Transmoto dirt bike magazine issue 59

TRANSMOTO 6-HOUR CONONDALE + STROUD NOV-DEC

ISSUE #59

AT THE ISDE WITH TEAM AUSTRALIA

RACING: STRAIGHT RHYTHM | AUS-X OPEN

RATED

WP’s 48MM ‘AER’ AIR FORK

| RED BULL KNOCK OUT | TOBY PRICE & DAKAR

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Inside

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2016 // ISSUE #59

64 EVENTS: TWO TRANSMOTO 6-HOURS Anecdotes from the dust-drenched dedications to dirt at Conondale and Gunns Gully.

12 EDITORIAL When being passed by greatness can be a memorable badge of honour.

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20 FRAMED Eye candy for those with an innate appetite for dirt, grime and gumption.

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HIGH DEF Cinema-grade, moving content you absolutely must eyeball.

EVENT: 2016 ISDE, SPAIN Insiders’ accounts of Team Australia’s competitive agony and ecstasy.

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BIKE: MX VS ENDURO VS HYBRID Testing a Husky, Sherco and Yamaha 450 to unearth the best all-rounder.

BIKE: 2017 KTMs – 7 NEW POWERPLANTS A fascinating insight into the Austrian manufacturers’ unorthodox R&D process.

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PROFILE: TOBY PRICE A landmark interview with the first Australian to win the infamous Dakar Rally.

TRAILRIDE: MYALL RIVER STATE FOREST Riding to heaven and hell and paradise, all in one memorable weekend with some mates.

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TECH: AIR-SPRUNG VS COIL-SPRUNG FORKS We put WP’s all-new AER and Xplor forks head-to-head in the bush and MX track.

HOW-TO: RIDE SAND Reining EnduroGP world champ, Matt Phillips, explains the key techniques involved.

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BIKE: KTM’s 2017 300EXC The story behind Daniel Sanders’ two-stroke, which just won the 2017 AORC and ISDE.

RIPPING YARN: JEFF EMIG’s FAVOURITE SHOT The 1992 MXdN, where two enterprising young Aussies shot a timeless image of an AMA legend.

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EVENT: CLASSIC DIRT 12 Conondale’s weekend-long, nostalgia-filled annual festival of old-school dirt.

3 PRIZED POSSESSIONS: DANIEL SANDERS The AORC and ISDE-winning Victorian reveals the three items he treasures most.

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TRANSMOTO EDITORIAL

PASSED BY

I

PRICE

’ve made three passes in the space of five minutes, and I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

The sun is shining. Everyone seems happy. I’m aboard KTM’s lightweight new 350XC-F cross-country weapon.

And I’ve found a window between organisational duties here at the 2016 Transmoto 6-Hour – staged on the hollowed hillsides surrounding Conondale’s Green Park MX track – to cut a couple of cheeky laps. But just as I’m enjoying the fact I haven’t

ANDY WIGAN

TROY PEARS

been choking on thick dust for a whole minute or two, I sense a bike on my tail. It’s got a throaty exhaust note, and I can hear the bloke has good throttle control, but I’m not about to let him past. Not immediately, anyway.

I mean, it would dangerous to do so in the middle of this gnarly, off-camber singletrail (translation: ‘I’m acting like a dick cos I’m not into the idea of sitting in your dust so soon after reaching this rarefied fresh air, pal’).

Anyway, by the time the goat-

track opens up into flowing firetrail, it sounds like I’ve opened a decent gap on my pursuer. Chest out and elbows up, I click gears and fire the Kato off a downhill section’s first erosion mound. Next thing I know – and literally within a second of first hearing the return of that throaty exhaust note – boom, I’ve been passed. The guy is doing what seems twice my speed, and I just catch a glimpse of a red bull on the side of his bike. Yep, there goes Toby Price...

“Toby Price dismantled my illusion of speed by blowing past me on a sketchy downhill while he was aboard his KTM 450 Rallye. Yep, the fully laden Dakar Rally-winning machine.”

N

ow, under normal circumstances, being overtaken by Toby Price wouldn’t rate a mention. After all, he’s as quick as they come, and I’m… not so much. The multiple enduro, desert-racing, and now Dakar Rally champ could ride rings around me with one hand tied behind his back. Okay, both hands.

But the pass that Price put on me was memorable for another reason.

It wasn’t so much that Pricey blew by me so fast that the force of the wind almost took my jersey with him. Nor the fact he passed me on a

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downhill with so many loose rocks that it was all you can do to apply your front brake without washing out. It was the fact he managed to dismantle my illusion of speed by passing me aboard his KTM 450 Rallye; the mega machine he took to that historic Dakar Rally win back in January.

While I’m wondering how I’m going to pull my featherweight 350 up before spearing off at the bottom of this sketchy hill, Price is casually jumping his big-tanked behemoth off each erosion mound and twowheel drifting the thing as if he’s

aboard a mountain bike. All I can do is laugh to myself and marvel at this stark reminder of how Toby Price operates on an entirely different level to everybody else.

Later that afternoon, as everyone is gathered for the presentation, I tell a few people my story of being passed by Price. Funnily enough, they each fire their own ‘passed by Price’ story straight back at me. And unlike most stories about being passed – the ones we tend not to share with the world – this time around, we all seem to wear them like a badge of honour.

MANAGING EDITOR

Andy Wigan | andy.wigan@transmoto.com.au DIGITAL DIRECTOR

Kurt Teague | kurt.teague@transmoto.com.au DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER

Jarrad Duffy | jarrad.duffy@transmoto.com.au ART DIRECTOR

Matt Holmes | online@transmoto.com.au EVENTS MANAGER

Robbie Warden | robbie.warden@3cmg.com.au SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

FourOhFour Films | John Pearson

USA CORRESPONDENTS

Jason Weigandt, Eric Johnson

EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT

Jonty Edmunds

CONTRIBUTORS

Geoff Ballard, Garry Blizzard, Mark Brown, Ben Bunda, Jeff Crow, Simon Cudby, Nick Dole, Ben Foster, Josh Green, Danny Ham, Ian Hancock, Eric Johnson, Mark Kariya, Scott Keegan, Derek Morrison, Tony Nolan, Grant O’Brien, John Pearson, David Pingree, Beau Ralston, AJ Roberts, Ken Roche, Damian Smith, Ryne Swanberg, Cameron Taylor, Ben Tuffy, Jason Weigandt, Amanda West, Peter Whitaker ADVERTISING MANAGERS

Warren Randell | warren.randell@coastalwatch.com Shane Newman | shane.newman@3cmg.com.au DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Miles Finlay | mfinlay@coastalwatch.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR ISSN : 1839-0358

Doug Lees | doug.lees@3cmg.com.au SPIRITUAL LEADER

Kim Sundell | kim.sundell@coastalwatch.com Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine is published 6 times a year by TDBM Pty Ltd, ACN 141 679 423, 681 Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon, NSW, 2107.

Phone (02) 9965 7364. Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine welcomes photographic and written contributions. Send with a stamped, self-addressed envelope to 681 Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon, NSW, 2107. We do not accept responsibility for unsolicited material provided in this way. Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine retains reprint rights; contributors retain resale rights. Views expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the publishers.

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Jack Simpson

Tye Simmonds

Daniel Sanders

Daniel Sanders

Daniel Sanders

KTM Group Partner

Daniel Sanders

KTM Group Partner

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VIDEO HIGH DEF

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THE JERKYLS’

SUNDAY SLIDE Check out the melting pot of man, woman and machinery at the 2016 instalment of The Jerkyls’ Sunday Slide, held at northwestern Sydney’s iconic Nepean Raceway in late November.

JARRAD DUFFY

WA N T M O R E ?

CHECK OUT IMAGES FROM THE EVENT

GALLERY 1

GALLERY 2

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STRAIGHT RHYTHM

Back in mid-October, the third annual installment of Red Bull Straight Rhythm retained its head-to-head, best-of-three racing format, and its unique half-mile rhythm section was again built on the former horse track at Fairplex in California’s Pomona. But the 2016 edition was stepped up a notch by running under lights for the first time, plus it showcased the maiden appearances of Josh Hill aboard an Alta electric motorcycle, and the crowd-pleasing antics of Oklahoma’s Ronnie Mac aboard a 1998 two-stroke. For the record, KTM teammates Marvin Musquin and Ryan Dungey went 1-2 in the Open class, while Troy Lee Designs KTM’s Shane McElrath and Mitchell Oldenburg topped the Lites class. Click here for all the highlights of the memorable event.

CHRISTIAN PONDELLA RED BULL CONTENT POOL 21

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AUS-X OPEN

If you’re looking for a success story in motorsport promotion, look no further than AME Management and their AUS-X Open, whose second installment at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena over the November 12-13 weekend boasted two nights of sell-out crowds and the world’s most impressive line-up of international SX and FMX talent.

Hometown hero, 34-year-old Chad Reed, won both nights’ racing, looking as sharp, fast and fit as we’ve seen him in recent years.

American import, Honda’s Justin Brayton, wrapped up the SX1 title, while Serco Yamaha’s Jackson Richardson clinched his maiden SX2 title after a season-long stoush with DPH Yamaha’s Hayden Mellross, who showed great character in the face of an eleventh-hour mechanic that robbed him of a certain championship win. Check out the official highlights from the 2016 AUS-X Open.

AUS-X OPEN

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KNOCK OUT

Some riders manage to find a way to win, no matter what scenario or discipline you drop them into. Take, for example, MX legends, Stefan Everts and Joel Smets, who both claimed ISDE class and/or Outright wins in just their first attempt. Well, three-time and reigning MX2 World Champion, Jeffrey “The Bullet” Herlings, has just done much the same by upstaging 1000 other riders in the 2016 edition of Red Bull Knock Out, which is raced on a 5km beach loop on the North Sea coast of The Netherlands. The win tops off an exceptional year for the 22-year-old Dutchman, whose move to the premiere MXGP class for 2017 is highly anticipated.

Click here for an image gallery and a video insight into the novel race.

JARNO SCHURGERS RED BULL CONTENT POOL

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TOBY PRICE

Having won the Dakar Rally at just his second attempt in early 2016, there’s no chance that Toby Price will be flying under the radar when the 2017 Dakar gets under way in Paraguay on January 2. And while the 29-year-old Aussie seems to be feeling the pressure to defend his crown and keep KTM’s incredible Dakar Rally win-streak intact, KTM has no such doubt. Yes, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team has just inked a deal with Price that extends to the end of 2019.

To celebrate, Pricey travelled to Morocco in the lead-up to his South American odyssey, and hooked up with eccentric freelance photographer, BlackMedia’s Sebas Romero, to capture some pre-Dakar pics aboard the #1 machine – one of which was this inexplicable image of Price scrubbing the thing. Seriously!

SEBAS ROMERO/KTM IMAGES

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MONTHS WARRANTY PARTS & LABOUR

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: *This offer is for all new 2016 Motocross Fullsize Range Models purchases. Not in conjunction with any other offers. Discount off the recommended retail price. For a limited time only, while stocks last and at participating dealers only. For more information contact your local authorised Australian Husqvarna Dealer.

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ENHANCE YOUR OFFROAD DRIVE

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

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ISDE

& AGONY ECSTACY ANDY WIGAN

JOHN PEARSON MEDIA, JOHN HAMILTON

Any hope that Australia could defend its World Trophy Team title evaporated on the opening day of this year’s ISDE in Spain. But that didn’t stop several standout individual performances from the Aussies, or our Women’s team claiming a historic fourth consecutive win.

A

t last year’s International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Slovakia, Australia walked away with every bit on silverware on offer. The Aussies created a slice of Six-Day history by winning the World, Junior and Women’s Trophy Team victories, plus the Watling Trophy, which is awarded to the mostimproved country. So, what happened at the recent 2016 ISDE in Spain? Did lofty expectations play a part in our teams’ less

remarkable results? Were our riders unable to properly adapt to the revised team and scoring formats introduced for 2016? Or was it simply Australia’s turn to cop a serve of bad luck?

To get more of in insight into this year’s ISDE and the high- and low-lights of the Australian riders’ performance, we asked to a cross-section of Aussie riders, team management and supporters to reflect on their Spanish ISDE experience...

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

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“

TEAM MANAGER DON ATKINS

After Australia’s sweeping success at last year’s ISDE, we went into the Spanish event with high expectations. The boys started really strongly, too; all four riders in the World Trophy Team were in the top-20 Outright midway through Day 1, and the team was leading the standings.

But after Josh Strang injured his ankle and could not continue, we were soon recalibrating our expectations. Unlike previous years – when the World Trophy Team had six riders and could drop their slowest rider’s time each day – the new format sees only four riders in the team, with all scores counting on every day.

Josh has been a reliable rider for Australia for many years, so the injury was very unfortunate – for him and the team. And when Daniel Milner DNF’d on Day 2 after derailing a chain and demolishing a sprocket, we focused our attention on the Junior and Women’s teams, and to help support the personal goals of the two remaining rider World Trophy Team, Daniel Sanders and Lachy Stanford.

“What Daniel Sanders did this year – winning the E3 class again and finishing a close second Outright – was very impressive. After his first Six-Day in Argentina, he’s knuckled down and got his training methodology right, plus he’s refined the process of turning the KTM ISDE hire bike into a replica of the race bike he uses back home. Similarly, Daniel Milner has matured and is now showing some real team leadership qualities. It’s great to see these top guys taking on the responsibility for themselves and the team, and ensuring everyone gets the most out of their ISDE performances.

“Our Junior Trophy Team blooded two firsttime ISDE riders this year – Nic Tomlinson and

M O R E O N L I N E AT

Jack Simpson – who joined Tom McCormack.

So it was a bit of a development year for these guys, who’ll all take a lot of learning out of the event. It is a pity that it’s no loner possible to drop a score from the Junior team, because that makes it harder to introduce new riders to the international stage. The Women’s class still allows one of the three scores to be dropped for this very reason, and it means countries can enter the ISDE with a team of two. Speaking of the Women’s Team, Australia’s trio of Jemma Wilson, Jess Gardiner and Tayla Jones were magnificent in claiming their fourth consecutive ISDE win. That’s unprecedented at the event. It was undoubtedly their hardestfought win, as they were up against much improved competition – particularly from the likes of Germany and Spain.

“It’s true that the Australian Sports Commission cut funding for our team this year, but I have to draw attention to the extra effort and funding that Motorcycling Australia stepped up with; to Yamaha Australia’s Ray Howard for their sponsorship of the Women’s Team; and to Geoff Timpson, who put in a huge fundraising effort in the months leading up to the event. Through the contributions of those people in particular, we managed to offer our riders the same financial support as previous years. With me, Chris Gray, AJ Roberts, Trent Lean and MA’s Matt Falvo, we now have a strong and enthusiastic management group in place, and there’s certainly no shortage of riding talent in Australia now. So I’m very positive about our chances of being able to win that coveted trophy again.

”

For Don’s take on Australia’s historic trilogy of ISDE wins in Slovakia last year, check out this fascinating interview with Team Australia’s long-time manager 12 months ago.

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

THE SUPPORTER TRENT LEAN

“

It was a great honour for me to be invited along to this year’s Six-Day to assist the Australian management team. I got involved with packing and unpacking the team’s shipping container. I helped out at the controls and daily work periods. And I acted as a rider liaison, which is something I enjoyed doing for the AORC series this season back home.

“Last year, Australia won the Senior, Junior, Women’s and Watling trophies. So, as Australia’s Don Atkins pointed out at the ISDE’s opening ceremony this year, we’ll never have the honour of winning all four trophies again. But it was really nice to see our team members carry those trophies into the bullfighting ring and then on to Pamploma’s town square, which was used for the opening ceremony.

It was a real highlight to be part of that, walking behind Dan Milner, who carried the Aussie flag.

“I’d always got the impression that management had been pretty strict with what Australian riders got up to socially while they were at a Six-Day, but it

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struck me that our riders all took on a real sense of responsibility this year. I was really impressed with the team spirit, and the fact our riders focused on the job at hand rather than falling into the trap of feeling pressured to emulate last year’s success. As team captain, Daniel Milner kept things light-hearted and social. The Aussies are so popular that everyone always wants a slice of them at the event, but our riders were 100 percent focused when it came to racing.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is how ISDE teams depend so heavily on the family and/or friends that most riders bring along as supporters – people who are there on their own dollar not just to cheer the riders on, but also to perform the key tasks of food preparation, manning controls, sorting fuel and parts, and the hundred other things required. Along with the team’s photographers, John Pearson and John Hamilton, the vibe of the entire Australian group was really positive. And without these supporters, you literally couldn’t take part in the Six-Day.

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THE FIRST-TIME JUNIOR NIC TOMLINSON

“

I’m only 19 years old, so it was a real honour to be selected on Australia’s Junior Trophy Team.

After our Junior team won last year, everyone was watching us as the reigning champs, which is why I think I put too much pressure on myself. The same probably applied to Jack Simpson, who was also racing his first Six-Day. “I ended up finishing 16th in the E3 class, which was respectable, and our Junior Trophy Team ran sixth in the end. It was a really steep learning curve for us all, and with that experience under

our belts, I know we’ll approach the next ISDE with a lot more confidence. The event taught me not to over-think things and to focus only on myself, rather than be distracted by what other riders are up to. I also realised that I need to sort out what food I eat to make sure I’m right physically. It might sound crazy, but as the food is so different over in Spain, it’s not easy to make sure your body is properly fuelled up for the six days of racing. The event is all about adapting to a foreign set of circumstances.

