Australasian Dirt Bike — January 2018

Corneringwasabreezeandsotoo

was the movement around the bike

evenwiththefootpegsraisedby

5mm(thesameasJonassandPrado

inMX2).Asforsuspension,TChas

made changes over recent years,

certainlysince2015,mostlyduetoa

monoshock linkage change.

That year he ran his WP spring

forkat4.6whilehisrearspringwas

setto42kg.Nowhowever,witha

linkageprovidingimproved

progressionheisrunningastiffer

forkat4.7withtheshockspring

being50kg.Itdoesn’treallyalterthe

rideheightaccordingtoWP,butit’s

amazing to see how a linkage ratio

canchangetheoverallfeelofthe

suspension package.

Thecircuitwasnotthatbumpy

butonjumptake-offsandlandings

both the front and rear units worked

inharmonyand,overallthewhole

bike was about as well-balanced as

they come. To sum up Tony’s bike,

it’spowerfulbutveryeasytoride.

Hehaspowerasandwhenheneeds

it,abikethatturnsonadimeifhe

choosesandaweaponthatstillgets

himoffthestartgate,with15

holeshotsin2017.Anall-round,

fabulous motorcycle.

HERLINGS

The Dutchman’s bike was pretty

much the same until February when

The Bullet found himself on the

injured list. When he returned to

action, his pace and his confidence

had been shot to pieces. His results

dropped from an MX2 winner to

hovering just inside the top-20 in the

MXGP class.

As technical director, Dirk Gruebel

had to act, and act quickly. “Until

the crash the two bikes were very

similar but afterwards, when Jeffrey

struggled, we had to bring him back

FACTORY TEST I RED BULL KTM

88 | JANUARY 2018 http://www.adbmag.com.au