Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Dirt Action

WIL RUPRECHT PHOTO ASHENHURST The 18-year-old signed with the Active8 Yamaha team for 2017 and, under the watchful eye of manager AJ Roberts and with advice from teammates Josh Green and Beau Ralston, his style is evolving and his speed increasing. Wil is all about enduro and has plenty of wins to his name already, with excellent junior results including the title in 2013 and 2014. The shift from Sherco to Yamaha was a big one as the two bikes feel nothing alike but Wil is putting in the work and you can expect to see him rise through the ranks in the next few years. Europe may be on the cards as well. BMW F 800 GS ADVENTURE PHOTO ASHENHURST BMW has been doing adventure for a mighty long…

▪ 21-inch wire-spoked wheel at the front, 18-inch at the rear with Continental TKC 80 tyres, sized 90/90-21 and 150/70-18 ▪ KTM’s signature tubular trellis frame, steel crash bars and a high-strength, diecast, open-lattice swingarm are more eager than ever to earn their stripes ▪ The die-cast, open-lattice swingarm is not only particularly light; it’s also precisely manufactured. The design has been optimised for stiffness and stability while still offering excellent flex characteristics ▪ Brembo brakes: Up front you’ll find twin 320mm discs, radially mounted, 4-piston fixed calipers and a radial master cylinder. At the rear, excess speed is taken care of by a ]generously dimensioned 267mm disc. And, in case of an emergency, Bosch’s two-channel 9ME C-ABS ▪ 48mm WP UPSD fork with extra stiff springs in the front,…

KYLE PETERS: WILSON’S COOLAIR MOTUL SUZUKI 1. KNEE BRACES: Alpinestars Fluid Pro Knee Brace 2. HELMET: Bell Moto 9 Flex Vice, Blue Yellow 3. JERSEY: Alpinestars Techstar Factory, Petrol Yellow/Fluoro Red 4. GOGGLES: Progrip 3200 FL MX 5. BODY ARMOUR: Alpinestars A-1 Roost Guard 6. PANTS: Alpinestars Techstar Factory, Petrol Yellow/Fluoro Red 7. SOCKS: Alpinestars Long Tech MX Sock 8. UNDER JERSEY: Alpinestar Race Tech Top 9. GLOVES: Alpinestars Radar Tracker, Fluoro Yellow Black 10. BOOTS: Alpinestars Tech 10, White…

It’s fair to say there’s been an influx of Europeandesigned and made helmets into the Australian moto scene over the past couple of years. One of the newest additions to this new line of helmets is the Just1 J12 Carbon Helmet, imported into Australian by Ficeda Accessories. Designed and manufactured in Italy, the Just1 J12 Carbon helmet is certainly aimed at the top-shelf lineup of helmets in the off-road world. With a modern “Euro” design incorporating sharp lines, the top-of-the-line Just1 helmet weighs in at just 1100g, making it a super-light lid. Starting at $629.95 for the Solid Black Carbon, the J12 Carbon helmet is also available in three Dominator colour ways at $649.96 as well as a Rockstar edition for $699.95. After their worldwide release in 2012, Just1 helmets…

The term “privateer team”, in a lot of ways, is a bit of a poor fit in the world of Australian motocross and supercross. Sure, we all know what a privateer rider is: one who travels the country on his or her own dime chasing the dream of racing a national championship. But what about those people who spend up big, using their own money to support riders to live out their dreams and chase ultimate championship glory — the privateer team owners who put it all on the line with varying amounts of support? Using an ultra-strict definition, apart from the KTM Australia Racing team — a completely in-house effort by KTM Australia employees — and the Yamaha Yamalube Under-19 team that’s run from the Yamaha Queensland headquarters, every…

