Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Dirt Action

MARC MARQUEZ Given that Marc Marquez is a god-like freak on a MotoGP machine, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he's a gun on a dirtbike. Marquez races both motocross and enduro when he can and he handles it like a guy that would win titles on anything with two wheels. THE NEXT SUPERSTAR The 2017 Motocross of Nations will go down as the event where Hunter Lawrence put the world on notice. He had a solid year racing the World Motocross Championship in 2017, but broke out with an outstanding performance in front of the world at the MXoN. In 2018, Lawrence will race on a Honda with 114 Motorsports and backing from Geico Honda in the US. In 2019, he'll head to the States to join the…

Enduro legend David Knight, MBE, has made the switch to Gas Gas for 2018. The Brit will not be riding in the Enduro World Championship (EWC) but will do select races through the year, concentrating on the more extreme events as well as continuing to run ride schools. In fact, Knighter and Gas Gas started the year pretty well with a third in The Tough One. From memory, Knight has now ridden a Yamaha, KTM, BMW, Honda and Kawasaki, and he now has a GP300 two-stroke to smash tracks apart with. Knight actually rode one of his first British enduros on a Gas Gas but even before that won a British Expert Trials Championship in 1995 on a 270 Gasser. KTM and Husqvarna have also pulled out of the EWC…

In yet another indication that this sport needs to start taking brain injuries very seriously, Davi Millsaps cited a serious concussion as a major factor in his decision to retire. Millsaps has been riding professionally for 14 years and while his career has been at times pretty damn frustrating to watch, when he put it together he was amongst the best in the world. Millsaps released the following statement: “After 14 years as a professional Supercross and Motocross racer, today I announce my retirement from racing. Obviously, this was not an easy decision for me to make. Before the crash that I sustained back in October, I felt great while on the bike, and I was looking forward to an awesome 2018 season with my team, Monster Energy/Knich/Yamaha Factory Racing.…

It’s been talked about more than peace in the Middle East — the day Yamaha would bring out a YZ65 and revamp the YZ85. Well, one outta two ain’t bad and through a leaked photo followed by a somewhat stammered official introduction, Yamaha did indeed unveil the bike so many groms have been waiting for in the YZ65. There was some confusion about its actual release to dealers and unfortunately a delay meant many parents had to pull the trigger on another brand to make the start of racing seasons. But we now know the bike exists, even though in Europe it’s being called a 2019 model. That said, it looks as though Yamaha has pulled out the goods and is finally offering a bike that takes kids from the…

If you've been living under a rock, or not paying enough attention while reading DA on the shitter, you might not be aware that this 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450 is being given away. Some lucky punter is going to be the envy of all his mates, the old rig will hit Gumtree and this sweet RM-Z will occupy the shed. How, you ask? Well, simply head to www.dirtaction.com.au for one free entry or subscribe to your favourite magazine for a bucketload of entries. We want to make sure the RM-Z is run-in and in tip-top shape for the lucky winner. So, after drooling over it in my garage for three months and once its display duties at the Sydney Motorcycle Expo were done, I grabbed Boothy and we took it for…

Yamaha’s YZ250 was the sixth highest selling motocross bike in Australia through 2017. It sold more than the KX450F, 450SXF and RM-Z450. It was one of only three bikes in the top ten to actually increase in sales. Can we just take a minute to appreciate these facts? This is a bike that hasn’t changed in any major way since 2005. It’s 13 years old and it outsells some of the most up-to-date beastly weapons the world has ever seen. The KX-F, SXF and RM-F are deadset brilliant bikes, yet more Australians chose the old blue two-stroke. It was in the top ten in 2016 as well. Why? How is this possible in an industry that isn’t all that accommodating of something not born five minutes ago? It’s a great…

Honda dropped an all-new CRF450R on the planet in 2017. The bike was well received and you could’ve forgiven them if they left it well alone for 2018. But here we are a year on and the 2018 CRF450R has received some decent changes that seem to have flown a little under the radar. The ’18 is not, as many seem to think, just a ’17 with electric start. While they didn’t make massive or numerous changes, Honda did tweak quite a bit and the changes have been worthwhile. GET POWER DOWN The 2018 is all about acceleration and getting the power to the ground. Out of a corner the CRF is a beast and this is such a huge asset, particularly in supercross There are no glaring holes in…

With the air of sadness that’s hanging over the Tatts Finke Desert Race this year, it can be easy to lose sight of the reason it all exists in the first place. But it’s a race that is wholly unique in scale, design and passion. It’s a race that a rider will build a bike for; a bike that’s no good for much else but those specific three days. And they’ll lug that bike from Tasmania, Melbourne or Perth to be there with absolutely no illusion of battling for a win. They’ll spend thousands and take weeks to prepare, and for most heading back home with a spike from a disused railway line will signify the ultimate accomplishment. That is the victory. At the other end of the scale, way…

