Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Dirt Action

BEAU RALSTON Active8 Yamaha’s Beau Ralston made the switch from motocross to enduro and desert racing a couple of years ago. In that time few riders have showed such a steady and clear progression and he’s now well and truly a threat for the win at any point and only getting faster. Beau will compete this year on a Yamaha YZ300X two-stroke. Yes, you read it right — a YZ300X. It’ll be his mission to dominate the E3 class and, once you’ve seen him on this weapon of a bike, it’s not hard to see him doing just that. Catch up with Beau and get the rundown on that YZ in this issue. HUNTER LAWRENCE Aussie rider Hunter Lawrence has done more than his fair share of winning in what’s…

01 Revalve forks for better response on small trail trash. The forks on the RMX are good but harsh on stuff like rocks and tree roots at slower speeds. 02 The RMX tank carries 6.2 litres, which isn’t enough for a good-sized ride day. IMS does a tank that takes capacity to 9.8 litres and that opens up a larger world. 03 Australia’s a hot country — you don’t need to be reminded of that. We recommend fitting a thermo fan to the RMX for those gnarly days. 04 A Yoshimura RS4 system with the Cherry Bomb is the go-to system for pulling more low-down mumbo from the already-impressive engine. 05 Plastic bashplates are OK for light work in the short term but a good aluminium unit should be fitted.…

Jeremy McGrath’s 1996 Honda CR250 is one of the most iconic motocross bikes on the face of this Earth. In 1996, MC was the epitome of cool in the moto world, supported by such top brands as Fox and Oakley — and No Fear before they were a gear company. The Honda, Fox and MC combo was what most people wanted to be. Since Jeremy left Honda and ended his fulltime racing career, the edgy, in-your-face approach has been lacking at Honda, despite the dominant years of Ricky Carmichael and the effortless style of Kevin Windham, among other big names. KING KEN Fast forward to 2017. Flamboyant German Ken Roczen signed with HRC Honda and all bets were on the number 94 and the mostly underrated Cole Seely. Instantly, Honda…

“FRENCHMAN MATHIAS BELLINO WON THE 2016 YAMAHA AUSTRALIAN FOUR DAY ENDURO WITH A PRETTY IMPRESSIVE RIDE” Riding someone’s race bike can be an exciting, rewarding, disappointing or confusing task. At the highest levels, these bikes are built from a common base to suit the rider quite specifically. The testing period factory teams go through is in large part to find the exact setup that allows the rider to get the best from the bike and be happiest on race day. This is no easy task. Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael have completely different riding styles and body shapes so their CRs would have been nothing alike. Josh Green’s WRF has nothing in common with Beau Ralston’s even though they’re on the same team and racing the same races — and…

STEP 1: REMOVE DIRTY FILTER & CLEAN AIRBOX Remove your dirty air filter carefully and replace it with an airbox cover like the one here. This allows you to wash the airbox out properly when you’re washing your bike. Although they do seal well, don’t aim a pressure cleaner or even the jet spray from a hose directly in there as you may force water through into the engine. STEP 2: ON WITH THE GLOVES Some latex gloves don’t go astray at this point to keep the hands clean. Hardcore dudes will just get amongst it but 90 per cent of riders go with the gloves. STEP 3: REMOVE OLD OIL FROM FILTER For this step you want to invest in some specific foam air filter cleaner. This stuff is…

CHOOSE YOUR LINE Experienced riders will attack a steep face without too much thought — they’ll pick a line on their approach and just commit to it. If you aren’t quite at that confidence level yet, stop at the base and have a good look at the different line options you have. You want to find a line that’s as smooth as possible and doesn’t have any big edges halfway up that will cause your wheels to leave the ground. BUILD MOMENTUM Building momentum on the approach to the face is important but it’s not about hitting it as fast as you can. If you approach too quickly, the bike will G-out hard when you hit the face and can actually almost preload you backwards, causing your wheels to leave…

1. BMW RALLYE SUIT On or off road, there’s no beating the Rallye suit. Now it offers an even greater level of safety and functionality with the new NP2 protectors delivering optimum protection and an improved fit. As such, it’s a must for adventure riders who refuse to let the weather spoil their passion. • Specially developed for off-road use • New, improved ProTechWool combination of materials 87% polyamide, 13% wool • Jacket with removable sleeves • Trousers with stretch inserts & leather patches • Removable NP2 protectors at shoulders, elbows, back, hips & knees • Silicon strip on insert seam prevents suit riding up • Stretchable, breathable mesh lining • Ventilated in various places • Fully adjustable • Breathable, windproof & waterproof C.A.R.E. climate membrane (removable) • Reflective material…

I’ll admit straight up I’m a two-stroke fan, partly because I raced them for a lot of years but also due to the enjoyment I get out of riding them. They are a little more brutal — you need to milk the power out of them with more precision than you do a four-stroke and that to me is a fun challenge. So when a manufacturer releases a totally new two-stroke machine, that’s exciting news, and I was hanging to throw a leg over the new 250 SX. WHAT’S NEW? The list of what isn’t new would be shorter. Here’s a rundown of what's new on this bike. In 2016 every other SX model received a major overhaul but the 250 SX missed out, so for 2017 it gets all…

We ran a feature a while back on MSC Moto/ Ralle-Moto, an Australian family company that we believe designs and manufactures the world’s best motorcycle steering damper. It wasn’t a difficult story to write. The company has earned a reputation for knowing exactly what hydraulic oil will do when provoked. And few experts could tell you more about what steering dampers do when pushed to the limit by someone like Toby Price, a man with more speed than a Jaffa in a particle accelerator. MSC started manufacturing dampers back in 1994 — as luck would have it, the same year Russian pisshead Boris Yeltsin sent troops into Chechnya to restore chaos, the year that OJ Simpson thought his Ford Bronco could outrun police (we can’t believe it either) and the…

