Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2015 i Dirt Action

“This has been disturbing me all day! So unacceptable! Hope Mossy takes them to the cleaners!! [praying] for you mate.” — CHAD REED ON MATT MOSS’S IMPACT WITH A BOBCAT “FUNNY HOW THE BODY WORKS. STARTING TO FEEL MENTALLY PHYSICALLY BETTER AND WITH THAT COMES THE ITCH! DOES IT EVER GO AWAY? #INEEDABIKE” — CHAD REED “Good lord @ keithurban can shred on a guitar and is a bad dude live.#justgai nedafan#countryjam” — ELI TOMAC “Good news: finding a new 88 YZ250 rear brake pedal that’s discontinued on eBay. Bad news: spent way more than I wanted & it’s in England.” — STEVE MATTHES “We are gonna get loose in about 5 minutes with @minicoop175 and @CRtwotwo ... so turn your hi-fidelity radio set on and rip the knob…

SWM Motorcycles is a new company headed by CEO Ampelio Macchi and looking to carve out its own place in a crowded market. Before the KTM buyout, Macchi was chief engineer at Husqvarna but had also worked for Aprilia and Cagiva (if you guessed he was Italian without any more clues, well done). In the aftermath of KTM taking Husky to Austria (a move that angered many Italians), Macchi was able to secure use of the former Husqvarna factory in Biandronno, north of Milan, and set about building a headquarters for Speedy Working Motors (SWM), which in fact was a moniker that originated in 1971 but died off in 1984. If the bike looks somewhat familiar, that’s because it is. SWM has been able to source the old “redhead” Husky…

Like most of Australia’s dirtbike riders, I’d thrown the idea of riding to or from The Tip deep inside my bucket list and then forgotten about it. That was until I was asked to do the Cape to Cairns ride for our super-frantic editor. Naturally, I said yes straightaway and began planning what I was going to take on this once-in-a-lifetime journey. I don’t want to bore you with loads of text of how it all happened in intense second-by-second depth. However, I thought a chronological diary of how it unfolded may be a little lighter and help you understand what the adventure entails when you finally make your way to the most northern point of the Australian mainland. First of all, if you don’t get onto booking it soon…

In a round of golf, a player may walk over six kilometres to finish 18 holes but a distance of a couple of millimetres can be the difference between a good score and a bad one. In the game of cricket, a millimetre can be the difference between a batsman staying in or getting out. In football, commentators often talk of the one-percenters, the small things that make all the difference and can take one team to victory — and that leads us directly to the 2016 Yamaha YZ450F. In 2014, Yamaha significantly updated the YZ450F. There wasn’t much that wasn’t changed from the previous years. In 2015, a host of smaller refinements were implemented, aimed mainly at any durability issues on the ’14 model, and now Yamaha has just…

If you’re a true dirtbike enthusiast, it’s a given that marvels of modern engineering such as electronic fuel injection, reverse cylinder heads and dual chamber forks will get you all hot under the collar about just how far technology will take us. But are you any less of an enthusiast if you foam at the mouth to turn back the clock to a time when dirtbikes were air-cooled, ran drum brakes, had two shocks and the closest thing to an electric starter was a long downhill and a dump of the clutch? No way, we say! Old school is too cool and when it comes to vintage enduro you’ve just got to be there in the midst of it with a duckbill peak open-face helmet, MSR Six Days Gore-Tex jacket,…

GIANT 27.5 GLORY With 8in/203mm of fully active Maestro Suspension mated to a race-proven ALUXX SL frame featuring a co-pivot shock mount, the all-new Glory 27.5 was developed and put to the test by Giant Factory Off-Road Team riders including Marcelo Gutierrez. Ridden to podium finishes in the World Cup, it’s longer and lower but still retains the pedalling and steering stiffness that DH racers demand. Frame technologies include the OverDrive steerer tube design for maximum front-end stiffness and steering precision, along with a newly shaped MegaDrive downtube that’s a bit more rounded with smaller-diameter tubing than the previous-generation Glory. Combined with the PowerCore bottom bracket, the new design adds frame and pedalling stiffness for better efficiency and control. It also features new integrated cable guides that double as fork…

There are plenty of factors to consider when purchasing tyres but budget, riding conditions and durability are probably the most crucial. I think it’s important to match a tyre to the surface on which you do the majority of your riding. Just because you have an adventure bike doesn’t mean you need a full off-road knobby tyre, especially when 95 per cent of your riding is on the road. Another important thing to realise is that rider input weighs into the amount of traction you have much more than most think. A rider with good skill can carry a very good pace riding on knobby tyres on the bitumen, the downside being the tyre probably won’t last very long. It works the other way, too: an experienced rider in an…

Ken made a heap of changes heading into 2015. He left KTM, left Aldon Baker and left a few more people behind and signed with RCH Racing Suzuki. But this year hasn’t been good for Roczen — and there’s bad blood between him and the team bosses. Word is he wants to go back to KTM but with another year left on his contract with RCH it would be an expensive exercise at best. The great Ricky Carmichael is barely containing his unhappiness with the situation, though, and these things never end well. Let’s hope it gets ironed out so we see Ken at his best on track in 2016.…

