Spring Newsletter

Its spring at last…

…and it’s been all systems go here at DocWob HQ with the annual influx of orders for our Titanium fixings & fasteners from our technical partner race teams, it seems like it gets earlier and earlier each year. With orders from HEP Suzuki, Phoenix Factory Connection Honda, Firepower Honda and a plethora of privateers all needing their years’ worth of bolts by the first week in December so they can build the super cross race bikes before the Christmas break.

Following on with the MXGP teams, RedBull KTM Factory Racing, Nestaan Factory Husqvarna Racing, Monster Energy Kemea Yamaha, Hutten Metaals Yamaha, Fantic Factory Racing 450, and for the first time the mighty HRC squad, Stark Future, Triumph Factory Enduro and Dirt Store Triumph as well as many smaller teams all in need of their years supply of Doc Wob product by the end of January, as the first GP is a fly away so need to build and crate 2 race bikes for Argentina before building another 2 bikes per rider for the opening European rounds!

For the new Triumph 250 team, measuring up and manufacturing specific bolts was no mean feat, they were oh-so-close to the bolts we have on the shelf but ‘nearly right’ doesn’t cut it here, so we manufactured all new fittings for that bike alone, manufactured with the regular hex heads to do away with the torque fittings that come as stock - the 450 is next on the bench to be measured.

The sheer volume of our titanium that goes through the doors during these couple of winter months is staggering, and its nearly impossible to guess how much we will need to manufacture to fill the race team demand - and let’s not forget as technical partners, the teams buy it from us as they need it to go racing, and with expectations high not only is the best fit and quality provided, but at Doc Wob we have the ability to make custom parts at very short notice and with stringent order fill time.

To add to our MX titanium manufacturing we have now been official suppliers to the Ohlins Mountain Bike department for two years - and in 2024 they won the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Championship. This makes the tally for world championships won using DocWob titanium to eleven since our inception, an accolade that we are really quite proud of.

Our in house R&D department are always working on developing new products and this year was no exception, we have expanded our ‘super popular’ Doc Wob Titanium T Bar range to include not only the stubby versions (the Pro Circuit mechanics asked for), but we now have a double end 8,10 and 12mm option which is now available in store, and it is certainly our "go to" tool in the toolbox, the race team mechanics who have tested and evaluated them for us all love them - so, so far so good.

Remaining with TBars, we now also have available the extra-long 8mm and 10mm options, which were initially developed in collaboration with VR46 MotoGP squad, they had us manufacture 8mm ones so they could do front wheel changes without the tool hitting the front tyre. Also made for VR46 was a 7mm XL TBar but these were one offs for VR46 only! Following the colab with VR46, we worked with Factory Kawasaki KRT MX Team to manufacture a 10mm version which is used as a front-end spanner as it misses the front tyre and the hand guards/grips also available from our store

Looking to the future at DocWob HQ, and we have lots of new products being tested right now, our 3D printing machine is flat out producing samples of an ‘all new’ product line that we are hoping to be able to announce over the next few weeks, very exciting times indeed.

VMXdN Foxhill and Farleigh Caste Vets MX preparations are now in full swing, and we are working with riders, teams, sponsors, traders and suppliers getting everything in place for the biggest race weekends on the British MX calendar. The roster of the upper echelons of the world best vets racers who are entered is mind blowing but our PR department doesn’t allow us to release everything in one hit, so you will have to wait and see, but believe me when I say there are some huge names appearing at both events later this year. See events section for more detail.

Bike prep is well underway in our workshops and with Yamaha being a main sponsor of VMXdN we are going all YZ this year. It’s the brands 70'th anniversary in 2025 so we will be running their official anniversary livery, though we are embargoed until July 1^st.

We will have nine, yes 9 x YZ 250's all built and ready for action come August, one of which is a ‘nearly new’ 2006 aluminium frame, a guest of honour will be racing this one in the Evo Ultra class at Foxhill, and the others will be a mixture of bikes we built for 2024, plus five more ‘fresh build’ YZ 250 2002's for 2025. Three of which will also be prepped and ready to race at the Farleigh Castle Vets event just three weeks later… Busy times indeed!

The Telford classic bike show was a success for us, at least we think so - it’s hard to know when everyone else is selling and can put a monetary value on their two days, and we are just there on show promoting our work, parts and of course the events. We were busy talking to people all weekend, so we must consider that a good event.

That said, we did sell the HRC Honda TLM 260 we built (as featured on DocWobTV YouTube channel) as well as the Honda EZ90 Cub we displayed in a purpose built ‘life size’ toy box that we hadn't really planned on selling! We have since also sold the Doc Wob built RM250AF which was also displayed at the show.

The DocWob TV YouTube series is always tricky to film as bike build work cannot wait for filming up to date progress, we just need to crack on, so sometimes there seems to be a big jump but that’s just the way it seems to go with that stuff - but we always have lots of content to film and for 2025 we are planning on more "how to" filming, and if your old enough to remember will be just like the DocWob series in DBR magazine back in the day - which were hugely successful.

The TORQ moto podcasts are back on track after a bit of a winter hiatus, our videographer Danny was busy with his stunt shows in the months running up to Christmas, then co-host Jeff Perrett has been buried in his role at the Arenacross series since January, so it’s been tricky getting everyone together in the studio to film! Anyway, all of that is behind us now and we have a solid line up of guests both in studio and via all new high speed internet video link for our international guests, we really enjoy getting people in who have a story to tell, check out the channel on YouTube.

So, its head down here at HQ in preparation for the season ahead, speak soon and don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook Instagram 

Doc Wob!