BUD Racing: 2007 vs 2017
BUD Racing celebrated its 10-year collaboration with Kawasaki in a fun way. They pitted their first bike (KX250f 2007) from Marvin Musquin against their latest bike (KX250f 2017) from Marshal Weltin, a select group of journalists and one selected fan were allowed to undergo the test. You can read all about it below!
Sunday started as a beautiful day full of wonderful competitions from the EMX125, EMX250, MX2 and MXGP class. The atmosphere was unprecedented in the French village, people were walking everywhere with flags, horns and homemade 'motocross' tree saws. As a Belgian magazine, we were spoiled by the wonderful performance of Clement Desalle, Julien Lieber and Jago Geerts. After everyone had left the site the atmosphere became a lot less, the demolition work started and at the end of the evening we had to walk away from the storm, it seemed as if all hell was going to break loose over Ernée.
MXGP Ernee
After a rainy night, the circuit in Ernée still looked relatively good, the engines of the BUD Racing team also looked great and everyone was really looking forward to testing them. The most attention of course went to Marvin Musquin's 2007 engine, the engine had been in the BUD garage for 10 years and was removed especially for this test. It was a real showpiece, the 2007 was certainly not inferior to the 2017, it was a real treat for the eyes. Whether the 2007 would perform just as well on the track was of course the question on everyone's mind. In theory, the 2017 should stand out head and shoulders, the greater power, better tuning and a completely new engine should make this difference.
KX250F – Marvin Musquin
Once on the course with Marvin's Kawasaki, I didn't feel like I was riding a 10-year-old motorcycle. The agility of the motorcycle really surprised me, it was a very fun bike to ride, only during the steep slopes on the course did I notice that the engine was extremely fragile. 'Ca claque' I was told when I got back to the BUD racing team tent. I ran the engine at full speed once on the steepest slope and everyone in the valley heard the engine going to the limit. I don't think the engine will last two series anymore among the big ones and with the driving style of a top pilot. What became very clear to me, Marvin Musquin's 2007 was a real revolution 10 years ago and the difference with a standard 2017 engine is not as big as I thought.
KX250F – Marshal Weltin
An hour later I was allowed to try out Marshal Weltin's Kawasaki 250 and the first thing I noticed was that it felt almost identical to the 2007 except for the height of the handlebars and levers. Until halfway through the first lap I had the feeling that I was driving a replica of 2007, but then the big slope came and I couldn't hold on. The 2007 continued to accelerate into the middle of the slope, the 2017 was of a different nature. Marshal's bike continued to accelerate to the top of the ramp and the difference in power was unimaginable. The 2017 engine also felt much less fragile than the 2007, Kawasaki and BUD have clearly undergone enormous evolution and the result was clearly palpable in this test. I'm curious whether we will have experienced an equally great evolution within 10 years, maybe we will drive an electric motorcycle or a flying motorcycle ourselves, who knows?
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