What do you give the man that has everything...a 24karat gold plated bike. Presented to James Stewart for becoming the winningest 125 rider in AMA history, having won every race but one this season...convincingly...well done Bubba
Apparently, Bubba's personal practice track is stupid technical- supercross-ish, but worse. And, apparently, there are FOOTPEG GROOVES in the jump faces, because he flicks it on it's side so hard for takeoff. Explain how that works to me, would you? Those pics are great. He is so under-motored compared to the 4-strokes, but he could be on a 100 and still win, or so it seems. Beautiful.
Looking at some of his lap times, he was 1 second off Carmichaels pace at one of the latter races during qualifying/practice, if he'd raced his 125 in the 250 race he would've come second...a 125 2-stroke against all those 450 4-bangers. I know it's not quite the same conparing an open track practice to a 40 rider gridded race, but it's impressive none the less. That technique is a manifestation of McGraths SX style. Typically you'de want to power off the face of a jump, this sometimes meant actually slowing prior to the face to lose speed then accelerating up the face. McGrath could hammer up to the face, roll off, and use the speed and suspension rebound to get lift and distance. If you look at some side by side racing, most riders would have a nose high take off, flatten out at the crest of the arc, then nose down for landing. MC on the other hand would be flat at take off and nose down for the length off the jump at a much lower yet faster trajectory. Watch Chad Reed, hsi style is exactly like McGraths, it's uncanny. Stewart does the same thing only exagerated. He hammers the bike into the face, then instead of letting the suspension rebound he absorbs it into his body. The lower you can stay, the sooner your wheels will be back on the ground, the sooner you can be on the gas. Big jumps look cool but you're not getting much traction 30' in the air. A lot of riders use the big jumps to relax their arms etc. to help reduce arm pump, Bubba's a lot fitter and more powerful than most though.
Can Bubba stay healthy? If so, he'll have a good go at RC's records. Bubba does more insane saves than any rider I've ever seen. All SX/MX racers are Gods to me, but Bubba is Zeus... king of the Gods. Patrick Live Long and Ride
This "Bubba Scrub" thing is what MC and RC have been doing taken to the next level (or down a level) I have not seen Bubba outdoors,or Carmichael for that matter.This kind of stuff is what keeps it interesting.I am one that is lobbying for a National back down south.Supercross is nowadays BULLSHIT! Bring back the WFO mindset!Fortunately, there are some riders out there who are of this mindset.They seem to be winning all of the races.
For some reason, I think Bubba is on another planet. His riding is really spectacular. Here are a couple other shots ... (straight from www.transworldmx.com) BTW, Ricky can do it too
