Transworld Motocross September 2016

“I BELIEVE GOLF COURSES SHOULD BE MOTOCROSS TRACKS.” —XTREME MX T-SHIRT FROM THE ’90S Donn and Doni, or dumb and dumber? Every month, putting together the magazine you’re holding in your hands is an adventure. Oftentimes there’s a lot of procrastinating, late-night hours, missed deadlines, and last-minute corrections that go into each issue of TransWorld Motocross, but that’s what has kept things fun for me for the past 15 years at the helm. When we started out, TWMX was a bimonthly magazine, meaning we had twice as long to put each issue together and twice as much time for riding! These days things are much more involved with the advent of TransWorldMX.com, our feature video properties, the TWMX Race Series, and all of our social media outlets (@twmxdotcom on Twitter…

VALENTINO ROSSI On Saturday, January 10, 1998, at the opening round of the AMA Supercross Series, I was standing outside of the ancient Los Angeles Coliseum speaking with Jeremy McGrath when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. Turning around, I saw that it was an Italian journalist named Enrico Borghi. “Ciao, Eric,” he said, smiling as he shook my hand. “I would like to introduce you to someone. This is my friend Valentino Rossi. You may know of him—he won the 125cc world championship this year. Would you be able to introduce us to Jeremy? He’s a big fan of Supercross and a very big fan of Jeremy.” Standing before me was a remarkably skinny 18-year-old dressed in jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and black Chuck Taylors. The teenager…

THOR PRIME FIT GEAR Price: $59.95 (jersey), $119.95 (pant) What It Is Prime Fit gear is Thor MX’s top-of-the-line apparel. Designed with unrestricted movement and light weight in mind, the fitted chassis of the Prime Fit gear fits snugly and offers no restriction. Stretch panels and venting are featured heavily throughout both pieces, and sublimated no-fade graphics maintain appearance wash after wash. Hits • The stretch properties of the Prime Fit gear offer absolutely no restriction; comfort is exceptional. • Prime Fit is noticeably lighter than standard gear. • We love the look and styling of the second-generation Prime Fit apparel— the color combos are awesome. • Pricing is affordable for purpose-built racewear, and durability is superior to some similar competitor apparel. • Sizing is spot on as long as…

As racers, we sometimes run into places on a motocross track that can give us a reality check on just how hard riding a damned dirt bike can be! For the staff of TransWorld Motocross, we all collectively agreed while racing our annual TWMX Trans-Am, presented by MTA Distributing, at Glen Helen Raceway, that one specific section of the track was kicking our butts every lap. What section, you ask? It was a straightaway into a corner with about five to 10 long, deep ruts that could send any racer into a meltdown as they approached it. These aren’t unique to Glen Helen, and anyone who’s been riding long enough has most likely experienced a section like this before. When the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Nationals rolled into Glen Helen…

DOZEN YEARS OF RACING has left a mark on Josh Grant. Since making the jump to the professional ranks, the Southern California native has become known for his incredible skill on a motorcycle that seems almost effortless, and that’s landed plenty of rides with top teams in the pit area. Now under the Monster Energy Kawasaki tent and running near the front of the 450 field each week, Grant has reached one of the highest points in his career at 30 years of age. All of this comes after a streak of unfortunate incidents both personally and professionally. On the track, injuries kept Grant from showing his full potential during what should have been his best years. Away from the track, he experienced a complete personal disintegration after his mother…

In the spring of 2015, Western Australia’s Josh Sheehan—already globally renowned for his consistent highly polished double-backflip trick—took a motocross bike into uncharted airspace when he executed a perfect triple backflip in Travis Pastrana’s backyard. Every bit a match for Evel Knievel’s leaps and bounds, Sheehan made the world stand still for about four seconds of elapsed time when he hit a massive purpose-built jump, his Honda CRF450R blasting high into the wild blue yonder as he flipped the thing three consecutive times and managed to meet the ground on two wheels (and lived to talk about it). If you’ve ever seen the trick—and know even something close to nothing about two-wheel daredevil history—you now know that what Sheehan managed to achieve was undoubtedly the single greatest motorcycle stunt of…