Pit Bits: Oakland

Welcome to Oakland. This one's a dual football/baseball stadium, so it's like a big bowl.

We dig the details on the GEICO Honda bikes, like the way they replace the standard clip connectors with the ones here.

Rather than use aftermarket plastics for the shrouds (which were thicker, they instead widened the radiators the same amount and used stock shrouds.

Ricki Rock is replacing Derik Dwyer for wrenching duties on Cameron McAdoo's bike. Derik and his wife are on maternity watch.

The foam under the seat on the GEICO Honda bikes? That's to help quiet them for sound testing.

The JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing 250s have a different look this weekend, to match the gear that the riders are wearing.

Kaz makes his mark to consistently measure sag on the back of Aaron Plessinger's swingarm.

Dialing in the starting setting for the day.

Like we've seen on some of the other brands with e-start, the Monster Energy Kawasaki bikes have a secondary starter button on the frame spare just in case of crash damage to the primary one.

The Monster Energy Kawasakis also have a very clean data port plug-in.

Joey Savatgy isn't afraid of the BFRC shock.

Check out the angular design on Joey Savatgy's Just 1 helmet.

Jacob Hayes has been rocking some new Moose gear the last couple of weekends.

We dig this custom 6D for Justin Hill.

That's the least blue we've seen on a Yamaha factory rider in a while.

Why the doubles on Shane McElrath's bike? The one on the left is his Polar heart rate monitor. The Apple Watch on the right transmits heart rate data from Shane to be used for TV.

The Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM team helmets for the weekend. Lots of teams are still using the Shock Doctor dryers for helmets and gloves.

Shane McElrath uses the LED tach on his front fender, while his teammate, Sean Cantrell, does not.

Justin Barcia's in action, despite his early exit in the final main last weekend. Yep, he's still got the bruised tailbone, and he said that while he did do some riding with it this week, it had actually gotten worse, and not better.

So what happened to Chad Reed's bike in the second main at A2? One of the clutch cover bolts stripped out, and they did a quick insert fix, but then another bolt also stripped out, and they were afraid it wouldn't make it to the finish. After heading back to the truck, they replaced the primary cover (which is made of magnesium), and all was good after that.

Dean Wilson is still on his own program, but we did notice that his mechanic, Paul Perebijnos, was using one of the team's radios.

The Husky team had a break-in on one of their rental cars on Friday, which apparently netted the thieves (among other things), a set of keys for one of the team semis. Everyone was being pretty careful about locking things up in the pits. Like Tyler Bowers said, "I can't afford to lose anything."

The MCR bikes sure seem to be working well for the guys this season.

Whoa, how about this sweet Moto-X Fox Suzuki Pat Richter replica? The Legends and Heroes guys had it on display in the infield during the track walk.

The Legends and Heroes booth had a wide variety of bikes, including these Pro Circuit bikes.

This Maico was cool. We talked to one guy there, who said he'd lost his in the Paradise fire, and it had been reduced to a puddle of molten metal.

Check out how simple everything is on this '67 Husky 360 Viking. Like the footpegs, brake pedal, and cases.

Let's check out the top five times in each class. Ken Roczen was on top of the time sheets...

...Cole Seely put in his best effort this season, with second...

...Joey Savatgy was third...

...Marvin Musquin was fourth...

...and Cooper Webb grabbed the fifth spot.

Dylan Ferrandis was the top 250 qualifier...

...last weeke's winner, Shane McElrath, was second...

...RJ Hampshire goes all spider monkey on his bike during qualifying, where he was third...

...Jimmy DeCotis was fourth in the 250s. Here's a peek at the black/white Answer gear that the JGR 250 guys are wearing this weekend...

...Adam Cianciarulo was fifth.

How deep were the whoops during track walk? Vince Friese demonstrates.

Eli Tomac and Justin Hill are scouting for their first win of the season,.

Aaron Plessinger was putting in some social media time during the track walk with his Snap glasses.

Mitchell Harrison is a much happier guy after making the main at round three.

Ken Roczen pulling a souvenir from the whoop section.

This must be Adam Cianciarulo's before coffee face.

All the riders (like Shane McElrath, right) thoroughly enjoy the rider's meeting.

Fantic had a cool demo program for their e-bikes at Oakland. Team staff could demo a bike into and out of the stadium, which was much better than walking up and down the loooong ramp. GuyB tried one coming back out, and was side-by-side with Roger DeCoster.

Glendale winner, Blake Baggett, dodging some roost in the sand section after a very big wall jump.

Scott Champion is doing the West rounds with the Rockwell Nuclear Blast team, and will switch to a 450 when the series goes East. The other good news is that he's okay after a tough scrub-to-crash last weekend.

With the German SX season done, it's cool to see Cole Martinez back in action here.

Exit, stage left. Gage Schehr has been battling with the whoops this season.

Bummer. Justin Starling has hit the ground a few times this season, and got landed on in one of the practices here. Last we heard, he may have a broken wrist.

With Supercross Futures here tomorrow, there were plenty of Kawasaki's amateurs on hand. Here, Seth Hammaker, Stiles Robertson, and Ryder DiFrancesco check in with recent Team Green grad, Garrett Marchbanks, after one of the practices.

This is the "home" race for the H.E.P. Suzuki squad, and they had plenty of fans stop by.

Not all autograph lines are the same length, but the collectors are just as happy.

We frequently see Dylan Ferrandis and Marvin Musquin together, whether it's on the track walk, or talking things over before the final practice.

Will we see Eli Tomac grab his first overall of the season tonight? His momentum has been shifting to the positive side, like grabbing the win in the final main last week.