Forever Two Wheels: Sea Otter 05 rough the Eyes of Mike Sleeter

Forever Two Wheels: Sea Otter 2015 Through the Eyes of Mike Sleeter

Known as a celebration of cycling more than just competition, the Sea Otter Classic is unofficially the season opener to cycling in America. Professional and amateur athletes alike make the annual pilgrimage to Sea Otter to participate in a host of events, including multiple road, downhill, cross country, and more. Sea Otter Classic also serves as a consumer bike expo hosting hundreds of industry brands. Located in Monterey County, Sea Otter is one of the most popular destinations for two-wheeled enthusiasts in the world.

There is only one way to experience Sea Otter, and that is to attend and participate. The next best thing? See it through the eyes of a faithful attendee, who just happens to rip on anything with two wheels.

Meet Mike Sleeter, motocross racer, R&D specialist, cycling enthusiast, family man, and all around stud. He is going to take us on a trip to Sea Otter.

Hey Everyone! My name is Mike, and I am KTM USAs head test rider and a part-time professional motocross racer. Ive spent nearly 15 years racing professional MX but the last three years I have enjoyed racing my mountain bike in any discipline I can and have attended the Sea Otter Classic as one of my ritual events. The next few days I will be doing my best to take you along my 2015 experience.

DAY 1 For 2015, I was set to run two classes of competition Dual Slalom and Downhill, but a last-minute request from KTM to go to Milan, Italy, Sunday morning for a very important testing project has put a wrinkle in my Sea Otter plans. That said, I am concentrating 100% on Dual Slalom. In years past, I have competed in up to three events, but it was a ton of riding to do, and meeting with sponsors and enjoying my time away from motocross was virtually not possible because I was swapping bikes and gear for four days straight. This year I have taken a more relaxed approach and it should be more fun. Even better, I have brought the family my wife Sarah, and two little boys, Mason (4) and Noah (2). We are camping at the Laguna Seca Raceway with my good riding buddies so we can share the shoulda-coulda-woulda racing stories and heckle each other after it's all said and done.

The Fam and I loaded up Tuesday night and we were ready to make the six-hour trek north after I got done testing at Cahuilla Creek MX Park in Southern California the following day. With six bikes, two kids, and a dog, we were off! After many hours looking through a windshield, we arrived in Monterey around 2am Wednesday night with two sleepy boys and immediately called it a night. I had to try to get some sleep because Dual Slalom practice was bright and early at 8am. The course at Sea Otter is one of the better D.S. runs when it's fresh its almost like a downhill pump track. I got a few good runs and went straight into qualifying where we would be seeding my Cat 1 group. My buddy Mike Diorio and I qualified together. My goal was to just stay on two wheels and put two solid times together. In fact, thats what I did! I actually posted the fastest time in Cat 1 age group. After clicking off the fast lap, I wrapped up qualifying and headed back to my trailer to finish setting up camp and hang with my family. Thats what is so great about this event; you want to do well racing, but the real goal is to enjoy your time in one of nicest places in the world with the people you love.

As well, I took advantage of some perks from my employer KTM. I brought up the all-new KTM 390 Duke for KTM to present to Aaron Gwin (GoPro athlete) as a new toy. But before I passed the keys off to Gwin, I took the bike for a hot lap around the Monterey Coast. The coast is absolutely breathtaking and the KTM 390 is such a rider-friendly bike that it capped off a great first day at the Sea Otter Classic. I have practice at 8:30am tomorrow morning and I hope to finish on top of the box where I started.

DAY 2 Well, day two is in the books. After the dust cleared, I couldnt be more pumped on how the Dual Slalom went. I qualified 1st yesterday and didn't miss a beat. I swept every heat in both lanes going on to take the win in Cat 1, 30-39 Age Group! My Intense Cycles Tracer 27.5 was dialed in and I had an absolute blast. The course was really technical with tight sections that gave way to really fast, loose sections. No bike really was perfect so I just chose to use my trail bike that I ride regularly, and it was on point. To top things off, most of my crew of friends that I train and shred with either won or got on the podium. Chad Hubbard won the Cat 1 Masters, up-and-coming stud Charlie Harrison won the 17-year-old Junior Division, and Randy Lawrence made his return to racing with a solid 2nd place behind Hubbard. My good pal Dennis Foster took 3rd in the 50+ Class, too! Its just so rad that we have a 35-year age gap between all of us and nothing changes the passion and desire to be the best we can on our bikes.

Once I finished my last heat to rap up the title, I pinned it over to the Kids pump track where my poor wife was wrangling my two groms while they raced the kids race. I have to give it up to Specialized for organizing such a great event for families to really get to know cycling. Each kid got a participation medal and a picture with the Sea Otter mascot. My kids were stoked, and I was stoked!

Next, it was time to do some work, and Im fortunate enough to be able to work with some of the best companies in the Moto/MTB business. One Industries and 100% have been behind me as long as they have been around so I made some pit stops off to see Russ Koza and Herve Orny with 100% and ONE Industries to talk shop and to see how some of the new projects weve been working on were being perceived from the dealers and buyers. Its a lot of time from all parties to make something new, but its my job to complain

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