This week Ping is joined by one of the best guys in the sport Ron Heben. Ron has done it all from factory mechanic for some of the greats like Ricky Johnson and Mickey Diamond to team manager for Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and KTM. Ron isn’t just limited to the dirt he’s been heavily involved with road side of the industry as well.
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Ep 5 epic.
Very intelligent yet down to earth with a great memory. Enjoyed this very much…
Ron is one of the industry's finest for sure! So many great stories! Slicer says "Lights off" lol
So many great I interviews. Your show could not get any better. I can see Pings passion for our sport.
The mechanics are as, if not more, interesting than some of the rider interviews. Good job, David.
Also, one observation: I really like how David lets the guy talk. He doesn't interrupt when the guy is about to get into telling an interesting story. A lot of interviewers forget that the interview is not about them, but about the guy that they're talking to. Let the guy talk – and David does that.
Love it, Ping. Way to go on another great episode.
great stories loved this show
I knew the name , but was unaware of the depth of Ron Heben's productivity in American motocross history . … Very interesting guy , and an impressive career 👍
* damn good interview !!!
Great interview. The road racing segment was interesting. DMG and AMA fucked up motoamerica with Wayne Rainey are doing good things. Just a former mxer, current road racers opinion.
Team Green wouldn’t give Steffy Bau a KX125. My broke minimum wage arse sonsored her my blood sweat and tears brand new built bike to win the 1999 championship on! You owe me Kawasaki! 😂
Ping, love the shows enjoy every one of them. The audio quality has sure improved over the last while. Please consider modifying the microphone stands to lower the mics and tilt them up so your guests faces don't get blocked when using the alternate camera angles
Another great show. Ron was, and is, one of the hardest working people I've ever met.
Back in the day MXA and Cycle News used to mention the mechanic in their articles, which was how I'd heard of Ron. For instance, Mike Bell won on his Ron Heben tuned factory Yamaha. Great episode, with so many great stories. Ron is a class act. Awesome job as usual Ping.
Awesome to hear stories from well experienced mechanics like Ron. 🙌
Ping, you're a good guy, and a fellow firefighter (I'm retired but worked in Mo Valley for 9 years), but as you know, some people are just jerks like Roczen apparently is, and nothing will change that. You stepped up big time to help him out, so let that self centered, egotistical dick stew in his own juices. Even Jeff Alessi said virtually the same thing about you on a different video, and how many hoops you jumped thru to help Kenny out.
Im not so sure that the younger Generation will not have the chance to under Riding eight from the house, like we did and you mentioning Riding in the Temecula Hills, But they will be doing it on electric, seems like thats coming, But It may be a while before a decent electric bike is affordable to the masses.
ABOUT JUHA SALMINEN
· Way to undersell the guy. Juha wasn't just good, Juha didn't just win the GNCC title on his first outing… He won 9 out of 13 on his rookie season, he was that insanely good. We're talking about a guy that had already won the World Enduro title in all bike sizes including winning the unofficial "scratch title" (best overall times no matter your racing class) on a 125cc 2-stroke plus 4 ISDE trophy wins in 6 participations (part of Finland's winning team with surnames like Tiainen, Ahola, Tarkkala, Aro, etc). Also, the change from real enduro to GNCC is rather huge as enduro is like 6 hours divided between "link roads" (get to the checkpoint within the time limit and you'll be fine) and "special stages" (3-2-1-GO as hard as you can for a few minutes) while GNCC is a mass start endurance race with many tired out lappers. JMB was the better motorbike rider but Salminen's trip to the USA has to be the most significant "World champion kicks USA's butt" in motorcycle racing by a long shot.
ABOUT SUPERMOTO
· It was fun until people got serious about it, until people got focused and it was the same in Europe (the Chambon brothers were sportbike guys, Stephane has a World SSP title and both brothers had French national titles IIRC). There was a moment where people understood it could be a fulltime job and the "meta" (that's what the kids call the "winning formula" now) started getting narrower. Foot out, certain types of sliding around and more techniques seen from the 1990s to the mid 2000s just aren't efficient the properly fast way to go around. Another thing that hurt supermoto in the USA was the fact that you lacked and still lack karting tracks focused on actual racing (also a problem in Europe but smaller), you can't compete cheaply on temporary facilities forever.
ABOUT SPORTBIKE RACING IN THE USA
· The "no manufacturers" thing was clearly misspoken because years later it's clear they meant "no factory efforts", they wanted to make AMA SBK into a dealership/garage racing series, which is the way to go for rational national championships (AMA Supercross/Motocross don't count, that stuff is off the rails and it might eventually blow up because of it). I'll never understand how the FIM has never pushed for universal rules for racing series, since 2008 we've seen the wonders of just having ONE GT3 class all over the World. During Summer, every weekend there are close to 100 cars around $400k each racing in national and international series and there's crossover happening all the time. Just last weekend, some Valentino Rossi raced in a "Road to Le Mans" event (he'll race in the actual 24h race next year BTW) with the very same BMW M4 GT3 that he is racing in the GT World Challenge Series.
ABOUT BAGGER RACING
· It's road racing's version of supermoto: fun until people got serious. While you can't stop riders from becoming "bagger specialists", you can stop overly expensive machinery through a claim rule. Set a limit of $50k, $60k or whatever and let privateers buy the good bikes. Polaris (I'll never call them "Indian") and Harley-Davidson have gone over the top because motorsports is full of idiots, there are countless examples of that with things like the Plymouth RoadRunner Superbird (NASCAR), the Alfa Romeo 155 with a racing wing in the trunk (touring car racing), the entirety of group B (rallying), most of the GT1 class too (sports car racing) and many others. Even nowadays we're seeing MotoGp manufacturers go insane with semi-active suspension and downforce!