Seiji Ishii
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adventure writer. trainer. coach. dad.
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Articles by Seiji Ishii
FLO Motorsports Foot Peg Review (Stark Varg)
Written By: Seiji Ishii There still aren’t many aftermarket parts for the Stark Varg, and the stock foot pegs are already excellent. They are also some of the best-looking OEM pegs I have seen. But where I ride, and the way I ride, I wanted more support and a more planted feeling under my boots. The Varg doesn’t come with foot pegs that need replacing right away. The stock pegs work well, they look great, and on a bike as clean as the Stark, that matters.
Leatt X-Frame Knee Brace Review
Written By: Seiji Ishii I have tiny knees and ankles, bigger thighs and calves than my joints suggest, and enough tibial torsion (bowleggedness) that a lot of knee braces fight my legs before I even get on the bike. The Leatt X-Frame braces are the best-fitting off-the-shelf knee braces I’ve worn in the last decade. I’ve also had multiple procedures on one knee, so I am not casual about knee protection.
Your Fitness Didn’t Disappear. Your Schedule Did.
Most riders don’t need a complete reset when training falls apart. They need a smaller week they can actually repeat. This is the time of year when a lot of riders start thinking they lost fitness. They had a decent rhythm going for a while. Riding was consistent, gym work was happening, maybe nutrition was better, and the week had some shape to it. Then summer gets weird. Heat stacks up. Travel happens. School starts. Work gets busier. Race weekends take more out of them than expected.
How Many Moto Summers Do You Have Left? | Coach Seiji’s Master Class
By Seiji Ishii If you keep saying you want to ride, race, or come back to motocross someday, stop counting years like they are all the same. The real question is how many summers you have left where your body can still take the abuse, recover from it, and let you ride the way you want to ride. When you are young, you do not think about riding seasons as a limited resource.
Don’t Waste The Season
By: Seiji Ishii Loretta’s is over, and for a lot of amateur riders, the emotional part of the season is finally starting to come down. That is when the season becomes useful—if you are willing to look at it honestly instead of just moving on or overreacting. For a lot of families, Loretta’s feels like the end of the year even though amateur national racing starts back up soon and the pros still have races left. The LL season has its own arc.
Don’t Waste The Season
By: Seiji Ishii Loretta’s is over, and for a lot of amateur riders, the emotional part of the season is finally starting to come down. That is when the season becomes useful—if you are willing to look at it honestly instead of just moving on or overreacting. For a lot of families, Loretta’s feels like the end of the year even though amateur national racing starts back up soon and the pros still have races left. The LL season has its own arc.
Your Season Isn’t a Failure Because You’re Not at Loretta’s
Loretta’s deserves respect. It just doesn’t get to decide whether the rest of your season counted. Every year during Loretta’s week, riders who are not there start measuring themselves against the riders who are. They watch the clips, scroll the results, see the bikes, the team shirts, the family effort, the rough track, and the level of commitment it takes to even get on that starting line. For some riders, that is motivating. For others, it starts to feel like a verdict.
Training: Stop Proving. Start Preparing
By Seiji Ishii The final few weeks before a big amateur national can make normally smart riders do strange things. A rider who has trained consistently for months suddenly wants to squeeze in a few more brutal motos. A parent starts asking if they should add another workout because another kid is still training hard.
Training: Stop Proving. Start Preparing
By Seiji Ishii The final few weeks before a big amateur national can make normally smart riders do strange things. A rider who has trained consistently for months suddenly wants to squeeze in a few more brutal motos. A parent starts asking if they should add another workout because another kid is still training hard.
The Event is Bigger. Your Job Isn’t.
The more important a race becomes in your mind, the more important it is to keep your process exactly the same. Every year, riders qualify for Loretta's, a National, Mammoth, Mini O's, or some other race they've been thinking about for months. By the time they unload the bike, they're convinced this weekend is different. In some ways, they're right. The competition is deeper, the atmosphere is bigger, and the consequences feel more significant.
Tusk Moto Toolbox With Tools
By Seiji Ishii For decades, my system for going to the track or trailhead was pretty simple. On Friday, I’d walk into my shop, grab the tools I thought I might need, throw them into a toolbox, and head out for the weekend. It never really worked. By Sunday afternoon, the toolbox was a disorganized pile of tools. I’d get home, put some back in the shop, leave others in the box, and the next weekend I’d repeat the whole process.