Why does the world need a 1290? Adventure bikes have begun a shift to the smaller capacities of 1000cc and under, so why be the guys that produce the biggest engine of all the major manufacturers? This must have been a question raised in Mattighofen, just as it was in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, where we set off to find a happy place on the KTM 1290 Super Adventure R. The Austrians clearly found an answer that affirmed their enthusiasm for the 1290 but would we find it too? The 1290 is in the unenviable position of having replaced a favourite in the 1190 Adventure. The 1190 was a very good bike indeed, one that didn’t leave us wishing it would be gifted another 100cc, so why…

Ducati released the Multistrada 1200 Enduro in 2016 into an adventure market that was in full swing. Since then we’ve had new arrivals from KTM, Triumph has given its range a refresh, BMW has had a rethink of its smaller-capacity models, Honda has dominated in Australia with the Africa Twin and Yamaha is so close to releasing its long-awaited T7. Things are moving quickly in the adventure scene and manufacturers have to move with it to keep up. Ducati could probably sit on the Enduro 1200 for another year without too many complaints, but instead the Italian company decided to give it a bit more of an edge where the dirt begins — a sign that adventure bikes aren’t the Prados of the two-wheel world and that people are using…

01 FLY RACING KINETIC JERSEY PERFORMANCE: Tagless comfort-stretch collar Relaxed horty elastic cuffs. CONSTRUCTION: Mesh ventilation helps dissipate heat Multi-panel construction for maximum performance and comfortable fit Extended tail helps keep jersey tucked in Sublimated long-lasting graphics FIT: Standard fit — not too loose, not too tight PANTS PERFORMANCE: Minimal weight Comfort mesh liner helps keep you comfortable and cool Multi-directional stretch-rib panels for flexibility Internal pocket located inside the waistband CONSTRUCTION: Ultra-durable multi-panel 900D construction is durable and breathable Leather heat shield panels with DuPont™ Kevlar® stitching Soft-flex rubber badging Sublimated long-lasting graphics 7 breathable stretch panels FIT: Ergonomically pre-shaped knee generously contoured to accommodate most types of knee braces and guards Full-floating seat surrounded by stretch-rib material moves naturally with your body Exclusive zipper lock system keeps pants…

“All good things must come to an end... Proud of all the great things I have done and achieved throughout my racing career both amateur and professional at Kawasaki. They will forever be a part of my legacy... excited for my next chapter and partnership.” This was a quote from Ryan Villopoto on his Instagram account shortly before he announced he was now a Yamaha ambassador with a quote clearly crafted by a marketing team. “With my transition to life after racing, I’m still passionate about motorsports. Whether I’m racing, riding recreationally or teaching my kids to ride, I still have a lot I want to give back to the motorsports industry from many aspects. My family and I enjoy all sorts of motorsports activities, and Yamaha has the broadest…

It’s impossible to justify the proliferation of semitrailers at the motocross in light of the current state of the industry. Bike sales are down and budgets are dropping, so why in the name of the god of roost would a team outlay the type of money that it takes to buy and then retrofit a full rig for racing? The most consistent complaint around the pits is that the sport is stupidly expensive and it’s hard to see a clear return from the investment. Then why invest so much through the purchase of a semi-trailer when a Sprinter van will do the job? The semi won’t win you a title and it won’t sell bikes. It’s a ballpark $100,000 investment before you’ve even seen a gate drop, and some of…

Travis Pastrana is set to lead the Nitro Circus crew in an epic, all-new event which is simply too big to fit indoors. The Next Level Tour takes inspiration from the game-changing progression and breakthrough ramp technology first dreamed up at Travis’ Pastranaland compound, perfected at Nitro World Games and now coming to a town near you! The Next Level Tour will feature the biggest ramps on the planet, including the huge FMX Best Trick ramps Gregg Duffy and Harry Bink hit to top the Nitro World Games podium. This innovative setup is touring for the first time. The best athletes in BMX, Scooter and Inline will also raise their game, sending it with all-new, never-before-seen tricks. Nitro’s daredevils will also brave the 60-foot Giganta ramp on a host of…

20 years of DIRT ACTION! Hell yeah! In 1998, a writer/photographer named Barry Ashenhurst and a publisher by the name of Martin White agreed that it was time Australia had a second major dirtbike magazine. Barry had been the editor of Track and Trail as well as a regular contributor to Australasian Dirt Bike and the two no doubt got together over a few beers and a few ridiculously competitive games of tennis (Barry used to be semi-pro), and pretty soon DIRT ACTION was born. Tales of those days are murky, mostly because Barry has hit his head a lot since then, but Andy Wigan of Transmoto quickly joined the crew and along with Michael Gilbert the bedrock of what we are today was laid. These were the days the…

