Bronze Fork Bushings $25.00

"High Riser" Handlebar Bracket $19.50

Click here to go to Red Baron Racing.

It's been a great winter so far. The good people at Red Baron and I have been swapping money for product, and here's what we've been come up with. My LaHaye frame setup wasn't working out so well (because of chain wrap-read on), so I swapped a bunch of parts from my 3 fiddies around, and found out I was short one swingarm. The stocker is so short it just looked funny, so LeAnn and I came to terms on a swingarm. I really like the construction of their unit, it has a nice thin plastic chain wear strip up by the swingarm pivot. Why is this important? Because when the chain is under tension during acceleration, you want a straight shot between the sprockets. You don't want the chain to be wrapping on anything or you will experience drag on that strip and a loss of horsepower transmitted from the engine to the rear wheel. XR/CRF swingarm and long travel shock combinations get real close to wrapping the swingarm up by the pivot, so the thinner the chain wear strip, the better. The longer the travel, the greater the wrap, which was the downfall of the LaHaye long rear travel frame setup.

	Note that the drive chain is following a straight line from the rear sprocket to the front sprocket, and does not contact the swingarm chain wear strip at all. The rear shock is fully extended as the bike is sitting on it's stand, so this is the worst case scenario.
	With this thicker wear strip setup, the chain is forced to follow an indirect path from the rear sprocket to the front sprocket. This contact will cause a loss of horsepower transmitted to the rear wheel, and a wear strip that will wear out in nothing flat.
	You always have to have these comparison shots. This is old vs. new, and is there really any comparison? Another unexpected benefit was the Red Baron swingarm was substantially lighter than the stock steel unit by at least a pound. The old was 4 lbs and the Red Baron was 3 lbs on my inaccurate scale, but it felt much lighter when you held both of them in your hands.

While I was spending money, I decided to get a new graphics package from Red Baron. My bikes are all XR50's, not CRF50's, and when the graphics came, they were for the latter. One more quick call and another deduction from my bank account and I had brand new CRF plastic on it's way. Red Baron had a choice of colors and I chose the black because my graphics were already set up for the black. I've been telling everyone for 2 years that the CRF plastic will fit an XR model bikes, and now I have actual confirmation that all the holes match, and everything fits up perfectly.

This bike took a solid third place at the Green Bay Arenacross on March 10th, 2006 with me on it. It pulled a great start and handled the track very well. We had 16 bikes of varying ability, and I got beat by a monster motored fiddy and a KLX110 with a Wisconsin fast guy A classer on it. Lot's of good excuses, I have a bag full!?!

All said and done, the above bike is my favorite of all. A list of upgrades this bike has are:

Red Baron frame, Red Baron swingarm, Ishock rear shock, Fast50s speed forks, Red Baron plastic and graphics, Fast50s Braap package (handlebars, throttle, top triple plate), Douglas 12" front and 10" rear wheel, Michelin knobbies, Fast50s perf. exhaust pipe, Takegawa S-Stage 88cc kit (18mm carb), and a Fast50s seat and cover.

We received a killer frame from the great guys at Red Baron Racing. This frame is on the bike above.

		Very good welding, solid rear wing, quality components.
		This frame is not designed to save weight, it's designed to hold your fat fanny up on that 40 foot flat landing.
		You always need a bar to compare to, stock is silver, Red Baron is black. Easy to see what you get.

This is my old school bike from way back. It was a cool bike in it's day, but that day is long gone.

		Red Baron graphics from the throttle side
		from the clutch side. Wait a minute, I guess from the shifter side
		Before and after from this kick ass chain guide. Now it will actually do some guiding!
		high speed cam cover. I'm still amazed at the performance increase.
		Definitely adds trickness.
		Skid plate ready for duty. (doo doo?)

You guys know the way I am when I like something, and I really like this chain guide. Full wrap around to guide it from all angles. The stocker is more for rider safety, this is like your big bike.