The Fitness You Lose Isn’t the Fitness You Think
By Seiji Ishii One of the most common conversations I have with riders starts about ten minutes into their first ride back after some time off. “I lost everything.” Usually, they haven’t. One of the most common mistakes I see is riders confusing a loss of sharpness with a loss of fitness. The two are related, but they aren’t the same thing. Treating them like they’re interchangeable often creates bigger problems than the time off ever did.
The Myth of Greatness
By Seiji Ishii Ken Roczen admitting he battles severe anxiety may have helped more riders than his winning the championship. Fresh off winning his first AMA Supercross Championship, Ken Roczen stood on stage emotionally drained. Not hyped up. Not pretending to be untouchable. Not giving a polished speech about confidence and momentum. He looked exhausted, and honestly, that’s part of why the moment mattered.
The Myth of Greatness
By Seiji Ishii Ken Roczen admitting he battles severe anxiety may have helped more riders than his winning the championship. Fresh off winning his first AMA Supercross Championship, Ken Roczen stood on stage emotionally drained. Not hyped up. Not pretending to be untouchable. Not giving a polished speech about confidence and momentum. He looked exhausted, and honestly, that’s part of why the moment mattered.
The Race Started Way Before the Gate Dropped
A lot of riders start racing mentally days or weeks before the gate drops, only to wonder why they have little left when it finally drops. A client called me after a race recently, frustrated because he knew he should have ridden better. What made the conversation interesting was that there wasn't an obvious problem to solve. The bike was good. His fitness was good. Practice had gone well. Travel and logistics had gone smoothly.
Your Fitness Didn’t Disappear. Summer Showed Up.
Every year, riders get fit in decent weather, summer shows up, and suddenly, they think their fitness has disappeared. It didn’t. The environment changed, and the cost of the work changed with it. Heat is its own stressor, and moto makes that stress worse than almost any mainstream endurance sport because we do damn near everything possible to trap heat. One of your body’s primary cooling mechanisms is evaporative heat loss.
Data Isn’t the Driver. You Are.
By Seiji Ishii Self-monitoring tools can help you train better—or they can stall you out. The difference is how you react to what they tell you. The Device Isn’t the Problem It seems like everyone is running something now—Whoop, Garmin, HRV, sleep scores, diet tracking. None of that is the issue. If anything, it’s useful. You’ve got more information than riders ever had before. Where it can go sideways is what you do after you look at it. Most riders don’t have a data problem.
Data Isn’t the Driver. You Are.
By Seiji Ishii Self-monitoring tools can help you train better—or they can stall you out. The difference is how you react to what they tell you. The Device Isn’t the Problem It seems like everyone is running something now—Whoop, Garmin, HRV, sleep scores, diet tracking. None of that is the issue. If anything, it’s useful. You’ve got more information than riders ever had before. Where it can go sideways is what you do after you look at it. Most riders don’t have a data problem.
Did Fatigue Build, or Did It Arrive?
Most people think fatigue is the goal of training. They finish a week feeling smoked and take that as proof it worked. Legs heavy, timing off, everything a little harder—that must mean they’re getting fitter. Sometimes that’s true. A lot of the time, it isn’t. The difference comes down to one question almost nobody asks: Did fatigue build, or did it arrive? That answer tells you whether your training is actually working, or just piling up. The fatigue you want doesn’t show up all at once. It builds.
The Day is a Terrible Scoreboard
By: Seiji Ishii I’m dealing with this right now. I pushed through the weekend because I wanted to feel like I gave everything I had, and now I’m sitting here sick. That wasn’t bad luck. That was the cost. If you use the day as your scoreboard, you’ll make bad decisions. You’ll take a session that was supposed to be controlled and turn it into a grinder because it doesn’t feel like enough. You’ll stack hard days because they feel productive.
Close the Damn Gap
The gap between decision and action is where everything can fall apart. Not because you’re lazy, and not because you don’t care. It falls apart because there’s too much in the way. Every extra step between “I’m going to ride” and actually riding is another chance to hesitate, overthink, or push it off. That’s the real problem. Not motivation. Not discipline. Friction. You don’t need to get more fired up. You need to make it easier to start. Most people try to solve inconsistency by getting more motivated.