2018 SERIES DATES Round 1 April 14th/15th – Canberra (Tharwa) Round 2 May 19th/20th – Cooma Round 3 June 16th/17th – Picton Round 4 August 4th/5th – Bega Round 5 September 1st/2nd – Goulburn Round 6 September 22nd/23rd – Wagga Wagga If there was a fan club for the DIRT ACTION Amcross Series, I’d be the chairman of the committee. There’s little I enjoy more than a weekend in a sleepy country town and a day of full-throttle grass track action. So, what exactly is the DIRT ACTION Amcross and how do you get involved? Read on… The DIRT ACTION Amcross is a six-round grass track series run in NSW. The tracks are wide-open natural-terrain circuits. Remember Thumper Nats? These tracks are very similar to those circuits. They start as…

The ‘Tenere Retro 655’ you see here is actually a hybrid derived from two other Yamaha models — the XSR 700, for ride and feel, says Yamaha, and the MT-07, for engine and chassis. The XSR 700 is designed to be easily modified — straight sub-frame, simple guard shape and so on — while components such as the seat, lights and flashers can be swapped without spoiling the symmetry of the parts next to them. That’s the whole idea. Think of it as changing your shirt without making your tie look nerdy. And you get a look that no-one else has. The XSR and MT-07 are road bikes, the XSR recalling historic Yamahas like the XS650, and of course the naked MT-07 comes in three variants, one of them learner…

The 2018 CRF250R is an all-new machine. We saw hints of the direction this was going in back in May 2017 when photos emerged from the Japanese championships and the US got to start riding the bike last year, but we ain’t bitching ‘cause we had the sweet, near-new CRF450R to play with till this arrived. There are some big changes on the 250R that address almost every complaint we had about the bike through the last model period. The Unicam engine, which first appeared in 2004 has been replaced with an all-new dual overhead cam engine with a bigger bore and shorter stroke. The engine borrows design ideas from Honda’s Moto 3 GP bike and produces more power, but the reason for the change is to chase top-end and…

The passing of Daymon Stokie earlier this year during Deep Well Enduro has taken the reigning King of the Desert out of this year’s Finke. It’s taken a son, a brother, a friend, boyfriend and teammate. It’s taken a bloke that was carving out a pretty special place in the Australian and international racing scene. It’s not fair. It doesn’t seem right. Bad people do bad things and live till old age. How can a young guy doing great things be taken? But the nature of the sport we all love and a big reason why we love it is because it’s dangerous. The threat is always there and for the truly fast guys it's a trade-off between making a living, a love of bikes and competition and managing risk.…

Honda’s Africa Twin CRF1000 has been a success since its launch in 2016. Australians have made it the number-one selling adventure bike since it arrived and it’s going to take some work to knock it off the top step. We’ve spent a fair bit of time on the Honda and we certainly believe it’s the most dirt-capable adventure bike on the market right now. KTM’s 1090 Adventure R may be ripe to challenge but we haven’t spent enough time on it to know for sure. The one thing that was still a mystery to us was the DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission) version of the Africa Twin. This is a bike with no gear lever and no clutch. It doesn’t matter how many times it gets explained to you, seeing a…

01 Six-layer Multi-Ply Matrix AIM+ Shell construction, consisting of hand-laid interwoven layers of fibreglass with lightweight organic and high-performance fibres, and Shoei’s exclusive Motion Energy Distribution System combine to offer one of the safest helmets ever made. 02 Emergency release system offers safety trackside for quick and easy cheek pad removal. 03 Sixteen intake and exhaust vents in total for improved negative air pressure suction, resulting in enhanced cool-air intake. The cooling air channels in the dual-layer EPS liner also offer great air flow. 04 Three-dimensional max-dry interior system is fully removable washable, replaceable and adjustable. 05 When you put your head inside a Shoei helmet you can be confident you have invested in the highest level of quality on the market.…

There’s a new electric bike manufacturer on the market. Formed by a Swede by the name of Stefan Ytterborn, the company, called Cake, is throwing out some lofty goals including reaching “a 10 per cent market share in off-road motorcycles in 10 years”. So Stefan believes that in 10 years many of us might be riding cakes. To be fair, we’ve seen weirder shit at bucks' parties. The first bike in production is the Kalk — yes, it’s the Cake Kalk, which rolls off the tongue like un-chewed fly — and it’s available for just €14,000, which at the time of writing was $22,000 Australian. To be fair, there are some nice highlights in the spec sheet including a weight of just 70kg, a carbon-fibre body (there’s your cash splash)…

