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Catching Up WIth MX1 Australia Suzuki Racing Teams Trent Lean

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Posted:

Wednesday, June 24th, 2015

8:29 AM

Catching Up WIth MX1 Australia Suzuki Racing Teams Trent Lean

For 2015 the MX1 Australia team have taken on the role of turning Suzuki RMX-450 road legal trail bike into a full blow AORC race weapon.

Team manager Trent Lean, a long time Suzuki rider has teamed up with Pro enduro rider Luca Bussa to in a two prong attack on the entire Australian Off-Road championship along with contesting the Australian Four Day Enduro and also Hattah, with Bussa racing in the Pro class, while lean himself will work on developing the bike in the Veterans class.

We catch up with Both Trent to see how he has found the RMX in race trim at the opening four rounds of this years AORC championship and what it is they have done to have the bikes race ready.

Trent Leans 2015 Suzuki RMX450 in full race trim

Fullnoise: Trent first off, why the choice to run the Suzuki RMX-450 in this years AORC?

Trent: It was a bike that Suzuki wanted to promote first and foremost, but for myself it was a bike I was excited to get on. I had ridden the RMX a couple of years ago and it is an easier bike to ride than the RM-Z for an old guy like me. I think the RM-Z involves a lot more rider input, which is not a bad thing, it is a very fast bike, but I think for someone like myself I am happier to get on a bike that is a little easier to ride but is still very fast and capable, but is more suited to myself.

Fullnoise: How have you found the bikes at the first four rounds of the AORC?

Trent: I am enjoying the bike it has been really good and very reliable. We are still working a little on suspension, especially for Luka after getting a late start with the bikes. We had a base set up that I have been using for a few years now, with Suzuki and while it is good for myself it does not really work for someone of Luka's speed.

The bikes have been great though with no hassles at all. The first four rounds threw up to different types of terrain across the two venues with some hard pack and fast in Queensland then tight technical sand in Victoria.

Luka Bussa has been piloting a team MX1 Australia Suzuki RMX450 in this years AORC Championship

Fullnoise: What are some of the changes you have made to the bike to have it ready to go racing?

Trent: For the most part we have tried to keep the bike as standard as possible with most of the changes to both my bike and to Luca's bike all aimed at personal preference and making sure with are as comfortable as possible on the new bikes.

The engine in my bike is standard, with the only changes being we have opened up the air box and run a RM-Z450 exhaust and Yoshimura power up bomb. We switch a little between the RMX and RM-Z header pipes to suit different conditions, as the RMX pipe is strong off the bottom while the RM-Z pipe moves the power hight up in the rev range.

There are a host of genuine Suzuki accessories as well as products that are avaliable from MX1 Australia on the Suzuki RMX450 of Trent Lean

The Suspension is done by Jay Foreman (RG3) and runs heavier springs front and rear and valved to my liking. Jay has set up my bikes for quite a few years now and knows how I like them set up.

The braided front brake line is standard and we've fitted a 270mm oversize Kite front disc to improve feel and strength with genuine Suzuki brake pads used.

We run Kite wheels for strength and looks and fit 'Mefo' mouses with Metzeler tyres. Usually a 6day soft on the front and a Metzeler MC4 on the rear, we change to a 6 day hard on the front depending on conditions.

RK chain and JT sprockets 13/49 gearing, 'Mo Cool' radiator coolant is by Motul as are all lubricants used by the team.

We are running the new genuine Suzuki radiator guards rate them highly.

Acerbis headlight, hand guards, chain block, chain slider and plastics, blackbird racing graphics and seat cover have all been added along with a set of Domino bars and Domino grips all from our naming rights partner MX1 Australia.

We have a larger 10 litre fuel tank which is a good addition for the 3 hour cross country races. The tank is easy to install and takes a maximum of 10 minutes to have on the bike. Works Connection easy pull clutch assembly.

As bike is set up for racing off road, all ADR compliance components have been removed.

Fullnoise: The Hattah Desert Race is coming up will you be at the event this year?

Trent: Unfortunately we are not going this year, we were considering going then it was all to late and entries were full in half a day. We are not going for that reason and also it is a cost thing as well. It is another week and a bit of work. As much as we like the event we just can't make it this year. Even if someone came up with the money we could not enter now.

It is a great event and a high profile event which is good. I don't actually love the course myself, but the event itself is good for the sport, it is such a high profile stand alone event. It is what all Off-Road race's should be aiming for, to have that profile. It is a great event for Mildura it has a great vibe.

Fullnoise: The other big event outside the AORC is the 2015 Australian Four Day Enduro this year being held in Tasmania, will you be heading over to compete in that this year?

Trent: We are doing the four dayer in Tasmania, we will be there and taking the big truck! We have booked it onto the big boat to take us across which will be an adventure in itself.

We will run our Off-Road settings for that event pretty much, we wont be doing anything major in terms of set up change. Both myself and Luka have never ridden in Tasmania, but we have been talking to Glenn Phillips who has given us a bit of a heads up on what to expect.

We will put a Acerbis tail light back on the bikes, brake light and the Acerbis headlight and the bike needs to be road compliant.

It is good actually to have the brake light set up readily available, in the past with our bikes we have had to make up little brake switches and a few other things.

Luka Bussa and Trent Lean will both pilot Suzuki RMX450's at this years AORC

Fullnoise: That is a good point, how much easier is it to now race an event like the A4DE where the bikes need to be pretty much road registrable with a bike that is ADR compliant from the start.

Trent: It will certainly make part of the process easier, obviously if we needed to we could get a RM-Z registered for a one off event, with an unregistered vehicle permit, so this year we won't have to worry about going through that process.

The standard wiring overlay harness which is part of what makes the RMX ADR compliant is a simple install. It took me about 40 minutes to remove it as we do not need it for the AORC events, so I am thinking it will take me about an hour to put it back on which is nothing.

Fullnoise: It is good to see you are well into the plans for the A4DE. How about long term how are things looking with the team and is it something you are going to continue building on going forward.

Trent: I hope so, we really enjoy working with Suzuki and they have been great to work with. I hope there is a positive future ahead I like seeing the Suzuki brand at the Off-Road events, you certainly don't want to be losing brands from the series, the more there the better. The championship continues to grow and has a good profile with a lot of high profile teams having some good manufacture support.

We would like to continuing building both the profile of the series along with the Suzuki RMX-450 in Australia's premier Off-Road championship.