It’s Good Now. I’m Waiting for the Hammer.
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Coach’s Cut: Discipline vs. Desire
Written By: Seiji Ishii Why training based on how you feel can quietly wreck your riding. The disciplined rider does not train based on desire. They train based on condition. That sounds straightforward until you look at how training decisions actually get made during the week. It’s easy to blur the line between what sounds good that day and what your body can actually absorb. A session that was supposed to stay controlled drifts harder because the legs feel good.
Coach’s Cut: Discipline vs. Desire
Written By: Seiji Ishii Why training based on how you feel can quietly wreck your riding. The disciplined rider does not train based on desire. They train based on condition. That sounds straightforward until you look at how training decisions actually get made during the week. It’s easy to blur the line between what sounds good that day and what your body can actually absorb. A session that was supposed to stay controlled drifts harder because the legs feel good.
The Injuries You Can Prevent Aren’t Crashes
This Isn’t About Crashes. Crashes are part of riding. Sometimes they happen, and there’s not much you can do about it. That’s always going to be there. This is about something different. The injuries that don’t come out of nowhere. The ones that build over time, show up early, and give you a window to deal with them before they turn into something that takes you off the bike. You feel something before it becomes a problem.
Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road Review
Tested By: Seiji Ishii If you ride dirt bikes long enough, you’re going to crash. Whether it’s a front-end washout, a swap gone wrong, or a simple tip-over on a trail, it happens. What you’re wearing when it does is the only part you control. Airbag protection has been used in road racing and rally for years, but until recently, it wasn’t something most off-road riders could access.
Getting Back Into Moto: Why the First Two Weeks Feel Brutal
Returning to riding after time away can be a shock to the system—even if you stayed fit. Even riders who stay fit through cycling, gym work, or other training often discover that motocross demands a very different kind of fitness. The first couple of weeks back on the bike can feel far harder than expected—but there’s a reason for that. The “What Happened to My Fitness?” Phase I just got back into regular riding after more than a year off. And before that, I only rode a few times a year.
Coach’s Cut: It’s Not the Bike
Written By Seiji Ishii Riders love bike upgrades. That’s probably why you’re here. You got a part in the mail, and you’re fired up. Surely this throttle tube is the key. As you shove a Totino’s pizza pocket down your gullet and wash it down with a Coke, you head straight to the garage to install the performance upgrade. But is it really? I’ve spent most of my career coaching and observing sports where equipment matters—motocross, cycling, and climbing.
Coach’s Cut: It’s Not the Bike
Written By Seiji Ishii Riders love bike upgrades. That’s probably why you’re here. You got a part in the mail, and you’re fired up. Surely this throttle tube is the key. As you shove a Totino’s pizza pocket down your gullet and wash it down with a Coke, you head straight to the garage to install the performance upgrade. But is it really? I’ve spent most of my career coaching and observing sports where equipment matters—motocross, cycling, and climbing.
Tough Riders Get Hurt. They Don’t Win Seasons.
Most injuries aren’t bad luck. They’re the result of ignoring obvious warning signs until the body forces a stop. Most riders who get hurt aren’t lacking toughness. If anything, they have too much pride in it. They ride tired. They lift sore. They convince themselves that pushing through is a virtue at all times. In motocross, that mindset earns respect — and sometimes it wins races. But most non-contact injuries don’t happen in championship-deciding moments.
Sauna and Cold Plunge: Stress That Helps — or Stress That Hurts
Everyone online treats sauna and cold plunging like automatic recovery. The message is simple: do hard things, get resilient, repeat daily. It sounds disciplined, and it looks disciplined, but that doesn’t make it universally smart. Heat and cold are stressors. They can produce adaptation. They can also interfere with it. If you train seriously — or you’re carrying real-life stress — the difference matters. Both sauna and cold exposure are hormetic stressors.
Coach’s Cut: You Got “Strong.” But Did You Get Faster?
Stacking more plates every week only builds one lane of performance — and motocross doesn’t live in one lane. By Seiji Ishii Just lifting weights and trying to lift more all the time isn’t the whole picture. That’s just force development. The other lanes are tissue tolerance, power (speed of force development), and durability (submaximal contractions over long periods / muscular endurance). Moto needs all four. If you only chase more weight, you ignore the rate of force and repeatability.