”

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

“

E3 WORLD CHAMP DANIEL SANDERS

After wining the E3 class and going fourth Outright at last year’s ISDE in Slovakia, I came into this year’s event thinking that I had a shot at the Outright. My plan was to defend my E3 title and run top-three Outright, but after a dominant year in Australia, I was confident I could do better. Plus I’d had the benefit of getting comfortable aboard the all-new 2017 KTM before the event. I’d raced the 2017 300EXC in the final four AORC rounds, so having the opportunity to fine-tune the bike’s set-up before the ISDE was a big advantage, too.

“Initially, I was shattered not to win the Outright in Spain – mainly because I was never more than 20 seconds from the lead for the entire six days.

But now that I look back on it, finishing second Outright – just 18 seconds off Taylor Robert – was pretty damn satisfying. I bagged my second E3 title in a row, improved on last year’s Outright result, and did enough to attract the attention of more Europebased race teams. I think I’ve improved a lot since last year, mainly because I’m now making fewer mistakes under pressure. With such a deep field at the Six-Day, you just can’t afford to lose 10 or 20 seconds in a small crash, as it’ll push you way, way down the standings.

It’s all about piecing sections of the track together, flowing, making sure you’re strong in every type of terrain, and on the pace in both the enduro-style tests and the final moto. That versatility was critical in Spain because half the event was dry, rocky and dusty, and the other half was wet and slick.

“This year’s Six-Day was also a bit different for me due to the fact we lost Josh Strang with an injury on Day 1. That put our World Trophy Team out of the running, but it also allowed me to focus on my individual result and take a few more risks. We weren’t the only country to question the change to the smaller, four-man team this year, and the fact you couldn’t drop your worst rider’s score each day.

I understand they made the change to reduce the expense for countries to enter a team. But on the flipside, with no ‘joker rider’, one injury or bike problem throws the chance of a decent team result out the window. And that means all the time and effort and cost in sending a team is suddenly wasted.

For 2017, I hope they move to five riders per team, and reinstate the ability to drop one rider’s score.

“It’s hard to reflect on this massive international event without also making mention of the afterparty.

It’s always a memorable occasion because you get to have a few drinks with riders and fans from all around the world. After getting their historic first ISDE win, the American guys were super-stoked and letting their hair down ore than most. It was an emotional win for them too, seeing as the late Kurt Caselli had played such a key role in laying the foundations for Team USA’s ISDE effort. I’m already looking forward to taking on the American and French teams next year, when the ISDE takes place in France.

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”

ISDE

& AGONY ECSTACY

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

THREE WINNING WOMEN...

JEMMA WILSON

“

This was my sixth Six-Day, and it was supercool to get the fourth win in a row. There was a lot of competition from Germany, Spain and America. In previous years, we sort of knew we would win unless there was some big drama, but there were a lot of strong female riders in Spain. I found it more gratifying to get the win this year, because we had to fight hard for it.

Personally, it wasn’t my best Six-Day. I’ve been riding really well all year, but I just felt flat in Spain and finished fifth Overall – only eight seconds off fourth. Jess and Tayla both worked really hard the whole week for the times we got. Well done to Motorcycling Australia and to all the helpers. It’s a huge effort to get to the event. Thanks also to Yamaha’s support for the Women’s team. We will definitely be looking to extend our ISDE winning streak to five in France next year.

”

M O R E O N L I N E AT Want to know more about these world title-winning Australian women? profile we published about all three shortly Check out this revealing online profile after their historic fourth consecutive ISDE win in Spain.

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

TAYLA JONES

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I am so stoked to get our fourth world title because it was a lot harder this year with so many good riders in the mix. The whole week, Jess, Jemma and I rode consistently well. I got the Final Moto win, which topped off my week nicely, but it’s the team win that means the most to me because

Jess and Jemma are such awesome teammates. I couldn’t ask for a better couple of girls to be racing with. We are all very supportive of each other, and just want to make sure we all finish safely. Thanks also to everyone who helped to get us over to Spain, especially Yamaha.

”

JESS GARDINER

“

It’s so cool to have the same three chicks become four-time World Champions at the ISDE. It has been a pleasure to ride with Jemma and Tayla these past four years and, with many of the other countries fielding strong girls in Spain, this year provided the most exciting racing in the Women’s class I’ve ever seen. That meant there wasn’t much room for error. Although I made a small

mistake on Day 1, I am really happy that I was able to come back strongly. I was a little disappointed about my individual results, but as a team I couldn’t be happier being on that top step. It’s always an honour to hear that national anthem playing. I would like to give an especially big thankyou to Yamaha bLU cRU for their support.

It’s a very special achievement for us all.

”

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EVENT 2016 ISDE, SPAIN

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THE PHOTOGRAPHER

JOHN PEARSON

“

A bloke called Geoff Timpson offered to pay for both me and another photographer, John Hamilton, to join the Aussie team effort in Spain.

I’ve been shooting the AORC for a couple of years now, so it was opportunity I simply couldn’t refuse. Geoff’s been a huge supporter of off-road racing in Australia for a number of years, plus he put in a big fundraising effort – at AORC rounds, major desert races and even at some V8 Supercar events. Anyway, Geoff asked for nothing in return, except that John and I help generate as much exposure for Aussie riders as we could through all the media channels in Oz. “It was such a cool experience because, rather than just being photographer, we were made feel very much part of the team. We travelled to and from Spain with the team, and got to witness all the work that goes into preparing the bikes and riders for a huge international event like this. What amazed me most were the logistics required to get so many people and so much equipment to the other side of the world, and how that one 20-foot shipping container is such a critical part of each team’s ISDE effort. That’s especially the case with teams like Australia and the USA, who travelled from the other side of the globe. The sheer scale of the event – from the pits, to the course, to the administration, to the 500 riders involved, to the timing system – really blew me away too.

“As much as it was really cool to get to meet big-name international riders in Spain, it was also great to experience the spirit that’s made the Aussie teams so successful in recent years. It’s not until you get to an event like that Six-Day that you realise how much everyone depends on each other. John and I wore the team shirt every time we picked up a camera because we wanted people to know we were part of the Aussie team, which has a huge following in Europe. You’ve only got to look at the crowds outside the Aussies’ pit area to realise how popular our riders are. Last year, Team Australia won all the trophies they could win. But I think the level of popularity the Aussie riders now enjoy at the ISDE is largely because they’re all down-to-earth and approachable characters.

That’s what the fans really love about them.

”

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2016 SHERCO 450SEF-R $13,290 For 2016, it gets engine, airbox and EFI upgrades to improve traction, plus mods to make the subframe and wiring more robust. And in Europe, Australia’s Matt Phillips is proving it’s a world-class giant-killer. But is it exciting enough for blokes who like to mix MX with trail?

THE PUREBRED MX BIKE

THE PUREBRED ENDURO BIKE

BIKE HEAD TO HEAD

2016 HUSQVARNA FC450 $11,995 Rebuilt from the ground up for 2016, it’s more than 5kg lighter than its predecessor, and significantly more powerful and agile. Plus Australia’s Josh Strang is proving it’s a GNCC winner in the USA. But how’s it handle tight, rough terrain in the hands of an average rider?

THE MX/ENDURO HYBRID

ANDY WIGAN JOHN PEARSON MEDIA, KURT TEAGUE, ANDY WIGAN, JARRAD DUFFY

If your average ride takes in everything from gnarly trails to fast grasstrack, what’s the best all-round bike for the job? At the recent Transmoto 12-Hour, we put three 450s – a motocross weapon, a purebred enduro model, and a hybrid of the two – head-to-head-to-head to find out.

FIT FOR (MULTI) PURPOSE

2016 YAMAHA WR450F

$12,999 ($13,199 – Anniversary yellow)

Australia’s biggest-selling enduro bike copped an injection of YZ450F DNA for 2016, which has seen it leap to the top of its class on the national racing scene. But because it’s an MX weapon adapted for off-road use, it this machine also userfriendly enough for trailriders?

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“WITH PLUSH SUSPENSION, AN AGILE CHASSIS AND AN INCREDIBLY SMOOTH AND TRACTABLE ENGINE, SHERCO’S 450SEF-R IS ONE OF THE MOST USERFRIENDLY 450CC BIKES ON THE PLANET.”

BIKE HEAD TO HEAD

T

here’s something inexplicably appealing about a machine that’s been designed and built for a very specific purpose. And that applies to motorcycles as much as any other man-made machine. But in the same way that a 250hp MotoGP bike might not serve you all that well for midweek commutes to work in between your licorice-laying weekend sessions at the track, purpose-built dirt bikes don’t always suit the variety of uses we like to put them to. A purebred motocross weapon may let you huck jumps and slam berms like a man possessed, but they can make off-road excursions feel like an accident waiting to happen. One the flipside, the silky-smooth and forgiving nature of a purebred enduro model is right at home in snotty terrain, but can quickly feel way out of its depth when you venture onto a motocross track with the thing.

So, if we’re to assume that you can only afford and/or justify one dirt bike in the garage at a time – a machine you plan to use for a combination of tracks and trails – it raises questions about compromise and adaptability.

Do you look to adapt a rigid and explosive motocross bike to off-road use, or do you breath some fire into an enduro bike’s power delivery and suspension? Or, do you buy a bike whose manufacturer claims they’ve already performed these adaptations on your behalf?

Do you see what we’re getting at here, and how the Husqvarna, Sherco and Yamaha 450s fit into the picture? Yep, seeing as Transmoto’s project bike fleet includes three 450cc dirt bikes – a Husky FC450, a Sherco 450SEF-R and a Yamaha WR450F – we figured the wide variety of (private property) terrain at the 2016

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Transmoto 12-Hour would provide us with the perfect testing ground to address these questions of fit for purpose, compromise and versatility. We enlisted the help of two very experienced riders, Stuart Morgan and Grant O’Brien, and after 12 hours of beating ourselves senseless on one of the roughest and most varied tracks we’d ever ridden, a clearer picture emerged about the relative strengths and weaknesses of these three machines. The experience also helped us decipher which machine is likely to best suit someone who wants their dirt bike to serve several purposes.

SITTING ON THE SPECIMENS When it comes to ergonomics, the line that once existed between enduro and MX models has become so blurred, it’s almost non-existent. Which, when you think about, makes a lot of sense. Whether you’re on a motocross track, enduro loop or trail, a bike’s cockpit should be designed to put the rider in a position that creates a balanced chassis and good feel for the controls, and assists the bike to turn in a sure-footed, predictable way.

So, how do our three machines differ to sit on?

The Sherco is definitely the most comfortable of the trio, and not just because its softer perch (which is very flat for an enduro bike) is better suited to rides that last longer than 30 minutes. The French machine is super-narrow between your legs, and its footpeg/seat/ handlebar triangle puts you in a commanding position on the bike, whether sitting or standing. It also has a slightly more spacious cockpit than the other two machines,

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BIKE HEAD TO HEAD

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“AS YOU’D EXPECT, HUSQVARNA’S FC450 UPSTAGED THE OTHER TWO BIKES ON THE GRASSTRACK AND WHEN HITTING LARGE BUMPS, AND YET ITS POWER AND SUSPENSION WEREN’T BAD IN THE BUSH.” meaning it’ll happily accommodate taller riders without having to fit bar-raisers or taller handlebars. And its Brembo controls are light and slick, which only add to the SEF-R’s refined feel. Remove the hand guards, headlight and a few switchblocks from the bars, and it’d happily pass for a cutting-edge MX bike.

When it comes to streamlined bodywork, however, the Husqvarna comes up trumps. Combined with its flatter, firmer, grippier seat, the FC’s seamless plastics let you move effortlessly around the cockpit. Surprisingly, even though the 2016 FC450 makes its predecessor feel positively porky, it isn’t quite as slim as Sherco’s enduro machine through the girth and radiator shrouds, but its minimalist design screams purpose-built racer. As does its parsimonious 7-litre fuel capacity. Conveniently for those who value their knuckles, it comes with robust hand guards, while there’s a host of clever little design elements – think snap-off plastics, idiot-proof air filter, cleverly routed brakeline, self-cleaning pegs and gearlever tip – which all reinforce just how much thought has been put into its creation.

Compared to these two purpose-built waifs, the Yamaha’s cockpit is noticeably wider. When you’re standing on the bike, it’s not that obvious. But the domed shape of the fuel tank (which is actually the airbox) and the prominent radiator shrouds (which incorporate intake ducts for the reverse-mounted engine) sure makes it feel like you’re looking down on a much broader, thick-necked beast. Funnily enough, most of the whingeing about the Yamaha’s too-porky cockpit has subsided since the YZ250F and YZ450F started winning

AMA and World MX Championships in the past two years. And given that the WR450F and WR250F share the same seat, tank and bodywork as their MX-specific YZ-F cousins, the enduro models have managed to dodge much of that criticism. The Yamaha’s switchblocks, controls and component spec might not quite be a match for the two European bikes’, but it makes up for that with superb fastener commonality and proven durability.

POWER FOR PURPOSE? Sherco has only ever built enduro models. And that’s probably why the power delivery from its flagship 450SEF-R feels so purpose-made for off-road use.

It’s broad, strong and torquey, and comes on in such a linear and progressive way that finding traction becomes a much easier task. It’s a more forgiving and versatile style of power than the other two bikes, both of which are (or were originally) designed for motocross.

That means you don’t have to be as precise with throttle inputs on the Sherco to keep its rear wheel hooking up and driving. And the rougher the terrain got at the 12-Hour, the more the Sherco’s easy-to-manage power endeared itself to the increasingly fatigued bloke onboard. Whether you were in flowing singletrail, grippy grasstrack or slick rocks at the creek crossings, the Sherco was the easiest bike to keep tracking straight.

And for the really technical or slick sections, it’s barmounted dual-map switch – one of the few genuinely on-the-fly units on the market that makes a noticeable difference in the power delivery – was an added bonus.

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“BY CLEVERLY INTEGRATING THE MX PEDIGREE OF THE YZ450F WITH SUSPENSION AND ENGINE MODS TO SUIT OFF-ROAD USE, YAMAHA’S WR450F OFFERS INCREDIBLE VERSATILITY.”

BIKE HEAD TO HEAD

After a lap aboard the super-smooth Sherco, we all expected that jumping straight onto Husqvarna’s purebred MX bike would be a bit of a culture shock. And it was. There’s just no hiding the fact that 63hp will boost you out of turns with eye-watering enthusiasm. This thing was in its element on the loamy grasstrack sections of the 12-Hour loop, but when the terrain got tight and technical, you needed to keep your throttle control wits about you. Once you adapted to the punchier, more responsive nature of the MX powerplant and learned to short-shift at every opportunity, the difference between the Sherco and Husky was not as large as we’d initially expected. And that’s largely because the 2016 FC450’s allnew engine is much better suited to off-road use than its predecessor. It’s so much broader, torquier and smoother, and will be a superb platform for Husky’s (and KTM’s) 2017 enduro model that will no doubt come with this new-generation donk. That said, the light flywheel and tall gearing really worked against the Husqvarna in the tighter, stop-start terrain, and if you weren’t constantly attentive with your clutch finger, it was easy to stall the engine (which is when we came to appreciate the FC’s electric start!). Flicking the bar-mounted map selector switch to the mellower curve certainly helped pacify the power delivery in the tight going, but there’s no doubt the 13/48 gearing is too tall for the bush (Australia’s Josh Strang tells us that he’s running a shorter 14/51 or 14/52 sprocket combo at most GNCC tracks).

With the 2016 WR450F, Yamaha’s engineers have done a great job of making the YZ450F’s prodigious grunt smoother and more manageable for the bush. So that

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means the nature of its power delivery sits somewhere between the Sherco and Husqvarna, right? Yes and no.

With the standard muffler fitted, yes. With the freeflowing FMF/GTYR muffler we used at the 12-Hour, no.

When you open the taps on the WR450F, it still feels like a motocross mill in disguise, and that’s very different to the super-linear curve that was its predecessor’s trademark. So, like the Husky, we all found that shortshifting the Yamaha helped tame that punch and get the rear wheel hooking up more effectively. And when the track got even rougher in the afternoon, we resorted to uploading our pre-programmed Traction Map into the bike’s ECU, and then wondered why we hadn’t done it earlier. By taking the edge off the throttle response mainly through the bottom-end and mid-range, this map creates a much more progressive power curve and helped get drive out of slow corners. It also kept the bike’s rear-end tracking straighter through the huge sand whoops, but still let the thing boogie at higher revs, which came in handy on the smoother, grippier grasstrack.

This experience reinforced just how convenient Yamaha’s affordable ($398) and easy-to-use Power Tuner is. To our way of thinking, it’s the first genuine accessory that 2016 WR450F owners should be buying.

HANDLING TERRAIN HOW? By lunchtime, when the 12-Hour track was pretty damn rough, the fact the three of us all gravitated towards the Sherco speaks volumes about how forgiving its WP suspension package is. Of the

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three machines, the 450SEF-R clearly delivers the plushest overall ride, and that was exaggerated by the softer seat (while seated, anyway). By soaking up the small chattery bumps, exposed tree roots and loose rocks, it gave you the confidence to relax more in the saddle and let the bike do its thing beneath you. The combination of the light and nimble feel of the chassis, predictable front-end, and super-tractable power, made the Sherco a pleasure to ride for a greater majority of the 12-Hour track. When the bumps turned to man-sized whoops by mid-afternoon, however, the Sherco’s fork and shock did start to feel a little soft and under-gunned. It retained good bottoming resistance on all but the biggest hits, but by using more of its suspension stroke than it needed to at both ends, it didn’t let you hit the larger bumps with the same feeling of invincibility. Dialling some extra compression damping into both ends via the clickers certainly helped it sit up in its stroke, but that came at the expense of small-bump compliance you needed elsewhere on the track.

