Thanks for another successful year here at Pulpmx! We appreciate you guys listening to the shows, clicking on the stories and supporting our partners. Onward and upward for 2021 right?
Below is what you read and listened to the most.
Top 10 Guests for 2020
The race reviews with Weege and JT generally get the most downloads over on the Steve Matthes show but below are the top one on one guests for the year of 2021. Some of the older shows with Stew creep into the top ten or twenty most years but we just wanted to document the ones created in 2020 for this list.
1-2020-05-04 Donn Maeda– Bit of a surprise here right? Swap Nation is strong with people out there I suppose. This was my first mobile podcast with the RODE Podcast machine (highly recommended BTW) and we did this podcast after a day of e-biking in SoCal and me doing his Swap Moto Live video show at McGrath’s warehouse, Anyways, you people liked this for sure.
2-2020-03-31 Tony Berluti/Skip Norfolk- I knew this one would be up there because of the amount of feedback I got from it. I just wanted to have two of the old-time mechanics that have been there, seen it, sit down and tell some stories. And it worked! Gotta get them here for part 2 right?
3-2020-05-21 Ryan Huffman- Ryan’s Pac Northwest following is strong, no surprise here. Interesting conversation also going through his career, and his privateer year in 1997 was WAY legit.
4-2020-02-25 Danny Smith- Danny and I worked together in 1998 and we went through that debacle and more on this pod. I felt like I was totally honest with him about my time working with him.
5-2020-05-22 Steve Tassinari– I cold emailed Steve over there after talking to Berluti for his pod with Skip because what an interesting guy Steve seemed to be. Factory mechanic to pioneering an aftermarket part that really worked and changed the way people did things. Great podcast, I loved hearing the story of him moving out from back east to California without much of anything other than a dream. And he did it!
6-2020-03-18 Adam Cianciarulo– I don’t remember anything from this podcast. AC’s an awesome guest so I’m sure it’s good but I got nothing. Maybe I should do more one on one podcasts with current guys?
7- 2020-06-19 Chad Reed– This one was from before Chad’s final SX race ever up in Utah after a few hours of e-biking in Park City, Utah. He gave me a couple of hours, it was a great interview as usual and it as very cold while we were outside (on the RODE) doing it. I didn’t bring a hoodie and really regretted it about halfway through this.
8–2020-04-04 Eddie Warren– I found Eddie! This explains it all http://pulpmx.com/2020/04/15/quest-for-eddie/
9- 2020-03-03 Paul Currie– Currie is great, he’s so funny.
Top Ten Pulpmx Shows for 2020
The Pulpmx Shows are so random but the fact that these the top rated shows are from before the pandemic isn’t surprising. Most of the top stuff every year is from the start of the year when everyone is so stoked to follow the sport and they sort of taper off from there unless a Lasergate or something pops up. But this year, I think peoples minds were a bit off the sport after we all had this life-altering thing happen. Having said that though, the difference from the most downloaded Pulpmx Show to the worst one isn’t much which is cool and an indication that we keep our listeners semi-entertained throughout the year.
#1
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#2
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#3
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#4
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#5
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#6
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#7
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#8
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#9
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#10
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And here are the most read stories of the year over on Pulpmx.com. Bit of an upset this year, there are no Swizcorners in here and our guy Clinton Fowler, who puts so much work into his Advanced Analytics column on Pulpmx and makes it super interesting only has ONE column in here and it’s about a bunch of retired guys! Even Tony Blazier’s stuff, which is so great and he puts so much work into, aren’t as high as usual.
2020- just a weird year!
Keefer- “Wow! I guess two strokes really do rule eh? Number 1 for 2020! Since my son has been riding the crap out of the YZ125 I went through several mods before I found out what actually worked and what didn’t. These are the mods that we took to LL’s this year and the bike worked flawlessly in the nervous novice hands of Aden. Oh and PS, I am back to back most read champ! Suck it Steve!”
2- Top 5 Things You Should Do to Your New Bike Before Riding
Keefer –“Just because you got a new bike doesn’t mean it’s ready to ride! No matter what KTM tells you, not all orange bikes are ready to race”
Matthes-“ I knew this one would be huge. It’s the gossip stuff that people like so much. Like moths to a flame! I called up some friends in the industry and promised them anonymity to give me some of their real thoughts. And yes I got a bunch of texts right after from friends asking me who these people were and I didn’t give anyone in the story up. Although one of the people must’ve gave themselves away a bunch because I got a bunch of guesses that were right on one of the people!”
Keefer-“This one is all Steve! Steve is up my ass about this column every year so I do it. Looks like you guys also like reading it so I guess I will do a 2021 contingency article for next year. Kawasaki still is the manufacturer to beat when it comes to payout! TEAM GREEN for the win. There is a reason why I am sticking my amateur national racing son on a green bike for 2021.”