All-new motocross team Synep Racing is set to enter its debut MX Nationals season. It’s a close-knit team that will be fielding Husqvarna machinery throughout the year. We were lucky enough to catch up with the team and learn all about its 2017 campaign. “We started the team to try and offer some more riders support,” said team manager Mark Paterson. “We thought that MX Nationals had room for another team, so we formed our privateer outfit to help some riders follow their dreams.” The project took another step when Husqvarna teamed up with Synep: “When Nathan Crawford was signed to Monster Kawasaki, we approached Husqvarna to help fill that position and they came on board. R&D Husky in Emu Plains have also helped us heaps; anything we need they…

Each year race teams slave over workbenches, toil on dusty tracks and spend endless hours building, modifying and refining the latest bikes to get the best possible machine ready for their rider. The base they’re working from has never been better — the current lineup of bikes is stunning across the board — but it’s often the little things that make the difference and, once a rider is confident in their bike, so much of the work of getting to the front is done. In Australia we don’t have a production rule as they do in the US, so teams can build a full works bike like you see in the MXGPs or the Japanese motocross championships. The cost is prohibitive, though, and teams here have become adept at building…

BRAKING MARKER The very first step to worry about when you need to slow the bike down is choosing when to do so. Choosing the right moment to get off the throttle and on the brakes is critical; if you’re slowing for a corner it’s the difference between nailing your line in the turn or shooting off the outside of the trail. BODY POSITION To brake efficiently, it’s important to get your body in the correct position before you apply the brakes. The weight of the rider and bike is going to transfer forward when you apply the brakes so it’s important to anticipate this with your body position and set yourself to the rear of the bike. As you lean back, make sure you leave some clearance between the…

1. ECSTAR R9000 10W40 FULL SYNTHETIC ▪ Premium engine oil for Suzuki motorcycles, scooters & ATVs ▪ Improves throttle response ▪ Enhances shifting performance ▪ Reduced friction improves engine performance ▪ Contributes to improved fuel efficiency ▪ Meets and exceeds all JASO MA2 requirements ▪ Available in 1 and 4 litres 2. SIDI CROSSFIRE 3 SRS BOOTS The legendary Crossfire line has evolved again. The SIDI Crossfire 3 SRS Boots have been completely redesigned, with only the acclaimed SIDI cam-lock buckles and straps carrying over from the Crossfire 2 SRS Boots. The new inner gaiter has a larger circumference than the Crossfire 2, accommodating an even wider range of calf sizes and making for a tight seal around the rider’s lower leg no matter what knee brace system may be…

“If procrastination was a sport I’d be MVP ...” @plessinger157 “Some days I could really make it happen on Jeopardy, but others I would be standing up there holding a buzzer looking like an idiot!” @ZACHO_16 @JASON66THOMAS “YOU’VE SEEN POLICE DRAG A MAN DOWN THE AISLE A FEW TIMES IN AN OVERBOOK? WOW, UNITED FLIGHTS ARE A DIFFERENT ANIMAL THAN WHAT I’M USED TO.” @FILTHYPHIL49 “NOW I CAN JUST SIT HERE FOR THE NEXT 5 HOURS WAITING FOR THE DELAYED SUPERCROSS WITH A BROKEN LEG. SWEET.” @JeremyMartin6 “Wow, I haven’t tweeted in ages but after that move I’m left so confused it made me tweet ...”…

ROLL-OFFS: POSITIVE ▪ Provide continued clear vision with little to no litter ▪ While there’s still the chance of plastic being left behind on track, the chances are reduced and the majority of the time when broken the plastic film will still return to the pits with the rider or at least stay attached to the goggles ▪ Once set up correctly, can last an entire day without needing to be touched ▪ New roll-off technology gives a near full field of vision with each pull of the cord ROLL-OFFS: NEGATIVE ▪ Can be more difficult to set up than tear-offs ▪ The initial cost of purchase is more expensive ▪ If not set up correctly, water can get between the lens and the film, affecting vision ▪ If even…