Taking a firmly sprung motocross bike into gnarly trails always calls for caution. And it comes as little surprise that, at slower speeds, the Husqvarna was more inclined to deflect off square edges, roots and rocks than the other two bikes. And that can take its toll on your arse and hands and headspace after a few pounding hours in the saddle. That inherently firm ride at both ends does force you to slow down on choppy

singletrack and/or ensure the bike is more upright when hitting a series of obstacles. But what surprised us all was how confidence-inspiring the Husky’s suspension began to feel when the bumps got even bigger in the afternoon. When confronted with waistdeep whoops that made the Sherco’s suspension wallow, the lightweight Husky came into its own. It let you charge much more aggressively without getting out of shape.

The harder you pushed the FC chassis towards the end of the event (when the track resembled a motocross track between trees), the better it felt.

Given that the Yamaha uses the same fork and shock as the YZ450F, but comes with changes to springs and valving to adapt the suspension to off-road use, you’d expect its ride to be somewhere between the other two. And it is. The Yami’s Kayaba fork and shock are plush enough for the average sit-down punter to plod along at trail pace, and yet both ends will resist bottoming in the hands of a fast 90kg rider. That versatility could be put to really good use around the 12-Hour track, which dished up everything from chopped-out trail to whoops so big, it was better to jump than blitz them. In really tight terrain, it did surprise us all just how much bigger and heavier the Yamaha felt to flick from side to side – due in part to its beefier ergos and taller ‘shoulders’. But what the bikes gives you in return is amazing chassis stability and predictable steering at higher speeds.

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BIKE HEAD TO HEAD

LOG ON TO

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// 49, 182CM, 86KG

“The Husky has a great riding position and steers well, and was the pick of the bunch on the grasstrack, where I could really unleash its super-powerful engine.

It was actually better to ride in the bush than I thought it’d be, and I can imagine a Pro rider could really get the FC working well off-road.

To me, the Yamaha was a bit loud and aggressive. It was stable and comfortable, but its weight made it harder to change directions quickly on tight, slow trails and I found its punchy power hard to control when the track got really rough. The Sherco was my pick for the 12-Hour. I felt comfortable and confident aboard it straight away.

I loved its super-smooth and tractable power and how easy it was to get the rear wheel hooking up. And its WP suspension seems to really respond to clicker inputs.”

ANDY WIGAN

// 47, 182CM, 86KG

“The Sherco was the pick of the bunch for me because I just enjoyed riding the thing so much. It’s light and nimble and has a really plush ride, and its smooth and torquey motor didn’t scare me when I opened it up. The suspension did start to feel a bit soft when the track got really rough, but by that stage of the race, I was more focused on surviving than charging. The Husky was also light and nimble, and its suspension was surprisingly good in the bush. So was its engine, though I reckon it would really benefit from flywheel weight and shorter gearing. The Yamaha was noticeably heavier to flick around in the tight sections, but I loved its suspension and stability and brakes.

To me though, unless you’re fit, its engine is too strong and punchy for the bush and it definitely worked better with the standard muffler and/or mellow EFI mapping.”

GRANT O'BRIAN

STUART MORGAN

// 44, 186CM, 82KG

For behind-the-scenes footage of these three project bikes in action at the 2016 Transmoto 12-Hour.

“If I had to race just one of these bikes for the entire 12-Hour, I’d take the Sherco because it has the most forgiving engine and suspension packages, plus it comes with the most comfortable cockpit. And it did surprise me how much more agile it was in tight terrain than the Yamaha.

That said, there’s a lot to be said for the WR450F’s superior stability and predictability when you do get up to speed, and its engine and suspension packages give you a little more versatility than the Sherco when you bring more grasstrack and/or larger bumps into play. And as much as the Husky’s pure MX DNA made it more of a handful on snotty trails, I liked the fact its suspension gave me more margin for error when I hit big obstacles faster than I’d intended. It also proved it’ll be a superb platform for the 2017 FE450 enduro model.

And don’t forget, it’s $1000 cheaper.”

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EVENT TRANSMOTO 6-HOUR

D• OU

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Haphazard anecdotes and a whole lot of eye-catching imagery from two dust-drenched dedications to dirt: the Transmoto 6-Hour events at Conondale and Gunns Gully.

ANDY WIGAN KURT TEAGUE, JARRAD DUFFY, ROBBIE WARDEN, ANDY WIGAN, PHIL OSBORN, SHANE NEWMAN

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f we had our way, we’d run all of our events for 12 gruelling hours.

Sadly, daylight hours, local council permits and landowners don’t always see things the same way. The upshot? The recent emergence of Transmoto’s six- and eight-hour events, which have quickly proved super-popular with Pros and punters alike.

So much so that, just three weeks apart in October and November, we staged two 6-Hour events – the inaugural Transmoto 6-Hour on the

rolling grass hills of Conondale in southeast Queensland’s hinterland, and the sequel to last year’s inaugural Transmoto 6-Hour at Gunns Gully in the picturesque dirt bike heartland of the Lower Hunter Valley.

In the interests of maintaining space – in the pits and on the racing loop – both events were capped at 300 entrants apiece. And here are just a few of the countless stories generated by these two pit paddocks full of dirt bike fanatics...

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EVENT TRANSMOTO 6-HOUR

A clean compound?

The one rider who suffered a serious injury at Conondale was a Kiwi called Dean Freer. Having heard from the medical team that Dean was carted away with a pretty gnarly compound fracture of his ankle, we buzzed the bloke a few days later to see how he pulled up. “Yeah, all good, bro,” Freer told us, chirpy as you like. “It was a clean break and straightforward op.

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Great event. Can’t wait for the next one. What date is it on next year? Hey, and thanks for the check-up call too, boys.” Not sure how ‘clean’ a compound fracture can be, but it was great to hear the guy was ready to subject himself to more punishment next year. For the record, Freer’s ‘Kiwitech Racing’ team still finished 32nd in the Pairs class.

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EVENT TRANSMOTO 6-HOUR

AWARD WINNERS The Upbeat Team Award went to 6-Hour debutantes, Brisbane Dirt Bike Services, in recognition of the fact that, after leading the event Outright for some time, they soldiered on without complaint after a busted fork spring (of all things!) saw them slide off the podium. After salvaging a respectable fifth, the trio (Michael Marty, Pete Rab-Jones and former MX2-class MX Nationals champ, Luke Styke) were so keen to have another crack, they tried to enter the Transmoto 6-Hour at Gunns Gully three weeks hence. Sadly for them, that event had sold-out a month prior, just 12 hours after tickets went on sale.

The Primo Pit Award went to former Pro racer, Peter Spiteri, the spiritual leader of ‘Team 51’ and ‘Dominators of Team 51’ teams. Why? Let’s just say that Spiteri’s motorhome-style trailer rig folded out into what looked like a living room whose size, appointments and veranda made the average suburban house look second-rate.

The Proactive Partner Award went to first-time sponsor, Team Moto, for their relentless and creative assistance in helping us promote Transmoto’s inaugural Queensland-based event.

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Since their inception in 2011, Transmoto’s events have always awarded trophies for the first mixedgender team. At Conondale, there were actually two all-women teams: ‘All Girls’, who ran 39th in class and 68th Outright, and ‘Crème de la Femme’, who finished 56th in class and 96th Outright. The ‘All Girls’ team also ran second in the Mixed Team-of-Three class, splitting winners ‘The Bush Cats’ and thirdplaced ‘Team Moto Benchwarmers’.

The mid-October Transmoto 6-Hour at Conondale was the first time we held an event in Queensland, and the first time that the iconic Green Park track was used as the operational base and pit paddock for a teams-based endurance event. It was also the first time that a Transmoto event needed to be red-flagged (due to a steep section of the track becoming literally impassable). A dubious honour to hold, admittedly, but it was a situation that was professionally dealt with by the Sunshine Coast MCC. After a slick mod to the course, racing soon got underway again, with riders’ seeding based on their morning’s performance.

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EVENT TRANSMOTO 6-HOUR

SPORTSMANSHIP At the presentation, Dudley Duffy was awarded second place in the Ironman class. All good. Everyone’s happy.

Later that week, however, Duffy contacted Transmoto HQ and explained that the guy he’d pitted near, Jason Dwyer, had completed several more laps that he had, and that he’d deduced he and Dwyer (who was credited with

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7th place in Ironman) may have inadvertently swapped timing transponders. In a fitting show of sportsmanship, Duffy promptly mailed the trophy to Dwyer and then insisted we alter the event’s results accordingly.

Incidentally, Jason Dwyer also won Saturday’s Dunlop Tyre Changing Challenge with a cracking time of 1:06.

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DICE WITH PRICE Even during a six-hour race, there are plenty of tussles going on between riders of all abilities. But the ding-dong, back-and-forth scrap between Team KTM’s Toby Price and Team Husqvarna’s Christian Horwood was a sight to behold – Price aboard his big Dakar machine and Horwood on a new-generation, 2017-model Husky FE350. As the two weaved in and

out of the creekbed and surrounding bushland, and then held it pinned around the sweeping grasstrack of Green Park, most everyone in the pits was on their feet and immersed in the bar-banging action. And at the presentation, you could overhear countless punters' stories about how “Pricey passed me like a stream train on his Dakar bike.”

M O R E O N L I N E AT

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WHAT WEATHER? Talk about diametrically opposed conditions. The inaugural Transmoto 6-Hour at Gunns Gully, held in July 2015, was quite possibly the wettest event staged in Australia all year (short of the NT’s Kamfari, that is).

Which is why we moved the event to November, when there’s statistically less rainfall in the region. We got less rain alright! The 2016 event was staged in 30-35º heat, bone-dry conditions, and enough dust to choke a

thousand camels. The only saving grace was the galeforce winds, which meant the dust didn’t linger long.

It did, however, fan the flames of the dozen bushfires burning in close proximity to the event, and ensured we kept an open line of communication with the Rural Fire Service to avoid the unpalatable idea that a valley full of people and their precious property could be incinerated if the wind were to change direction slightly.

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YOGI BEARS? For anyone bamboozled by the “The Land of Rainbows & Yogi Bears” jingo on the back of the Gunns Gully event’s T-shirt, look no further than Darren “Yogi” Goodwin – a local bloke who rallied a team of mates to build one of the most epic trail loops anyone had ever seen. Word, bear!

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MEN OF IRON Ironman-class specialist, Kye Anderson, and reigning champ of the Transmoto 6-Hour at Gunns Gully wasn’t about to repeat the physical meltdown he’d experienced three weeks prior at the Conondale 6-Hour, which he raced just hours after arriving back in Oz from his gruelling Red Bull Sea To Sky campaign in Turkey. No, this time around, the inaugural Transmoto Triple Crown winner was well hydrated, well slept and well and truly ready to rock. Anderson butchered two bikes in the process of defending his coveted Gunns Gully Ironman crown, which was his fourth Transmoto event win. That’s stamina and perseverance on a level that few people can relate to. Respect, KA.

When Darrin Strauch rolled up at sign-on and informed us that his teenage son and Pairs team partner, Luke, had (predictably) stood him up at the eleventh-hour, the 53-year-old had no choice but to race the Ironman class.

“It’ll be good training for next week’s 4-Day Enduro,” he told us enthusiastically. Despite the dubious looks we’re now ashamed to have given the Queenslander, he proceeded to steadily climb his way up the standings in the Ironman class throughout the day and, after 11 gruelling laps, finished on the podium. That makes Darrin Strauch the oldest Ironman-class podium placegetter in the six-year history of Transmoto’s events.

PS: You’re welcome for publicly airing you age, DS.

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AWARD WINNERS The Upbeat Team Award went to the 'Newcastle KTM A Team' of Myles Bowen and Ricky Kalisz, in recognition of the pair’s efforts to keep the show on the road in spite of injuries picked up early in the event. After Kalisz tore ligaments in his ankle, Bowen soldiered on – himself carrying a busted foot and a mangled thumb for three laps. Funnily enough, it was much the same story last year, when Myles’ leg injury sidelined him early in the day and left his bro, Mitch, to complete the event by himself, Ironman-style. No wonder these two Bowen boys aren’t on talking terms!

the inimitable Phil Lovett – put their feet up and whiled away their dusty Sunday arvo. Hunter Valley gold, that!

The Primo Pit Award went to Hunter Valley Motorsports who, under the cover of darkness, somehow managed to smuggle a shipping container into the event’s pit paddock. Immune to the wind that was tearing Quikshades out of the parched ground left and right, the solid steel HMV structure opened up to feature a covered veranda, under which the HMV posse – led by

Much to our dismay, there were no Mixed Team entries at Gunns Gully, so we had to get creative. And the proud recipient of the Mixed Team-of-Three trophy was the 'Yamaha B-team’, whose Paul Dean was nominated as the token woman due to alleged bouts of cross-dressing.

Thankfully, the bloke was thick-skinned and didn’t deck us as we hung the trophy around his pretty little neck.

Newcastle KTM was the obvious choice for the Proactive Partner Award because, aside from entering eight teams in the event (combined with partner dealership, Coastal Motorcycles, that is), the country’s number-one KTM dealer contributed a heap of raffle prizes and dedicated their social media channels to plugging the event for weeks. In fact, we’re thinking of appointing them as honorary event ambassadors!

M O R E O N L I N E AT

HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO

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Offers apply to new 2016 KTM 50 SX Mini models. Not in conjunction with any other offers. For a limited time only from participating dealers. For more information contact your local authorised Australian KTM dealership. Motorcycles pictured with additional KTM PowerParts.

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PRICELESS! ANDY WIGAN // FOUROHFOUR FILMS // RED BULL CONTENT POOL // MARCIN KIN // MATTY MACALPINE // FUTURE7MEDIA // BAUER E/RALLY ZONE

A month on from becoming Australia’s first ever Dakar Rally winner, Toby Price reflects on his historic achievement, and airs his aspirations for a decade of desert dominance.

C

ompeting in just his sixth rally event, Toby Price shocked everybody by winning the most coveted off-road endurance race on the planet. In doing so, he became Australia’s first ever Dakar champion. And in his humble, knockabout, personable manner, he made us all feel like we were riding every step of the way with him through South America for those two gruelling weeks in January.

Now that Price has had a month to reflect on the achievement, we shared a few beers with the 28-year-old aboard a sponsor’s boat on Sydney Harbour, where he offered this candid insight into his Dakar odyssey’s highs and lows, the media maelstrom that’s engulfed him since, and his intentions to help use the exposure for the sport’s greater good in Australia.

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“Leaving the domestic race scene behind to focus on rally was a leap of faith. Making myself unavailable for Australia’s 2015 ISDE team was also a VERY tough decision.”

Can you put into words what the Dakar win means to you yet?

Here we are a month from the Dakar, and I’m not sure it has fully sunk in yet. I just know that it’s something very special. I suppose the thing I’m proudest of is that I’m the first Australian to ever win the race. I may never win another Dakar, but no one will ever be able to take away from me the fact I was the first Aussie to win the race. I’d also like to think it can help open some doors for Australia – so we can get more Aussies over to South America to experience this incredible event.

With Frenchman Cyril Despres and Spaniard Marc Coma winning the past 10 Dakars, you’re the first Bike winner in a decade we haven’t had to listen to via a translator.

I’m sure that’s a nice thing for the English-speaking world, and maybe that’s got something to do with people

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saying to me that they felt they were part of my Dakar journey. But at the same time, I’m sure my brand of Australian English has got a lot of Europeans confused [laughs]. Some say I speak too fast and they can’t process what I’m saying or that they’re lost on my Aussie slang. Maybe they’re going to need a translator [laughs].

Seriously though, I’ve definitely got some more fans overseas these days, which is a good thing.

Shortly after the win, you said that the Dakar win was “a dream come true”. But in many people’s eyes, your desert racing aspirations have been relatively short-lived.

Yeah, I can understand that. People know that I was a decent motocross racer who got into the off-road and desert racing scenes only five or six years ago. I wouldn’t say that a Dakar Rally win has been my dream forever.

As a kid, I really wanted to be a road bike racer and follow in Mick Doohan’s

footsteps. But that goal came to end fairly quickly when I started growing and got ... well, I won’t say fat; but let’s just say that I was no pint-sized jockey by my mid teens. My goal was then to race motocross and supercross in America. It was in about 2009 – when I switched to enduro and desert racing – that I started paying attention to Dakar. Then, when my teammate, Ben Grabham, went over and raced a couple of Dakars, I took even more of an interest. But at the same time, I came to realise how expensive it was to race Dakar. So when the opportunity came up in 2015, I grabbed it with both hands and made the best of it with a podium. A year later, I shocked myself by winning the thing.

After winning your fourth Outright AORC title last year, did turning your back on the domestic series for a full-time tilt at the FIM Cross-Country Rally scene feel like a leap of faith?

Absolutely, it did. I felt very sentimental about leaving the AORC behind, and the decision was especially difficult because I knew how unpredictable rally racing is.

There are so many elements that determine your success or failure in the sport. It was also a tough decision to make myself unavailable for Australia’s ISDE team, and I know a lot of people were disappointed in me for that. Sitting at home as the boys were killing it at the Slovakian ISDE really made me doubt my decision to focus on the Dakar. Thankfully, I now know it was the biggest and best move I’ve ever made, and it was great to see that Australia was awarded the ISDE win, proving the boys can get the job done without me.

You’re the only Aussie who’s raced the Dakar without first having a crack at the Australasian Safari.

Why is that?

Just as I was getting interested in

“People say they’re shocked at how fast I am in the desert after relatively little experience. But they forget that I grew up on a 43,000-acre property in the middle of nowhere.”

desert racing, KTM Australia began to invest less in the Safari. Also, the Safari and Dakar are more different than you’d think. The Safari is much more high-speed charging, whereas the Dakar has a greater focus on navigation and uses a completely different roadbook. Initially, I thought I was no chance at rally racing because the roadbook is in French, and yet I can barely speak English [laughs].

