Earth vs Pluto: A Dramatic Change

It feels as if the Netherlands’ most successful motocross rider Jeffrey Herlings is dating again after 17 years with KTM. He sees his new love Honda as “the Ferrari of motocross, a top team that you want to ride for once.”

Compare Herlings’ transition with Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, who left for Ferrari after seven world titles with Mercedes. “Although I do hope that I will do better at Honda than Lewis at Ferrari,” he laughs.

The rumor that had been circulating in the MXGP rider quarters for a long time was official on January 1: 31-year-old Herlings, five-time world champion and record holder with 112 Grand Prix victories, is switching to the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Honda.

Herlings did well at the Austrian brand, but Honda still beckoned. “We have won so much together. But things have happened. KTM had financial problems, which have now been resolved. And I was actually looking forward to a new challenge at Honda.”

His switch is “quite a thing” in the motocross world, Herlings realizes. “I don’t think there has ever been a driver who has ridden for so long with the same brand and then does this.”

‘One thing’ for Herlings is also the Honda motorcycle on which he wants to go for his sixth world title in the autumn of his career. “It’s like exchanging Earth for Pluto, everything is different,” says Herlings. “The bike, the clothing, the sponsors and the staff I have to work with.”

This staff includes about twenty Japanese from Honda who will come to southern Spain next week, where Herlings has settled to get used to his new machine. “They are going to help me make a bike that I am very happy with. The only one I brought from KTM is my training mechanic. He knows how I want my bike.”

“It’s like a relationship, you have to get used to each other and adapt,” says Herlings after the first introduction to the motorcycle. “At KTM everything was more or less the same every year. This Honda, for example, has an aluminum frame, which I haven’t ridden in seven years.”

“Do you want a short or long gearbox? Do you want the suspension hard or soft? There are a hundred things about the motorcycle. But the clothing also plays a role. For example, I wear a different brand of boots here than at KTM. We have been testing with them for three days now. That is millimeter work, because you want full grip.”

Herlings also knows that there are fellow cross riders for whom a rigorous switch to another brand was certainly not successful. Such as the Spaniard Jorge Prado, who, after a bad year in America, will exchange his Kawasaki for the trusted KTM in 2026, on which he won four world titles.

“Yes, such a transition sometimes goes wrong,” says Herlings. “Was it the rider? Was it the engine? Or a combination of factors? Prado went from the MXGP to the Supercross in America, a completely different discipline. Compare it to a cyclist who goes mountain biking.”

Herlings has no guarantees that things will go smoothly for him. “There is time pressure. I have little time to make the adjustment. I am 31, I will still be racing for two or three years and may only get a few more chances at the world title. The first Grand Prix of the season is in two months’ time. So we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. It is now important to stay intact, test well and then start the season with a bang.”

When asked whether he could become world champion this year with his ‘new relationship’, Herlings answers: “I don’t know why not. After everything I’ve been through, I no longer have any problems. Last season, after my cruciate ligament injury, I was only really fit for the last five matches and I won three of them. That tells me that I can still do it.”