Dean Ferris is the king of Australian motocross right now. After a long and often hard road, in 2016 the likeable 27-year-old from Kyogle in New South Wales took the most prestigious title in Australian motocross. He’s the champ now. It’s his time and frankly the sport needs a champion like him so the timing couldn’t be better. Along with the powerhouse CDR Yamaha team, Ferris is defending his title for the first time in 2017 and that’s not going to be an easy thing to do. There are a few riders looking to take that number one and no doubt Todd Waters, Kade Mosig, Kirk Gibbs, Brett Metcalfe and Kyle Peters will make it as hard as possible all year. But Dean is up for it. It’s a long…

There aren’t too many places better than the Victorian Alpine region to head out on BMW’s latest range of R 1200 GS models — especially when one of them is the new Rallye This is BMW’s latest weapon for hardcore off-road adventure riders and the model the launch was focused on. It has an updated electronics package and new longer-travel suspension but is void of a few nonessential off-road items that also shed some weight. It has a striking presence, its blue and red colour scheme giving it a motorsport kind of feel. THE RIDE Pretty much an adventure bike playground, the Victorian Alps offer all you could ask for to enjoy a few days’ riding. Top that off with absolutely perfect conditions thanks to a few days of rain…

REMEMBER WHAT YOU’RE RIDING These bikes may be built to leave the bitumen but they aren’t enduro or motocross bikes. What catches you out is that they do it so well; once you’re comfortable on a good adventure bike you tend to forget about the extra size and weight and begin to think like you would on a much lighter bike. Now, for an experienced off-road rider that means the next erosion mound you see may just look like a perfect jump — you hit it as you would on your 450 and next thing you land and break something on the bike, not because the bike wasn’t strong enough but because you just did something on it that it’s not designed to do. It’s like running your car up…

TYRES ▪ PIRELLI linkint.com.au GRAPHICS ▪ MOTO KIT motokit.com.au OILS & LUBRICANTS ▪ MOTOREX a1accessory.com.au The Sydney weather has finally cleared up so it’s been trail riding galore on the KTM 500 EXC. Greg “Hop” Masters took it out for a ride at the Louee MX complex. It was a rather muddy weekend, so the bike copped a bit of a hiding and both fork seals have started leaking. I tried popping the seal dust covers down and giving them a clean using a Rhino Fork Seal Doctor, which did improve it, but the disc side is pretty much shot. The bike is heading into MCD for its suspension service in the coming days, so it will be all guns blazing once again on the KTM 500 EXC. We use…

KTM’s famous no-compromise travel enduro, the KTM 1290 Super Adventure R, proves that brawn and brains not only go together, they belong together. Perfectly suited for Australian conditions, the 1290 Adventure R seamlessly meshes 1301cc, 140Nm of torque and 160hp together with intelligent electronic control systems to create a mile-munching omnivore, ready to carve its name into any terrain — the tougher, the better. Laidback touring? No problem. Scorching up and down the backroads? Yes, please — and feel free to throw in a big, bad stretch of dirt on the way. This extremely wide application range is made possible by the ground-breaking electronics package featuring Bosch MSC. And what’s particularly impressive is that the KTM 1290 Super Adventure R’s different guises result in virtually no perceptible compromises. The bike’s…

▪ Nickname: Lachy ▪ DOB: 27/04/1991 ▪ First Bike: QR 50 ▪ Current Ride/ Team: Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team What age did you start riding? Four When and where was your first race and how did it pan out? My first race was at Reedy Creek Motocross club day on the Gold Coast at the age of 15 on a CRF 250. I didn’t flip it off the line or anything like that so my first race went well, I guess. I remember driving through the pits and looking around and if someone had a cool sticker kit I thought they would be fast and I would get real nervous; my dad used to get up me for it all the time. It’s such a shame that track has been…

