Spanner | Malcolm Stewart’s SmarTop/Bullfron Spas/Motoconcepts/Honda CRF450R

Malcolm Stewart’s SmarTop/Bullfrog Spas/Motoconcepts/Honda CRF450R

Malcolm Stewart turned a lot of heads at the Anaheim 1 Supercross but his season was cut short when a crash at Phoenix left him sidelined with a broken femur. It’s been a long road to recovery, but the former West Coast 250 Supercross Champion is back in action and in the best shape of his life now. Stewart raced last month in Montreal, Canada, but he will make his return to Stateside competition this weekend at the Monster Energy Cup. Yesterday. we caught up with the SmarTop/Bull Frog Spas/Motoconcepts/Honda team and got to take a close look at the number-27 machine that Stewart will be racing.

Stewart’s mechanic, Jason “Rango” Montoya has been paired with Stewart for five seasons now, and he built Stewart’s race bike with methodical precision. We asked him to tell us a little bit about his race bike.

“This is a 2020 Honda CRF450R,” he said. “We got them a few weeks ago and have had some time to test and get the bike dialed. The 2020 bike isn’t very different from the 2019 bike, as far as we are concerned, because we replace the suspension components and modify the engine anyway. Chad at XPR Engines handles the motor builds for the team and this year we have a new engine package that produces smoother power than the race engine we used last season. Malcolm likes his engines to have a lot of power, but he wants the delivery to be smooth and easy to control. He’s not a big revver unless he’s mad. (Laughs) If you hear him overrevving the engine when he goes by, you know he’s fired up. We run a factory shifter from Honda. It is made of steel so it will bend and not snap if it is impacted. Also, the stock shifter hits the chain if you move it one spline higher on the shift shaft. Malcolm has a big boot so he needs it higher than stock. The special shifter allows you to position it higher without hitting the chain.”

“We use Vortex ignitions to fine-tune the mapping and power delivery. Like I said, we’ve been testing for a few weeks now and Malcolm and Vince (Friese) both like the way the new package feels. We use a Rekluse TorqDrive Clutch assembly because it puts the power to the ground so well. Malcolm doesn’t really abuse his clutch much, but if he did the Reklue would hold up better. Our team uses different engine mounts from Works Chassis Lab. Malcolm says they allow the bike to corner better. Our gearing changed this year to 14/53 from 13/49. The bigger rear sprocket and countershaft sprocket help take some of the load off the rear suspension.”

“Moto Graphics is Motoconcepts’ in-house graphics company and they handle all of the race bikes. This year’s bike has blue highlights instead of black, but the coolest thing is the ghosted design in the red. It’s the design from a Jack in a deck of cards. We weld up and brace the radiators for greater strength so they don’t become damaged in a crash. Malcolm likes grip tape on the sides of his frame so he can control the bike better.”

“This season, we switched to Akropovic exhausts. They are made super nice, and they smooth out the power delivery of the bike. We tested a lot of different pipes and the riders agreed that they liked the Akrapovic best. They have a super-tight fit and they are really light. This is a straight out-of-the-box system; the same one they sell to the public.”

“We use Xtrig ROCS Triple Clamps. The bar mounts have an elastomer damping system to give some extra cushion for the rider. This year, Malcolm went with higher bar mount risers. Last year he was 3mm taller than standard, but this year he is at 5mm. Malcolm runs the Renthal 996 TwinWall bar. We cut the crossbar under the pad because he likes the feel of a crossbar-free bike, but likes to have a crossbar in front of him. This way, it allows the TwinWall to flex and have the comfort of a FatBar.

“The suspension is A Kit stuff from Showa and we have support straight from the Showa factory. Kaz Masuda is the Showa guy who takes care of our team and we did some testing with him a couple of weeks ago and got the bike dialed. We made a lot of changes compared to year’s past. We run Dunlop spec tires, but they are based on the MX33.”

“Malcolm is generally pretty easy on the bike, I’d say. He is the toughest on the chassis, actually. He is so strong that he can stretch a frame out quicker than other guys. He’s hard on the clutch sometimes, but not really. I have about two full days into building this race bike for this weekend. I am excited to get back to racing, and Malc is too!”