KIWI RIDER 07 2018 VOL.2 | Page 45

RICHARD’S BIKE “For anyone wanting to be a serious contender for a Cross Country title it’s pretty hard to go past the Yamaha YZ125 – probably the most popular MX bike ever made. The bike I run is a stock bike from Central Motors in Ngatea, with a few refinements to tailor it to my style.” FUEL TANK “The purpose of cross country is to go very far, very fast and for a long time. Basically, the more pit stops eliminated the better. In order to achieve this we opted to replace the factory 8 litre tank with a 12 litre tank from IMS, who are based in the States. This volume gives me 1.5 hours of racing, conditions dependent. I got mine from Paul Whibley.” TYRES “In terms of tyres I have found the best fit for the bike to be Pirelli’s mid soft MX32 with mousses, front and back. When I’m not running mousses I run a heavy duty tube, which is thicker than standard so I can run pressures between 10 and 12psi in damp conditions and 12 to 15psi in compact conditions.” > KIWI RIDER 45