Ontario · Quebec · Minimoto & Supermoto
Notes from the pit wall
I'm Josh, dad to Abel, Crosby and Cohen. They race in the Canadian minimoto scene and I'm the guy holding the board. This is the parking lot drills, the tire pressures, the budget, the rain, the long drive home — and the tight-knit group of people who make the whole thing run.
2026
74 posts
Bike Sizing for Kids: Seat Height, Inseams, and the Confidence Factor
Inseam versus seat height, bike weight versus rider weight, flat feet versus tippy-toes. 'They'll grow into it' is usually a season of bad habits.
Gryphon Custom Kids Suits: Leathers That Fit the Rider You Actually Have
Adult gear sized down is not kid gear. What custom leathers change about armour placement, growth allowances and crash-season repair - and what to measure first.
Motul in a Minimoto: What the Oil Actually Does and When to Change It
Constant high rpm is an oil problem before it is an engine problem. What the oil actually does in a hard-ridden mini, and why change intervals beat fancy oil.
Pirelli Rain Tires: The Cheapest Speed You'll Buy in Bad Weather
A rain tire is the cheapest speed you will buy in bad weather - if you can read the tread, trust the temperature window, and ignore what slick habits tell you.
Ohvale 110: Where Minimoto Stops Being a Toy
A proper gearbox, real brakes, race bodywork at kid scale. Why the 110 is where minimoto stops being toys - and what it teaches that a pit bike cannot.
Ohvale 160: Where Junior Road Racing Gets Serious
The 160 is where junior road racing gets serious: closer racing, real brake discipline, gearing choices. What changes for the rider - and for the parent.
Ohvale 190: Top of the Mini Ladder, Gateway to Everything After
Top of the mini ladder. The fitness it demands, the setup sophistication it rewards, and why 190 results are the ones series and scouts actually notice.
The RM85: Two-Stroke Lessons Every Rider Should Get Early
A two-stroke mini teaches clutch control, momentum and listening - lessons road-race families benefit from even after the smoker is sold.
CRF150R: The Four-Stroke Mini That Refuses to Die
Honda's mini four-stroke refuses to die. Valve checks, oil discipline, air-filter religion - the maintenance rhythm that keeps one alive for seasons.
Tying Down Bikes Securely: The Skill That Saves Your Season Before It Starts
The season you save may be in the driveway. Soft straps, compression, angles, and the check-at-every-stop habit - before the crashed-in-the-trailer story is yours.
Trailering Bikes: Enclosed, Open, or Van — What Actually Matters
Enclosed, open or van: load height, tie-down points, ventilation and wet-gear storage. What actually matters when you choose - rent before you commit.
Maintaining a Minimoto: The Service Schedule That Beats the Crankcase Gods
A service calendar for hard-ridden minis: after-every-trackday checks, weekly in season, off-season teardown. Checklists win seasons; vibes do not.
The Ohvale Guangzhou Supercup: What It Is and Why Canadian Families Care
The international Ohvale event explained: who gets invited, the level on track, what a Guangzhou trip asks of a family - and why it matters on a resume.
MotoAmerica's Ohvale Series: The American Route Into Real Road Racing
MotoAmerica's Ohvale classes are the American route into real road racing. How the series connects to the US ladder, and what Canadians should check first.
The Red Bull Rookies Cup: What It Is and How Absurdly Hard It Is to Get Into
The GP pipeline's famous gate: what scouts actually rate, the level of the kids who make it, and why being ready beats chasing it. Honest odds only.
The Road to MotoGP From a Canadian Minimoto Paddock
Minimoto to MotoGP, mapped honestly: selections, Rookies Cup, junior GP - and the fork where most careers plateau into club racing. That fork is a win too.
Your First Race Weekend: The Checklist That Leaves Nothing in the Driveway
Gear, spares, paperwork, food, comfort - organized by load zone and built to be copied. The checklist that leaves nothing in the driveway.
Budgeting a Mini Race Season: Categories, Not Guesses
Entries, travel, tires, wear parts, crash budget: build your own number from categories instead of adopting someone else's total.
Pit Lane Parent Etiquette: Unwritten Rules Written Down
Hot pit rules, coaching from the wall, scooter discipline, how you treat officials. The unwritten paddock code, written down - the kids watch us too.
Coaching Your Own Kid: When to Coach and When to Hire It Out
Why your voice stops landing, what a school changes, and how to be support crew instead of critic. When to coach your kid - and when to hire it out.
What a Day at SSRS Actually Teaches: Cones, Drills, and Slow-Speed Mastery
Slow-speed mastery first: the drill progression behind a road race school, what transfers to race pace, and how to keep drilling between schools.
Transponders and Lap Timing: Data Is Cheaper Than Opinions
Timing beats feel. Buying or renting transponders, reading session data honestly, and the trap of chasing lap time at the cost of technique.
Video Review That Actually Helps: Watching Laps With Your Rider
Two things per session, lines from the fast kid not their own mistakes, on-bike versus trackside angles. A video debrief protocol that actually helps.
