A dislocated hip two years ago while riding for Pro Circuit Kawasaki almost ended Max Vohland’s career but n rear handbrake has ultimately saved it as Vohland proved with an impressive heat race win in San Diego.
We caught up with Max on press day to discuss his recovery (he still has no feeling in his foot) and his adjustment to using the handbrake as his rear brake.
Max told us: “The foot’s been getting stronger, it’s been getting better. The feeling in the foot is still the same so it’s still pretty much nothing. So I can’t really feel my foot peg or anything at all so but I’ve gotten better and better with the handbraking and I think it’s probably just going to be something I’m sticking with for the rest of my career and I’ve kind of just accepted that and that’s for the direction I’m going so yeah, it’s been good. The more time you do it, the better I get at it so it’s just about putting time on it.”
Was there a point where he thought your career was over?
“Yeah, absolutely. There was many, many days where I thought I was done and there was no way I was going to be able to race and ride at the same level that I was before or even at a professional level. And even just the first iterations of the handbrake that we were testing and trying just, they were not working, There were lot of days where I was pretty much over and even after I started racing, I was having problems with the bike and we were running different stuff because I had such a weird system and I was like, yeah, it’s still not possible.
“I was able to ride at a high level but it still wasn’t possible just because of the complications but we found a good system, then it started to work, results got better and then the belief kind of started setting in where it’s like, yeah, I can do it and now I will do it.
“I feel like I’m very close to almost my peak level where I’ve been before and the handbrake, it has its benefits and it has its downsides. I feel like it’s better in Supercross than it is in Outdoors. We have to stop a lot more because we go a lot faster in Outdoors so I can use the berms a little bit more to my advantage here in Indoors and yeah, you know, it’s got its advantages for sure and I enjoy it.”
Keep an eye on Vohland this year who, aside from that heat race in San Diego, hasn’t shown his true potential but the skill is there to get to where he wants to be and he now has Chad Reed in his corner!
Watch the full interview below:
