As the sole UK distributor of both Bridgestone’s Battlecross tyres, along with Kenda’s motocross and enduro range, we’ve been offering a tyre support programme to teams and riders for several years.
Every year, we receive a growing number of applications from riders hoping to represent one of our two house brands, and with limited resources, it’s never possible to help everyone.
So how do you try and stand out from the crowd?
We’ve put together a few helpful tips and pointers which should help next time you’re applying to us, or another company, for assistance with your racing.
We ask that any team or rider who wants to make an application for tyre support completes an online form, so we can find out a bit more about you and your recent race career.
It is so important that you take the time to fill this in properly, giving as much information as you can.
Every year we receive a number of applications with “not sure” as the tyre sizes required, or “can’t remember” for the previous season’s race results.
No prospective supporter is going to do this research for you – if you can’t remember you tyre size, check the bike. If you need a reminder of your results, take the time to look on your chosen club’s results pages.
Missing information will most likely see your application go to the bottom of the pile.
Race wins and championship wins aren’t everything.
Every brand certainly wants to back a potential title contender, but plenty of other factors come in to play when we’re looking at applicants.
They’re covered in some of the other tabs!
In the age of social media, it’s essential that you have some kind of presence on the likes of Facebook and Instagram for example.
Not only do you need to be using one or more of these services, you need to be presenting yourself in a positive way.
Are you posting things regularly? Are you using good quality images and videos? Are you tagging your current sponsors? Are you remembering to wear your podium cap?
When we sit down with our manufacturer partners, we’re looking for pro-active riders who will keep us and their audience updated with quality content, on a regular basis!
This kind of leads of from social media.
We don’t expect every rider to email a race report to us after every round – if you’re tagging our social media accounts online, we’ll see them anyway!
A consistent, well written race report helps us to keep on top of how you are doing during the season, and gives us some content to work with too.
If you have a bad weekend, don’t stop making that effort when the time comes to update us and your followers.
A regular podium challenger who doesn’t react well to a bad weekend at the track isn’t an attractive proposition!
We want to see a rider who can reflect on a bad performance, and use it to push themselves to improve in a few weeks time.
What first impression will we get from your social media accounts if we were to check them right now?
How do you represent your sponsors and supporters on your bike?
There’s nothing worse than seeing a sticker belonging to another tyre brand on a rider’s bike once we’ve agreed to support you.
When we’re assessing which riders we’ll continue to support the following season, it is something we would definitely take into account.
Cambrian Tyres are a trade supplier, and with the exception of the tyre support programme, we don’t deal directly with the public.
The aim of the tyre support programme is to raise the profile of the Bridgestone and Kenda brands and drive more customers to our retailers so they can sell more tyres.
One rider who clearly understands this is young Lewis Hurdsman, along with parents Sharon and Lance.
Lewis has been a fantastic ambassador for Kenda since the start of 2020. His social media updates are consistent, the bike and kit look superb, and a WOR Winter Series win came as an added bonus.
But more importantly, Lewis and his family completely understand the spirit of the support programme we offer. Lance knows the range of tyres available, and even sat down with a local dealer who maintains their bike, John Kendrick-Jones, and when they get someone asking them about Lewis’s tyres, the family pass them on to JKJ as their nearest Kenda retailer.
This a partnership between us and you, and we both want to get something out it in equal measure.
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve already announced that we will automatically extend any motocross or enduro tyre support for the 2020 season to the end of the 2021 season.
We will be taking further applications later this year, so keep an eye on our social media for the link when it goes live!