Jess Gardiner will compete in the 2018 AORC aboard a Yamaha under the somewhat familiar banner of the Yamaha MX Store Ballard’s Off-Road Team. Jess will be joined by Frenchman Jeremy Carpentier, who will compete in the E1 class. Twenty-four-year-old Gardiner is one of Australia’s most accomplished riders, male or female, and will bring a wealth of experience from racing in Europe. Last year she became the first Australian to win the Women’s Championnat de France d’enduro and the FIM European Enduro Championship. “I’ve come back to Australia feeling a lot stronger and have a lot more riding skills. Racing overseas was a good experience, but at the end of the day you always feel better on your home ground,” explained Gardiner. “I believe my chances of winning the championship…

Team Triton has announced that its Adelaide 500 SuperUte line-up will feature Dakar Rally Champion and Mitsubishi Motors Ambassador Toby Price, who will pilot the #87 Mitsubishi Motors entry. The announcement follows official pre-season testing earlier this year at Queensland Raceway, where one of the two new Team Triton SuperUtes was put through its paces for the first time by Price. Price said pre-season testing gave him the perfect opportunity to preview the new track-tuned Triton and get a taste of the inaugural SuperUte Series. “I’m stoked to be a part of the Team Triton SuperUte campaign with the support of Mitsubishi Motors Australia,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to putting in the work, learning more about circuit racing and having some exciting weekends. “It’s going to be a…

Current KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager Glenn Kearney has been appointed Motorsports Manager of the KTM Group Australia, in an expanded role that will utilise the vast experience of the highly respected former off-road racer. Kearney will maintain his team management duties as the KTM Enduro Racing Team defends its Australian Off-Road Championship crown in 2018, as well as managing the KTM Desert Racing Team while also taking on the broader Motorsports Manager position. The role of KTM Group Australia – Motorsports Manager for Kearney comes as Rob Twyerould focuses on customer services, resulting in Kearney having a direct involvement with the KTM Motocross Racing Team, along with added input into the Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team. He will also be heavily involved in both brands’ assortment of officially-supported racers and…

Brett Metcalfe will go down in Australian motocross and supercross history as the quiet achiever with a list of accomplishments that most could only dream of. Hailing from the country town of Mannum in South Australia, Brett cut his teeth on the local race scene, winning countless state championships along with numerous Australian Junior titles before heading off to the world stage at just 17 years of age. Since leaving Australia, Metcalfe has achieved a hell of a lot. With a host of AMA supercross podium results to his name, along with an American Motocross 450 overall round win, he's the only Australian rider along with Chad Reed to have done this. Add in a 450 championship runner-up finish to his list of accomplishments, a Canadian MX nationals title, being…

Sherco is onto something here. You know those moments when a manufacturer gets a bike so right? This is that moment for Sherco with the Sherco 450 SEF Six Days. I rode the standard model some months ago and found it to be a nice 450 but nothing about it really spun my beanie. The Six Days is on another level, however, and for anyone at or over the intermediate level this bike has so much to offer and absolutely stands tall against the competition. against the more popular competition. Travelling at pace with experienced riders, the Six Days would absolutely hold its own and we’re pretty sure it would knock off at least one or two of the more fancied machines. The Sherco loves to be ridden hard and…

Let’s just kick straight to the big question: Who can beat Dean Ferris in 2018? He won in 2016 and then won real big in 2017. He had a chance to head to America but instead chose to stay with CDR Yamaha in Australia. He has a new little family and you know he’s just trained his arse off all off-season because he actually really likes training. There’s that, and then there’s the fact that he’s riding so damn well and it’s hard to point to a weakness on the track. DEAN FERRIS It used to be an imbalance of impatience and impulsiveness that would stop us from dropping a bet on Ferris winning a pro title. The pace was always there but so was the chance he’d throw it…

Why is it that so often the least fashionable bikes are the really good ones? The DR-Z400. The KLR650. The 200EXC and the WR250R. These aren’t at the top of too many must-have lists but they’re all great bikes. There was a time when I looked at the V-Strom as a bike that a retired shoemaker would buy to ride from a cheese factory tour to the annual gathering of the Royal Rare Fungus Society. Some years ago when I had the opportunity to ride the V-Strom 650, I didn’t expect much but found a hell of a lot. I was genuinely surprised at just how much I enjoyed the bike in the bush and over long distances. I came close to buying one and, after riding it, my dad…

ÖHLINS FFHO 101 FORK RRP $3995 The fork is the first in a new family of Adventure front fork products from Öhlins Racing AB. I guess it’s a hybrid, utilising our MX/Enduro front fork inner with TiNitride surface treatment and hard-anodised gold outer tubes with dual radial caliper fork bottoms to suit the Africa Twin. Inside, however, we use our NIX30 Adventure damping system which is more suited to the type of use this motorcycle and front fork will see. Other Adventure bike users might be familiar with our NIX30A cartridge inserts which replace the original damping system while retaining the outer shell of the original front fork. NIX technology separates compression and rebound into the two different fork legs. The advantages are that you are able to maintain a…