Coach’s Cut: The Two-Lap Lie/How Early Speed Steals Your Best Moto
The Two-Lap Lie: How Early Speed Steals Your Best Moto By Seiji Ishii Two good laps can be the worst thing that happens to your pacing. You know the moment. You roll out, and the track feels good. Fresh enough to be forgiving. Your timing clicks. The bike feels planted. You hit two clean laps, and your brain tries to cash them as proof: Okay — I’m so on point today. Time to turn it up. That’s where a lot of ride days get quietly ruined. This isn’t about playing it safe or avoiding crashes.
A Line We Shouldn’t Cross: Why Alex Honnold’s Live Skyscraper Climb Is a Step Too Far
I like Alex Honnold. A lot. Not in the casual, “I watched the movie” way. I like Honnold, the person. I particularly respect something that’s rare in a modern celebrity: He’s exactly the same person on-camera that he is away from it. The bluntness. The oddball pragmatism. The almost clinical way he talks about risk, fear, and effort. Most public figures come across like they’re giving a performance that’s on-brand.
Coach’s Cut: Stop Paying Twice - Don’t Train When Your Body is Still Fighting
Written By: Seiji Ishii Why “easy motos” when you’re 70% isn’t discipline — it’s delayed progress. In the past, I attended every round of SX. Between Anaheim 1 and Round 2, it seemed like half of the pit crews and riders were coughing. At home, it’s the same pattern: you catch something, you feel 70%, and you start bargaining. “Just a spin.” “Just some easy motos.” But training stress only helps if you can adapt to it. If you can’t, it’s just extra debt — and it pushes real training further away.
Campervan DIY Build Sequence: The Steps to Success
Corey at Viewpoint Campervans gave me this build order. It reflects a sequence tested repeatedly at the professional level. This isn’t Reddit theory or advice borrowed from an Instagram or YouTube “van lifer.” It’s a sequence refined in a professional shop environment, where mistakes cost real time and real money. You don’t need to be a carpenter or electrician to build a functional campervan. But you do need to respect the sequence.
Save Time and Money: Complete Parts List for Your Dream DIY Campervan Build
Most van build guides assume you can build cabinetry and wire 12V systems. They assume van interiors are square. They’re not. Those curved walls and angled ribs make cabinet building exponentially harder. They think you have more than hand tools — or will buy them. Where do those go? I’m not a carpenter or electrician. But I’ve stumbled my way through several builds to know where DIYers waste money and time. This is the parts roadmap I wish I’d had.
Save Time and Money: Complete Parts List for Your Dream DIY Campervan Build
10 hours ago 🚀 FREE Training - How-to-Live Zero-Cost Vanlife: https://bit.ly/3L15isz 📖 The Van Conversion Guide Book: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/ 🎓 The DIYhero Course: https://diyhero.me/ 🚐 ABOUT THIS VAN 🚐 Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socal_vanlife/ RENT THEIR VAN: https://www.outdoorsy.com/rv-rental/san-diego_ca/2021_dodge_ram-promaster_469081-listing?ref=gabrieled063927 Step inside this beautiful RAM ProMaster van build owned by Gabe & Silvia, San...
State Bicycle Co. Titanium All-Road Review: Anti-Glamour Gravel Champion
Since launching in 2009, State Bicycle Co. has carved out a reputation for delivering functionality without fluff. Launched this year, the Titanium All-Road certainly fits that bill — quiet and unremarkable, other than the iridescence of its State logos. Still fun as hell, though. Bombing the first descent. Air roaring past my ears. Rocks pinging off the downtube at 30+ mph. Teeth clenched, bike launching off square edges, bottles launched. I didn’t once think about the bike.
Building a Lightweight Modular Campervan: Less Is More
I’ve spent decades shaving weight — grams off a bike build, scrutinizing pack weight before a climb. Weight kills performance. Every. Single. Time. But I didn’t truly understand how dramatically weight affects a vehicle until I drove my empty cargo van home from the dealer. The Lightbulb Moment This van had massively upgraded suspension, but it still didn’t handle nearly as well as the stock cargo van; (photo/Seiji Ishii) I’d previously owned vans with heavy suspension modifications.
