Factory Bike Friday: Malcolm Stewart’s Lucas Oil/TLD CRF450R

Malcolm Stewart turned a few heads with his third place finish in the second moto at Budds Creek this year, proving that James is not the only Stewart with enough speed to land on a national motocross podium.

After his JDR/Star KTM team folded at the end of the Supercross season, the younger Stewart was grabbed up by Lucas Oil/TLD to ride a CRF450R in the 450 class, which so far has turned out to be a good move for both Troy Lee and Malcolm.

According to his mechanic, Jordan Troxell, Malcolm likes his suspension stiff and his power delivery to be precise and predictable.

“We kind of got a late start with Malcolm, but we’ve been testing all we can to make up for it,” said Troxell. “He’s a big kid and on his suspension we just keep going stiffer since he rides the bike really hard. As far as Malcolm’s concerned, the stiffer the better, so we pretty much have a new setting each weekend.”

“As far as the motor goes, with his weight and size, we try to give him as much as we can,” adds Troxell. “Our motor guy does a really good job of moving the power around for Malcolm with the ignition settings. Basically, he likes the power delivery to be big but smooth and level throughout.”

TLD does all their motor work in-house, while the Showa suspension is set up by Pro Circuit with assistance from Showa.

As far as aftermarket goodies, Malcolm and TLD use XTrig triple clamps with the rubber-mounted handlebar system, which gives the rider a lot of options as far as where he can set his bars.

TLD also runs Pro Circuit exhaust systems as well as a PC shifter. The hubs are Dubya and as far as plastic they use Cycra. Most of the items on Malcolm’s bike can be purchased from any one of a handful of aftermarket companies, except for the special one-off carbon fiber tank that is made in Europe, and is a bit larger than the stocker.