Two weekends ago, we braved the fumes of high octane race fuel to take a look at what bikes the Supercross pros had lined up in the pits. While most of the bikes on display were for warming up, many racers are also passionate cyclists. The vast majority of SX Pros have some background in BMX and notable riders like Cole Seely and Ryan Villapoto can regularly be seen on training rides.
So brap past the break for some mx and bike p0rn…
Ryan Villopoto
We’ll start our tour of the pits at the booth with the bike wearing the number one plate.
Sitting dead center in the pit area where these two mean green scooters, but buried a little further to the side…
Was this beauty – RV1’s Specialized Venge. It’s set up on rollers for prelap warm up spins, so ignore the dorky flat pedals that have been mounted up.
When Ryan isn’t riding his motorcycle, he spends allot of time on his bike. His trainer, the legendary Aldon Baker, has trained many of the sports greatest athletes and was a pro mountain biker racer in a former life.
James Stewart
While Bubba’s race bike was being prepped, we took a look past his Suzuki to see what was sitting on the trainer.
His Giant TCR was equipped with a full Ultegra gruppo and finished off with Giant branded components.
Chad Reed
After a 22 race dry spell, Chad Reed was back on the podium with a win at A2 a few weeks ago.
Then Chad came back last weekend and pulled away from the pack for another win! Not bad for a guy who’s thirty one going on thirty two. That comeback story means more media attention and an upgraded bike. This entry level Stumpjumper build with Shimano SLX groupset, Renthal components (also one of his MX sponsers), and aluminum tid bits was sitting in the pits at Oakland.
For A3, Specialized, Shimano, and Fox, came together to present him with this Epic hi-viz yellow bike. Picture shamelessly stolen from Specialized Global PR Manager Sean Estes’s Instagram feed.
Just for posterity sake, here’s a picture of Chad’s actual race bike in the middle of it’s prerace tear down.
Eli Tomac
Tomac is a name that’s already made it’s mark in the cycling world, but now John’s son is trying to create his own legacy in the motorcycle arena. A crash at the first race of the season left him unable to race the first few rounds, but we still got a look at his toys.
Next to the fleet of candy red Honda’s was this hot number from Specialized.
Mike Alessi
Mr. Holeshot had several race bikes on display, but just over the black barrier was his training bike.
An aluminum Giant Defy with entry level Shimano components and some Giant branded bits.
Trey Canard
Trey Canard and the Muscle Milk Crew are also sponsored by Specialized.
So we weren’t surprised to see this beautiful Stumpy displayed front and center.
JGR Yamaha (Justin Brayton, Josh Grant)
The Yamaha team is lucky to not only be riding this years fully redesigned YZ450, but these two beautiful bikes…
We actually had to wait a few minutes to get close enough for this shot because a group of young boys where drooling over these bikes. It’s amazing to be at a supercross race venue and hear ten year olds arguing over whether the Pike or Float 34 is a better fork!
TLD/Lucas Oil/Honda (Christian Craig, Cole Seely, Jessy Nelson, Malcolm Stewart)
In addition to an excellent BBQ, the TLD/Lucas Oil/Honda team area was filled with these wonderful steeds.
Plus a few shiny mountain bikes. The team did throw slick tires on the rear of these Stumpjumper Evos for use on the trainer.
Ruben Alanis Salazar
Out of the main pits and into the privateers quarters, there weren’t as many shiny race bikes, but there were pedal bikes to spare.
This guy is doing it right. A KTM for the trails and a Merckx for the road does a body good.
Killian Rusk
Further along the pits someone was getting a new clutch…
…while this stately older Trek looked on.
Ronnie Stewart
The last stop in our tour of the privateer area was at Ronnie Stewart’s door.
Setup on his trainer was this entry level Specialized mountain bike, with his number plate over the badge area.
