Sweeping Hardpack Berms With Kurt Caselli - Dirt Rider Magazine

Kurt Caselli, five-time ISDE Top American, 2007 E3 class winner and 2007 WORCS champion, ripped around a sweeping hardpack berm and right through one of our recent photo sessions at Piru MX Park. When it comes to photo trespassers, we at Dirt Rider shoot first and ask questions later. Here's what Kurt had to say."I see if I can stand up through the corner and carry as much speed as if I was sitting down because you get a lot more bike control and stability standing up.""Brake before the corner and get on the gas as early as possible and carry a smooth, constant acceleration. Use the highest gear possible without letting the bike bog. You want to be picking up momentum all the way around.""You don't want to drag the brakes, especially the front. Use your body position and throttle control to keep your line exactly where you want it.""Typically the further over you lean the faster you can go. Just from the G-force the suspension will want to stay planted and the wheels will want to stick. You need to get the confidence to lean the bike over and get on the gas.""I'm squeezing the bike with my legs quite a bit and my head and almost my shoulders are in front of the handlebar. This way I have a lot more control not only with my shoulders and arms but also with my legs. When you scoot too far back on the bike you don't have as much control and it changes the center of balance.""The faster you go the farther ahead you have to start looking. Practice not worrying about where your wheel is but where you want to end up putting it.""I've got the bike leaned over a little further than my body. Because this is a hardpack berm I try to weight the pegs as evenly as possible, but you're always going to weight the outside peg a little more just because you're putting a lot more pressure on the outside of the bike when it's leaned over.""Keep the center of balance of your body in tune with the center of balance of the bike. Make it work together where you're not fighting the bike but just staying really fluid, weighting both pegs and compensating for any bumps by just moving your hips and your upper body a little bit.""This is a right-hander, so standing also gives me the ability to use the rear brake if I need to cut out of the berm early."Check out Kurt and his teammates at www.ktmusa.com.