTO PEDS.” Naturally, Tickle…

Cade Matherly has been a regular contender at the TWMX Race Series for quite some time, and he is a familiar site at the front of the pack in every class he enters. Mounted aboard a screaming KTM 125 SX two-stroke, Matherly has resisted the temptation to switch to a more powerful 250cc four-stroke because he believes that the 125 is helping him build a solid base of motocross skills. “I’ve only been 17 for a few months, so I think that staying on a two-stroke is a good plan,” Matherly said. “The two-stroke is teaching me a lot about momentum. A mistake on a 125 costs you about two seconds, whereas a mistake on a four-stroke only costs maybe a half second. You have to be perfect on the…

THE BIKE The 2018 Husqvarna Rockstar Edition FC 450 is an amazing bike, and it serves notice that Husky is out to successfully defend its Bike of the Year honors in 2019. Built specifically for new Supercross Champion Jason Anderson, the bike feels notably better than the standard FC 450, thanks to new bodywork, suspension settings, map settings, and some mild chassis changes that equal a much better feel on the track. To be honest, we didn’t plan on changing a thing on the Rockstar Edition bike, but our buddy Little D at FMF Racing insisted that we give a new exhaust system a try. Lo and behold, it added some usable low-end snap and broadened the overall powerband. We love it! WP Cone Valve spring forks and a WP…

In the grand scheme of things, our beloved sport of motocross is tiny in comparison to mainstream sports like baseball, basketball, football, or golf. That’s why it was so exciting when performance footwear giant Nike got involved for a brief four-year stint in motocross and Supercross. Though they were never scheduled to go into production, the Nike MX boot was worn by two of the biggest names in the sport—Ryan Dungey and James Stewart—and the custom kicks certainly drew a lot of attention. We caught up with 12-time champ Dungey and asked him to reflect on the Nike MX boot that he wore from 2010 to 2014. “After the 2009 season, my existing boot contract was up and my agent at the time, Tony Gardea, suggested to some people that…