“She wants to go faster! I can feel it! Made some improvement on the power and figured the only option today was to see what this thing was capable of. It was a proper stage with super physical dunes and a lot of big dangers and rocks… A real Dakar day,” said an elated Skyler Howes after a P5 finish on Stage 2 of the Rallye du Muroc.
After a disastrous opening Stage where fueling SNAFUs saw Howes’ shakedown of the new ZXMoto Rally bike, the 2022 Rallye du Muroc winner felt much better on the bike and clawed back precious time while developing his new bike. “The chassis characteristics are really awesome. I have a lot of comfort and confidence in the characteristics of the bike. The suspension is a little too stiff in the rocks but it also bottoms too easily in the big compressions and sand dunes so we have some work to do there to get the performance curve working right.”
But there is work to do, he admits. “Still more steps to try and continue to improve overall but I am coming around on the “race to test” plan. We are learning a lot under these conditions so regardless of the actual result of this race, it is putting us in a much better position to be prepared for Dakar.
“Yesterday was quite frustrating but I really like being so involved with the development and seeing it all happening in real time and also being able to speak openly about it. Keep on keepin on! “