Two-Stroke Mix Ratios: Getting Premix Right Without the Paddock Arguments
What the ratio means, what the manual says versus the paddock, and the one-jug-one-bike system that prevents 7am disasters. Premix without arguments.
Jetting Basics for Minis: Reading Plugs and Trusting the Manual
What jets do, how weather moves them, and how to read a plug chop. Start from the manual's chart before paddock folklore - a lean engine is a dead engine.
Chain and Sprockets: The Cheapest Performance and the Most Ignored
Clean, lube, tension, read the wear - and gearing as tuning. The cheapest performance on a minimoto is the most ignored one.
Brake Pads on a Minimoto: Bite, Fade, and the Bedding-In Nobody Does
Compounds, the bedding-in nobody does, reading fade, bleeding without drama. Front brake confidence is a racing skill that starts with mechanics.
Suspension for Light Riders: Springs Before Everything
Stock springs are wrong for most kids. Springs, sag, damping, patience - the setup order that fixes more than any expensive internals.
The Paddock Canopy: Weight, Wind, and Not Being That Family
Weights not pegs on asphalt, sidewalls in wind, storm protocol. Canopy craft, so your family is not the one the track warns everyone about.
Generators in the Paddock: Power Without Enemies
Inverter generators, what you actually run, fuel discipline, placement. Quiet power is paddock manners - and the math to size it yourself.
From 50 to 110: Reading When Your Rider Is Actually Ready
Readiness is a skill set, not a birthday: braking, awareness, listening. How to tell when the move from 50s to a 110 mini is actually right.
Girls on the Mini Grid: Making the Paddock Somewhere Everyone Stays
Equipment that fits, paddocks that welcome, and fast female racers visible up the ladder. Making minimoto somewhere everyone stays.
Getting a Race License: The Paperwork Between Your Kid and the Grid
Governing body, membership, medical and parental forms, novice requirements - the paperwork between your kid and the grid, with a check-the-rulebook habit.
The Spare Parts Bin: What Breaks and What to Actually Carry
Levers, bars, pegs, master links, plugs, cables: build the spares matrix from probability times catastrophe, not from a catalogue.
After the Crash: Rebuilding a Young Rider's Confidence Without Lying to Them
Bike first as therapy, small track resets, honest talk about what happened. Rebuilding a young rider's confidence without lying to them.
Surviving Multi-Day Race Events: Sleep, Food, and the Day-Two Meltdown
Double-headers are won on sleep, food and downtime management. The family logistics of day two - and the gear that earns its place by day three.
Travelling Out of Province for Races: Worth It, Sometimes
Level, exposure and variety against budget, fatigue and development. When travelling for races pays off, how to plan it honestly, and the paperwork.
MiniSBK vs MotoMini: Two Series, One Garage — How They Actually Differ
Two Ontario minimoto series, one garage. Bike classes, event format, venue character - a match-to-your-goals comparison, not a verdict.
Gearing for Shannonville: Thinking Gearing on the Track You Know
Long straights against tight sections: using a familiar track to teach gearing thinking - what a tooth changes and where your rider loses time.
Tyre Warmers for Minis: What They Do and Whether Your Family Needs Them
What warmers actually change, the classes where they matter, and the cheaper habits that matter more at club level. The honest case for and against.
Ohvale Just Built the Missing Step
The new GP-5 is a 250 on 15-inch wheels, aimed squarely at the gap between a 190 on 12s and a full-size bike. What it is, what Ohvale has not published, and where it races in Canada.
The GP-0 Is the Bike Before the Bike
Ohvale's smallest machine is the one that decides whether a kid stays in the sport. The numbers that matter are not the power figures, and the cleverest version is the automatic.
The GP-2 Is the One Everybody Is Actually On
The bike the Canadian minimoto classes are built around. The headline is 12-inch wheels, but the measurement that actually matters is how much bigger it is than a GP-0 in every direction.
The GP-7 Is Where the Ladder Runs Out
Seventeen-inch wheels, a Brembo M50 on a 300 mm disc and an adjustable steering axle. At the top of the Ohvale range is a bike that has stopped pretending to be small.
Six Versions to Get to a Race Team Logo
Designing the family race team logo took six versions and a name change, from a burger-bun joke to an identity that could actually go on a bike.
The Candy Store: Why GP Bikes is a Lifesaver
A shoutout to GP Bikes in Whitby, the local superstore that keeps Ontario's minimoto scene properly geared up.
The Valencia Goal
Everything in the FIM MotoMini Canada series builds to one date: the World Final in Valencia, Spain.
Celebrating Toni Sharpless's CMA Award
Celebrating Toni Sharpless's Canadian Motorcycle Association Ambassador Award, and the grassroots pipeline she built from scratch.
The Pathway to CSBK
MiniSBK and FIM MotoMini Canada aren't a novelty. They're the most proven development pipeline into the Canadian Superbike Championship.
The Paddock Family
Fierce competitors on track, one big family in the paddock. On the community that makes minimoto racing what it is.
Physical Fitness for Minimoto
The engine doesn't do all the work. On the core strength and cardio it takes to wrestle a 190cc Ohvale through 15 laps in July heat.
