Chase Stallo
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If you have a weird bike, Carson Brown will race it.
Since retiring from full-time racing, Carson has taken over social media and YouTube by literally racing anything, anywhere, at any time. From mopeds to two-strokes and everything in between, if it has a motor, Carson will ride it.
Behind energy drink sponsor Red Bull, Carson has taken the race anything, anywhere, at any time mantra and applied it to the highly successful YouTube series “ERA’s” which runs on his personal channel.
And the latest episode, featuring the recently retired Adam Cianciarulo, may be the most popular yet. The new episode dropped on Monday, and last week we had a chance to talk with Carson about this episode, the series and more.
Stay tuned next week as we dive deeper into the series with Carson.
Vurb: Talk about the upcoming release. Who is it against, what bike and why did you choose not only the bike, but the competitor as well?
Carson Brown: Yeah, so the latest episode is going to be on a 2005 KX125 James Stewart looking bike, Chevy Trucks era, one of the best errors for two-strokes of all-time. We brought in Adam Cianciarulo, dude, basically the best Kawasaki rider since he was on superminis and got him on that thing. He was super amped up to get on the two-stroke, so it was a perfect fit. We went to Pax Trax, which was super close to where he grew up. And funny enough, he didn’t ride a ton there growing up because his dad said it was too easy. But it was cool to like, you know, get near his original hometown and all that and let it rip with him. So it all worked out super well.
Heading into episode nine, do you even know the score sheet right now? Do you know where you stand?
Oh, man, I don’t know for sure where I stand. I know Daniel [Blair] kind of told me. But yeah, I was super amped up heading to Pax Trax because we were gonna do the [Ken] Roczen shoot there and then that kind of got rained out. Like a little tornado or something came through and rained it out. And so finally made it back to do the [Adam] Cianciarulo shoot and make it happen out there. And yeah, it was full on pinned, baby.
Adam’s recently retired. I know you’ve raced some people that are still racing, but were you surprised by the speed or anything? Did anything stand out?
The biggest surprise for me was he said that he had never ridden a 125 more than once or twice. He hopped on that thing and ripped right away. Hadn’t ridden much two-stroke big bikes or any of that stuff. And so it was really impressive to see him get on it, go fast, especially for the size that he is. You know, like, it’s crazy because he’s ridden either a KX250F or a KX450 his whole big bike career. So, to get on that thing and be fluid right away was super impressive.
And that’s quite the contrast to you.
Yeah, for me, it’s the opposite. I’m always riding weird bikes, weird places, weird tracks. Two-strokes, old, new, big, small. It’s definitely opposite.
Were you a fan of James’ growing up?
Yeah, absolutely. Growing up, the James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed era, absolutely legendary. There’s been nothing that’s really topped that in the sport since, personally. And, you know, a little bit earlier seeing James on the KX125. You still go back and watch those videos and you’re just like, whoa, dude, like, there’s nothing like that. He was so loose, so fluid and just so smooth, right in that power band. It’s super impressive. And that era of the sport, him on that thing, there’s just nothing better. When you see a KX125, you think James Stewart right away.
Do you do research before these? Do you go and watch James ride that bike and then be like, “Oh, okay, I see how he’s doing this” or is it you just hop on and are like, I’m just pinning it.
I mean, I grew up watching James Stewart videos, especially on the KX125. I mean, people got videos of him at local tracks and stuff when he was growing up on those things. And just the sheer speed, talent and momentum that dude had. It’s always good to watch that and learn when you can, but that dude, he’s a superhuman on that thing.
We always have countdowns of our favorite James moments. Is there a moment that just stands out to you that you’re like, this is the pinnacle Stew right here?
Oh, there was a quad that he was hitting on his KX125 at one of the Supercrosses. And he was just going in and seeding into that thing. Wide open and it was so big. And yeah, I always think of that. Because I see that video popping up on Instagram all the time where it’s just like, man, if he would miss that it’d be over but you leave it up to James. He just hit it so, so perfect.
Yeah, it seems like he was always doing that just right on the edge. He was so good at riding that fine line.
I mean, you go over it sometimes. But, yeah, that was super entertaining for sport.
I heard there is quite a story behind getting the bike there. Give us the lowdown on how this all happened…
So it was kind of a whole last second thing, lining up a 125 for this. We thought we had one lined up and then we didn’t. And then I had a KX125 that Claire [Carson’s wife] had found and it was here. I’d ridden it one time and wrecked the cylinder on it because it had an air leak and the thing had been sitting in the corner all apart with the engine wrecked. And we’re like, hey, we got to find the 125 for this thing and make sure that’s good. So Mario, the Red Bull truck driver, literally threw that thing in a minivan, drove it straight to Florida so that we could have it down there for this shoot and my dad had the engine, kept it here, and then rebuilt it. We went to Athena and then they had a 144 cylinder since our cylinder was ruined. They got that on there. And we all got the bike running and my buddy, Tyler Bear, he helped us majorly keep that thing running. And it was carnage last second all the way through. We hadn’t ridden it, you know, prior to that ERA’s at all and with the jetting and everything, it’s so risky. And, you know, Adam did struggle a little bit with the jetting. Like it had a little bit of a bog and we didn’t know what the issue was, I think one of the vent hoses was kinked. And, you know, he’s been on fuel injected bikes for a long time now, so when that thing bogs, it was pretty scary for him.
A lot of people have probably seen this episode already but for those that haven’t, what do people have to look forward to?
Yeah, this particular episode, there’s so much going on. We’re back at a real track. I mean, it’s Pax Trax, legendary place. It looks insane. It rides insane. KX125 bike is legendary. James Stewart replica. So sick. And the racing, let’s just say it was really close. It was a nail biter all the way. Neither of us knew who won until Daniel [Blair] told us. So that was pretty cool. And just getting Adam back out on the track having fun. You know, now that he’s retired, he’s kind of having a blast and we haven’t really seen him riding fun bikes for a long time. It’s super fun, super entertaining and I hope everybody gets a kick out of it.
