New Bikes, New Track — First Ride at Pax Trax MX | Southeast Road Trip Ep. 2

Finally got the new bikes out of the crates and straight to Pax Trax for the first real test. It was a strange transition jumping on a fresh machine right as we hit that heavy Florida humidity. Everything felt stiff, especially the shift lever and the rear brake pedal. You forget how much physical effort it takes to break in a bike until you are trying to time a rhythm section while your new boots still feel like concrete blocks. The track was already chewed up by the time we geared up. It had those small, nasty square edges that usually kick the rear end side to side if your rebound is even one or two clicks off.

Having Kyle Swanson there was a massive help for the first day on the new setup. He caught me letting my elbows drop every time I entered the heavy sand rollers before the finish line. It is a small detail, but once I focused on keeping that "chicken wing" stance, the bike stopped wandering in the deep ruts. If you watch the raw clips, you can see exactly where I start actually trusting the front end again. Most people just see a shiny bike, but if you look at the fork guards after the second moto, you can tell how much of that Florida grit was already sandblasting the plastic.

My main takeaway was that a new bike does not mean I am suddenly faster. It actually meant I had to slow down and focus on my mechanics more because I could not rely on muscle memory yet. We spent the afternoon chasing a decent sag setting and trying to get the mapping to feel smooth. It was a grind, but it was necessary.