Supercross does everything possible to make the first appearance of the top riders and machines a true spectacle. Often the bike and rider burst from obscurity into a bizarre double life: Reality on the track and in surreal-size on the diamond-vision screen. Bike and rider embody perfection as they dodge exploding fireworks, wheelie through smoke and fight a cascading soundtrack that dwarfs the crackle of a race-tuned 450cc four-stroke. Sponsors and teams make sure that the bike and rider are turned out in detail that can’t possibly be fully appreciated from the stands. But at that moment, the bike you see is the tip of an iceberg-the bike on the SX track is the pinnacle above water, but it is supported by an unseen mass of money, testing, sweat and technology expended to arrive at the moment of unveiling. Dirt Rider wanted to follow the conception, birth and life of a brand-new 2010 SX weapon, and one of the Yamaha teams felt like the perfect subject. The new YZ450F is so radically new that even an existing Yamaha team would virtually be starting from scratch. To ferret out this information from an OEM team would have meant gnawing through layers of secrecy and combating corporate butt-covering, so that was out. On the other hand, we wanted a team that was doing far more than merely bolting on aftermarket parts. We quickly narrowed the possibilities to the Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX Team. JGR is somewhat removed from under the corporate thumb by virtue of paying for its bikes and parts. At the same time, the expertise and resources available to the team are unrivaled. A late release of bikes and parts and typical North Carolina weather had Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX techs scrambling to finalize settings and get team riders Josh Grant and Justin Brayton acclimated to the new machinery.inline_mediumwraptextright”Sean, I know I just got the bike all muddy, but put a new top end and lower subframe on it, ok? I’ll be on the dozer.”Sean, I know I just got the bike all muddy, but put a new top end and lower subframe on it, ok? I’ll be on the dozer.27005720/features/web_extra/141_1004_top_secret_jgr_supercross_testing141_1004_01_z+top_secret_sx_testing+josh_grant_33.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Top Secret: SX Testing – Dirt Rider Magazine

Photo Gallery: Top Secret: SX Testing – Dirt Rider Magazine

With Yamaha making such radical changes on the 2010 YZ450F, it figured that the top race teams would be scrambling to refine the production bike into a full-on weapon capable of running at the front against the best riders in the world. After all, the YZ release was late, and the SX opener is January 9th. That doesn’t allow much time to get the bikes ready, and we wanted a look at the process. The problem is that the entire U.S. seems to be surfaced in gooey mud at the moment, and that is giving many SX teams gray hair, and the JGR crew is in that group. With the season rushing up, their SX test track would be better for monster truck mudding than SX testing. So for the first day in North Carolina I spent a few hours checking out the JGR NASCAR shops to see where the roots of the JGR SX and MX team are. So check out the photos of some cool stuff!

Photo Gallery: Supercross Road Trip: Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR – Dirt Rider Magazine

Photo Gallery: Supercross Road Trip: Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR – Dirt Rider Magazine