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When it comes to taking gigantic, twin-cylinder motorcycles off-road, the KTM 790 Adventure R has been king since it was introduced a little over one year ago. It’s almost as if KTM looked at the rules of the game and decided how best to cheat. Yes, it’s still big enough to qualify as a full-blooded […]
Trials is a unique sport. Many of the brands that are mainstream in the trials world are unknown to a large percentage of the dirt riding public in the States. Sherco, a French manufacturer, has bolted into the limelight here in America with the signing of Cody Webb, but the company has been a mainstream […]
Fuel-injected two-strokes are here to stay. Now, there are three manufacturers offering transfer-port-injection two-strokes in the U.S., and there are more to come. Here’s the fun part: not all of them are owned by KTM’s parent company. TM is a small Italian company that has proven itself capable of matching any motorcycle company in the […]
Sherco has made a big push world wide in recent years and that’s being felt here in the U.S. We got a chance to see what all the buzz was about with the arrival of the 2020 250SEF Factory off-road four-stroke. One year ago most off-road riders in the U.S. thought that Sherco was a vintage […]
The late ’90s to mid-2000s Suzuki RM250 two-strokes might just be the best used motorcycles out there. They feature a strong engine and a great handling package that makes the bikes fun to ride. This is probably why we don’t come across many for sale; the people who have them want to keep them. Thankfully, […]
The Yamaha WR250F is an easy bike to ride but a difficult bike to understand. You could call it a high-end race bike aimed at beginners or a play bike designed by racers. It’s clearly a machine designed to adhere to the letter of the law, but it’s unclear what law that is. The WR […]
Sometimes you just know it. Sometimes you can look at the pictures, check the direction and temperature of the wind, and predict when a bike is going to be a big hit. The Yamaha Tenere 700 is like that. This is a bike that we’ve been waiting for and wanting to ride for a very […]
The 250 two-stroke is alive and well in 2020. Austria, Japan and Italy all offer current bikes for the MX purist. Some are more modern than others, but all have suspension and brakes that we could have only dreamed of 20 years ago when the two-stroke was in its heyday. It’s time to set the […]
The world of extreme, or hard enduro, has had a dramatic effect on the world of off-road. Potential riders are enthralled with the skill sets of Graham Jarvis and Cody Webb, who dominate the sport. Nearly 100 percent of the top hard enduro racers have a trials background, and this has been instrumental in their […]
TM is a small motorcycle manufacturer located in a small town in the Italian countryside. TM makes a limited number of hand-built, very specialized machines each year and is perfectly content doing so. The largest-bore two-stroke TM has ever produced is 300cc, and we don’t think TM plans to change that any time soon. Enter […]
As the dirt bike industry is distilled to its most essential components, we increasingly look to small companies for innovation and purity. TM is a small Italian company making motorcycles that matter; motorcycles like the 250MXE two-stroke. This is currently the only electric-start two-stroke motocross bike available in the U.S. Beyond that, it’s a new […]
In June of 1971, the first issue of Dirt Bike Magazine appeared on newsstands. Within it was the first modern motocross shootout. The Husqvarna 250 Cross, Maico 250 K5 and CZ 250 were the subjects of the test. Here is the test as it was presented in 1971 Put together a minimum of two dirt […]
Going with a Husqvarna 300 two-stroke is an easy call. Everyone loves them. But which one? There are two in the 2020 Husqvarna line: the TE300 with the headlight and the more competition-oriented TX300. Aside from the headlight and taillight, are there any real differences between the two? When we first got the two bikes, […]
If you’re waiting for technology to slow down in the adventure bike world, good luck. Bikes are advancing like smartphones, so virtually any bike can be obsolete before the loan book arrives. The 2020 Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin is probably the safest investment on the market right now, because it’s hard to imagine how anything […]
Testing FMF, Vortex, IMS and other products plus various modifications for the 2020 KTM 500XCF-W
After all this time, we admit we still don’t know what the heck a dual-sport bike is supposed to be. Manufacturers and riders use the term freely, as if everyone has the same interpretation, yet the bikes sold under that banner are wildly diverse. Just look at the current 500 category. The Beta 500RR-S, Husqvarna […]
KTM knocked it out of the park with the 790 Adventure last year. It’s a stunning motorcycle that broke new ground in off-road performance and accessibility for a full-sized ADV machine. Even though the performance-to-price ratio was better than anything that came before it, the 790 was still out of reach of many would-be off-road […]
Husqvarna’s Transfer Port Injection is now in its third year, and still the focus of mistrust and controversy. The 2020 Husqvarna TE300i got a new frame, a new look and still more development on its fuel-injection system. Its performance is so seamless that even the most hardcore two-stroke purist has to concede that the technology […]
We started our trail build with the last 300XC model to come equipped with a carburetor: the 2019 KTM 300XC. This machine was fairly well-received by the carbureted community as a whole but did have some issues. One major issue was the constant need to modify jetting specs in the Mikuni unit that came on […]
The Yamaha Tenere 700 has finally arrived and we got to spend a day on it in the San Bernardino mountains this week. This is a bike that we’ve been waiting for and wanting to ride for a very long time–even before the bike was officially announced at the EICMA show. Yamaha has been quiet […]