THE Cub Report – Rampant Bashing

Hello there fellow hobbyists, I trust you got your week off to an awesome start and thanks for once again reading THE Cub Report. I don’t know how many of you follow Supercross, but I have been an avid racer/rider since the mid 70s and Anaheim II was one heck of a spectacle last weekend. The invincible Ken Roczen found out the hard way that a soft base to a jump can bite you when you least expect it, Jason Anderson found out that they weren’t kidding in the AMA rule book that you aren’t allowed to take a swing at another rider, and Vince Friese found out that everybody in the pits still hates him. If you don’t follow Feld Supercross, now is a perfect time to start.

Yes, I am going old school again this week with the Cub Report. If you have been reading long enough, then you know what I’m talking about. In the very beginning of THE Cub Report all I talked about was recent product announcements. Last week nothing “super massive” was unveiled, we are gonna have to wait a couple weeks for that, but here we go on hitting some of last week’s highlights…

I am going to say the biggest news of the week was the announcement of the Spektrum DX5R. Why is the 5R a big deal? Well, it isn’t a big dealio for the race crowd, but it sure is for bashers. The DX5R has pretty much all the high zoot features of an elite level radio, but at a basher price. It has a crazy fast 5.5 millisecond frame rate and 250 model memories like the DX6R, plus a bunch of other fancy features, but hits the streets at under 300 clams. When Spektrum 2.4 GHz first hit the market everyone clamored to it, then people went away because of range issues, now people are swarming back. We haven’t posted our DX6R review yet, but it tested out at a radius range of over 450 feet, more than enough for 99% of bashing and the DX5R should have a similar range. There is serious competition in the $300 price range, but the DX5R certainly looks like it is up to the challenge.

Next up… how about those No Clip Body Mounts from RPM? As I stated a few weeks ago, the industry is making a move away from body clips and I could not be happier. Better yet with the RPM unit is that not only does it do away with body clips, but it adds scale realism while doing so. Two big pluses with one product is pretty remarkable, props to the folks at RPM for putting out something so cool.

Boy, those Interco Boggers from Pro-Line look pretty sweet don’t they? I am soooo not a scale/trail guy, but those Boggers look so good I might just have to get a scale rig just so I can go mudding. Props to the P-L crew for the amount of detailing and how faithfully they reproduced those tires.

Finally… we posted up our review of the Hitec RDX1 last week. I have found myself using our RDX1 test unit on a daily basis as of late, it is just so small and easy to use that I can’t help it. BTW, at the track I barely notice it on my pit table, which is a good thing because I am a massive “sprawler”. What is a sprawler? That’s a guy who is given 4 feet of pit space to work in, but packs in 20 feet worth of gear. When I hit my pit table I typically explode over at least 2 or 3 more spots with cars/parts/tires/tools/misc junk, but then that is just how I have always been. The RDX1 gives me a little more space, something a guy like me can really use.

So there ya have it ya bunch of animals. Don’t forget, and I am quite serious about this, if you get a chance drop by your local hobby shop and/or bash spot. They miss your smiling face, I am sure of it.

YOUR Cub Reporter