It was actually easier for me to focus on learning the Dakar roadbook.

You obviously picked up the art of rally racing very quickly, but what mindset do you need to take in to the Dakar?

Focus is a very important aspect of it.

Cluttering your mind with irrelevant concerns is tiring and takes your mind off the job. And that’s when you make navigational errors or crash the bike.

I think the way we approached the Dakar as a team in the first week was key. We remained relaxed and calm

and treated it as the marathon it is.

You’ve got to look after yourself and the bike. You need to make sure you’re well hydrated and full of food to keep your energy levels up. You’ve got to identify stages that you think you may be strong and capitalise on that, and minimise your losses on other stages. Backing it off a little on a day you’re not strong might cost you four or five minutes, but you can gain 10 minutes by going for it on a day you’re strong. You never have 14 lucky days at Dakar. You have to put the work in, take your time and be smart, smooth and consistent. That said, I could go back to Dakar for another 10 years and never win again. There are just so many variables. I was just fortunate that I made my mistakes in the rallys leading up to Dakar, and then minimised them at the Dakar itself.

Your former teammate and team manager, Ben Grabham, says he’s never seen any rider who’s able

to adapt to terrain the way you can. No doubt that’s a huge advantage at Dakar.

It is an advantage. And racing the Finke [Desert Race] over the past five years has played a big part in that process. A lot of people say they’re shocked at how fast I am in the desert after what they see as relatively little experience. But they forget that I grew up on a 43,000-acre property in the middle of nowhere. Most of my tracks were five or 10 minutes from the house, so I’d just hold the throttle to the stops until I got there and then cut my laps. That got me used to going fast in the desert at a young age. And then I guess the combination of my motocross and enduro racing have helped make me a more versatile rider. Grabbo has been a huge help and influence on me, too. His experience and his ability with bike set-up for the desert is second to none, and he passed on everything he learned at Dakar

before I raced my first rally. I’ve always loved going flat-out, and I’ve always been comfortable racing at high speeds. So then it’s simply a matter of being able to navigate accurately at the same time. At this year’s Dakar, I think there were certain days where I was still in my comfort zone at those high speeds, whereas other guys weren’t. It was those stages that shattered a few of my rivals’ confidence. I fed off that; it helped me get to the finish line.

You’ve said the Dakar is two weeks of torture, but you seemed to enjoy yourself more this year.

When I was younger, I tended to take things a bit too seriously, and that’s when things go wrong for me. So I approach Dakar as if I’m back home in Australia, riding with mates and having fun. The more fun I’m having – on and off the bike – the more my mindset is suited to racing. Each night, after I’d prepared my roadbook, I’d come out and stir the boys on the team

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up. I’d be hiding their tools and telling jokes. I suppose that was my way of keeping everything in perspective.

Having a laugh and not over-thinking things is important at a race like the Dakar Rally.

According to your manager, Matty Macalpine, everyone on your team was astounded that your temperament didn’t change throughout the Dakar, irrespective of whether you’d had a good or bad day on the bike.

The guys on the team seem to like the light-hearted Aussie approach to things. The more laid-back and easygoing, the more those guys enjoyed themselves. When I’d come in at the end of the day and they’d ask me how everything was, I’d just say, ‘Yeah, I was just cruising along out there, having fun. You blokes have a good day?’ Then they’d watch the vision of the race and say, “What do you mean you’re cruising?!” You’ve got to put your bad days behind you. If you stress too much about the past, you’re just burning energy unnecessarily and you lose focus on what you can do the following day. And if you have a good day, there’s no point coming in and being cocky about it, because a small mistake the next day could hand all that time back. I should make the point that it cuts both ways with my KTM team. They gave me the same cheer on the days I ran 40th as the days I won. It’s an awesome team environment.

And by being gentle on the bike, you made the team’s life a lot less stressful, right?

Yep, they love the fact I’m so easy on the bike. At this year’s Dakar, we did 9300km and only changed one clutch in the bike. With Marc Coma, they’d change a clutch every day. These new KTM 450s are so incredibly reliable, it’s insane. For the past two or three years, the KTMs are good to go the entire Dakar on one engine.

When you consider the extremes of temperature and altitude, that’s really saying something. The race is now so competitive, you just can’t afford

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the 15-minute penalty for changing an engine. Being gentle on the bike is key to being a good rally racer, and I’m lucky that comes naturally to me. The payoff is that the bike’s still strong in the second week of racing.

Coming into the Dakar, who did you consider your biggest threats?

I think that if you start to focus on your competitors, you lose focus on the race. At Dakar, it’s rarely the fastest guy who wins; it’s often the smartest guy who wins. I should be careful in saying that because I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed [laughs].

What I mean is that, more than in any other race, your temperament and your approach at Dakar are just as important as your speed. The 2016 Dakar was the sixth rally race I’ve ever competed in, so a lot of people wonder where the hell I came from. There are top guys who’ve been going to Dakar for 10 years and never finished on the podium, or who’ve finished on the podium and never won it. Sam Sunderland hasn’t finished a Dakar in five attempts, and Joan Barreda has raced seven consecutive Dakars and never finished the race. So I can imagine that I’m not on Barreda’s Christmas list.

How are the dynamics between you and the other top riders now?

It was interesting that, when I went to speak to many of the guys I was racing against this year, they didn’t say much back to me. Maybe they’d had a shit day. Maybe they were trying to psych me out. Whatever the case, they seemed to be taking everything more seriously than me – stressing about things a lot of the time – and maybe that’s what cost them. It’s no skin off my nose when other riders don’t talk to me. I’d just brush it off and get on with things. But from now on, though, I won’t be able to play the dumb card.

You’ve just handed KTM their 15th consecutive Dakar win – which must really be starting to grate on Honda. Is the Honda versus KTM rivalry tangible in the Dakar pits?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Honda’s come to Dakar with a big-budget HRC team

for four or five years now, so they’re not enjoying the fact the KTM keeps racking up wins. Look, a win is going to come for Honda sooner or later.

And honestly, as much as KTM don’t want their win streak to be broken, they’re smart enough to know that a Honda win at Dakar would bring more hype to the race and the sport. If KTM end up with 20 straight wins, chances are that Honda might pack up and go home. And that’s not good for anyone.

That said, none of us at KTM plan on making it easy for Honda.

From the outside, it appears as if there’s more intensity and pressure to succeed in the Honda camp.

A lot of people look at KTM and say there’s so much pressure to keep the win-streak alive. But KTM has shown for 15 years that they’ve got reliable bikes and a team structure that can win the Dakar. I think the pressure is all on Honda and other teams, who are all striving to win the race for the first time in the modern era. You could see that pressure on the Honda riders’ faces this year, and I’m not sure it was a positive influence on them.

What did Marc Coma – five-time Dakar winner and now Dakar’s Race Director – say to you after the win?

I’ll always remember that Marc came up to me after last year’s podium and told me that I had a big future in rally racing. This year, Marc had to be diplomatic – because he’s with the event organiser now, not KTM – but he told me how special it was to win in just my second Dakar. He told me that he’d followed me in the helicopter some days and seen how smooth and in control I was. That was nice to hear from such a legend of the sport.

What’s the biggest difference between last year’s supported Dakar ride and this year’s full factory-backed campaign?

The bike. I’m still dealing with many of the same guys on the KTM team, but my bike this year was so good, it allowed me to get onto that top step.

Plus my mechanic, Joe – who worked

with Coma for the past five or six years – did a brilliant job with the bike. Having the bike perfect every time I threw a leg over it helped give me the confidence to go out there and ride it hard.

What doesn’t the average person realise about the Dakar Rally?

The sleep deprivation, the assault on the senses, the danger...

People watch the highlights package on TV each night, and say it doesn’t look that hard. But what they see on TV is only a small portion of it – usually only the bits with nice scenery.

What the TV doesn’t show is the other 400km of track you race, or the 300km of transport section you’ve got to ride to get there. Nobody realises that we only run on about four hours of sleep per night. You do that for two weeks straight and try to ride a motorcycle for the whole day. Add to that the fact we ride up at 4500 metres of altitude – where you’re struggling to breathe and the bike is struggling to pull fourth, fifth and sixth gear – and experience massive temperature extremes (from minus 4º to 47º, which feels like 60º in the sand dunes!), and you start to get a feel for how draining on the body and bike this race is. Half the time, you’re body is in shock, wondering what the hell is going on.

Give us a feel for the average day at Dakar.

We’re up at 2 or 3 o’clock every morning to get on the bike and start riding. After the day’s stage, we’ll get into the bivouac at 3, 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I’ll then spend half an hour talking to the team guys. After that, I’ll head into the camper and eat some food and then sit down to prepare my roadbook for the following day. Depending on the size and navigational complexity of the day, that can take anywhere from two to four hours. Then at 8 o’clock, there’s a briefing about the next day. After that, I’ll try to get some more food into me before spending about an hour getting my gear ready for the next day – to make sure my jacket, goggles and gloves suit the likely temperature

“Backing it off a little on a day you’re not So strong might cost you four or five minutes, but you can gain 10 minutes by going for it on a day you’re strong. You NEvER HAvE 14 LuCKY DAyS AT DAkar.”

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and conditions. So you don’t get to bed until 10 or 11 o’clock at night. Then if you’re lucky, you don’t have a team next door who’re on the hammers and grinders all night to beat their cars or trucks back into shape. The Dakar is a race designed to break man and machine, and the French organisers make no apologies for that.

What about the maniacal riders in the Malle Moto class, who do it all with no support?

Those guys are absolute animals; the ultimate hard-man route to a Dakar finish. The only outside assistance they get is one metal toolbox that organisers ensure is waiting for them at each bivouac. Every day for 14 days straight, they’ve got to do all the work on their bikes, and then set their tent up to sleep in. So you could imagine they’d get way less sleep than me. I honestly don’t know how they do it.

“My neck injury played a huge role in making me a better, more calculated rally racer. I’m not scared to hold the throttle on, but I’m more aware of the risks.”

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Those guys are the true heroes of the Dakar and I think they should get more recognition.

In the first week, you said on the TV coverage that you’d had a runin with a cow, but it turned out that cow was actually a car. How close did that collision come to derailing your race?

The Dakar is a dangerous race without having cars on the track, so I blamed the cow initially because I didn’t want it reflect badly on the organisers, who do a great job in what’s often remote and testing environments. Yeah, I hit a spectator’s car that had got bogged on the track. I was just really lucky that it didn’t cause any damage to me or the bike.

Compared to the ‘yeah, nah’ responses you were notorious for a few years ago, your act in public is now much more polished. Have

you done any media training?

Mate, I’ve done zero media training.

A lot of people have told me that I come across well now on TV, so I guess I’ve just gotten a bit better at it with all the practise. I think it’s important to be yourself and not too polished.

I tell it how it is, rather than some scripted response, and people seem to appreciate that.

When you win such a prestigious race, you can expect a media onslaught. Were your media commitments more gruelling than the Dakar itself?

If it’s not football, cricket or tennis, it’s damn hard to get the mainstream media’s attention, so you’ve got to grab the exposure while you can.

After I got the podium result last year at my first Dakar, the media got to know who I was and started to take an interest. And then with this year’s

race, they all got on board big-time.

It’s definitely been overwhelming, particularly because it came at a time when I was so dog-tired and still trying to process what the achievement meant to me. As much as it was good for my profile, I also see the coverage as an opportunity to build the sport up in the Australia and help more people benefit from it. A lot of people said to me that once you win Dakar, you basically start another Dakar again with all the media and sponsor commitments. And I can now see what they meant. It honestly felt like that, but in a good way obviously. I haven’t been able to come home to see friends and family and relax as much as I would have liked. But it’s a good problem to have and it won’t last forever.

A reliable source told us that your Channel 9 Today Show appearance

Back home, Price’s extended KTM racing family introduce his Dakar trophy, “The Prince”, to Sydney Harbour.

came after a big night on the town and just an hour’s sleep. True?

My whole program was pretty strict for the three months leading up to the race. But, yeah, a few of us went out celebrating the night before that Today Show interview and I was running on very little sleep in the Channel 9 studio. I take my racing seriously, but I also like to enjoy myself when I catch up with friends I haven’t seen for a while. Maybe Dakar helped prepare me for sleep-deprived experiences like that, eh [laughs].

Of all the exposure you received after the win, how cool was the image of Roger De Coster and the KTM team holding up a pitboard with “Toby’s THE MAN” written on it?

That was as cool as it gets. It’s amazing to know that those legends of the sport are following the Dakar and

interested in how I went. The week after Dakar, I headed over to the USA and spent some great time with Roger, Ryan Dungey and the rest of the KTM team. They were stoked that I took the trouble to cart the Dakar trophy over there with me. I caught up with Red Bull and some other sponsors while I was in the States, too.

If Ryan Dungey wins an AMA SX title, he’ll earn a million-dollar bonus from KTM, plus a bunch of other contingency payouts. So what’s a Dakar win worth to you?

It’s definitely better than what I’d been earning in Australia. I’m not going to put a figure on it, but I didn’t make a million bucks. For the guys at KTM, the Dakar result is what they really care about because winning one stage at the Dakar brings more recognition than winning the FIM Cross-Country Rally World Championship after a

full season of racing. The KTM guys actually say a Dakar win is comparable with an AMA Supercross title win.

So it’s a little weird for me to hear that on one hand, and yet not receive a comparable reward. Don’t get me wrong; KTM pays me really well for it, and the money I got for the win has definitely made my life a little easier. I hope the benefits will flow for the following Dakars I race … and hopefully win. I mean, money’s important and it pays the bills, but if you focus too much on money and don’t enjoy your racing, you’ve lost the plot. If you’re not having fun, no amount of money can make up for it.

After your spinal injury and operation in 2013, you joke about your head now being screwed on. But how big a part did that experience play in shaping your temperament for the Dakar?

“People don’t realise that we only run on about four hours of sleep per night. You do that for two weeks straight and try to ride a motorcycle for the whole day.”

Toby and his manager, Matty Macalpine – a couple of knockabout Novocastrians who like to travel in style!

I’d never wish that injury upon anybody, but I think it played a huge role in making me a better rally racer.

It gave me the chance to sit back and reflect on how much I love the sport, and appreciate that there are other important things in life. I think that injury made me a much more calculated rider. I’m not scared to hold the throttle on, but I’m more aware of the risks nowadays.

You don’t talk about it much, but I get the sense that your good mate, the late Kurt Caselli, also played a key role in your Dakar success.

Kurt was the kind of guy who made you want to be a better person. He made everyone around him feel better about themselves. I took some of that attitude on board. I enjoy every day I’m riding a bike, but it’s more important to me now that the people around me are having a good time, too.

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“I wouldn’t be doing Dakar if it wasn’t for Kurt Caselli. He opened doors for me, and I wish he was still around so I could thank him for the part he played in it.”

PROFILE TOBY PRICE

From hard work in South American deserts to live-it-up playtime with friends and sponsors on Sydney Harbour.

“The KTM guys say a Dakar win is comparable with an AMA Supercross title win. So it’s a little weird for me that the reward is not comparable.”

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Honestly, I probably wouldn’t be doing the Dakar if it wasn’t for Kurt.

Alex Doringer, the boss of the KTM rally team, told me that every time he spoke with Kurt, Kurt would either start or finish the conversation by talking me up. So Kurt definitely opened a lot of doors for me. I was riding with Kurt just two days before he died and, still to this day, it’s very hard to take. Kurt won a stage in his maiden Dakar, and he was definitely on my mind on every Dakar stage I’ve ever ridden. A few times this year, it was spooky because I’d be riding along and look down at my instruments and see that I was at kilometre 66, which was Kurt’s race number. It was a reminder for me that we’re here to have fun. I like to think he’d be proud of what I’ve achieved, and I wish he was still around so I could thank him for the part he played in it.

You’ve just got back from a whirlwind trip to the KTM

factory in Austria with KTM Australia’s Jeff Leisk and Bronte Howson. How was that?

It was my first time to the factory and a great trip. There was lots of celebrating and the boys certainly put me through my paces. And some champagne! It was like a Dakar marathon stage all over again, but great to celebrate with the two guys who’ve been such a big part of my racing. At the KTM factory, they put on a huge lunch party for me. It was a bit of a surprise thing, and when I walked through the doors, the whole place just erupted. It was great to meet all the people behind KTM. Seeing how hard-working and passionate they are makes me even more determined to do well. It reinforced to me what a team effort this rally racing really is, and what an amazing company KTM is to be a part of. They want to win races, but at the end of the day, they’re a big family who all love what they do.

What’s the future hold for you ... aside from a few more beers on the boat this arvo, that is?

The hard yakka is only going to get harder from here as we’ll have more of a target on our backs now. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the World Cross-Country Rally Championship and preparing ourselves for the 2017 Dakar. I feel like I’ve got a few more Dakar wins in me. Plus I’m helping promote the endurocross race that’ll be held in conjunction with the Clipsal 500 in early March as I see that as a great opportunity to bring enduro racing out of the bush and showcase the sport to big crowds. I’d love to be able to get back to Australia in the middle of the year to do the Finke and Hattah Desert Races. But we’ll have to see how things are travelling with rally, which’ll be my primary focus this year.

Thanks, mate. Time for a swim?

You bet it is, Wigan!

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SUMMER ‘16 alpinestarsaustralia

alpinestarsaus93

TECH AIR VS COIL FORKS

FORKS AIR vs C

To get an insight into the relative feel, performance and adjustability of airsprung and coil-spring forks, we rounded up three 2017-model KTM 350s, and put WP’s new 48mm AER (air-sprung) and Xplor (coil-sprung) forks head-to-head in a variety of terrain.