Building a Lightweight Modular Campervan: Less Is More
The Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic is automotive haute couture, a concept with cinematic style Mercedes-Benz has gone back to the 1930s for the noirish art deco design inspiration of its Vision Iconic concept; a quietly menacing massive-bonneted electric and autonomous grand tourer. It’s an elegant yet cartoonish machine, and for all its futurism and the svelte ground-hugging lines, it’s …
How to Watch Red Bull Rampage 2025 Mountain Biking Live
Support us! GearJunkie may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More The 19th iteration of Red Bull Rampage in 24 years is set to return with a climactic, 2-day competition this October. After the introduction of a women’s division in 2024, the anticipation for this year’s event is high. The 2025 Red Bull Rampage women’s division will take place on Thursday, Oct. 16, and the men’s will kick off on Saturday, Oct. 18.
How to Watch Red Bull Rampage 2025 Mountain Biking Live
The 19th iteration of Red Bull Rampage in 24 years is set to return with a climactic, 2-day competition this October. After the introduction of a women’s division in 2024, the anticipation for this year’s event is high. The 2025 Red Bull Rampage women’s division will take place on Thursday, Oct. 16, and the men’s will kick off on Saturday, Oct. 18. For nearly a quarter century, the red-hued hills of Utah have been the ultimate stage for a competition featuring the world’s best mountain bikers.
How to Watch Red Bull Rampage 2025
The big news for last year is the inclusion of a women’s event, which takes place on Thursday. However, this year’s Rampage will feature 12 female riders rather than eight – and they’ll compete at a completely different venue from the men. The men will take their runs on Saturday. While a race down some of the most jaw-dropping, hand-sculpted gravity lines ever constructed may seem a bit frightening, riders and their dedicated diggers hope for fortunate days to reach a coveted podium spot.
Sprinter vs. Transit vs. ProMaster: There Is Only One Right Choice for My DIY Campervan Build
When I started planning my latest campervan build, I should have known better than to fall into the rabbit hole of the great chassis debate. Mercedes Sprinter or Ford Transit? What about the Ram ProMaster? Every aspiring van lifer must make this pivotal decision. Having owned or used all three platforms for over a decade, I was still second-guessing my choice. But after over 100,000 miles of experience, I made the right decision.
Sprinter vs. Transit vs. ProMaster: There Is Only One Right Choice for My DIY Campervan Build
Trump Shakes Up Wall Street With Orders on 401(k)s, ‘Debanking’ Executive orders would give Wall Street one change it craves—and another it fears A pair of executive orders President Trump is expected to sign Thursday shows how he is beginning to reshape the world of banking and high finance—some in ways Wall Street likes, and others it feared. One order …
Tour de France: 10 Wacky Rules of the Greatest Cycling Race in the World
Riders must constantly jockey for positions with the athletes around them to gain every possible advantage. The Tour de France’s workings can be a bit tough to understand in its own right. However, in addition to the complicated race format, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) regulates the race and has precise rules that all riders and team members must follow. Some restrictions, like not cutting the course, seem obvious. Others seem arbitrary, unnecessary, or downright weird.
How to Watch Red Bull Rampage 2024 Mountain Biking Live!
The 18th iteration of Red Bull Rampage in 23 years is set to reach its much-anticipated climax on October 10 and 12. The big news this year is the inclusion of a women’s event, which takes place on Thursday. The men will return on Saturday. While a race down some of the most jaw-dropping, hand-sculpted gravity lines ever constructed may seem a bit frightening, riders and their dedicated diggers hope for fortunate days to reach a coveted podium spot.
Fast, Fun, Fancy Electrified Dual Sport: 2025 Zero DSR/X Motorcycle Review
The idea of electric motorcycles is compelling, but efforts have come up short for me. The range has been horrific, and the bikes seemed not fully baked. After hearing from moto friends and journalists that Zero Motorcycle models fared well, I had high hopes for the DSR/X dual-sport machine. The 2025 Zero Motorcycles DSR/X is an impressive-looking electric dual-sport/adventure motorcycle.
Watch Babsi Zangerl Become the First Person to Flash Yosemite's El Capitan
Support us! GearJunkie may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More Austrian climber Babsi Zangerl climbed Freerider (VI, 5.13a) on her first attempt, ground-up, without a single fall. She had never touched the route, and even if she had boggled her first step onto the notoriously slippery granite monolith, the attempt would have been over. There is only one time to earn a “flash,” and that’s the first time you touch the route.
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