Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Dirt Action

01 AIROH AVIATOR 2.2 The Airoh Aviator 2.2 is one of those helmets that stops you in your tracks. In a world where you can buy a helmet from a supermarket for $59, which essentially values your head at less than a hundred bucks, the real top-of-the-tree helmet is a sight to behold and the job it does can’t be understated. The Aviator 2.2 is available in two different shell sizes and made from 100% Carbon Kevlar, which makes it one of the lightest and best-performing helmets on the planet. Everything from the inner lining to the emergency fast-remove system, venting and immaculate hand-painted finish are well thought out and designed for comfort and safety at the highest level. Airoh also promises that the helmet you buy is exactly the…

NICKNAME: Stef DOB: 29/12/86 FIRST BIKE: QR50 WHAT AGE DID YOU START RIDING? Four years old CURRENT RIDE/TEAM: 321 Motorsport Yamaha Offroad team WHEN AND WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST RACE AND HOW DID IT PAN OUT? My first race was on a sand track in Sweden called Hokensas. I was sitting second mid-way through the race and got a massive tank slapper and crashed out. I was 10. YOUR GREATEST DIRTBIKE-RELATED ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? It would be back in ‘05 or ‘06 racing coupe D’Lavenir (under-21 MX des Nations in France) I was on the Swedish team and I finished fourth overall and the team was third. IF YOU WERE NOT RACING WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING? I’m an active person so I’d keep busy having fun on my mountain…

There have been several epic rides this year. Some in one-off events, like Daymon Stokie’s Finke win, and some over entire seasons, like Dean Ferris’s MX Nationals win. But one that just can’t go under the radar is Dan Milner’s incredible AORC season. Dan did what no other rider has ever been able to do and won the AORC title by taking out every round, something not even Toby Price has on his record. Dan’s domination was complete, comprehensive and brutal. You gotta hand it to the guy who left to find success in the US but instead had a pretty tough time of it. This can often bring a rider down and at best put their career into a short slump, but Milner pushed through and turned 2017 into…

COME THE END OF THAT DAY IN 2007, WATERS HAD A MOTO WIN AND A COME-FROM-BEHIND SECOND PLACE TO TAKE A SECOND OVERALL FOR THE DAY. SUCCESSFUL ATHLETES ALL HAVE THESE DAYS — THIS WAS TODD’S Ten years ago, Todd Waters arrived on the pro scene with a breakout fill-in Motocross Nationals ride in the MX2 class in Toowoomba. Sure, he came in with a swag of junior titles and was looking good in the MXD class, but we’ve seen time and again that this means nothing when the big show calls. Come the end of that day in 2007, Waters had a moto win and a come-from-behind second place to take a second overall for the day. Successful athletes all have these days — this was Todd’s. Waters is…

Greece is special. I knew it would be before I even got there. I have known about its history and have read about its epic mythological stories since I was in grade school. Ancient history is around every corner in Greece and it has a way of making you want to slow down to appreciate it. I arrived into the country on a ferry from Brindisi, Italy. At this point, I had been on the road for almost two months and travelled over 22,000km through England, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Andorra and Italy. By the time I left Greece I had racked up well over 2500km of travel, but I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface. Greece is a magical place that’s only made so special by the…

Ever since I can remember I’ve always been fascinated by Mongolia and its people. My dad gave me all his copies of National Geographic one day when I was about seven years old and one issue on Mongolia really stood out and caught my attention. I had looked into visiting Mongolia a few times and never did anything about it until I saw some videos of motorcycle tours on YouTube. So one Sunday afternoon after a few beers and texts to a couple of mates Jamie and Aaron (who were also as tipsy as I was) we were booked in! ASSEMBLING THE CREW We arrived into the capital Ulaanbaatar and had our driver waiting who took us to our hotel and gave us some handy local knowledge on places to…

Adam Cianciarulo has agreed to a multi-year extension on his contract with Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit Kawasaki, the team he's been with for years after originally signing in 2011. While AC has been a fan favourite pretty much his whole career, his racing has often been curtailed by injury and only this year did the amateur phenom break through for his maiden win at Budds Creek. “I’ve been Kawasaki since 2004,” explained Cianciarulo at the post-race press conference. “I was seven years old. I’ve been with Pro Circuit since I was about 12 years old. Mitch and Bruce and Dan and Zach at Pro Circuit and Kawasaki, those guys have always been so supportive of me. They never put pressure on me. They let me come around at my own…