ANDY WIGAN

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ANDY WIGAN, JARRAD DUFFY PHOTOGRAPHY

B

ecause your front wheel is the first thing to come in contact with any obstacle, the fork it’s attached to plays a critical role in a bike’s steering, handling and overall performance. While it’s possible to ‘ride around’ an under-performing engine, shock absorber or brakes, it’s near impossible to push a dirt bike hard unless its fork has a compliant and predictable action. Put simply, the way your fork reacts to bumps sets the tone for the entire bike’s ride, and that directly affects the speed, safety and comfort

of the rider onboard.

Given that KTM has introduced two new WP forks for 2017 – the 48mm ‘AER’ air-sprung fork on its motocross (and four-stoke cross-country) models, and the 48mm ‘Xplor’ coil-sprung fork on its enduro models, we figured a back-to-back comparison between the two was in order; a test that would shed some light on the forks’ comparative performance and versatility, and give us sense of whether an air fork is likely to soon find its way onto KTM’s enduro range.

To bring this comparo alive, we joined forces with the guys from Australia’s number-one KTM dealer, KTM Newcastle, and pitted three 2017-model KTM 350s – a 350SX-F motocrosser, a 350EXC-F enduro model, and a hybrid 350XC cross-country machine – against each other in the bush and around a motocross track. In addition to generating feedback about each fork’s performance across a variety of terrain, we also address the scepticism that continues to surround air forks in a bid to quarantine fact from fiction.

COIL SPRINGS

TEST TRACKS & TEST RIDERS...

To get a well-rounded feel for the differences between WP’s 2017-spec air (AER) and coil (Xplor) forks, we tested the three KTM 350s at two very different tracks. The first was the Gunns Gully-based Transmoto 6-Hour, whose 15km loop included rootinfested singletrack, snotty rock gardens and owing grasstrack.

The other was Lakes Motocross track, an undulating hardpack circuit with lots of hard downhill braking zones that put a premium on front-end feel and fork performance. And to ensure we had a good cross-section of rider weight and abilities, our test pilots were: Pro rider, Brock McLeary (65kg); B-grade Vet, Shane Place (75kg); and fast-as-f#@k Vet, Greg Timmins (97kg).

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TECH AIR VS COIL FORKS

350EXC-F

350XC-F

350SX-F

KTM’s THREE 350s SETTINGS SNAPSHOT

Here’s what stood out about each of the three 2017-model KTM 350s we used in this comparo, and the optimal settings our three test riders found for them:

THE MXER 350SX-F

THE 'HYBRID' 350XC-F

THE ENDURO BIKE 350EXC-F

• Unless you’re a 100kg+ rider, the manual’s recommended 154psi for the bike AER fork will feel way too firm, no matter how big the jumps on the rack are. Irrespective of rider weight, lower pressures in the fork produce a much better front-to-rear chassis balance.

• On the bush loop and motocross track, all three testers found this bike – which uses a combination of the MX and enduro model components – a great all-rounder.

It retains the punch of the MX-spec engine, while its suspension (AER air fork and linkage-assisted shock absorber) happily handles the rough stuff.

• Our 97kg tester settled on 144psi, finding that it created a much more balanced chassis, but added a few clicks of compression damping on the motocross track to ensure the fork didn’t ride down in the firmer part of its stroke. Our Pro-level 65kg rider (who admits he’s always preferred a softer set-up) settled on 132-134psi, saying the lower pressure gave him much better front-end feel, traction and an ability to hold or change lines better through turns – all without blowing through the stroke during downhill braking bumps or jump landings.

• With plusher compression damping settings in its AER air fork (relative to the SX-F), the XC-F has a more forgiving ride over snotty trail obstacles. Similarly, the bike’s softer shock settings creates great drive on the hardpack MX track and over square-edged trail bumps, but it still resists bottoming over MX track jumps pretty damn well.

• The all-new Xplor fork and shock give the 2017 EXC-F a really well balanced chassis, which makes for a confidence-inspiring ride when you’re pushing hard in tight, tree-lined terrain. Compared to its predecessor, the Xplor fork is just as sensitive over small bumps, and yet it offers significantly more damping progression and bottoming resistance for big hits or accidental flatlandings. And while this new fork does tend to ride lower in its stroke when pushed hard on the MX track, it still manages to ‘catch’ the compression toward the end of the stroke and offers really good bottoming resistance.

• Our 75kg intermediate-level tester found his favoured setting was around 138psi, combined with 23 clicks out (standard is 17 out) of compression damping.

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• Even with its softer valving, the recommended 142psi for the XC-F’s air fork is a good base setting for MX, but too firm for off-road use. We found that 132-135psi gives it a much more compliant ride over the roots and rocks you find on an average trail loop, without compromising chassis balance and bottoming resistance for most trail situations. At those lower, trail-oriented pressures, however, the fork bottomed too easily around the MX track.

• The softer suspension settings allow the bike to settle and squat into turns, and this produces great feel, predictability and drive where traction is at a premium. And the no-linkage PDS shock is particularly good at hugging the ground over a series of small, square-edged bumps at lower speeds.

As you’d expect, however, this comes at the expense of bottoming resistance on the motocross track.

• The bike’s DDS (Damped Diaphragm Steel) clutch creates a noticeably lighter pull at the lever, and a gentler modulation that actually helps the rear wheel find traction over chattery bumps and slick hardpack.

• With lower engine compression and lighter valve springs (to suit the 1000rpm lower rev limit), the enduro machine has noticeably less engine braking.

That made the bike easier to ride fluidly through singletrack, snotty terrain and, interestingly, on the slippery sections of the MX track.

KTM FORKS EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES ENDURO MODELS • 1998 – The first of the new-era KTMs arrived with a no-linkage PDS shock absorber on the rear-end and a 43mm open-cartridge WP fork up front.

• 2003 – KTM’s enduro models were all fitted with the upgraded 48mm opencartridge WP fork. This same open-cartridge fork – albeit with updated componentry and revised settings – was used right up to the 2016 enduro range.

• 2017 – KTM surprised everybody by revealing an all-new WP ‘XPlor’ fork (and shock absorber) across their entire enduro range.

The Xplor fork uses an open-cartridge design with compression and rebound functions split between the fork legs – both of which have coil springs, a new ‘hydro-stop’ hydraulic bottoming system, and tool-free star-clickers in the fork caps. Initially considered a bold move (because the existing PDS shock and open-cartridge fork had been refined into a hard-to-fault package), the Xplor fork and shock soon proved to have broader operating range. That made the 2017 bikes more userfriendly and versatile across a broader variety of terrain and rider weight/ability.

MX MODELS

“The best thing about the air fork is the way you can adjust it to suit different tracks and conditions, and rider weight and ability. It encourages you to experiment, which helps you understand how your bike responds to different settings.”

THE BIG QUESTION 350EXC-F WITH AER AIR FORK [NOTE: As the AER fork is approximately 20mm longer than EXC-F’s Xplor fork, we ran the air fork about 15mm up through the triple clamps on the enduro machine (which is where it hit the handlebars) to best replicate the EXC-F’s chassis geometry (see pic, right).

• With the much lighter AER fork fitted, the bike’s steering (even at walking pace in the pits) felt noticeably lighter. In tight and technical terrain, this made the entire bike feel lighter and more nimble.

• Running the air pressures they’d felt most comfortable with in the AER fork, all three testers reported that the AER air fork held up in its stroke better than the Xplor fork, and offered a more progressive feel through its stroke. For the two heavier testers, in particular, that translated into more confidence through braking bumps and during turn-in, and a more stable chassis (mainly due to less of a hobby-horse effect).

• On hard downhill braking, the AER fork is able to sit up in its stroke better, and this gives the entire chassis a more composed, stable feel. By comparison, the Xplor fork tends to ride down in firmer part of its stroke. That said, its hydrostop design still delivers remarkably good control in the last third of the stroke and excellent resistance to bottoming.

• 2007 – KTM’s motocross models moved from the 48mm open-cartridge fork to a 48mm closed-cartridge fork.

• 2015 – The bikes sold in the American and Australian markets were fitted with WP’s 4CS (4 Chamber System) 48mm fork, while the KTMs in Europe retained the WP 48mm closedcartridge fork. With the benefit of hindsight, KTM would probably acknowledge the 4CS move was driven more by marketing concerns than performance. After all, the 4CS was specifically designed with added stanchion flex to create the sort of supple, compliant ride suited to enduro bikes, not MXers.

• 2016 – The USA/Australia-spec bikes retained the WP 4CS fork, while the bikes sold in Europe were fitted with WP’s all-new 48mm AER air-sprung fork. Why the discrepancy between markets? Well, as KTM’s Joachim Sauer conceded, “WP did not have the capacity to produce the AER air fork for our entire worldwide production of 2016 yearmodels, so the bikes we sent to the USA and Australia retained the 4CS for another year.”

• 2017 – Worldwide, KTM’s MX (and four-stroke cross-country) models were fitted with WP’s 48mm AER air-sprung fork. Compared with the AER fork used on the European bikes in 2016, the 2017-spec AER fork gets revised flex characteristics in the outer stanchion (this helps inner and outer tubes bend in greater harmony for reduced stiction), and an upgraded upper triple clamp to suit.

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TECH AIR VS COIL FORKS

AIR FORKS... TRUE OR FALSE?

Given the ongoing scepticism about air-sprung forks in dirt bike circles, we decided to address the FAQs – and the myths – and, one by one, try to sort the fact from the fiction. Here's some feedback on the major questions and/or assertions about air forks...

That depends on the fork’s design. If the fork relies on air pressure in an outer chamber (which puts pressure on the fork seal), then yes, it is possible for a damaged fork seal and/or chrome slider to lead to a partially or fully collapsed fork. The design used on WP’s AER air fork, however, means there’s never any pressure on the fork seals. In the AER fork, the pressured air is all contained in a sealed inner cartridge, with a bypass for the negative chamber that’s enacted at full fork extension – that is, when you go off a jump or sit the bike on a stand in the pits. In other words, if an AER fork does have a forkseal leak, it will not lose any air pressure. If the AER fork's internal cartridge were to fail, the pressure will equalise on either side of the piston and hold the fork halfway down in it compression stroke.

AIR FORKS ARE LIGHTER THAN THEIR COIL-SPRUNG EQUIVALENTS, BUT NOT THAT MUCH LIGHTER. The significance of saving somewhere in the vicinity of 1 to 1.5kg depends who you’re speaking to. For elite race teams and Pro racers, that’s a huge saving that might otherwise cost them countless thousands of development dollars to achieve. Plus, at the high-performance end of the spectrum, saving unsprung weight is the Holy Grail. On the other hand, for an enduro rider whose bike runs an oversize fuel tank and massive bashplate, saving a kilo or two is neither here nor there.

AIR FORKS ADD TO SETUP COMPLEXITY BECAUSE THE FORK’S AIR PRESSURE NEEDS TO BE CHECKED BEFORE EACH RIDE. True, particularly when the fork has multiple chambers (such as Showa’s SFF TAC air fork) whose pressures each need to be checked. So, bearing this in mind, WP’s AER fork was intentionally designed with simplicity of adjustment as a primary goal. It only has one air chamber. As we surmised after our 2015 450cc MX bike shootout (when the Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki all arrived with all-new air forks), “Adjustability is a great thing, but only if users understand how each of those adjustments – made in isolation, and in conjunction with each other – will affect the suspension’s ride.

Air suspension is here to stay, but if riders and technicians want to stop chasing their tails, it’s inevitable that the manufacturers dumb down the adjustment options in the years to come.”

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TRUE OR FALSE?

ALL AIR FORKS CAN LEAK AIR, WHICH MEANS THEY CAN COLLAPSE.

AIR FORKS ARE SENSITIVE WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THE OIL VOLUME/ HEIGHT CORRECT. Not so with WP’s AER fork. Rather than do what’s required with conventional forks (that is, bottom the fork out and then carefully measure oil heights), all you need to know with the AER is that there’s 200ml of oil in each leg. Pus the oil contained within the WP air fork’s outer chamber is purely for lubrication. In other words, you no longer have to change the oil height (and air volume, as a result) to generate better bottoming resistance. The air chamber is already there in the fork’s design (which is adjustable), and air offers incredibly progressive resistance. It’s a simple but effective design, whose performance and adjustability has been very well received in Europe for the past year (remember that the KTM MX models sold in Europe have run the WP AER air fork for 12 months now).

JUST LIKE THE AIR FORKS USED BACK IN THE LATE 1980S, THE AIR PRESSURE INSIDE MODERN-DAY AIR FORKS ALSO BUILDS UP DURING A RIDE, WHICH AFFECTS PERFORMANCE? Modern-day air forks experience a negligible increase in air pressure, even when ridden hard in hot weather, and/or on tracks with large jumps and deep bumps.

With the WP AER fork, most owners report that there’s a warm-up factor involved.

In other words, once they’ve set their air pressure after an initial ride, it varies very little during a day’s riding.

WHY DO SO MANY SUSPENSION TUNERS OFFER KITS THAT WILL CONVERT AIR-SPRING FORKS INTO COIL-SPRING FORKS? A few reasons. First, these guys reckon they can make a buck out of it. Second, the market’s limited experience with air fork set-up means there’s limited data to draw on when the average rider is looking to get their air fork set up. And third, a majority of riders don’t like the idea that they should be checking the pressure(s) in their air fork before each ride, particularly when there are multiple chambers to deal with.

WILL KTM FIT AIR FORKS TO THEIR ENDURO MODELS? AND IF SO, WHEN? Several of KTM’s Pro riders have been testing WP’s AER fork in KTM’s enduro models, with encouraging results.

But KTM’s market research suggests that trail and enduro riders are not yet ready for an air fork because they still value function over performance and adjustability. As KTM’s Product Manager, Joachim Sauer, said at the recent launch for the 2017 enduro bikes in Spain, “For trail, enduro, crosscountry and desert racing applications, we believe it is still too early to consider an air fork. Consumers do not yet trust the reliability of air suspension when riding in remote terrain, and they do not want to have to carry a pump all day. I think we will need another three to five years for these perceptions to change, and to convince people that an air fork could be an advantage – aside from the weight reduction it offers.” We’ll go out on a limb here and say we believe the move to an air fork won’t take five years.

“Even a 5psi change to the pressure in the air fork generated such a large impact on how the entire bike rode – its chassis balance, braking stability, and the way itʼd turn in and then squat in turns.”

AIR FORKS ALL REQUIRE SPECIFIC PUMPS, WHICH CAN COST A BOMB. Well, a $10 bicycle pump can be used to pump up any dirt bike air fork.

But if you want to accurately check air pressures and minimise pressure loss when you fit and remove the pump, then the investment in a quality pump is money well spent.

The KTM models that run this WP AER fork all come with a quality WP pump in their parts kit. It’s specifically designed with a long thread to make sure there’s minimal bleed-off when it’s being connected and disconnected. You simply need to ensure the front wheel is off the ground before you check or adjust the fork’s air pressure. And it’s critical you screw the pump’s fitting on fully. If you don’t, the readings can be way out of whack.

Conveniently, the Schrader valve in the LHS fork cap is mounted at a 45-degree angle so the handlebars don’t get in the way of the pump.

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TECH AIR VS COIL FORKS

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“We wanted to shed some light on the air- and coil-sprung forksʼ comparative performance, and get a sense of whether the air fork is likely to soon find its way onto KTMʼs enduro range.”

RIDER FEEDBACK

A-GRADE VET GREG TIMMINS 43, 97KG, 178CM “I own a 2017 450SX-F, so this exercise was really interesting for me. I’ve quickly become a convert to air forks. I’m a heavier guy, so I love the range of adjustment they give you, though it does take a while to work out a good balance between air pressure and clicker settings. And it’s worth noting that the recommended pressure in KTM’s manual is way high. While the enduro bike’s Xplor fork obviously works well in the bush – and its chassis is well balanced – both fork and shock were very soft for my weight, and I had no way of changing that without handing the bike over to a suspension tuner. Around the MX track, the Xplor fork rode way too low in its stroke for me, but it did have surprisingly good bottoming resistance. When we fitted the air fork to the EXC-F (with the 144psi I like in it), the enduro bike was a heap more fun to ride because it was more stable and predictable everywhere. The fork’s action was progressive and it resisted bottoming well. The only downside with the air fork is that you need to check it before each ride. I’ve got accustomed to doing that when I check tyre pressures, but I’ve actually found the pressure in the fork barely changes.”

B-GRADE VET SHANE PLACE

PRO BROCK McLEARY

42, 75KG, 170CM

19, 65KG, 174CM

“To me, the best things about the air fork are its progression and its adjustability; the way you can change settings at no cost to suit different track types and conditions, and rider weight and ability.

It encourages you to experiment, which helps you understand how your bike responds to different settings. With all that adjustment on offer, you can find a happy medium between an acceptable firmness in the initial part of the stroke, while still having a plush ride over small bumps and good bottoming resistance. At the air pressure I needed to prevent it bottoming (around 138psi), I did have to give up some of that initial plushness relative to the Xplor fork, but not a lot. To its credit, the Xplor does resist bottoming really well, but I think it would benefit from some added spring preload to help prevent it from falling through the mid-stroke in the hands of a heavier, faster rider. Once you get the AER air fork’s settings right for you, I reckon it has a more progressive and predictable action throughout the entire stroke. I know most offroad guys remain sceptical about air forks, but I think they’ll have to embrace them before long. They offer so many benefits, and no downsides that I can see (aside from the minor inconvenience of the rebound clicker being on the bottom of the fork leg .”