One Win, One Broken Bike
Round four of MiniSBK at Shannonville: Crosby won the first race and lost the second to a mechanical, while Abel had his best ride of the year and finished fourth.
Two Podiums in a Weekend
Round three at Shannonville brought two podiums in the Ohvale 190 class, moving Cohen to fourth in the championship on the kind of consistency that seldom makes a highlight reel.
A Week in the Dirt
Mid-season, Cohen swapped leathers for a week at Motocamp. Why a road racer benefits from the dirt, and why the fact he asked to go matters more than the training case.
Crash Repair in 20 Minutes
When a crash happens in morning practice, you get twenty minutes before qualifying to make the bike safe to ride again.
Rain Racing: The Ultimate Teacher
Nobody wants to race in the rain, but a wet track is the best teacher a young racer can have.
Two Trips to Lombardy
Two trips to Lombardy Raceway — a cold October season-ender with the leaves turning, then round two of the 2026 MotoMini season, where Jäger won both races and Cohen took fourth.
Circuit Mécaglisse: The Round We Have Not Made Yet
Circuit Mécaglisse is on the Canadian Supermoto Championship calendar and has never been on ours. Why a Quebec round stays theoretical for an Ontario family, and what would make the drive worth it.
The Transition: 160cc to 190cc
Moving from the Ohvale 160cc to the 190cc GP-2 isn't just twisting the throttle harder. It's a whole new riding style.
Round One, and the Red Flag Was Ours
The 2026 MotoMini Canada season opened at Shannonville, where the red flag in the 160 race came from our own rider — who walked away, furious and unhurt, and finished the day eighth.
The Jump to FIM MotoMini Canada
Stepping up from regional MiniSBK to the national FIM MotoMini Canada grid changes everything about a race weekend, for riders and parents alike.
Supermoto's Triumphant Return
How the 2026 revival of the Canadian Supermoto Championship brought a unified, high-level series back to Ontario and Quebec.
The Dark Art of Tire Pressures
Getting PMT slick tire pressure right is one of the most contested, most consequential calculations in the minimoto paddock.
Track Guide: Lombardy Raceway
A track guide to Lombardy Raceway, the tight technical crucible in Smiths Falls that separates the smooth riders from the aggressive ones.
All Three of Them, Same Race
We entered the Canadian Supermoto opening round at Shannonville as visitors. Crosby took third, Cohen fourth after a crash, Abel third in a late supermoto 8 class.
Cohen Wins the Opener at Shannonville
The MiniSBK season opened cold and windy at Shannonville. Cohen won his class, Crosby was second in his, and Abel finally got to ride the Ohvale he earned in April.
Managing Race Day Anxiety
They're athletes, but they're also just kids. On managing nerves on the dummy grid before the green flag drops.
Race Season Started in the Rain at Brechin
The 2026 season opened at Brechin with an Ohvale upgrade on Friday, then heavy rain that put both boys back on the KLX for a two-hour endurance race they finished fourth in.
Endurance Racing at Brechin
The April endurance races at Brechin are the season's unofficial kickoff, and they run on an entirely different strategy than a sprint race.
Track Guide: Shannonville Motorsport Park
A track guide to Shannonville Motorsport Park, the proving ground of Canadian motorcycle racing, where the long straights and heavy braking demand absolute respect.
The Gear: Sliding at 100km/h
Is it safe? The honest answer, and a look at the armor — leather suits, back protectors, FIM-approved helmets — that keeps a 13-year-old walking away from a 100km/h crash.
Wrenching 101: The Ohvale GP-2
A look at what it actually takes to keep an Ohvale GP-2 190 race-ready between weekends, and why the wrenching is some of the best time spent in this sport.
From Ontario to Guangzhou: The 12-Hour Time Zone Grind
Racing locally is tough enough. Here's what it's like watching your kid race the Ohvale Guangzhou Supercup from 12,000 kilometers and 12 time zones away.
The Sponsorship Hustle
Finding sponsors for a junior racer is basically a full-time job, and running a design agency turns out to help.
2025
5 posts
Balancing the Wrench and the Code
How high-efficiency AI automation funds a racing season and buys back the time to spend it trackside instead of at a desk.
The True Cost of a Minimoto Season
What does it actually cost to get a kid racing minimoto? The honest answer, from the low-risk SSRS entry point to a full season on an Ohvale.
Parking Lot Dreams to Shannonville Screams
Where Canadian road racing futures are actually built: a parking lot in Brechin, dodging cones with the Super Sonic Road Race School, long before the real grid at Shannonville.
We Started With an Endurance Race
The first race our family ever entered was an endurance round at Brechin Motorsport Park — hours of fuel, tires and rider changes, and the drive home that settled the question of doing it again.
The First Time Abel Used a Clutch
Eleven seconds of video in which not much appears to happen: Abel working out a clutch's friction zone for the first time, stalling, then rolling away clean.
Off the bike, this is my day job
I build websites for people in the paddock
When I'm not carrying the snacks, I run a web design and digital marketing practice — sites, social media, and print for small businesses, race schools and series organizers.
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