RUMORS, GOSSIP & UNFOUNDED TRUTHS: WHAT A WEEK! ONE RIDER INJURED, ONE RIDER QUITS & ONE MORE THUMB BITES THE DUST

• 2024 AMA NATIONAL MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP TV SCHEDULE: SOUTHWICK ON JUNE 29

• MXA VIDEO: 2025 KTM 450SXF FIRST TEST

The 2025 KTM 450SXF’s frame has received significant updates, with visible cutouts, tube-wall thickness changes, redesigned head stays, a more forgiving shock linkage and for amenable shock tower. We know all about this bike because the MXA test riders have been riding and racing on the 2024-1/2 KTM 450SXF Factory Edition, which has all the same major updates as the 2025, plus some extra Factory Edition goodies. In this video, MXA’s Josh Mosiman talks about the new bike after a day of testing at Glen Helen.

• COTY SCHOCK BREAKS HIS WRIST! AMA 250 NATIONALS IN JEOPARDY 

Coty Schock said: “Hate to say it, but a practice crash at ClubMX led to a broken wrist. I’ll have surgery this week and look forward to getting back to it at some point.” Not ideal.

• MXA VIDEO: 2025 HONDA CR250 FIRST TEST

The 2025 Honda CRF250 is already here and MXA’s Josh Mosiman, Dennis Stapleton and Justin Lee spent day one of the 2025 Honda test regimen comparing it to the 2024 Honda CRF250. They dissected the differences between the chassis and engines. In this video, Josh explains how it works on the track, and dives into lots of details that you might otherwise have missed.

• COLT NICHOLS AND BETA USA PART WAYS

Colt Nichols was originally signed through the 2025 season, but he wanted out of his contract and both parties have agreed to go their separate ways.

Beta USA will continue to field a two-rider Supercross team for the 2025 season and is currently seeking a replacement rider to join teammate Benny Bloss. Colt said, “The Beta USA team and myself have decided to mutually part ways. I felt that for my well being and the future of my career that this is the best thing for me to do at the moment. I wish them nothing but the best in the future and as far as my self on what’s next to come I’m not 100 percent sure yet.”

Colt Nichols is looking for a new ride.

Beta USA team manager Carlen Gardner said, “I appreciate Colt for the time he spent with the Beta USA team and we wish him all the best for his future.”

• MISSING MAN: WHERE’S ROMAN FEBVRE?

If you may have been wondering why Romain Febvre has not been showing up in the results after scoring six podiums during the first seven rounds of the FIM MXGP Motocross World Championship, the answer is that Romain Febvre suffered a ruptured tendon in his thumb.

Romain has been bravely trying to ride through the pain with this year’s most common injury—the thumb! Romain raced the French GP with his injury and made the podium, but at the next GP in Germany he had to drop out of the first moto and not race the second moto. He didn’t race on June 9th in Latvia or June 16th in Italy.

Romain was third in the 450 World Championship, but has slipped to 6th and is going to drop farther after the Indonesian double-header.

According to his doctors Romain has a ruptured and torn ligament, inflammation and a bone bruise. He has slipped out of the top three in the 450 title chase after missing both motos in Germany and not racing the Latvian and Italian GPs. Romain is now 6th in 450 MXGP points and 184 points behind points leader Tim Gajser and Romain was not on the official entry list for the two Indonesian GPs on June 30 and July 7.

•  THE LONG & WINDING ROAD OF A 1979 YAMAHA YZ125

It’s moment of glory, up until it got restored, was to make the cover of the January 1979 issue of MXA

When it was new, MXA used the YZ125 as a test bike, shootout bike (it didn’t win), a race bike and a test bed for aftermarket products, which not coincidentally included the Rich Thorwaldson-designed Thork forks and a Bob Fox-designed Fox Mono Air Shock This is Jody at Saddleback Park on  the exact same bike as shown on the cover above. It was bought from Yamaha by an editor at another Hi-Torque magazine after the test and ended up as a trail bike until the editor moved back East. He left it behind and told Jody to do whatever he wanted with it. Jody stored it in his barn for 41 years and it was never ridden again.

Jody contemplates shooting it after it spun the right side main bearing and skidded to a stop going the wrong way right before the finish line at Saddleback Park in October of 1979. Yamaha’s Ed Scheidler fixed it and MXA was racing it again a week later. After being stored in a dark corner of Jody’s barn for 41 years, Australian racer Dan Alamangos asked Jody what he was going to do with it, because he thought it should be restored. Jody told him, “If you restore it, you can have it.” Take a look at what a great job Dan did below.

The MXA wrecking crew has a lot of irons in the fire, but this particular 1979 Yamaha YZ125 project has been in the works for 41 years. It was forgotten in a barn until it was dragged out into the sun and given a lavish restoration—from its Thorks all the way to its Fox Mono Air Shock.

The Thork forks may look heavy, but they are basically two hollow steel tubes and two S&W shocks. They weigh three pounds less than a conventional 1979 forks, which are full of oil and springs.

•  MXA AD OF THE WEEK: BROC & RICKY’S SHOCKING SIMONS FORK AD

Equipped with the Steve Simon invented Anti-Cavitation system, the Simons forks was good enough fot the factory Yamaha team to run on their bike in 1985.

• THIS WEEK IN MXA: TOURING CLUBMX’S 200-ACRE MOTOCROSS PARADISE

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For This Week in MXA, episode 185, presented by O’Neal, Josh Mosiman, and Trevor Nelson follow Brandon Haas around the 200-acre ClubMX Training Facility to get a tour of the property. ClubMX is located in Chesterfield, South Carolina, and they have 32 full-time training spots open for riders to come to live the motocross dream and train every day under the tutelage of great trainers on some of the best motocross tracks in the world.

• MEMORIES OF THE WAY WE WERE

:Lance Moorewood took yellow to the next level for the photo session on the Suzuki RM500—thanks to the help of Gaerne boots, HRP gear, Bell Helmets, Yoko foam gloves, Smith Goggles and, of course, Suzuki.