There is not that many races as a professional that you can race for a win or prominent title, so anytime I can have a chance to win I do the best I can to get ready on and off the track for that event. The Two Stroke World Championships is one of those events for me that I have a good chance at winning, so in 2015 I purchased a standard 2015 KTM 250sx from the KTM R&D group and set out to win this race! The first step was to get comfy on this machine before I tore it down and started a race build. I spent a few weeks putting motos in on the bike and felt really good so I went ahead and tore the bike down.

After spending those few weeks on the bike feeling pretty comfy and not having a bunch of time to get motor and suspension testing done I thought what’s the best way to get big gains with out having to sacrifice major changes to the motorcycle power delivery and handling because I felt good on the bikes stock trim. I wanted reliability but a little more power, so I decided to go with the KTM 300 top end kit. This was an easy bolt on top end piece that has been proven to be a reliable and make power gains. Hinson Racing supplied a complete clutch system for the motor for reliability with the extra torque from the motor. FMF racing took care of the exhaust with an all new set up using the all new 2.1 silencer and freshly tuned pipe. I chose to use the 250sx ignition box to allow for more RPM with the 300sx top end. Gearing was critical because of the extra bottom end so I went with 14-48 Renthal Sprockets. I don’t like a lot of play in the throttle so I added the Motion Pro throttle cable with the ODI KTM lock on grips.

For suspension I stuck with the 4cs forks with Motion pro fork bleeder and stock shock revalved by WP Factory Services. I had some things that I wanted to change and one was the chassis twitch on the front end, so to help with this my engineer from KTM designed me a top clamp that was stiffer then stock.

This is where I get to have fun and that’s the “BLING” and this bike has plenty of that. One of the biggest things is the wheels. Dubya USA supplied an amazing set of wheels using Talon hubs and Excel rims. To add to the look I spent some money on the KTM Brembro SXS brakes with powder coated hangers and front full floating rotor. Like I said before I had a custom top clamp made so I took the bottom clamp off bead blasted it and polished it to match the new machined top clamp. Nihilo Concepts stepped up big with this bike with a bunch of awesome products, do these product directly make the bike better? No, but it looks awesome and that makes you look faster and that’s all that matters right? The parts I’m talking about are the Billet Gas cap, Carbon fiber coolant recovery tank, titanium brake tip and billet chain blocks. It’s hard to beat the Titanium Raptor pegs so I went with these. Fasst company supplied the Brake spring and bar inserts that both made huge gains for control on the brake and comfort in my hands. All of this stuff is great but with out some fresh paint you have nothing, so I went with an Orange factory look and added the motor mounts to the batch but black.

It was time to hit the track with this beauty of a bike and I was like a kid in a candy store itching to ride it. Casey Davis and Jordan Powell were on hand to take photos and film me for this bikes first ride on the track. I was pleased after the 1st session on the track that nothing fell off the bike and it worked absolutely great. The power curve wasn’t much different then stock but you could definitely feel the added 50cc on the bottom end of the motor. The 250sx box helped the over rev feel like the 250sx motor. The suspension was well balanced and nice and firm so I could really push in to the bigger bumps. All in all I was very pleased and I didn’t change one thing after the build.

How good was it on race day? Well two weeks later I went on to win the Two Stroke World Championships at Glen Helen raceway. I did have some luck on my side but hey that’s part of racing and you have to take it when you can get it.

Motor- KTM Powerparts 300 kit

Suspension- WP Factory Services

Bar Inserts- Fasst Co.

Brake Springs- Fasst Co.

Brakes- SXS Brembro

Gas Cap- Billet Nihilo

Coolant recovery tank- Carbon Fiber Nihilo

Frame Tape- Nihilo

Tires- Dunlop MX3s

Raptor Titanium Pegs- Nihilo

Billet Gas Cap- Nihilo

Throttle cable- Motion Pro