“I was amazed how even a 5psi change to the pressure in the air fork could have such a large impact on how the entire bike rode – its chassis balance, braking stability, and the way it’d turn in and then squat in turns. And on the hardpack MX track, that made a massive difference to the bike’s traction – at both ends – and my confidence to push the thing. Similarly, just two compression clicks on the AER made a really noticeable difference. I actually felt that the AER and Xplor forks had a pretty similar action, but at the 132psi I found I liked in the AER fork (mainly to help it squat and keep my cornerspeed up), it didn’t initially have as much bottoming resistance as the Xplor fork. But after winding some compression clickers back into the air fork, I found a really good setting that made it better than the Xplor everywhere. For me, this test really reinforced how much tunability an air fork puts back into the rider’s hands. It’s going to mean more trial and error to get the thing set-up right for different tracks and conditions, but that also gives you a better understanding of your bike.

To me, enduro bikes need to be super-versatile, and the AER air-sprung fork fits that description to an absolute T.”

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RACE BIKE AORC TITLE WINNER

TWO-SMOK This is the fascinating story behind Team KTM’s midseason swap onto the 2017-model 300EXC – the newgeneration two-stroke that Daniel “Chucky” Sanders just won the AORC’s Outright title aboard.

ANDY WIGAN JOHN PEARSON MEDIA, ANDY WIGAN

ack in late March, when KTM Enduro Racing Team’s Daniel “Chucky” Sanders carded a perfect 1-1 Outright result at the Australian Off-Road Championship’s (AORC) opening two rounds in Queensland, much noise was made about the fact it was the talented kid’s first ever Outright victory. And rightly so, because Sanders rode the wheels off his beloved KTM 300EXC. What didn’t get much air, however, is the fact that Sanders’ Queensland performance also marked the first time a twostroke had won an AORC double-header since way back in 2005; since the series’ maiden season, when AJ Roberts piloted a Husky WR250 two-stroke to the Outright title win.

Fast-forward six months, and Daniel Sanders has notched up five (of a possible six) 1-1 Outright scorecards at the AORC. Unsurprisingly, he also clinched the AORC title and, at just 22 years of age, became the AORC’s youngest ever Outright champion. How he clinched the title, however, was somewhat surprising. Despite conventional wisdom dictating that it’s way too risky to change race bikes mid-way through a series you’re dominating, Sanders and his KTM team did exactly that.

So why the hell did they take the gamble when so much was as stake? Well, as Daniel and his KTM team boss and technician explain, they pretty much ran out of excuses not to embrace the all-new, 2017-model 300EXC...

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OKED ’EM!

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RACE BIKE AORC TITLE WINNER

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BEN GRABHAM TEAM MANAGER

“Straight after the KTM dealer conference in early August, we sent Chucky a 2017-model 300EXC. A week later, he called to tell me the thing was amazing – which is kind of what I expect to hear all riders to say after they get given a pretty-looking new model. But Chucky backed that up by saying he was able to do the same lap times aboard the 2017 bike as he was on his modified 2016-model race bike.

“Still, I had no plans for him to race the 2017 bike because we had no parts, no second bike as back-up, no suspension, and no oversize fuel tank for the two cross-country races remaining in the AORC series. Plus, it made no sense to change our dialled-in 2016 race bike mid-season, especially when you’ve been dominating with it. So we went ahead and built up another 2016-model race bike and got Chucky up to NSW to run it in ahead of the final four rounds, which kicked off with a cross-country at Monkerai. I did suggest that he bring the 2017-model 300 with him, but only so we could help him get the bike set up for the Six-Day in Spain as KTM wanted him to race the 2017 there.

“Anyway, while we were running-in the 2016 bike, the new WP Trax shock absorber turned up for his 2017 ISDE bike. So we guestimated a setting for that, and then put it and his 2016 bike’s fork into the 2017 bike. Chucky and I had a spin on it, and we were both blown away by how much better the new bike was. I immediately understood why he’d been so enthusiastic about it. Compared to the 300EXC we’d spent a couple

of years developing, this 2017 machine was a better bike in every possible way.

“As good as the thing was, though, there was no way we could race on it because we still didn’t have a spare bike or the oversize fuel tank to fit it. But, when we got back to the workshop later that day, we discovered his second bike had turned up. And then the day after that, a 16-litre IMS fuel tank arrived. It’s designed to fit the 2016 450SX-F, but we discovered it fitted the 2017 300EXC perfectly. So it was basically a situation where we ran out of the reasons not to race the 2017 bike. It was only three days

same controlled speed and dominance.

“I used to think there were some tracks where, compared to the big four-strokes, Chucky was at a disadvantage aboard the 300cc two-stroke – mainly on terrain where you needed smooth power delivery to get traction.

But after testing 2017 bike myself, I believe the two-stroke is no longer at a disadvantage anywhere. The power is so smooth, it’ll hook up like a four-stroke, and yet it retains all the advantages of a two-stroke. Plus, the reduced vibration makes it feel so much more refined.

“But for me, the biggest step forward that KTM has taken with this bike is the frame. The bike feels lighter and more agile, but there’s more to it than that.

The way the new frame flexes – more longitudinally and less torsionally – makes the thing handle and turn a lot better. In a straight line, it works better than ever, and then when you go to turn it, it’s got a more responsive, positive feel. I found the WP 52mm Cone Valve fork a bit too firm in Chucky’s 2016 bike, but perfect for me in the 2017. So to me, it feels like the frame is contributing to the suspension damping in the new bike.

“All that said, upgrading to the 2017 bike with an Outright AORC title in the balance was a risky move. There were a lot of eyes on us, and how we’d go on this new-generation machine, so closing the title out was a relief. It was also a really nice way to cap off the past two seasons that we’ve worked with Chucky, who is now a world-class off-road racer at the age of just 22.”

“Compared to the 300EXC race bike we’d spent a couple of years developing, this 2017 machine was a better bike in every possible way.

We ran out of excuses not to race it!” before the cross-country at Monkerai – Round 9 and the 12-round series – but everything just fell into place. Chucky kept saying that God was telling us he ought to race the new bike [laughs], so I finally relented to decided to go with it.

“Watching Chucky race the 2017 300EXC, you could see that he was really comfortable and never had to push too hard to stay ahead of his opposition. At Monkerai, he dominated Saturday’s cross-country and won every lap of the sprints on the Sunday. And then on the slick grasstrack of the final two rounds in Victoria, it was more of the

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RACE BIKE AORC TITLE WINNER

MICHAEL CARUSI TEAM TECHNICIAN

“Initially, because we could only get our hands on the one 2017-model 300EXC, the plan was to slowly put some effort into developing the bike, mainly so Chucky could get comfortable with its set-up ahead of the ISDE in October. No one was rushing into the idea of using it to replace his 2016 race bike, which we’d developed over the course of two years and had working really well. Plus we all knew how risky it would be to upgrade to the new model if there weren’t enough spares to cover us in case of a major crash. So the idea was pretty much put on the backburner until, as Grabbo just explained, the whole project just fell into place in the lead-up to the Monkerai round. We were left with no reason not to give the new bike a shot. After Grabbo tested the new bike and found it to be so superior to the 2016 in every respect, I think that made him more receptive to the idea of Chucky racing it over those final four rounds.

And once the 16-litre tank arrived – which gave us the peace of mind that we could get

away with only one fuel stop in the three-hour cross-country races – there was nothing else holding us back.

“In terms of the mods done to the 2017 bike, there really isn’t a lot to speak about. To get some base settings, we ran the 2017 bike on the dyno and the stock engine immediately produced a similar power curve to what we’d got out of the 2016 race engine after a fair bit of development. So we knew that’d be a great platform to work from. We did a little porting work to the barrel, pumped up the compression a bit, and tested an FMF muffler. We’ll run the standard muffler most of the time, but occasionally fit the FMF if Chucky wants more top-end or snap at certain tracks.

“The Mikuni carb works well with the standard 2017 engine, producing smooth and crisp power. But after we did the porting work to Chucky’s 2017 race bike, we discovered we needed to run a richer slide in the carb (a 3.5 slide, from the standard 4), and the only way we could get this was by fitting a Keihin carb.

We literally couldn’t get our hands on rich enough slide for the Mikuni, but we’re in the process of making that happen now.

“Because 300cc two-stroke engines can be a handful to get it hooking up smoothly in tight bush, we run the firmer green spring in the power-valve to delay the opening of the exhaust port and create a smoother transition into the mid-range. We then fine-tune the power delivery with the external pre-load adjustment to suit the track type or conditions.

“With the suspension, we didn’t touch the internals of Chucky’s 52mm WP fork. All it needed was a few clickers here and there and it worked straight away on the 2017 bike. With the all-new Trax shock – designed to fit the updated 2017 swingarm and frame – the first setting we used worked, and we haven’t changed it since. And because Chucky was comfortable on the bike straight away, there was nothing major in the way of ergo mods required. In fact, his handlebarsand controls pretty much all swapped straight over.”

“We ran the 2017 bike on the dyno and the stock engine produced a similar power curve to what we’d got out of the 2016 race engine after a fair bit of development. So we knew that’d be a great platform to work from.”

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RACE BIKE AORC TITLE WINNER

DANIEL SANDERS TEAM RIDER

“I’m not a fan of changing anything drastic – especially my race bike – during a season, especially when things have been going so well.

I generally like to stick with what I know and like. In the past, I’ve tended to be like that with my suspension, too; I’d get it set up well and then stick to those settings, instead of secondguessing my set-up every time we race a new track. But now that I’ve got the experience and input of Ben Grabham and the whole KTM team in my corner, I’m more open to getting out of my comfort zone and experimenting.

And I like how the team is really methodical in the way they test anything new back-to-back with what we know.

“So when the 2017 300EXC arrived, on the one hand I was open to the idea of racing it. But on the other hand, I’d built a 28-point lead with the 2016 race bike and really had no reason to be replacing it with something I’d had way less experience aboard. The only reason I even rode the 2017 bike was because I wanted to get a head start on its set-up for the Six-Day in Spain. We all knew it was a newgeneration bike, but we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves by swapping to it prematurely.

But then I rode the thing, and everything changed.

“The biggest change I initially noticed with the new bike was how light and nimble it felt to throw around. It turned like a 125, and I found it much easier to get my weight forward on the seat to load up the front-end. And when I jumped back on my 2016 bike, the extra vibration it put through my hands and feet made it feel like a dinosaur.

The counter-balancer they’ve fitted to this 2017 engine makes its ride that much smoother and more comfortable, but the engine’s still got all the punch and power I

need. I almost felt like fitting slicks to it and riding it on the road [laughs].

“As good as the new engine was, I also knew that just slotting my race suspension into a bike with a completely different frame

chassis, and the stock shock wasn’t too bad at all. So with that set-up and the stock motor, I did some back-to-back times against my 2016 race bike on the practice tracks I’m really familiar with, and found I as actually quicker on the 2017. That really got me thinking because I knew we could improve on that a fair bit by the time we did some engine work and fitted the Trax shock.

But Grabbo kept pointing out that the new Trax shock hadn’t arrived yet, and that there were a few other things stopping us from using the 2017 bike – such as not having a cross-country tank and the limited spares and performance parts.

“But literally within a week of Round 9 and 10 at Monkerai, all those issues resolved themselves. The tank and shock and spare bike all arrived within a few days of each other, and we kind of ran out of excuses not to switch over to the 2017.

So it was really satisfying for me and the team when I came out swinging at Monkerai and won both the cross-country and sprint rounds pretty comfortably. I think the guys back at KTM HQ were pretty stoked with that too, as it made their job of selling these 2017 EXC models easier. But I should make the point that none of those guys ever pressured us into swapping to the 2017 bike.

They left that decision entirely up to the team.

“After my success at Monkerai, my teammate Tye Simmonds swapped to the 2017-model 450EXC-F for the final two rounds, where I wrapped up the Outright and E3-class titles, while Tye ran second Outright and won the E2 class. That was such a good way to cap off what’s been an awesome year, and to give back to the team and everyone at KTM who’ve supported us so much.”

“I’d built a 28-point lead with the 2016 bike and really had no reason to be replacing it with something I’d had way less experience aboard. But then I rode the 2017 bike, and everything changed!”

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probably wouldn’t work. But it did. Well, at first, we didn’t have the updated Trax shock to fit the 2017 bike, but I found my 52mm WP race fork worked really well in the new

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RACE BIKE AORC TITLE WINNER

SUPER HIGH PERFORMANCE RACE QUALITY PARTS!

LOG ON TO For a revealing insight into Daniel Sanders’ meteoric rise over the past two seasons, be sure to check out the exclusive interview we did with the 22-year-old immediately after his AORC title win.

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EVENT CLASSIC DIRT 12

VMX Magazine’s Classic Dirt is a tribute to the formative years of dirt bikes and the intoxicating sport it spawned.

Here’s an insight into the event’s 12th annual installment.

ANDY WIGAN

E

MATTHEW FERRY, KEN SMITH, PETER PAYNE

very now and then, something reaffirms how and why dirt bikes first found their way into you life; an event that prompts you to reflect on the sport’s pioneers, and make sense of your often-inexplicable connection with motorcycles. In mid-June at Conondale’s picturesque Green Park circuit – nestled among the rolling grass hills of the Sunshine Coast’s hinterland – such an event took place: VMX Magazine’s 12th annual ‘Classic Dirt’.

This year, a collaboration between Yamaha Australia and VMX ensured “CD12” would be especially memorable because, in addition to the line-up of domestic

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moto-royalty who regularly attend Classic Dirt, organisers managed to attract two international greats – Heikki “The Flying Finn” Mikkola (World MX champ in 1974, 1977 and 1978, and the first man to win both 250cc and 500cc world titles) and six-time AMA MX Champion, Broc “The Golden Boy” Glover. They joined a line-up of local legends that included Stephen Gall, Craig Dack, Anthony Gunter, Mike Landman, Dave Armstrong and James Deakin for a weekendlong, nostalgia-drenched festival of dirt.

We asked a few of these guys to reflect on what was, by all accounts, a memorable weekend...

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EVENT CLASSIC DIRT 12

CRAIG DACK FOUR-TIME MISTER MOTOCROSS PRINCIPLE, CDR YAMAHA “I’d heard good things about Classic Dirt, but I wasn’t that keen initially because, with the combined race calendars of my motocross and off-road race teams, I spend a lot of time on the road. But I actually really enjoyed the whole CD12 weekend. The demographic was older than I’m used to and very knowledgeable, which meant you could strike up really interesting conversations. I ran into a whole lot of people I hadn’t seen for years – including a guy called Rodney Clark, who was my archrival 35 years ago at the Lower Blue Mountains Mini Bike Club [laughs].

“I already knew Broc pretty well – having worked with him through Dunlop in the States, and from racing against him several times over the years – and it was a real honour to meet Heikki for the first time because, to me, he was the first of the real superheroes of the sport. I’d see him in the videos they’d show after our club meetings, and he made a real impression on me as a kid. So it was a real treat to ride around a track sideby-side with him. That said, the riding was almost incidental; for me, the event was all about catching up with people and enjoying the atmosphere. I can now understand why Classic Dirt is becoming an annual pilgrimage for so many people.”

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PETER PAYNE BRAND MANAGER YAMAHA MOTOR AUSTRALIA “Back in the 1970s, there was no such thing as dirt bike magazines or TV coverage of the international motocross events in Australia, so we never actually got to see guys like Heikki Mikkola and Broc Glover. They were larger-than-life icons of the sport, but complete enigmas to us in Australia. We knew very little about them as human beings. So for me, being able to spend some time with Heikki and Broc socially in the lead-up to Classic Dirt 12 was a constant pinch-me moment. It was wonderful to have them play a part in Yamaha’s 60th anniversary celebrations, and CD12 was a great opportunity for people to meet and speak with two of the sport’s biggest icons.

“A lot of people didn’t realise that, because of some niggling injuries, Heikki had not ridden a dirt bike in 25 years until the laps he cut at CD12. In fact, he wasn’t even planning to ride at all. But when he saw all the pre-promotion for the event and the enthusiasm from Aussie fans, I think he felt obliged to swing a leg over the bike. It was really interesting to observe how all the Australian legends of the sport still look up to Broc and Heikki and hung off their every word at the event.”

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EVENT CLASSIC DIRT 12

STEPHEN GALL FOUR-TIME MISTER MOTOCROSS “It was a real pleasure to meet Heikki at CD12 for the first time. He was one of my childhood heroes, so it was pretty cool when he and I featured on the same Yamaha poster in 1978 – the year he won a world championship and I won my first Mister Motocross. Broc, I’ve known for a long time. I first met him when he came to Australia to race supercross in the early 1980s, and then in 1982, I raced him at Amaroo Park when he was arguably the quickest motocross rider in the world. That Amaroo event was the only time I’d ever passed him (because he’d collapsed a wheel jumping this huge quad), so a bit of a red mist came over me at the Classic Dirt this year when I found myself behind Broc. I just couldn’t help myself and put a pass on him up this hill [laughs].

“Those two legends really added to the event, but Classic Dirt is a special for many reasons, including Yamaha’s 60th Anniversary semi-trailer, which had a couple of my recently restored bikes on display this year – a 1975 YZ250A and the 1981 YZ465 I won the Mister Motocross aboard that year.

The atmosphere at CD12 was great, and the idea of getting out there to cut some demo laps without the pressure of racing seems to get more appealing the older we all get.”

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ANTHONY GUNTER TWO-TIME MISTER MOTOCROSS “Suzuki sponsored CD1 through to CD9, so that initially had a lot to do with me being part of the event. But I just love the thing now, irrespective of who’s sponsoring it, and I find a way to get there most years. I’ve been to a Classic Dirt event in Geelong, Broadford, Raymond Terrace and Wallerawang, but it’s hard to beat Conondale. It’s got awesome natural

terrain tracks and the best atmosphere for sure. This year, they had two motocross tracks – a pre-’75 and a pre-’90 – plus a vinduro track and a flat track. I took my 1981 factory KX500 up to put it on display and rode a 1988 KX250 that I’ve just restored. I did a fair few laps, but it’s really more about catching up with people than it is about riding.”

