behind the build

Shaun Langham is a good friend of the DB editors. He rides weekly with the Webb bros. and has a reputation for not skimping when it comes to building his personal off-road machine. He recently sold his heavily modded 2019 KTM 300XC-W and…
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Mark Tilley has two priorities in his life these days. Their names are Jacob and Austin Tilley. But between supporting their young racing aspirations and acting as Managing Editor of Dirt Bike Magazine, Mark found the time to earn two…
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Taking the CR500R 2-stroke to a level that wasn't possible in 1995
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Michael Fischer is a long-time moto racer and enthusiast. Living in Nebraska, he is far away from the moto Mecca of SoCal, but he is always searching different buy/sell/trade sites trying to find a deal on something he can make a project…
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By Tom Webb For the last two years I’ve wanted to buy myself a dual-sport machine. Why, you ask, would an editor of a dirt bike publication who gets free bikes to test for a year want to buy something that sells for around $12,000? In my…
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Test rider Carson Brown can ride anything just about anywhere and somehow go insanely fast. We have seen this on many occasions working with him on a variety of different project bike builds. During one day of filming last year, Carson…
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Jeremy McGrath loves to ride and race motorcycles of all shapes and sizes. He has a huge collection of championship-winning two-strokes, but he also has a small fleet of machines he rides on a daily basis that would make most people drool.…
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Dick Wilk has been building highly evolved racing machines for 30 years. His efforts covered desert racers, motocross, GNCC and National Enduro equipment and rally machines. His foray into the adventure bike segment began in 2014 with his…
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When building any type of project bike, it’s always smart to start with a budget and stick to that budget; however, we are definitely not smart with our money when motorcycles are involved. We will be the first to admit that almost every…
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Garry Reynolds rescued this motorcycle in honor of long-time motorsport enthusiast and all-around great guy, Mike Hasson. Unfortunately, we lost Mike to COVID last year. Mike’s creed was always, “#AtATrack.” It didn’t matter what kind of…
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Pete Treadwell and the Western Power Sports crew are at it again! This retro-themed, early-2000s, steel-framed Yamaha YZ125 was part of the Yamaha of Troy race team and still has the initials “JH-1” (for Josh Hansen) engraved into the…
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It’s surprising how quickly the motorcycle world warmed up to the idea of a Husqvarna adventure bike. The Husky Norden 901 has been available for about six months, and already it has secured a prestigious place in the adventure bike…
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A 2006 aluminum-framed Honda CR500 two-stroke would have been a very popular conversation piece at Honda dealerships all around the world the mid 2000s. Unfortunately, Honda never mass-produced this unit, and there are only a handful of…
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Jamie Ellis and his team at Twisted Development build fire-breathing race machines for some of the top athletes and teams in the motocross and off-road industry, so when the shop’s 2005 Yamaha YZ250 needed some TLC, the guys at Twisted went…
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Today’s crop of 300 two-stroke off-road bikes offer an amazing level of performance. The technical advancements in the motor, chassis and suspension are astonishing. These woods weapons perform so well, they make the average pilot a better…
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The Motowhips GasGas MC250 build started off as a very simple race bike build, but then something happened that was almost out of our control—a chain reaction. Every build starts out with a plan. Some follow that plan and some, like…
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Bringing a 2016 KTM 250SX-F up to date and then some
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Suzuki fans have always been hard-core. Going back to the DeCoster heyday of the early ’70s, some riders have had near-spiritual devotion to the brand. Back then it was easy; Suzuki won more than any other manufacturer in those days. Now…
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The Yamaha YZ250 is a proven commodity in the two-stroke world and hasn’t seen very many changes to its powerplant since the early to mid 2000s. This is not because the Yamaha engineers are lazy; it’s just because the YZ250 is that good.…
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The Honda CR250R has got to be one of the most popular early-to-mid-2000s two-stroke machines to rebuild in history. One reason is that Honda sold a ton, and the other reason is the bikes all seem to be aging very well. We found what looked…
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