Interview: Jake Nicholls set for Maxxis assault
By Sean Lawless on 2nd Mar 18
British Motocross Championship Jake Nicholls
Following his decision last year to retire from GP racing after dislocating his hip in Italy, Maxxis MX1 contender Jake Nicholls is putting the finishing touches to his preparations for 2018.
The 27-year-old, who will race for Buildbase Honda this season, is happy with his new team and machine after spending the last several years racing for European manufacturers.
I started riding the Buildbase Honda as soon as I was allowed to at the start of November and its been good, he said. I was injured and didnt ride for so many months last year so Ive kinda built up my speed and bike fitness at the same time as getting used to the bike.
The team have been really, really good. Ive been given so much stuff all the gear I need and they seem like a great bunch to work for. Ive known Dave for years and weve always got on well.
The team withdrew from the Hawkstone International last month in favour of remaining at their training base in southern Europe.
We got back from Spain about two weeks ago we were there for 11 days. Ive been doing a fair bit of riding at home but my track was frozen solid so it was a good time to go. We got lucky because it rained there quite a bit so none of the tracks were the usual blue groove style you expect in Spain.
It was a really good trip and I got to know the team. Mark Eastwood was over there as well and he knows all the tracks and he also does my suspension so we got that dialled in.
The Buildbase Honda set-up allows Jake to take a more hands-on approach to personalising his bike which he clearly favours.
My suspension set-up seems so different with Mark compared to being on a spreadsheet with WP. The set-up is tailor-made for me rather than a this is what Cairoli had so you shouldnt be far out sort of thing and I really like the bike. You cant knock it, its mega and the team have been using it for 12 months so theyve got it pretty well set-up already.
Jake led the Maxxis championship following the opening two rounds of 2017 before his injury but hes not making any hard and fast predictions for this years series.
The goal is to ride how I know I can ride and enjoy every minute of it. Im confident the rest will follow if I just stick to that plan. I know Ive worked as hard I ever have done and Im enjoying riding my bike more than I have done for years so hopefully that will reflect in my racing as well.
I cant wait for Lyng. Its not far for me, I really like the track and my own track is not dissimilar to it.
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