Just over a year ago I was watching my son, soon to be five years old, walking around the house, clicking and whistling to himself. He has just learnt to do both, much to the dismay of his sister who is nearly four years older but could do neither at the time. Just minutes prior I’d told him we were going riding the next day. After watching him for a few minutes, whistling and clicking, while looking around his room, piecing all his riding gear together, I realised I would most likely be a minibike parent for life. Ten years ago, things changed for me in the dirtbike world when my first child came into the world. Many a dirtbike rider will know exactly what I mean. Your first child…

There’s always a bit of excitement when organising a long-term project bike, from narrowing down the bikes you’d love to get your hands on to making phone calls and sending emails to see what’s available. In my eyes there are two paths to go down with a longterm project bike. The first is to run with a well-established bike and go to town decking it out with aftermarket parts and seeing what’s out there to enhance or personalise the bike to my liking, with a focus on trying and reviewing aftermarket parts along the way. Or — what I find more exciting and the path we’ve taken with our latest addition to the DIRT ACTION long-term test bike stable — get hold of an all-new bike, in this case Husqvarna’s…

R 1200 GS This is a new offering, a 1200 GS available with minimal electronics and a new lower price tag. It loses the full electronics package but still has ABS and traction control along with Rain and Road modes. Heated grips, tyre pressure monitoring and a centre stand are still all standard, too. You lose the nice LED headlight and spoked wheels are an option but that’s not the end of the world. If you’ve wanted to get on to an R 1200 GS but it’s a stretch for the budget, check this bike out. It’s far from a basic adventure bike yet comes in at just over $20,000. R 1200 GS STANDARD SPECS ▪ ABS ▪ ASC ▪ Traction control ▪ Riding Modes (Rain, Road) ▪ Chrome exhaust…

Like any sport, motocross has its own royalty, the true greats who dominated or won against all odds and whose feats can never be forgotten — or, in the rarest cases, may never be duplicated or bettered. Names like Stefan Everts, Jeff Stanton and Roger DeCoster evoke images of toughness and tenacity and a never-ever-say-die attitude. There are two names, however, that stand out among all others, two riders who dominated beyond any measure witnessed before: Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael. The sport belonged to McGrath (MC) for so long that he morphed into a superstar the likes of which nobody had seen before. He became world famous and changed not only the perception of the sport of supercross but also the way people rode. He was a source of…

VISION Where you look when attacking a whooped-out sandy turn will make a huge difference to how well you get through it. Keep your eyes up and looking well through the corner and all the way out the exit. Avoid fixing your vision on any one section of the corner; if you do you’ll tend to ride to that point rather than through and out of the corner. Identify the deeper whoops so you can be sure to keep the front wheel from dropping into them but don’t fix your vision on them. It’s very easy to look at the biggest whoop and worry about it but that won’t help you get past it. Make sure your eyes identify positive sections of the turn, not negative ones. BODY POSITION This…

01 WIRE YOUR GRIPS Wire your grips on using a thin-gauge stainless-steel wire. Three separate strands of wire per grip will do the trick: each end and one in the middle. Go around the grip twice each time then twist the wire to get it tight. Be sure to tuck the cut-off section back into the grip so you don’t stab your hand with it. 02 SET YOUR TYRE PRESSURES Check what the manufacturer recommends in the manual but it will usually be somewhere around 13–15psi. With standard tubes, 14psi or 15psi will help avoid pinch flats. The correct tyre pressure can make a huge difference to the way your bike feels on the track. 03 ADJUST YOUR CHAIN Be sure your chain is adjusted to the correct specs as…

Well, it’s been epically wet these past few weeks but in the few non-swamp days we’ve been out on the Yamaha WR450F because it’s a bloody addictive bike to ride. One of the really cool things about the bike at this stage is that the frame is starting to loosen up along with the suspension and, while that means you have to recheck settings and sag, it also means it’s a more comfortable ride. The motocross heritage is good in many ways but it certainly starts life with a pretty stiff feel. It does bed in, though, so bear with it and you’ll notice the change soon enough. Unfortunately, with the endless wet it hasn’t been a great time to be working on the suspension which, I have to say,…