Maximum Moto

MAXIMUM MOTO

American FLYERS

Post-Modern Elsinore

WHAT IS GOING ON with Supermoto? Everybody's talking about it, the AMA has a series for it, the factories are involved and it's even been on national television, thanks to the X-Games and ESPN. Hot stuff.

It was at the first X-Games Supermoto event in 2004 where five-time Baja 1000 winner Steve Hengeveld raced this very machine.

The bike was a loaner from owner Ken Vreeke. If that name rings a bell, could be because of Ken’s hooligan Erion Honda 919, featured in our May, 2005, issue-or maybe the fact that Vreeke (rhymes with “freaky”) spent some time on the Cycle World payroll in 1984, and was Sports Editor for Cycle magazine from 1984 to 1991, before he left to start Vreeke & Associates, now Honda’s public relations firm and Dunlop’s advertising agency. Hmmm, so that explains the factory race slicks...

The history behind this bike is as simple as a stickfigure comic strip: Ken ride bike, Ken like bike, Ken buy bike. You see, being in charge of Honda’s PR affords certain opportunities. After Ben Bostrom’s win in the 2003 Red Bull Supermoto AGo-Go, Vreeke got a chance to ride the champ’s bike andfired by enthusiasm-on the way home he bought himself a new Honda CRF450R Thumper to transform into this beauty.

He started off with rims, tires and a 320mm FPR front rotor gripped by a Moto-Master caliper from White Brothers, then after the ’04 X-Games went for a total revamp. The bike was sent to Ron Wood, not the famed Norton flat-track tuner but a former Honda race-team tech who recently hung out his shingle for Tokyomods, a performance engine shop that has an impressive dossier.

Vreeke explains, “Ron is like having your own factory mechanic.”

Ken went to Wood with a strict mission statement: “I want a factory-fast bike that I can ride on pump gas and not worry about rebuilding every other ride.” He got it.

If the motor was done by the same guy who did Bostrom and McGrath’s supermoto CRF450s, why not take a like approach with the suspension? No problem; the fork and shock were sent to MB1 Suspension’s Mike Battista, a Showa expert who also worked for Team Honda while Ricky Carmichael was winning races for red, not yellow.

For the topper, an Elsinorereplica retro graphics kit from Throttle Jockey was added. Vreeke’s first new motorcycle was a 1974 Elsinore 125, so this modem version evokes memories with every ride. Which for an enthusiast like Ken is often, but with a bike like this not often enough. -Ryan Dudek