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Schwantz is back!

By RAD,
in SuperMoto

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Veteran

RAD

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September 24, 2004

AMA Pro Racing press release

Former 500cc Grand Prix World Champion road racer Kevin Schwantz will ride Suzuki’s new RM-Z450 in its American racing debut at the Reno round of the AMA Supermoto Championship on Saturday, Oct. 2. This will mark Schwantz’s first AMA Supermoto race of the season.

Suzuki is introducing its highly anticipated RM-Z450 four-stroke motocross racer for the 2005 season and Schwantz will give U.S. fans a preview of the new machine in its supermoto guise.

“It’s going to be fun to debut the new RM-Z here in America,” Schwantz said. “It should make a great supermoto bike.”

Schwantz recently made his return to road racing by competing in the prestigious Bol d’Or 24 Hour Endurance race. One of Schwantz’s teammates crashed the team’s bike in the second hour and they later retired, but not before the 40-year-old Schwantz managed to show he still has plenty of skills by riding the bike from 18th to fifth place during his stint.

“Riding the Bol d’Or was good preparation coming into the Reno Supermoto race,” explained Schwantz. “I’ve been riding my motocross bike and putting in miles on my bicycle to get ready as well.”

Schwantz said he would get his first taste of the RM-Z450 Supermoto bike next week.

“I’m going to California the last week of this month to do some testing with the bike,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll build up some major calluses on my hands before it’s all said and done.”

While Schwantz will debut the new Suzuki, he isn’t the only rider hoping to get his hands on the RM-Z450 in AMA Supermoto competition. Former AMA Motocross and X-Games champ Travis Pastrana said he’s hopeful his Cernic’s Racing Suzuki squad will have the new bike by the end of the season. Pastrana made a successful AMA Supermoto debut earlier this month in Nashville, Tenn., riding a highly-modified Suzuki DR-Z400-based machine.

Suzuki will field its new bike alongside Honda, Yamaha, KTM and Husqvarna supermoto machines presently in the series.

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True520

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Man, He is the coolest guy...I was able to speak to him at Road A several years back and he was just as cool as he could be, then I saw him at a GNCC 2 years ago..again, he was just as cool as ever...probably spent 15 minutes exchanging racing stories with us...and the whole time the Suzuki guys where telling him they were waiting on him for autographs both times. Just a regular guy who can ride a motorcycle. Mitch ?

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PowerFiend

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“I’m going to California the last week of this month to do some testing with the bike,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll build up some major calluses on my hands before it’s all said and done.”

If anyone catches him practicing we would expect some pics. ?

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chuckie108

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Guess what fella's, I just happened to run into Schwantz and his mechanic last night thrashing to get the thing together. Here are soem details:

1) The motor is bone stock with the first Yosh pipe ever built on it. They say that it has 57 HP with the pipe- keep dreaming! ?

2) The front brake is a radial mount Brembo with a relocation bracket that adapts to the stock fork

3) The bike has stock suspension components set up by RG3.

4) Talon hubs with excels

5) The rest of the bike is bone stock

They said they are going to Apex tomarrow to shake it donw.

Also there is a practice session lined up for Friday morning north of Reno with many of the racers if anyone local wants to come check it out. ?

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