FEATURES ▪Maximum Speed: 35 mph (15 m/s) ▪Maximum Distance: 3,000m ▪Maximum Altitude: 3,200m ▪Maximum Wind Resistance: 10m/s ▪Operating Frequency: 2.4GHz ▪Dimensions (Opened/No Propellers) Length: 12in (303mm) Width: 411mm Height: 117mm Dimensions (Folded/Transport) Length: 365.2mm Width: 224.3mm Height: 89.9mm ▪Propeller Length: 25.4cm ▪Weight: 1006g KARMA CONTROLLER ▪Screen Size: 12.7cm ▪Screen Resolution: 720p ▪Screen Brightness: 900 nits ▪Battery Life: 4 hours ▪Operating Frequency: 2.4GHz Weight: 625g ▪Charging Time for Karma Battery: 1 hour ▪Charging Time for Karma Controller: 2.5 hours ▪Charging Time for Karma Grip: 2 hours KARMA STABILISER ▪Range of motion: -90° to 0° (down/up) ▪Camera Compatibility: HERO5 Black, HERO4 Black/ Silver ▪Weight: 230g ▪Number of Axles: 3 KARMA GRIP HANDLE ▪Dimensions Length: 205mm Width: 43mm Height: 43mm ▪Battery Life: 1.75 hours ? ▪Weight: 244.6g KARMA CASE ▪Dimensions Length: 540mm Width:…

The 2017 Motul Motocross Nationals was yet again a series with triumph and tragedy, inspiration and controversy. At times it looked like Dean Ferris was doing it easy, which ignores the amount of hard work that goes into the type of winning he did. It seemed as though Egan Mastin was going to have a shitter of a year and then all of a sudden he strung race win after race win together. Cody Dyce displayed what must be some of the gnarliest corner speed on any track to fight his way to the MXD title. And Maddy Brown showed stunning speed and tenacity to take the Women’s class overall, which culminated in some epic battles at Coolum between Brown and Jessica Moore. Let’s take a look at some of…

One of the things I was looking forward to the most about spending the year with the Husqvarna TC250 was racing it at this year’s Penrite Oils Hattah Desert Race. It’s no secret that the event is my favourite race of the year and the weekend of racing I look forward to the most every year. Twenty-seventeen marked the eighth straight year I had entered the gruelling event and over the years I have raced it multiple times on both 450F and 250F machinery, along with one year spent aboard a KTM 350 SXF. For 2017, with the DIRT ACTION Husqvarna TC250 in my possession, it meant I had the opportunity to race the four-hour event aboard a two-stroke for the very first time, something that was both exciting and…

It's been a bit of an odd month aboard the DIRT ACTION Husqvarna TC250 in the fact that while I have only jumped on-board for a grand total of three rides, I have managed to squeeze more hours of ride time into the month than any other this year. The main reason behind the increased ride time was of course racing the Penrite Oils Hattah Desert Race, which you can read about in this issue. Between Hattah and the South Australian round of the AORC two weeks prior, close to one third of my total ride time for 2017 was achieved. As you might have read, we made a few changes to our beloved Husqvarna for Hattah while continuing to run a wide range of genuine Husqvarna parts, including air…

News via speedwaygp.com is that Aussie racer Chris Holder was hit with a nine-month ban from British speedway racing following King’s Lynn’s 'night of chaos against Poole on July 13'. The report goes on to say: The Sydneysider was found guilty in his absence by the Speedway Control Bureau of refusing to compete in two of his races as Stars’ went down 52-40, in a meeting which saw the home side seething over track conditions. 'Holder breached the two-minute time allowance for heats seven and 13, retiring from his opening ride too. 'He was initially hit with a 28-day suspension and then sacked by King’s Lynn, meaning he cannot get a new club this season as the cut-off date for team changes passed at the end of last month. 'But…

