ANAHEIM, California: It took two seasons of 250 SuperMotocross competition to develop the Factory Triumph 450 motorcycle. Unfortunately, a string of injuries near the end of the 2025 season, affecting all of Triumph’s riders, left huge questions marks over who would have the honor of debuting the bike.
Jordon Smith was rumored to be on the bike — a rumor that was eventually confirmed — and Mikkel Haarup was announced as a 450 rider for the outdoor motocross portion of the season. Still, there was no official announcement of who would ride the iconic British bike in the premier division.
“You guys probably actually knew before me,” Forkner told NBC Sports on press day for the opening round of the SuperMotocross season at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. "[Steve] Matthes asked me at the press conference for media day that he heard [that was happening]. I don’t how he even heard this, because at that time I had had one or two days on the 450.”
Media Days were held one month ago.
“He asked me, and I am not just going to lie about it, I just was honest and said that pretty much exactly what I said was at that point I had ridden it and we had early started negotiating with contracts and stuff, but we hadn’t fully made a decision,” Forkner continued. “So I’m sure that after hearing that, everybody [saw the] titles of ‘Forkner on a 450,’ so the broad audience that saw that stuff, they probably thought that I was on a 450 before I even knew if I would be riding the 450.”
The official announcement followed: Forkner would ride the 450 for the first six rounds as Smith recovered from off-season shoulder surgery.
Six weeks was a perfect amount of time. Due to a quirk of the schedule, the 250 Supercross East division would not begin until Round 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Forkner was scheduled to ride in that division since he had also suffered injuries during the 2025 season.
The ambiguity shifted. Forkner was healthy enough to compete and putting him on the 450 for those first six rounds made sense to break in the bike and loosen up the rider.
But now, there are open questions about whether he will remain on the bike as part of a two-man team in the big bike class.
“As of now, if I’m basing how I feel on the bike currently, I would probably rather stay on the 450 just because I feel like I click with that bike,” Forkner said. “I feel like it opens up my riding style a little bit better and lets me ride a little bit more fluidly and how I know how to ride, rather than having to ride the 250 so hard. The 450, you don’t have to ride it as hard since it’s faster. ... Based off how I feel off the bike right now, I would probably like to stay in the 450 class, but that could change after [the race]. It’s kind of just taking a race by race and seeing where I fit in.”
No matter what happens, Forkner will get a footnote in the record book. After the Brits took their time to get things right on the 450 bike, Factory Triumph and Factory Ducati will debut side-by-side in the opening round. This will be a race within the race as the more experience team in SuperMotocross, Triumph, relies on a rider making his 450 debut. Ducati has Justin Barcia and Dylan Ferrandis in the seat as they compete in their first ever SuperMotocross race.
Which will prevail? It’s worth watching to get the answer to that question.