Keefer-“The YZ450F takes a licking and keeps on ticking! 65 hours isn’t really that much time on this bike as I have gone over a 100 hours on the same top end without even checking the valves! bLU cRU knows how to make a reliable machine.”
6-2021 Honda CRF450R Technical Details
Keefer-“The most hyped bike for 2021 hasn’t fared so well in these shootouts has it? The 2021 Honda CRF450R is a better Honda, but Honda needs a little more help in the chassis department for it to jump up to be THE BEST BIKE PERIOD!”
Keefer-“A-Ray at Western was a sight to see. Floatin valves and roaching clutches to take the “W”. Barely though! Barely!”
Matthes- “Poor Keefer, he got beaten twice on this day.”
Keefer-“Av gas was the fuel to go to back when I worked at Al Baker’s XR’s Only, but times have changed and so did FI on dirt bikes.”
9- The 1997 Honda CR250 was Good?
Matthes-“I got an email from a guy that I just HAD to run on the site. Pretty much everyone who rode the ’97 CR250 didn’t like it, at best it was an average bike. I had to dive into this more.”
10- Three Way Muffler Comparison for 2020 CRF450Â
Keefer-“Anything Honda related is going to make for a good read! When you see a Honda at a track or in a dealership, it immediately makes you want to ride one! So it’s only natural when you type about dual mufflers there is some interest in it.”
11- Advanced Analytics- Fite ClubÂ
Clinton Fowler-“Wow, feels like Moto Fite Klub was years ago. I’m a bit surprised this was my top column but it was posted on May 9th, the world was on lockdown, and people had a lot of time on their hands. An event with Travis Pastrana, Kevin Windham, Ryan Villopoto, Broc Glover, Damon Bradshaw, Jeff Stanton, Ryan Sipes and more is pure gold. The coolest part writing this article was looking back at the stats for these legends. I learned a lot about each of there careers but there were two stats that really stood out.
The first – Ryan Villopoto had 52 supercross wins to Mike Alessi’s 0. So much for the “hype”, huh!? The other – Kevin Windham raced 381 times over his 19 year career. I’ve been watching his career since 1988 when he lapped me at Loretta Lynn’s in the 7-11 85cc class so was cool to look back at his career.
Funny to think I can now credit Windham for showing me I didn’t have a career in racing and helping me earn some extra cash writing about moto stats. Last but not least, it’s rather fitting that I actually won the Moto Fite Klub / Road2Recovery auction for Kevin Windham’s jersey which now hangs in my home office.”
12-Â The Top Ten Best Looking HusqvarnasÂ
Blazier-“People love their top ten lists and I love doing them so this one making the list is not too much of a surprise. It probably does not hurt that Husky is on a major upswing lately and has over 100 years of off-road heritage to fall back on. While my list was certainly KTM/Husky heavy, there were plenty of classics from the Swedish and Italian eras as well. When you think about it, Husqvarna might have the most interesting history in the sport and I am sure that played a small role in the interest this article received.”
13- Pulpmx Factory Yamaha Test
Keefer-“Villopoto did a decent job. DECENT! Too bad Barcia didn’t stick around to show fans what this bike can do. I guess you will have to wait for Mookie, Plessinger and Ferrandis in 2021. “
Matthes- “This bike was good! Imagine that, I can’t believe Bam left this.”
14- Defining Events that Shaped American MotocrossÂ
Blazier- “This is an article that I am very proud of. Originally, I wrote this way back in 2013 and I spent a ton of time researching and putting it together. When we migrated the site over to WordPress the original article got boogered up so this year I set about updating it and rebuilding everything. That turned out to be a major undertaking but I am pleased with the final product. The fact that PulpMX readers also seemed to enjoy it really makes all the work worth it. Sometimes you put a ton of time into something and it fails to find an audience, but when it does connect with people, it is a great feeling.”
15- Classic Steel- 1987 KTM 250
Blazier-“This one making the cut is interesting to me. Back in the eighties, KTMs were largely crapped on by the US mags and you really never hear much about the Austrian bikes from this era. I’ve never even seen one of these bikes in person and maybe that is part of the appeal of this review. The fact that KTM has gone from such an afterthought to the preeminent position in the off-road world is a fascinating story and perhaps piqued the curiosity of some newer KTM aficionados. In their day these KTMs were pretty cool bikes so it is nice to see this review receive some interest. I don’t think they will ever get the love the Japanese bikes of the era received but it is encouraging to see people still find them interesting.”
16- Marc Blanchard’s Top Ten Gear Sets
Matthes-“ Marc, now co-owner of 100%, is an iconic designer in the industry over the years starting with his time over at JT Racing. The man knows style so I thought I’d get him to give us HIS favorite designs that he did or ones he had nothing to do with.”