At the time of writing, Dean Ferris had just won the MX1 title for the second time in a row and he’d done it spectacularly dominant fashion. Earlier in the year he travelled to America to race a round of the AMA Motocross series at High Point and stunned a lot of people by finishing second in the first moto, his first ever in American motocross. Not by a fluke or freak circumstances — he didn’t Steven Bradbury it. From this epic day came interest from the big show. At this very moment we don’t know for sure that Dean is leaving for the US but it seems fairly certain, and by the time this very issue appears we will probably know for sure. So is it a good thing…

IN A NUTSHELL, THE DESIGN BALANCES PRESSURE ABOVE AND BELOW THE PISTON TO PROVIDE BETTER CONTROL OF THE STROKE OVER CHOPPY SURFACES. HOW NEW? It’s slated as an all-new bike and it pretty much is. There's a new look thanks to redesigned plastic and the addition of some blue, which I personally really like, gives this bike a presence in the pits. The frame is all new, designed to increase rigidity while being 700g lighter. The head tube is 10mm back from the previous version, resulting in a shorter wheelbase, and weight has been distributed further forward on the 2018 machine. The swingarm also has an updated design increasing rigidity and saving 100g. The suspension is an all-new package, back to spring forks with 49mm Showa units that claim to…

A couple of months back while sitting in a reach truck picking orders at my day job, I received a phone call from DA editor Damien Ashenhurst. “Az, are you keen to head to Kyogle to ride Beau Ralston’s YZ300X at the AORC rounds?” Without hesitation I fired back, “For sure!” I gave it no real thought. The only thing buzzing around in my mind was that I was going to race Ralston’s race bike built by the man himself, AJ Roberts — it was another dream come true. MEET THE FAMILY Stepping out of the hire car at the beautiful race venue of Kyogle, the first person I ran into was my team manager for the weekend, AJ Roberts. He looked at me and simply said, “You’re late,” before…

You didn’t realise you would miss it until it was gone. That sound. That smell. We evolved into four-stroke racers almost overnight. For me it was the 1992 ISDE held in Cessnock. That was the first time I heard the thundering roar of a full gate of four-strokes and thought it was amazing. Of course, this was at the time when two-strokes were the norm but these days the four-stroke roar seems to have lost its amazement. It’s now just pretty much all there is and to be honest sometimes I just wish that noise would go away. This was made clear to me recently when we attended the Conondale Classic Dirt VMX motocross meet in early August. AUDITORY MAGIC Nothing beats the sound of a two-stroke being wrung out…

There’s a stigma around the off-road world that you need to own the latest, the greatest, the fastest. Forget the fact that there are better bikes out there for you — you need the latest. Because it’s winning on Sunday, you must buy it Monday. It’s simply not the case. Way too many trail riders are struggling to hang onto 450 enduro bikes in the bush when they should be riding a trail bike in the trails. Enduro for enduro, trail for trail — see where we are going here. A lot of blokes should be on exactly this bike here, the Suzuki DR-Z400E. It’s plush, easy to ride, cheap to maintain and, put simply, it’s a bloody good bike. WHAT’S THE DEAL? Here at DA, we have ridden the…

It sounds like I'm spoilt, but in the 10 years I’ve been lucky enough to have project bikes there have been a few that I haven’t been too worried about finishing with and sending back to their headquarters — the 2017 KTM500EXC isn’t one of them. The 500 to me has been an epic machine to live with. It’s been a bike I have jumped on time and time again and felt comfortable. I didn’t change much at all. I left the bars standard, the suspension standard and apart from a few trick bits, I basically washed and maintained it! It had leaky fork seals after a muddy trip to Louee and a cartwheel at the AMTRA High Country Ride scratched it up a little, but otherwise it’s been a…

The idea here was to have the Milky Way rise up behind the bike. It was there, but sadly so were the clouds and so this late-night trip to the beach became a game of "what weird stuff can we do with torches and headlights?" The headlights are actually illuminating Damo walking past the front of the bike with a Macna jacket on. There’s a light bought from Big W behind the bike and another one used to light the front. The Milky Way never appeared but the Honda CRF250 Rally still came out looking pretty cool. We like this bike. With the Rally, the CRF450RX and the Africa Twin, you could keep the whole family pretty happy.…