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EVENT CLASSIC DIRT 12

JENNIFER BALLARD GEOFF BALLARD’S WIFE “I haven’t been to a race in a few years, but as soon as I heard CD12 was on at Conondale, I was in. And I’m glad I did because the event had all the elements: the best venue in Australia; great Queensland weather; good food, music, wine and atmosphere; riders and spectators of all ages from all over the country; and two of the greatest riders the sport has ever known in Heikki Mikkola and Broc Glover. Plus the weekend is not just for the blokes who are there to ride. It’s equally fascinating and enjoyable for spectators. I found it really interesting to see how many younger guys are now taking an interest in the older bikes.”

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GEOFF BALLARD AUSSIE ENDURO ICON “I’ve been to quite a few Classic Dirt events, but this year’s was something special. I’d raced motocross against Broc in Tahiti and in the Trans AMA series in America, and he really made the event because he speaks so well.

And Heikki is just an absolute legend.

It was pretty cool to be out there on track with them at the same time during the ‘Legends Laps’. Some of the guys were referring to it as ‘ego shuffling’ and I had one embarrassing moment where I high-sided my Maico – all captured on video by my son, Josh, unfortunately. That corner was the first and only time he’s ever pointed a camera at me.

“Conondale is just such a great venue, and it really adds to the vibe.

It’s one of my all-time favourite tracks with such a good layout and atmosphere for spectators. My wife, Jenni, has been raving about the weekend ever since. You’ve got to hand it to Yamaha, too. Their support over the past few years, as well as bringing Broc and Heikki out this year, has really been a boost for Classic Dirt.”

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EVENT CLASSIC DIRT 12

KEN SMITH EDITOR, VMX MAGAZINE “Our initial idea with Classic Dirt was to move it from state to state, and we have staged it in NSW and Victoria. But we’ve found no other venue can match the facilities Conondale has to offer. Green Park has multiple motocross tracks, enduro loops and trials areas, and the guys from the Sunshine Coast club do a wonderful job with track prep. Plus it’s great for camping and spectator access.

“Yamaha really stepped it up this year by bringing Heikki and Broc out. These guys are heroes to the Australian greats, just as much as they are to the everyday punter, so that’s why we had a bigger roll-up of Aussie legends than normal for CD12. No matter how well they’re known in their own back yard, everyone wants an opportunity to meet their heroes.

We’ve had several big names in the past – guys such as Joel Robert, Brad Lackey and Jim Pomeroy – and they were all drawcards for spectators. But this year with Heikki and Broc, the autograph session went on for more than two hours. In addition to having those big-name guys at Classic Dirt, spectators also have the opportunity to simply wander around, talk to people and check out the huge array of bikes.

To me, that’s the coolest part of the event.”

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UN TOUCH ABLE CHAD REED

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TECH ENGINE DESIGN

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2 0 1 7 KT M E XC s :

MEET THE ENGINE GURU A fascinating window into the unorthodox development process employed by KTM’s engine design team.

ANDY WIGAN

M

MARCO CAMPELLI, SEBAS ROMERO, ANDY WIGAN

ichael Viertlmayr has been the Project Leader for KTM’s 450/500cc engine family for 10 years, and is now in charge of the brand’s entire motocross and off-road engine development. He heads up a small and passionate team of engine designers who’ve notched up countless world enduro and motocross titles in the past decade, the most

Tell us a bit about the design process; about how your engine department works in conjunction with the chassis, suspension and bodywork design teams.

MV: For any motorcycle, the chassis and engine must be designed in a harmonious way, meaning we don’t start our design work separately and then ‘check-in’ with each other later on to integrate the designs. At the very beginning of the design process, we get together at length to establish the boundary conditions for each model – things such as the engine dimensions, where its centre of gravity will be, how it will be mounted in the frame. Of course, this must all be consistent with the overall concept of the new model.

For all your 2017 engines, there are massive changes in the position of crank and clutch shafts to radically alter the engines’ centre of gravity.

Does that process begin at the crank?

notable of which is undoubtedly Ryan Dungey’s 2015 AMA MX and SX titles – using the new-generation 450cc SOHC engine that has been adapted for off-road use in the 2017 450/500EXC-F. We sat down with Viertlmayr at the modellaunch in Spain and got this fascinating insight into his team’s somewhat unconventional process of development...

The first step in the process is to establish what the limits are; how far these rotating shafts can physically be moved. This will be limited by things such as the diameter of the crankshaft, which is defined by the engine’s stroke.

The crank diameter then defines the design of the transmission, whose shafts we then move around to find the optimal package. Of course, this is all done in CAD. We then make fatigue calculations to establish whether these dimensions can last in reality. We do several ‘loops’ of this process to get to the point where we think we have a package that looks reasonable in 3D. At that point, it’s time to try the engine in reality, and the first prototype is built. We then establish some test variances – things such as different engine layouts, cylinder angles and inertia, the routing of the exhaust, for example – and options for how you can move the engine around in the chassis to give you the optimum position

of the crankshaft and output shaft, and so on. It’s a very complex process, so that is only a very broad explanation of how we go about it.

What are some of the ‘extremes’ you went to during the development of the 2017 engines?

It’s often more useful to take extreme steps to help establish the impact that certain changes will have. For example, we tried several very different positions for the output shaft to properly understand the impact of different relative positions of the sprocket and swingarm pivot. Obviously, this relationship has an impact on how the bike’s rear-end does or doesn’t squat.

In the end, we found the optimum was close to what we had already been using in our bikes, but that process gave us a more thorough understanding of the relationship and gave us more confidence in the final design.

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TECH ENGINE DESIGN And the changes you made to the position of the crankshaft and clutch were massive.

Yes, there were radical changes.

Moving the axis or position of these shafts by a few millimetres is a lot in engine design terms. For these 2017 engines, we have moved them up to 30mm. That is huge. Our objective was to make the triangle of the crankshaft, clutch shaft and output shaft as steep as possible.

We then optimised the shifting mechanism so that it could fit under this triangle. In other words, we worked tirelessly to minimise the distance between shafts; to squeeze every millimetre out of the package to create the most compact engines possible. If you keep this modularity between the 250 and 350, and the 450 and 500, I think we are now very close to the limit of what is doable when it comes to minimising engine dimensions.

The concept of centre of gravity for motorcycles is now very different to what it was two decades ago. Back then, it was all about keeping weight as low as possible.

Nowadays, it’s all about moving the large rotating masses to the fulcrum point around which the moving motorcycle rotates frontto-rear and side-to-side, right?

That is true. This fulcrum, or pivot point, is behind the cylinder; somewhere just above the electric starter motor on our bikes. In a corner or in the air, you need to turn a motorcycle around this point. The closer the mass – and especially the heaviest rotating masses – is to this centre of gravity, the less resistance there is to changing direction.

In other words, the less rider

“Our objective was to make the triangle of the crankshaft, clutch shaft and output shaft as steep as possible because this creates the most compact engine and helps centralise the mass.” input required to change the bike’s direction. Because the rotating masses have the biggest influence on a motorcycle’s handling, that is why we have spent so much time ensuring that we minimise the distance the crank and clutch shafts are from this C of G. This is clearly demonstrated by our 350 and 450EXC-F – these two models have less than 1kg difference in static their weight, but they feel very different to ride because the 450’s rotating masses are inescapably larger. Okay, we could have reduced the 450cc engine’s inertia, but that would have a negative influence on its character – the smoothness of the power delivery and its traction.

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Speaking of this 450 engine, how satisfying is it for you and your team that it’s already won an AMA MX and SX title in the hands of Ryan Dungey?

That was tremendously satisfying for me, and a strong motivating force for the whole design team. We are all very proud of the achievement because it’s the best possible endorsement of our work. We are just a small team of guys, but we all ride bikes ourselves and we are hugely passionate about what we do at KTM. Some people may think that we have an unorthodox way of developing motorcycles because many of our best ideas come while we are having a beer together after work or at a barbeque on the weekend. But it definitely works.

So the 2016 MX models have laid the foundation for these 2017 enduro bikes. But you guys did much more than fitting these engines with a six-speed transmission and dropping them into an enduro chassis, right?

Absolutely. A lot more! It is not a given that an engine which works for MX and SX will automatically

translate into a good enduro engine.

Remember though that, as project leader for the 450/500cc engine family for 10 years now, I had a good idea of what we would need to do to ensure this engine would work for off-road applications. Plus, there are several other similarly experienced people in my team. So we already had a lot of ideas about how we could optimise the new-generation enduro engines, while retaining a certain modularity between the models to ensure we optimised the way they integrated with the chassis design.

Tell us a bit about developing the traction control technology.

We first tested it three years ago, and we were initially very sceptical about it. We were also unsure of how off-road guys would embrace the idea of more electronics. But after the first two times we tested it, we changed our attitude. Not only did it immediately prove to work very effectively, it was also a very simple system as you don’t need any additional wheel or gyroscopic sensors.

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In basic terms, the ECU is able to determine when, for a given throttle setting, the rear wheel is spinning up too fast. In those instances, it simply retards the power. And we were able to adapt it to each specific gear. The feedback we received here at the launch was overwhelmingly positive, even though the conditions in Spain didn’t fully show what the system was capable of. In terrain where you have only small patches of traction in between loose rocks or slippery mud, the full potential of the traction control would be even more evident.

Traction control aside, what kind of feedback did you get about all the new-generation engines?

It was so positive. At these launches, where we have about 60 journalists from all around the world testing the bikes, it’s always interesting to see how everyone has their favourite model; their ‘pet’ bike. Guys who ride for fun tend to gravitate to the two-strokes. The 350EXC-F is always a favourite for many because it’s just such a good all-rounder. But we found that the faster guys from the Scandinavian countries and you

guys from Australia really liked the new 450EXC-F. We’ve talked a lot about the four-stroke engines here, but it’s the completely new 250 and 300cc two-stroke engines that almost stole the show. Did you develop those engines around the central idea that they needed a counter-balancer?

The base concept of the previous two-stroke engine was from the early 1990s, and that had been refined about as much as was possible in the 25 years since. So it was important that we build a completely new engine. Our primary goal with the new engine was to reduce vibration. Vibration had become an issue for us because consumers were complaining that it was excessive, and because it was affecting the performance and reliability of some parts – the shock absorber, in particular. So we figured out how to configure the engine to introduce the electric starter in a proper way – into the underside of the engine cases, as it should be – and to incorporate the balancer shaft in a way that

didn’t require any change to the shape of the cases or compromise how compact the engine package otherwise is.

Why hasn’t a counter-balancer been fitted in the past?

A few reasons: it adds friction and therefore robs the engine of some power; it’s expensive; and it’s not easy to integrate it without making the entire engine bigger. And these are the issues that manufacturers look to avoid. For us, though, we believed the compromises were more than worth it. And after the very first test with this new

engine, we became convinced it was the right solution. We tried different arrangements of shafts, and we tried both a lateral and a central counter-balancer, which is what we ended up going with.

In addition to improving rider comfort, reducing vibration by so much also improved the action of the shock absorber and eliminated the reliability problems we’d had with past models, such as the shock bushings. Many journalists used the word ‘refined’ when they gave us feedback about the 250 and 300EXC engines, and that’s a term not often used for two-strokes.

WANT MORE For our ride impression of the entire 2017 EXC range and behind-the-scenes footage from the new bikes’ international launch in Spain.

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MX, Enduro, Motard, Mini’s & Dirt Track

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TRAILRIDE MYALL RIVER

JOHN PEARSON MEDIA

Transmoto’s John Pearson joins a bunch of mates for a memorable invitation-only weekend trailride to heaven and hell and paradise in NSW’s epic Myall River State Forest.

MILK! M O T H E R ’S

E

very so often, you’re lucky enough to find your way onto a spectacular ride; the kind we tell our children of during scotch-blurred recollections around campfires. This tale recalls one such adventure, when I was fortunate enough to get a run-on jumper to an invitation-only ride in the stunning Myall River Valley. I spent two days riding some of the most eye-opening, crotchstirring, powerslide-inducing trails this area has to offer, and I can’t wait to get back down amongst the leeches and do it all again...

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W

e arrive at the centre for operations, a converted dairy that sleeps up to 12 people on the banks of the Myall River. It’s late afternoon and our lead rider, Alan, already has a small fire lit. The eskies are stocked with tonight’s brew, and a couple of camp ovens are simmering away in the coals. Alan tells us the Newcastle crew has arrived and will be up at Bikey’s place, so we jump in the ute and head on up. We introduce ourselves to the Newie boys – led by the mainstay sweep rider, Bikey – and take a look around his pad.

Everyone is inexorably drawn to the poolroom. This joint is a man haven, set in the heavenly confines of a dirt bike riding paradise. Bikey hands out a few brews while we pair up and smash out a few quick games of stick before we’re off to check on the camp ovens.

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Back at the dairy, the lodgings are what you’d expect of a bush weekend away: simple yet functional, with enough cover to keep everyone dry.

I’m hoping there are no big drinkers among the group – at least, not tonight. I want all my wits about me for the ride, but it’s hard to resist the temptation in this sort of atmosphere. And before long, Bikey has us swilling Stone’s Green Ginger like it’s mother’s milk.

The night passes with recollections of past rides and all manner of bench racing. Bets are placed, challenges are laid down, but not once does Alan utter a word about the trails to come.

It only adds to the anticipation for what lies in store for us.

INTO THE HEART OF THE DEVIL A rooster is crowing, and my mouth

tastes like rank green ginger wine.

Alan rings the triangle and we’re all up for a meal fit for enduro kings. I have that feeling in my stomach that says I need something to eat, but I’m not sure whether I should. Day one is all about finding our boundaries, says Alan. My boundaries almost feel within reach already and I haven’t even struck a blow, but a decent breakfast and some coffee soon sorts us all out. As we gear up, the bench racing starts in earnest. My mate Nathan, a semi hardcore motocross racer who was never ‘discovered’ in his prime, touts, “There’s no hill out here I can’t get up or down; I’ve seen ’em all before.” Alan smiles to himself quietly, and I’m thinking, ‘Great, now we’re heading for some hill that even Nathan can’t get up!’.

With that, we throw a leg over and fire up our angry warhorses as Alan rolls us out for the short transport section leading to Peacehaven. I’ve

heard of this place. It has a dubious connection with a hill commonly known as Hogan’s – a brutal rockshelf- and boulder-filled climb known in trailriding circles as the one true test of man and machine in these parts. Like Alan said, it’s all about finding boundaries.

The trails leading there are a mix of muddy fire track, contour banks and loamy, sweeping corners. It’s interspersed with narrow but deep river crossings that are littered with slick boulders. The track sees a fair bit of four-wheel-drive action and is rutted in places as a result, but who doesn’t love a good rut?

We wind up into the rainforest and Alan stops us at a cutting for a quick bite to eat. He motions for us to gather around. With mud caked over our riding gear, we listen intently as Alan explains what lies ahead: “You have two choices. There are some of you who may feel the need to stay

with Bikey and traverse the perilous chicken run that cuts around the side of this hill and comes out at the top of a little jaunt we’re going to conquer now. Or, you can follow me into the heart of the devil and have the privilege of saying you’ve ridden and beaten the one true bastard this

over the gutter onto the singletrack that leads to the base of our destiny, screaming like a madman as he powers up the incline and showers roost into the scrub behind him.

I look around in search of someone willing to ride the chicken run so I won’t look soft, but there are no

other hilly climb. Fallen timber and ruts litter the path as we press on through the scrub, the incline progressively steeper. We crest a small mound and find Alan waiting in the middle of the track. He instructs us to give each other a 30-second gap to reduce congestion.

and we strain our ears, though it’s impossible to tell the outcome. I take a deep breath and remind myself that momentum is key and that I need to stay forward on the bike.

The starter button looks back at me, taunting me as if I don’t have the guts to press it. But I do. I’m away.

“Almost lying on the handlebars, I fight the bike. All technique is lost.

It’s like an ugly drunken barfight and I’m getting beaten badly.” area has to offer, Hogan’s.”

There are nervous sideways glances. Everyone starts to breathe deeper as the adrenaline courses through our bodies. One of the Newcastle boys flippantly says, “Sounds like fun”, but he’s unconvincing. Alan stares at him through cold, serious eyes, then fires up his WR450F and wheelstands

takers. At the back of the group, Bikey lets out a roar of laughter that breaks the silence. He sounds like a pirate walking his prisoners down the plank. “Let’s go, boys! Hogan’s ain’t gonna climb itself,” he wails, mercilessly. We start our bikes and, one by one, file onto the track that leads to the doorstep of hell.

The track leading in is like any

With that, he disappears over the crest and out of sight around a tight right-hander. We listen to the exhaust note of his bike, labouring then free-spinning, and then labouring again as he attacks Hogan’s in a manner that sounds like a seasoned professional.

I’m third in line. The first two riders head into the maelstrom

WELCOME TO HELL The back of the crest gives you a chance to build up some muchneeded speed, but the tight righthander saps it from you. As I exit the turn and get settled, I look up and see the monster bearing down on me. Loose, helmet-sized rocks are strewn across the track from

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“We ride out to the north through a small section of private property, allowing us unfettered access to some ridgeline trails that I’m sure God Himself pushed in with a D11.”

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beginning to end. Deep, washedout ruts filled with fallen timber and more boulders appear to offer the best lines. There’s a rock ledge step-up about a third of the way up with more to follow around a bend.

