Bike Tests

Sometimes our daydreams become reality. Recently, we had a conversation at the office about what a modern Japanese 125cc two-stroke might look and perform like. The conversation went on for hours. Not long afterward, we ran into Josh…
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Few bikes have a resume like this. For years now, the KTM 250SX-F has been the lightest bike in the 250 class. It has also been the bike with the best peak power, the best brakes, the best clutch, the best this, the best that, and on and on…
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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…
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If you are involved in the 85cc racing world, then you know just how competitive and expensive it can be. Building a Supermini race bike can deplete a person’s checking account in minutes—and that’s if you can actually locate all the parts…
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Benelli is a member of the Century Club—a group of motorcycle companies that are over 100 years old. Yet, in the U.S., the brand doesn’t have the iconic ring of Husqvarna, Harley-Davidson or Indian. Benelli motorcycles were never imported…
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The Flying Machine Factory (FMF) has been around since the early ’70s when Donny Emler took his passion for motorcycles to another level and started hopping up engines and making aftermarket exhausts. Not long after, his son Donny Emler Jr.…
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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…
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In the shadow of COVID-19, the process of choosing a dual-sport bike has been simplified—you buy what you can get. The days when you could walk into a dealership, sit on four or five different bikes and bargain with a hungry salesman are…
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If ever a motorcycle was a victim of its own sex appeal, it’d be the Honda CRF250L Rally. It was probably the coolest-looking adventure bike you could buy, and it was preposterously inexpensive. In a category where $20,000 price tags are…
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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,…
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KTM redefined what a true street-legal dirt bike is back in 2007. Until then, the guy who was serious about riding from his house to the trails in the hills did it on a girthy XL600 or a ponderous and softly muscled DRZ, or snuck his…
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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…
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On this week's Two-Stroke Tuesday we show you the personal bike of  "Every Single Sunday" content creator Travis Brock thanks to the camera skill of Jean Turner. This Gas Gas 300 is built to handle just about anything mother nature can…
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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…
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If you don’t know any better, you might think the 2021 Honda CRF450RWE is just another race replica. That’s forgivable. There’s a long history of companies that try to capitalize on the success of their race teams by offering special…
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This weeks Off-Road Testing and Tales from the trail takes us up to the mountains for more technical terrain and milder weather.
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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…
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This week I got to ride my 2020 KTM 500EXC for the first time in about six months. This was the bike that won our 2020 dual-sport shootout. I purchased the bike directly from KTM after the test and then promptly didn’t ride it. That’s a…
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We're getting deeper into the dual sport build on our KTM 500 EXC. This week we bolt on Kreft's modified suspension, and continue testing parts that we believe will improve the machine.
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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…
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