Slaw
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 episodes, featuring the recently retired Adam Cianciarulo on a KX125 and KX250, may be the most popular yet. The latest episode dropped on Monday, and we had a chance to talk with Carson about the series and more.
Check out Part I of this interview where Carson talks about going up against AC on a KX125.
Vurbmoto: To me, ERA’s has been one of the cooler series on YouTube. Where did that idea come from? Describe how it started and the genesis of it all…
Carson Brown: Yeah, so I’m kind of known for riding any bike. And, you know, riding it anywhere at all these weird places. Everybody wants to see these pro supercross national guys having fun on dirt bikes. They only get to see them, whether it’s on a 250F or 450, and we’re like, hey, how can we get these guys to have some fun? And you know, get them on either a two-stroke or a small bike or vintage bike. And we’re like, you know, let’s set this up. I spend so much time on these weird bikes, let’s throw down some lap times and see where we stand when we put these guys on these weird bikes on weird tracks and just have fun with it have. I mean, that’s what it’s mostly about, is just getting these guys to have some fun and show the other side of them when it’s not super serious. So that’s the main goal of it. And we get to ride dirt bikes and weird ones at that, and they get to get away from their training program for a day. It’s been a blast.
This is kind of a two-part question. Are you surprised how many, even current pros, have signed up to do it? And then are you surprised it’s taken off to where it has?
Yeah, so our original one, we didn’t know how many pros were going to sign up or want to do this. And it’s been a ton of them that we’ve been trying to figure out and work out with all the behind-the-scenes stuff and make it happen. They all want to do it, which is super cool. Like, Ken Roczen in that very first one he came straight from winning Motocross of Nations and flew into Florida and did that thing with us, which was so cool. I mean, that was over a year ago now and still starstruck that he did that ERA’s. Getting Adam [Cianciarulo], he was freshly retired, and his birthday was a couple days before, and he still did it. He was all in and wanted to do it. And AP [Aaron Plessinger], he did it the day after the Washougal National and drove up by us and did one in the woods. And it’s pretty cool, because these guys, you know, they’re doing it and it’s not even super convenient for them. They’re having to work to be able to do this, which is pretty incredible that these guys are that passionate about it and just want to have fun.
You just listed a lot of names and even ridden against supermini riders like Seth Dennis. What’s been the hardest one so far? The one you’re like, man, that was hard to, you know, whether it was because the bike or the track kind or the combination of both?
Yeah, that’s a good question, because each one has been kind of unique, like the Mani [Lettenbichler] one doing enduro, I’m not an enduro guy, so that was pretty interesting. And he was really impressive. He hopped on that thing, hadn’t ridden a minibike before, and right away, he ripped on that thing. So that was a tough one and impressive. I think the hardest one overall was the Ken Roczen one because we were set up to do that at Pax Trax, it got rained out, ended up having to do a different track last second over by him, and then getting the bikes figured out because that was one of the first ones that we did. So just trying to make sure the bike was gonna run. One of our buddies, Tim brought over a 125. We didn’t know how good that thing was going to be. And yeah, we basically did it on the sand track and we had no idea if the if the bikes were going to run or be good or how it was all going to end up and how the weather was because the weather was so on and off. So that was definitely the hardest one behind the scenes to get dialed in.
What’s surprised you the most where it’s like, not necessarily that you didn’t know they were fast or whatever, but were able to adapt to an older bike or challenging conditions?
Yeah, two guys. Manny on that 105. Like he claimed that he had never ridden a minibike before. Never on anything except a KTM 300 really. The oldest bike that he said he had ridden motocross wise was a 2015. He hopped right on that old 105 and just rips straight away. And I was worried. I was like, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get him because he was so smooth and fluid on that thing and he was having so much fun. I think he had the most fun out of anybody that we’ve done this series with. Just having fun and loose. And that was that was a good one, just because the vibes were so good. That was the day after TKO and we were both a little worn out and both had a bit of a bug. So I was very impressed with that. Then obviously Kenny hopping on that RM85 and ripping that was pretty cool to watch. I was just fangirling.
You have like the dream job for most motocross guys, you’re riding any bike doing all this fun stuff. What’s been the funniest bike you’ve ridden?
Oh, man, as far as the ERA’s ones go, believe it or not that 1996 KTM 300. Honestly, it is a super fun bike just because it’s so weird. Like it’s weird looking, weird ride, makes a fun kind of a power… just kind of dull and smooth. That bike has been really cool because we’ve used it for two episodes now— the AP one and the Manny one—so that bike it’s just cool because it’s so freaking weird compared to anything else.
What’s been the hardest, not necessarily even the bike itself, but for me, I felt like that supermini on a supercross track was insane. I have no idea how you’re doing that. So, what’s been the most challenging either because the bike or the conditions or the rider?
Yeah, I think the hardest one for me, the one that I had to throw down the most on was the Seth Dennis one. Because we had gotten kind of rained out of that one too. And so we ended up on that hybrid supercross and I had to send that thing and I’d never, you know, ridden a bike like that. I mean, that thing was sprung really soft. We tried to put stiff springs and stuff on it but it is still a super soft and the gearing was weird and everything. And so I was super kind of out of my element and trying to jump that triple out of the corner when it was slippery in the morning. I was a little bit nervous, but luckily it kind of dried up by the time that we were doing the lap times and everything. But Seth was obviously ripping and I mean, our times were really, really close. So that I think was the hardest one just because the weight disadvantage was so big.
So, entering a new year, I’ve heard some names thrown around. There’s been a lot of talk on what the next year of ERA’s will look like. Obviously, you can’t tell us who or anything, but what do you have in store? I’m sure you got the ideas are kind of flowing around, right?
Yeah, yeah, we’ve got all sorts of ideas kind of floating around right now. I’m super excited to kind of show everybody what we’ve got in store, but it’s definitely gonna be some different stuff. It would be cool to, you know, get overseas a little bit and, you know, ride with some of those guys because they’re super passionate, too. But yeah, we’ve got some cool stuff coming up and I’m super excited because it’s gonna be pretty different from what you guys have seen before. It’s gonna be epic.
Do you have a dream track? Like, this is where I have to go at some point?
Yeah, as far as like a dream track goes, I don’t know. I know that there’s some dudes that probably have some backyard facilities that are amazing and I would love to go do like a little track tour and see some of those things. You know, some of those tracks I guarantee there’s some gnarly ones out there that would be super fun to do some episodes with or whatever. So it that’d be a fun thing to do for sure at some point.
