Catching Up With Kevin Windham

swapmoto

• March 31 2009
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Catching Up WIth Kevin Windham

By Donn Maeda
Kevin Windham has been a fan favorite for years. Since his days as a Yamaha 125 rider until his stint at Suzuki, to his current role as team captain at Geico Powersports Honda, “K-Dub” has been called one of the most gifted and stylish riders the sport has ever seen. This year, Windham has shown flashes of his familiar speed, but on several other occasions the Mississippi resident has seemed to struggle. One of our favorite riders to sit down and chat with, we caught up with K-Dub in the tunnel beneath the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada.

At one of the Anaheim rounds we talked about how your bike setup was coming along and you said it was a work in progress. Now that we are here at Round 13 in Toronto, do you feel like you are more comfortable on your Honda?
We have made some progress, and there are only a couple more little things that can seal the deal. I think that if I could just get off the line a bit better and we are working on getting to the first turn in a better position. These races are never easy, and to have to come from 18th or 19th only make its more difficult. I just need to come around the first turn better and we have some ideas and testing to do, so it’s better but not where it should be.

You’ve said you like your bike to hit a little harder than most guys, and that weekend the rumor was you had 60 horsepower under you. Is that a close number?
I really don’t know where we are number-wise, but I know it has more than last year and is really strong. It’s just tweaking the power with engine and clutch testing and getting it to put it out better. Things are getting better, and once I’m on the track it feels really good, but getting around the first turn is what’ll make a big difference.

One of the characteristics of EFI is the smooth power delivery. Is that a bad thing for your setup?
We’ve done everything we can to set it up for my power style. It is different for me than a carbureted bike is, so it’s snappy than what we started with. It’s really nice to jump and not have to worry about the bike bogging, so that’s nice for a lot of us.

It’s kind of odd to think that the rider everyone feels has the smoothest style wants a bike that hits so hard. It doesn’t seem like a perfect match, but you’ve made it work.
One way it doesn’t, but one way it does. I’m a 190-pound guy on my light days (laughs) and I’m against guys that are 20 to 40 pounds lighter than me. A few guys are lighter and shorter than Davi (Millsaps) and I are, so we can handle that hit better.

So if you’re saying you’re a bigger guy now, but how big did you get during that little retirement you had a few years back?
I saw 215 some days, but it was consistently 205 to 208. So that’s 15 or 20 pounds I’m not worried about anymore.

On the track walk this morning, you and mike Alessi were talking about the Nationals coming up, and you replied that only doing a few was harder than doing all. So are you staying home this summer?
(Laughs) That was just a quick answer so I could dodge the question. Right now it’s a $300,000 hole for the factory to get another hauler or fifth wheel for us. Hart and Huntington have the other rig, and it’ll be crowded in ours with our normal four guys and picking up Justin Barcia at Glen Helen. Our 18 wheeler is big, but not that big. So we’d need another truck, driver, and all the things to keep it running. To do the first two or three sounds good for us, but to just drop in on a random weekend is pointless. The other guys will be getting better and in a groove, and I’ll be home on the party barge or mowing the grass. And I think it’d look bad for me to show up and maybe have a bad day and look like a fool. I want to look like a contender, not just filler.

With the changes to the Nationals, do you like the Saturday events and compressing everything into one day?
Anything they can do to get the riders out there will help. It’s a long season and riders have pulled back when it comes to the outdoors. The tracks are supposedly putting money in to make it better with air conditioned areas and different things for the fans and sponsors, so if that pulls through then it’d be a big step for the sport. I think a one day event is good, but at the same time I remember doing Dunlop Day on Thursday, practice Friday, be off Saturday, race Sunday, and then finally fly home Monday. So then we’d be home Monday evening and then back out again Wednesday. So if we can get it done in one day, and it’ll be a change for the better. The TV package that is getting worked is pretty big, and that is a step in the right direction. All this won’t set well with the “purists”, but everything is changing, and motocross is just part of that.