Happy 60th birthday to Yamaha! The company that’s given the world so many iconic and ground-breaking bikes — as well as the IT490 — has hit that age where most of us are thinking about slowing down, maybe buying a caravan and doing tours of regional cheese factories. But not Yamaha. Though it’s just released a yellow YZ-F that looks a bit like cheese, that’s no sign of a company that’s heading quietly into its twilight years. It’s just done a neat revamp of the YZ250 to offer an off-road race/trail bike (Dear Santa, please make it registrable), the YZ250F and 450F have plenty of updates and the mighty R1 road bike is all new and ready to frighten the hell out of squids with skull-print face masks and $400…

There isn’t much Toby Price is yet to achieve in his racing career in Australia. A talented motocrosser from a young age, Price won two Australian junior motocross championships in his final year as a junior and a career beckoned for the rider who hails from Hillston, New South Wales. Unfortunately, a few great results during his early years racing the senior ranks with the Factory Kawasaki team were disrupted by a lot of time on the sidelines due to injury and, by 2009, five years after turning senior and during a period in the racing wilderness, Price had made the switch from motocross to the off-road world. There, with the backing of MSC and Kawasaki, he picked up his first AORC title at his first attempt and later impressed…

For many years now the Husqvarna Watagan Trail Bike Rally has been a solid part of our riding year. In its 12 years we’ve missed very few and after this year’s run I doubt we’ll be changing that routine any time soon. This year’s crew consisted of me (that’s pretty obvious, right?) and my mates Sneddo and Evan. For a bit of backstory, Sneddo had been out of riding for a while but got back into it recently with the purchase of a 250EXC-F, while Evan hasn’t ridden for years. An A-grade off-road racer, he just quit cold turkey about three years ago and never rode a bike again — until Sned and I got in his ear. We organised a bike for him to come on a one-day trail…

Australia does dust really well. Once the hot weather hits, this country dries up and at the slightest disturbance the top few centimetres of dirt will head upward and obscure your vision down to just a few feet — or less in some cases. There’s nothing you can do to avoid it but there are some things you can do to get through it better and safer. EYE CARE The most obvious place to start is with a good set of goggles. If you’ve ever wondered where all the design goes into a pair of goggles then riding on a hot, sweaty and dusty day should answer that. If your foam over the top and bottom ventilation areas is all ripped or deteriorated then dust will find a way in.…

There are too many factors to put a definitive date or time on a rebuild. Dirty air filters, low engine oil or crap fuel can all lead to premature wear. The last valve clearance check on this CRF indicated the valves are pulling in, so it’s better to rebuild now — before something goes pop and major damage occurs. SLOW STRIP Remove the seat, tank and side covers. Some bikes will let you take the header pipe off on its own but it’s often easier to remove the muffler first. Since you’re going to end up with lots of parts, nuts and bolts, be prepared from the start. If you can, put the bolts — such as the muffler mount bolts — back in the threads. They won’t get lost…

A historical brand that is turning to its rich heritage to define itself amongst its competitors, Husqvarna has backed all of this up with an all-new motocross range for 2016. There is no doubt that this brand is serious about performance and is not an idle partner to its orange cousins. With a focus on reducing weight, improving handling and increasing overall performance, while not only maintaining reliability but improving it, Husqvarna sets itself a tough task. As you’ll see below, the brand has managed to chop chunks of weight off the bikes, addressed some handling characteristics of the previous model and, on paper, the performance looks to be increased. I was very keen to get on track and see what these new bikes had to offer. ACROSS THE BOARD…

What makes a dirtbike a dirtbike? Adventure bikes have long-travel suspension. Road bikes had perimeter frames first. EFI was on a quad before a dirtbike so that just about leaves full knobby tyres. But you can’t put knobbies on an R1 and call it a dirtbike. So what is it? The answer is a dirtbike is made of a whole heap of things that come together to give you a WR-F or RM-Z. Not one or two but a multitude. So, can an electric bike be a dirtbike? When the engine becomes a motor and the fuel becomes lithium iron, is it still a dirtbike? This is why we’ve spent a heap of time on the Stealth B-52 Bomber electric bike — to find out where it fits in the…

As with anything to do with bikes, each rider will have a personal take on technique and there are variations on everything. That doesn’t mean the underlying theory isn’t the same; generally it is and riders tend to just interpret it their own way. Corner entry is a great example. These three steps will help you simplify corner entry and hopefully improve your cornering speed and consistency, so take it on board and remember: every rider will do this slightly different but essentially the same. 1. LINE SELECTION Know which line you want to take early and think about the best way to get to it while keeping the corner as open as possible so you can flow into it. Road-race style lines are in theory the best option: out…

There’s two rounds left in the DIRT ACTION Amcross calendar and, seeing I’m getting married the weekend after the final round, I’ll get one more race in on the KTM 350 SX-F before the bike goes back to the big orange building. The Picton round went really well for the KTM. We ripped some bangin’ starts, led some laps and finished each race well within the points. I was a happy man. I’ve really clicked with the style of riding required to get the most out of the 350 and it’s easy to see how some riders excel on the mid-size monster while others just can’t gel with it. It’s taken a while, but everything is sweet on team 350 right now! The KTM has been raced and ridden in…

The YZ125 has well and truly started its transformation into an enduro bike — that is, when we find time that we’re not riding it. We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: if you can’t remember how much fun a small-bore two-stroke is, do yourself a favour and get a refresher because you’re missing out. Since we last wrote about this bike, a YZ15 won a class at the world Junior Motocross titles, which is pretty epic for a bike designed for battle in 2005 and changed very little since. It’s conceivable that there are riders on this bike who weren’t born when it was graced with the aluminium frame. That’s awesome. So what we’ve done is prepared it for bush battle. We’ve fitted a GYTR bashplate, which…