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It’s been a while since we’ve had a new adventure bike in the shop, but Suzuki has recently released the all-new V-Strom 800DE, which is the most intriguing bike in the ADV world right now. Suzuki hasn’t had a new off-road product in a very…
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The 2024 model valve has been opened and new bikes are flowing into the Dirt Bike shop at regular intervals. This week we got our first ride on the 2024 Husqvarna FC450. This is a bike that we already love. Husqvarna race bikes still…
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It’s fun to look back and realize that shootouts have always been tough. Back in the December 2000 issue of Dirt Bike, we had a six-bike 125 shootout and evidently had a hard time getting anyone to agree on anything. All we knew was that…
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I went to Sherco’s 2024 dealer meeting in San Antonio, Texas this week and got to hang out with guys like Gary Hazel, Pat Smage, Cooper Abbott and Cody Webb. It was a great opportunity to check out the 2024 models. Then, I got to ride the…
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Rodney Smith drove down from up north this week to drop off a 2024 Beta 200RR for us to try. I was a big fan of 200cc two-strokes back in the day. Who wasn’t? They were left behind over the years. I believe that it was simply hard to…
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We just got our first chance to ride the 2024 KTM 300SX. We knew what we were getting into; we had a fair amount of time on our 2023 version and it never stopped impressing us. Prior to last year, KTM had never produced the 300SX for the…
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The 2024 test bikes are starting to roll in. Last week we got ahold of the Husqvarna TE150, which is all-new this year. It has a new chassis, new motor, new electronic powervalve and a new throttle body fuel injection system. If you look…
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GasGas presented its new lineup in different fashion for 2024. Instead of revealing the new models to the press at a private event, the company opened its doors to the public. The affair was called the GasGas Spice It Up Festival and was…
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This week we returned to our roots. It was all about riding small-bore dual-sport bikes. We have the Honda CRF300L and the Kawasaki KLX300. The main appeal to both bikes is price; they each sell for around $5500. Both are made in Thailand…
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We now have our first official 2024 motocross bike in the garage. It’s the KTM 450SX-F and we already love it. That’s a little odd because this is an unchanged bike for 2024, and we didn’t especially love it last year. Not at first, anyway.…
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The Beta Xtrainer is a weird, crazy bike that everyone loves. The problem is that there’s nothing else quite like it--Beta should sell this bike in sets of two. That way you always have someone to ride with. The short description is that…
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Back in July 1994, when Roger DeCoster was in charge of Dirt Bike Magazine’s testing department, he got a rare opportunity. He got to test the very bike that Bob Hannah raced in 1979. It was the OW40, which was reputed to be one of the…
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The Honda CRF450X is the most successful off-road racer in the west. It has won the SCORE Baja 1000 16 times, the Baja 500 12 times and the 24 Hours of Glen Helen 11 times. And yet, it isn’t an especially fast motorcycle. In fact, in stock…
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The 2024 models are out there! Even now, there are dealers that have some new models on the showroom. We have seen most of the new dirt bikes from Beta, Honda, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, KTM and Suzuki. GasGas, Sherco and Yamaha have yet to…
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Last month, we got to test the 2024 KTM 450XCF-W at a media intro in Ohio at the site of the John Penton GNCC. It was just enough to get us excited about the bike and we couldn’t wait to get it to California where we could get more time on…
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We don’t get many Shercos to test, so we were delighted when a big crate showed up on our doorstep with a 2023 125SE enclosed. Sherco is one of those sneaky companies that quietly stays just ahead of the curve. The 125SE has been around for…
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Back in 2000, Travis Pastrana was a 16-year-old kid who was already one of the best known motocrossers in the world. That was when Roger DeCoster was just beginning to understand what he had in Travis. In the July, 2000 issue of Dirt Bike,…
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Earlier this week, I went to Sunday Creek Raceway in Ohio, which is the home of  the John Penton GNCC to preview KTM’s 2024 off-road collection. The centerpiece of them all is the new 300XC-W, but I also got to check out  the 150XC-W, the…
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Rodney Smith drove down from Idaho last week to deliver a 2023 Beta 300RR Race Edition. This is a premium version of the “Standard” 300RR.. It uses premix lubrication rather than oil injection. The motor has a larger exhaust port, higher…
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We rode the new Yamaha YZ125X off-road two-stroke for the first time this week. This motorcycle has massive changes for 2023. It is based on the YZ125 motocross bike which had massive changes last year, so it follows in those footsteps with…
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