FMX
Freestyle Motocross: Distance Jumping.
In his quest to be the first motorcycle distance jumper to break the 400-foot barrier – as he was the first to break the 300-foot barrier in ‘05 – Monster Energy’s Ryan Capes flew his Pro Circuit-tuned Monster Energy/Kawasaki KX450F a mind-bending 353 feet this past week at Toe’s MX Park in Royal, Wash.
The ramp-to-dirt jump and attempt at 400 feet was hampered by high winds – some in excess of 25 mph for the past several days. Capes was only able to make two jumps in the past five days before a series of events and an equipment failure shut the planned 400 attempt down.
In addition to the burly wind conditions, Capes’ KX blew a lower gasket – spewing coolant out of the right side of the engine. (“We must have pinched the gasket when we put it on,” admitted Capes.) At that point, on the fifth day, the crew decided to shut ‘er down.
“Ryan is fully capable of going 400 feet, we have all the confidence in the world in him,” said Terri Sacks of Monster Energy. He is extremely determind to reach his goal and we are very proud of him. “Ryan is a part of a very short list of elite athletes that participate in this far edge sport and Monster Energy has his back 110-percent in his quest for 400 feet.”
Not to be lost in the fact he came up short of his goal is the fact that Capes did set new personal best at 353 feet. With an 80 mph-plus take off speed, 5th gear pinned, Capes center punched his Monster Energy jump ramp and quickly elevated to 60-plus feet above the Washington countryside. With a ramp-to-landing gap of a absolutely insane 300 feet, Capes figures he was still some 35 feet off the ground when he cleared the lip of the dirt landing ramp and started the re-entry process.
“The cool thing was my Pro Circuit suspension didn’t even bottom out,” said Capes. “Which makes me even that much more confident that the 400 foot mark will fall soon.”
Capes added that this was all just a tune up, to get people fired up even more about the 400 foot mark he’s about to mash. “Check back with MonsterEnergy.com a lot over the next couple weeks,” said Capes. “We’ll be running updates, video and all sorts of stuff leading up to the next 400 foot attempt. It’ll be cool to have you all on board as part of this incredible adventure with us.