I don’t know much about fitness. That’s why I’m not fit. Too many Red Bulls and schnitzels, you see. But I’m constantly amazed at the level of fitness the top riders have and the amount of work that goes into improving and maintaining that fitness. Recently, though, I met Daniel Moffatt-Martin and witnessed the regime he puts his riders through at the To The Edge High Performance Centre — it's really a next-level type of workout. This ain’t no Anytime Fitness. I watched guys like Josh Green, Beau Ralston and Cooper Pozniak worked to the point of beyond pain and was wondering two things: when will this be over because I’d kill for a cheeseburger, and this must be what it takes to win. We’ve seen it with Aldon Baker…

In 2016, Yamaha sold 1390 WR450Fs. That made it the biggest-selling enduro bike by a long shot, with KTM’s 500 EXC-F bagging second place with 601 models sold. To give Kato credit, the second to fifth highest-selling bikes are all orange, but interestingly the WR-F outsold the 450EXC by three times and the only other 450 in the top 10 is the RMX450Z, of which Suzuki sold 188. The WR450F had to succeed in its latest iteration and succeed it did. We rode the bike at the Aussie launch in 2016 but haven’t spent much time on it since, so the chance to take one on as a project bike was too good to pass up. Yamaha sweetened the deal by offering a bike with some extra goodies on board,…

PLAN AHEAD You should know where you want to be on the track well before you’re there. In some cases you’ll have begun setting up for one corner several corners earlier. Try to think of the track as one flowing line rather than riding corner to corner. BE ACCURATE This is especially critical when the track gets rough and technical; you should be able to be wheel-width accurate if it’s required. So try to get out of the habit of near enough is good enough or even just riding where your momentum takes you. To improve as a racer, you need to be able to be very accurate with where you put the bike. THE BEST LINE This is where experience will make a big difference but there’s a general…

Australian Mat Cox is a travelling moto-maniac. A former A-grade motocrosser, he’s worked in the USA with motocross tour companies among others and has recently taken up a position as a tour guide with Niskeo Snowbike Adventures in Japan. Carving the Japanese back-country on a snowbikeconverted motocrosser sounds like a pretty good job to us! We chatted with Mat and the owners at Niseko Snowbike Adventures to get the inside line. Tell us a little about Niseko Snowbike Adventures. What would a day out on the bikes consist of? After being picked up from your accommodation at 8.30am we arrive at base at about 9am for briefing, fitting safety gear and an introduction to the snowbike. By 9.30am we’re headed up the trail to our first riding area not far…

“THE DAMAGE SHOWN WAS NOT THE RESULT OF A CUT. THE PRESSURE WAS SO INTENSE THAT THE SKIN ACTUALLY BURST” “MID-RIDE, BEAU WAS CROSSING AN INTERSECTION WHEN OUT OF THE BLUE ANOTHER CAR COLLIDED WITH HIM” We all saw it: those grisly images posted on social media showing what appeared to be a mashed right calf that belonged to one of the fastest off-road riders in the country. And wasn’t it grotesque? I remember my first thought as something like, “This guy isn’t going to ride for a long time.” The timing wasn’t great either. The 2016 Australian Four Day Enduro was only a matter of weeks away. Ralston was supposed to be going to awaken our primeval two-stroke-loving senses with the sights, sounds and smells of his…

THE COMMUNITY Alice Springs is the base for the Finke Desert Race. It starts there, runs down to the township of Finke and then back again the next day. Prologue is also held in Alice, as is the huge scrutineering event. I’ve travelled a fair bit in Australia and I’ve not seen any place quite like Alice Springs. I love it and the actual geographic location is part of the reason I keep returning. There’s something about the land there that feels free, boundless, inhospitable and welcoming at the same time. It’s ancient and it’s breathtaking. But for moto fans there’s no better town in this country to be in than during Finke time. The whole city gets behind the race like you don’t see for any other type of…

PROGRIP ROLL OFF SERIES 3458 GOGGLES GIBSON TYRES Gibson Tyre Technology work solely in the off road market. The company line is they are fueled by a passion for off-road sports that enables them to put all of their resources into finding and developing the latest technologies within the two wheeled off-road industry. The guys at Gibson say the MX 4.1 pictured, is most suited to hard terrain but has been designed to perform just as well when faced with intermediate ground conditions, by offering good contact with the ground whilst still clearing the dirt with its engineered spacing of the block. • MX 4.1 Rrp $120.00 For Intermediate/Hard Ground. • Check out their range: gibsontyretech.co.uk • Email: gibsonttau@gmail.com for Australian distributor. POLISPORT PIT BOARD Polisport Pit Boards are a…

SAVE A LITTLE Before we go into anything else, you should always keep a little bit of speed up your sleeve on the trail to deal with the unexpected. The list of potential hazards is almost endless so you need to give yourself a chance to deal with them by not being right on the razor’s edge. VISION Your number one-tool for staying safe at speed: you’re not only looking at the line you’re riding and watching for any holes, rocks and edges but also trying to take in the general terrain and where the trail might be heading. You can pick up a lot about the upcoming trail by staying aware of your surroundings. Any time you can catch a glimpse of the trail way ahead, maybe across a…

There were two blokes in the 2016 GNCC season, Aussie Josh Strang and American Kailub Russell. The rest weren’t real close in points by the end and, given the calibre of rider we’re talking about, you can understand that Strangy and Russell must have been on another level. Russell dominated, though. Fair and square, he was the better rider with 10 round wins to Strangy’s three (nobody else won an overall). But Josh is a ridiculously competitive rider whose seasons have too often been screwed by injuries. Don’t expect the 2017 season to be so easy for Russell. Strangy has what it takes to win the title once more.…