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Rieju is built on the foundation of the original GasGas organization. KTM’s parent company purchased controlling interest in GasGas, deleting the existing GasGas off-road line and moving it to Austria. Rieju, a Spanish manufacturer (around since 1934), took over the remaining tooling and introduced their line of 300 off-road machines, which is based on the […]
You gotta love a motorcycle that makes people look. Bob Casper’s KTM 380SX Factory Edition is like that. What’s even better, it makes people listen too. This is a dirt bike that confuses onlookers on so many levels. On initial contact it prompts about three questions in the first millisecond: Was that Ryan Dungey? Was that […]
If we can presume to speak for the two-stroke underground, most manufacturers are missing the point. No one is really crying out for new technology, more complication and more expense. What most twostroke fans want is simplicity, efficiency and affordability. What they want is more bikes like the Rieju MR Ranger. Rieju is a small […]
KTM’s 2023 competition bikes comprise the most comprehensively changed line-up in the company’s history. Everything is new: the 450SX-F, the 350SX-F and the 250SX-F have the Factory Edition frames and motors. On top of that, the 300SX, 250SX and 125 SX two-strokes are completely different. All have electric start, all have fuel injection and all […]
The pecking order in the dual-sport world is well-established, and the Husqvarna FE501s is right at the top. At the risk of rehashing common knowledge, the FE is the Husqvarna version of the KTM 500EXC. Don’t fall into the “white KTM” camp of riders, though. The Husky is its own bike, and there are significant […]
The overlap between motocross and off-road has never been so wide. Machines like the Honda CRF450RX can stake a claim in either camp. The RX is, in its simplest terms, a Honda CRF450R motocross bike that won’t chew you up and spit you out. The fact that Honda and virtually every other manufacturer is offering […]
Kawasaki has dropped the bulk of its 2023 off-road bikes. This includes the KX450X and KX250X competition models as well as the off-road play bikes and dual-sport bikes. The official description of each model from Kawasaki’s own corporate mouth is below. 2023 KX250X • NEW Increased engine performance • NEW Racer-friendly gearing • NEW Wider […]
By Mike Webb We had a great opportunity to ride the 2022 Beta 200RR and the 300RR while up in Idaho with Beta’s Rodney Smith. What follows here is a two-day test of the duo, so there’s nothing long-term about this; it’s basically a riding comparison between the two machines. First, let’s look at both […]
In the U.S., there are two different 300cc two-strokes that carry the KTM name: the 300XC and the 300XC-W. Up front, the two bikes seem very similar. They both have the most successful motor in KTM history; the 300cc two-stroke. Both have Transfer Port Injection, oil injection and six-speed transmissions. According to KTM’s overall plan, […]
There is no doubt that the two-stroke is riding a wave of popularity inspired by a rise in off-road passion, new technology and the status of extreme or hard enduro racing. There are several players here, notably the Austrian TPI machines—KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas—Sherco, TM and Beta. We didn’t get a chance to test too many […]
Some bikes can be understood most easily by process of elimination. You gotta understand what they aren’t before you understand what they are. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help in the case of the Husqvarna TE150i. Defining what it can’t do is hard. It’s perfect for youth as well as vets and seniors. It’s a natural entry-level […]
In the U.S., the motorcycles we call off-road vehicles fall into several broad categories. Some are officially recognized as OHVs by the federal government, and those are generally regulated for noise and emission. Others are what we call “closed-course competition bikes.” Those are imported under the same rules as motocross bikes. Here, we have gathered […]
Let’s look at the world of extreme enduro. In the Pro class, there is not a single four-stroke machine. The 300cc two-stroke utterly dominates this world of technical riding and impossible obstacles. And, having a machine that makes better and more controllable power at lower rpm than the four-stroke is the most competitive path to […]
The goal was seriously demented. Beau Law, the owner of Ready to Ride Rentals, wanted to take a brand-new, bone-stock KTM 300XC-W TPI machine and torture it. His dream was no maintenance for the duration of the test. Nada. No oil changes, no filter cleaning. He purchased the machine from AEO Powersports in Mesa, Arizona. […]
In 2019, Cody Webb rebuilt himself. Everything in his life had changed that spring when a knee injury forced him out of racing for the season. This was on the heels of an injury sustained in the prologue of the 2018 Erzberg Rodeo in Austria, and a controversial last-round loss of his number-one plate in […]
Question: When is an off-road bike not an off-road bike? Answer: When it’s a Yamaha YZ450FX. The FX, along with a whole class of “closed-course competition cross-country” products, might be what we dirt bike enthusiasts consider off-road, but Yamaha has to call it a race bike, according to the EPA. Closed-course bikes aren’t required to […]
During a bench racing session the phrase was muttered, “We should race the 3 Brothers 24-Hour endurance race at Glen Helen this year.” With that one sentence, Josh Trimble, Randy Garrett, Josh Dalton, Joey Martin and Dan Dreier’s lives would never be the same. But, who was going to donate their bike to the cause? […]
Some motorcycles become icons after generations of service. Others graduate to that status ahead of schedule. That happened with the KTM 350XC-F. It came out 10 years ago and almost immediately was granted membership in the elite ranks of racing. Now, it’s generally acknowledged as the winningest off-road bike of the past decade, maybe even […]
Green-sticker-legal off-road bikes are a dying breed due to more stringent requirements being implemented each year to meet emission standards in the state of California. In the past, riders looking for a serious off-road machine had few choices. They could strip down a dual-sport bike, go the red-sticker route, or deal with some of the […]
Sherco has just revealed its 2022 line of off-road motorcycles. The French company will again feature two-strokes and four-strokes in several displacements. Internationally, Sherco divides its products into two different lines: the Racing models and the premium-level Factory models. For the U.S. market, only the Factory models will be offered. This are mostly distinguished by […]