2016 24 Hours of Glen Helen DBT Jr. Team Update #3

It’s Almost Race Day 

This past weekend the DBT Jr. team all met at Glen Helen Raceway to ride the 2017 Yamaha YZ250FX. We all felt very comfortable on the bike immediately and were surprised with how fast this bike really is for being stock. After getting a good feel for the bike, we started to make some adjustments to suit are needs. We all felt the suspension was a little soft in stock trim but after adjusting the clickers, we found a pretty good setting that we’ll utilize in the race.

When racing a team race like the 24 Hours of Glen Helen, setting up the bike for up to 6 different riders can be a challenge. Luckily for us, a majority of the riders are very close in weight so setting up the suspension wasn’t too difficult this year.

After getting a good setup Saturday afternoon, we stayed well into the night to test our newest and final light setup from KC HiLites. After getting them all adjusted and making sure the batteries were working properly, everyone went out and completed some moto’s in the dark and we all felt just as fast at night as we did earlier in the day. That is very critical since the race can be won or lost during the night stint.

After the Glen Helen test session, I began to race prep the bike for the race coming up this weekend. With the parts and help we received from a plethora of different companies, it has been a bit chaotic trying to get the bike finished before the race. So far, everything has mounted up nicely which includes GPR’s stabilizer and top triple clamp, ARC Levers’ RC-8 clutch perch assembly, BR-402 front brake lever, and the BC-101 billet factory bar clamps.

Also, the IMS 2.5 gallon tank was much more difficult than expected since it must fit into an already tight space and the seat has to be cut in order to fit. Fasst Company sent us their 12 degree low bend bars to accommodate for the under-the-bar stabilizer and they are a welcomed addition for comfort. Maxxis provided us with Maxcross SI’s for the raceAdditionally, Megla Designs has created a set of graphics to make the bike look good and represent all the companies that are supporting us.

So far I have about 20-30 hours into this race between contacting all the companies, working on the bike, setting up the test sessions, and actually riding the bike and I still have more work to do! The race may be the  easiest and will definitely be the most fun part of this whole project. We’ll be running number 224 this weekend in the 250 Expert class and hopefully we’ll in the winners circle on 10 AM Sunday morning.