I see a CRF250X sideways across the track at the base of the ledge where he’s blocking the best line. There is nothing left to do but attack and keep my eyes up. The first section flows pretty well with only a couple of small mistakes that cost me a bit of speed, though I’m able to make that up again as I ride high on the left edge of the cutting. But my safe haven runs out quickly as I plunge back into the boulders. All too soon, my hard-working little WR250F and I arrive at the rock ledge. I’ve picked the line to the right, so I drive hard off the left bank to gain speed and hit the rock ledge with enough power to launch myself up and over, just. That feeling of flipping endover-end backwards panics me and I grab the clutch, which stops me in my tracks. The even greater fear of rolling back off the ledge makes me release it again. The Yami stands up on its back wheel and teeters on the edge. Mercifully, the Hillclimb Gods are with me as a rock I’m sitting on flings out from under my rear tyre and dumps my front wheel back to earth. I start to pick up speed again, breathing hard now and a little shaky, but it’s no time to get in touch with my feelings because this demonic lump of rock is still trying all manner of tricks to dislodge me from my bike.

The centre section of the hill somehow seems tamer than the first. The boulders aren’t as big and I can pick lines that don’t inevitably run into a dead-end rut.

I glance ahead and see Alan’s Yamaha bouncing over a contour bank at the top of the hill, a scourge of boulders rolling down the hill in his wake. The second rock ledge is nowhere near as technical if you pass to the edges. I negotiate the dirt wall around it, picking up some much-needed speed, as the final section proves the most taxing.

But by this stage, my arms are pumped up like Popeye’s. Clutch control becomes a real issue as I’m struggling simply to hang on while gravity works against me.

Rebounding over rocks and boulders like a pinball, I can finally see the top. But I’m fading fast.

Now almost lying down on the handlebars, I fight the bike. All technique is lost. It’s like an ugly drunken barfight and I’m getting beaten badly. As my speed tapers off to not much more than a jog, I’m just thinking there’s no way I can do this again. I can’t start all over again from the bottom. I look up and see Alan screaming. He’s sitting on his bike, waving his hands in encouragement. I give her one

FROM HELL TO HEAVEN After a top-up of fuel, we head east into some of the most pristine terrain I have ever had the privilege of savouring. A fast firetrail has been freshly bulldozed, making soil conditions so soft and grippy and perfect, it inspires the confidence to push hard. The tracks are well maintained, meaning there are no nasty surprises as we scream through the scrub, roosting our way home. The eastern side of the ranges is noticeably drier for the afternoon run, so we use the throttle a little more aggressively, which broadens the smiles of more than a few of the boys. Our run back into camp is a 15-kilometre section of singletrack

“Hogan’s is a brutal rockshelfand boulder-filled climb known in trailriding circles as the one true test of man and machine in these parts.” last stab of throttle, fighting the arm-pump. My grips are bouncing around inside my half-closed hands as I crest the top and unashamedly fall on my side. Alan winds his throttle through to the rev limiter in celebration and laughs at me as I gasp for air. I manage to crawl out from under my bike and, with some help, lean it against a tree. I look over at Alan and laugh. “What a motherf@#ker of a hill,” I gasp.

“I told you we were going to find your boundaries today, mate,” he says with cackle. And find them I did.

The rest period is welcome as our group battles up (and sometimes down again) this magnificent beast. Finally, all are present and accounted for. We take a leisurely ride along some of the sweetest firetrail and singletrack you could wish for and arrive at Bulahdelah for a lunch break. As we devour burgers and cold drinks, stories of our morning’s adventures begin to flow thick and fast.

through steep, off-camber sections that overlook the Myall River. As we drop down out of the hills toward the river flats, we actually ride a three-kilometre section of a 2014 AORC course, which is a real eyeopener. How those guys throw their machines at high speed through these rough tracks’ tight scrub is beyond comprehension.

It gives me a real appreciation for the level of concentration AORC racers must operate at.

Back at camp, we dive straight for the esky and some ice-cold beverages to soothe the thirst brought on by the day’s adventures.

While Alan organises our evening meal, everyone pitches in to change a couple of flat tyres and we all give our steeds the customary once-over in preparation for the following day.

Dinner is a stew of lamb shanks in red wine sauce with a side of baked vegetables, all skillfully cooked in the camp ovens under our very noses.

It’s hard not to gorge ourselves.

The customary culture of storytelling follows the meal and there’s a drunken admission by our washed-up MXer, Nathan, that he actually feared for his own safety while climbing Hogan’s. Funnily enough, the drinking and chatter subsides quicker tonight. Weary riders slink away to their swags, eager to be well rested for the following day. The party is all but over by midnight.

GROUNDHOG DAY That damned rooster again!

‘Should’ve eaten roast chicken for dinner last night,’ I think to myself as I wipe the crust from my eyes and climb out of my swag. I’m met by the sight of one of the Newcastle boys strolling back to camp from his view of the mist-laden Myall River, shovel over one shoulder and a roll of dunny paper in his other hand.

He looks me in the eye and crows, “How’s the serenity?!” I’m thinking it’s all but serene where he’s just come from. Such is the nature of the bush campout.

We saddle up and ride out to the north this time through a small section of private property that gives us unfettered access to some ridgeline trails that I’m sure God Himself pushed in with a D11. We take it easy for the first couple of clicks, getting our eye back in before the real fun starts with a section of track called Cont 52. It’s a logging track as wide as a twin-lane road that runs for around five kays with 52 contour banks from start to finish.

And some of them are massive.

The braver of us are hitting them at breakneck speeds, launching up to 30 metres in some cases to clear the hole on the top-side. The more sedate riders scrub the tops off them and fire out of the other side, creating a second launching pad as they rocket up the hill. Even the slower riders feel like they’re Chad Reed. Yep, this is what riding dirt bikes is all about. By now, we’re all hard on the gas, revelling in the sound of our own exhaust and

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showering anyone behind us in all manner of trail debris.

All too soon, this heavenly firetrail comes to an end and we twist off the track into overgrown rainforest that’s dense with fog. We descend hills that make your ears pop, then tear up a firetrail to reach the ridgeline once again, and continue on in search of more glorious trails.

After numerous river crossings that range from ankle- to waist-deep, the snotty, rutted, greasy track hidden beneath the jungle canopy gives way to open, dry rolling hills and a section of private grasstrack prepared especially for this ride.

The transport sections are infrequent and minimal, meaning the greater majority of the riding is as it should be: in the bush.

THE SHADOW OF DEATH Midday sees us snaking down to camp from the opposite side of the Myall River, where we encounter one of the gnarliest downhills of the weekend. It’s almost like a Hogan’s

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“We file through the gate in a rush to get onto this hallowed turf, tearing into the loamy black soil like a mob of wailing banshees in an orgy of roost-filled madness.” in reverse, featuring numerous rock drop-offs and gullies that run the full length of the descent. A couple of the less adventurous riders opt out and ride the chicken run to the base. Not wanting to shame myself, I commit to following this madman into the valley of the shadow of death. There’s no getting used to this one slowly; it’s ridiculously steep from the get-go and there is a distinct lack of contour banks with which to temper your speed. And by a quarter of the way down, it becomes an outright challenge just to keep your bike from skittering down the hill without you. The plethora of sub-standard line choices

makes it difficult to get a picture of where you’re truly heading. There is only one certainty – if you get out of control here, it’s going to get ugly, fast. To a Toby Price or a Josh Green, this would be child’s play. But for us, a group of B- and C-grade punters who ride when we can (but nowhere nearly enough), it’s hard work. Front wheels are tucking, rear-ends are sliding and feet are dabbing the ground everywhere. By the bottom of the hill, grown men are unable to stand – the muscles in their thighs resembling food at an old folks’ home. I’m pretty sure I see a bloke weeping softly behind his goggles.

My heart is racing, my wrists hurt,

my legs are a mess. And we still have to make it back to camp.

MAGIC AFTERGLOW After a short regroup and a pep talk from Alan, we saddle up and plough on, not really knowing where we are or how far to go. Then, with little warning, we plunge out of the scrub, just 500 metres from camp where a sumptuous feast of sandwiches, salads and sweets await us. The food on this ride is amazing and reminiscent of topnotch commercial trail tours. Alan has spared no expense to make sure we’re looked after as we gorge ourselves on a spread of only the best fresh fruit and salad, an abundance of cold meats, breads, soft drinks and plenty of water, and magnesium tablets to combat cramps.

One of the boys asks, “So when are you opening up for business, Al?” “Not really sure,” Al says. “But you never know what’s just around the corner.” I’m hoping Alan decides to run this type of ride more often and

TRAILRIDE MYALL RIVER

opens it up to paying customers. It’s just too good to keep hidden away.

After our lunch break, we’re struck with a conundrum of sorts. Alan offers us a number of possible trail options, all doable in the time we have left, so we argue among ourselves in a bid for consensus. With no agreement reached after a few minutes, Alan offers an alternative: “There’s a paddock over here my father has recently harvested. It’s full of black river soil and stubble. Do you want to check it out? It might be a good spot for a bit of grasstrack action.”

It sure sounds like more fun than battling some snotty hillclimb or leech-filled river crossing. Naturally we’re all excited and agree to check it out. And as we climb up from the river crossing and into the paddock, my dirt biking life immediately flashes before my eyes. I seem to lose my sense of hearing and my eyes dry out as I forget to blink. Here, sitting before us is a 60-acre black soil paddock covered in stubble, with a four-metre-wide track mown through the centre. It snakes from

a 30-metre wide start around the paddock for two kilometres of grippy, motocross-tyre-loving natural terrain track. I fumble my words, unsure of what to say. Alan sits on his bike with a look of satisfaction across his face. “It’s never been ridden, fellas,” he says nonchalantly. “I needed some help to build the corners up. How about it?”

Our group files through the gate in a rush to get onto this hallowed turf.

They tear into the loamy black soil like a mob of wailing banshees in an orgy of roost-filled madness.

Our weekend has been filled with some of the most glorious trailriding this area has to offer. Which is why it’s with a tinge of sadness that we load up our bikes and gear and get ready for the trip home. Alan has served us up the perfect mix of challenging trails and fun, fast riding.

So, here’s hoping that he decides to cement his status as a genuine tour operator in the area because this guy sure has the knowledge and ability to make sure you’ll have one of the best rides of your life.

I N V I TAT I ON - ON LY

T

his ride is a biannual event attended by a select group of riders. At this time, it’s by invitation only, but the hope is it will become an organised trail tour operation in the not-too-distant future.

The Myall River Valley boasts some of the most picturesque countryside around the Gloucester area as you travel southeast away from the Barrington

Tops. Fertile farming land, undulating to steep hillsides and grasscovered valley floors are everywhere. The crystal clear rivers and out-of-theway feeling only adds to the mystique of the area.

And while it’s within about 90 minutes’ drive of Newcastle, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s much more remote.

In an area that sustains

a large dairy industry, history abounds – from old homesteads and dairy sheds with picturesque backdrops, to the many small rivers that crisscross the countryside. It’s typically wet riding as the rainfall is high, but on the odd occasion you may strike dust, particularly on ridgelines. For the most part though, it’s a dirt bike rider’s Valhalla.

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How To IN THE SERIES…

JUL-AUG DEEP RUTS ISSUE 51

with Kade Mosig

How to:

RIDING SAND

SEP-OCT FLAT TURNS ISSUE 52

Two-time Enduro World Champion, Matt Phillips, breaks down and explains the key techniques needed to ride sandy terrain with speed and confidence.

with Josh Green

NOV-DEC ENDURO RACING ISSUE 53

with Chris Hollis

MAR-APR

ISSUE 55

RIDING ON SAND

with Matt Phillips

Just like skiing or snowboarding in powder snow, riding a dirt bike in sand appears effortless from the outside.

But after most riders’ first foray into sand, they soon realise that soft terrain requires a completely different skill set on a dirt bike. As Matt Phillips explains in this feature, you need to change your entire approach, set yourself up for turns and obstacles much earlier, and make maintaining momentum your primary focus.

Transmoto Expert

MATT PHILLIPS With a background in motocross and extreme off-road riding, the 16-year-old Matt Phillips first burst onto the national off-road scene in 2010 and began challenging the sport’s front-runners within 12 months.

A year later, the Tassie youngster had done the same at the international level, turning heads at the 2011 ISDE. And by 2013, he’d won the Junior Enduro World Championship with Husqvarna. Matt backed that up the following year with an E3-class title aboard KTM’s 300, and for 2016 he joins the CH Sherco team in a bid for an E2 title. All of which demonstrates how this guy’s talent shines through on all sorts of bikes and terrain. But if there’s one surface this 22-year-old looks like he was born to rip into, it’s sand. So listen up to MP’s pearls of wisdom about riding the soft, white stuff.

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MATT PHILLIPS & ANDY WIGAN

rom the outside, riding sand appears graceful and effortless; like floating over a fluffy white cloud of super-forgiving blond dirt, right? Wrong! Bear witness to any first-time rider on sand, and you’ll soon realise that making a dirt bike go where you want it to go on sandy terrain requires not only a specific repertoire of skills, but also a completely different approach to line selection, body weight and the use of your throttle and brakes.

So, how do you learn to adapt to your bike squirming around underneath you? What changes do you need to make to your riding technique and

LEE POPOWSKI IMAGES

forward vision to build your confidence in sandy conditions? And how insanely good does it feel once you learn to tear the bag out of a sandy track?

To answer these questions, we enlisted Tasmanian tearaway Matt Phillips, who at just 24 years of age has already firmly established himself as one of the best sand riders in the world. When Matty returned to Oz for Christmas, we hooked up with him on some of his favourite stretches of Tasmanian sand and asked the two-time world enduro champ to cough up everything he knows about the enviable art of riding silica.

Take it away, Matthew...

PRODUCT COMPARO

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Riding Sand How to:

Mental Approach In sand, your bike feels very different than it does on hardpack. The most obvious difference is that it’ll squirm around underneath you, and that does take some time to get accustomed to.

You need to be mindful that the way you brake and weight your footpegs in sand is also a lot different. The most important thing to get your head around when riding sand, though, is that it’s all about preparation and changing your mindset. Whether you’re confronted with a corner, straight or set of sandy whoops, you need to look even further ahead than normal and get yourself set up another one or two steps in advance.

To get sand right, it requires a somewhat premeditated approach.

It’s all about remaining fluid and retaining your momentum.

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ENTRY & SET-UP

Braking & Set-Up Allowing for the fact that the sand itself acts as a brake, it’s important to get your braking done a little earlier so you don’t have to adjust anything once you’re into the corner. Ideally, you only want to brake once and turn once for a sandy corner. I’ll be standing up with my weight a little further back on the bike than it would be for harder terrain, too. If you don’t brake early enough and come into a sandy corner too fast, all the weight will push forward and it’ll want to stand the bike up. You’ll end up taking a series of bites to get around the corner, which means you run the risk of dropping or dragging your inside leg. And that’ll affect your flow and momentum through the rest of the turn, or lead to a crash.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, you can still use plenty of both front

and rear brake in sand, but any hard front brake application needs to be made with the bike upright. As you start to tip the bike in, however, you use a fair bit less front brake. And rather than aggressively chopping the throttle in preparation for braking, I like to roll off the gas more progressively in sand. Otherwise, all the weight will rapidly transfer to the front wheel, and that’s when most guys get themselves into trouble.

You want to be slow enough coming into the turn that you can sit reasonably early, get on the gas early, and power your way right through the corner.

The first part of the corner may feel a little slow, but if you’ve got the bike’s weight low and settled and balanced, you can then use the throttle to power progressively through the entire turn.

Plus when you’re on the gas, it’s easier

to control your line and the lean angle of the bike.

Sitting vs Standing If there are big braking bumps coming into a turn, you’ll obviously need to stand while braking and use your limbs as extra suspension. But I see a lot of guys standing too much in sand when they’d be better off sitting. It’s often because they come into a sandy turn too hot and end up standing far too long as a defense against the bike getting out of control. That in itself tells me that they needed to come in slower to set up better for the turn.

And once they do move to the seated position, I also see a lot of guys sit too far back on the seat. If you’ve set up properly for the turn, you can sit up forward in the pocket of the seat, just as you would in hardpack terrain.

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Riding Sand How to:

MID-TURN

Body Position In sand, you always want to be in a strong position on the bike because soft berms will generally give you good traction and help the bike boost out of the turn pretty quickly. So if you’re not forward on the seat, you’ll get left behind. Also, it is important to make sure that your inside leg remains close to the fork leg. First, this means your knees can still squeeze the bike reasonably hard.

Plus it’ll stop your boot from getting caught on the ground and pulled behind you, which will totally mess your turn up. Keeping your toe pointed and knee slightly bent will also prevent your boots getting snagged.

It’s also important that your upper

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body remains central on the bike during the entry and mid-turn; so you can lean forward or back on the seat through the corner to keep the chassis balanced. And you need to lean with the bike to some extent, rather than weighting the outside peg as you would in hardpack to get the tyres to bite.

Line Selection Unlike motocross, where riders will often look to protect the inside line to defend against being passed, trail and enduro is all about finding the best and fastest overall flow and momentum.

If there are big bumps on the exit that you think will upset the bike’s drive, you can take a slightly narrower line in the mid-turn and then exit a little

diagonally to effectively elongate the bumps. But in a majority of instances, the fastest way around a sandy corner is by keeping your arc as wide as possible, which means following the berm all the way around the outside at maximum speed. Even though there may be a much shorter inside line, bear in mind that it’s likely to form a deep rut in sandy conditions, which can make it awkward, and slow, to get into and out of efficiently.

In any case, you can’t change direction mid-turn in sand without washing off speed. And that’s why it’s critical to choose your line early. If in doubt, go with the line that gives you a smooth arc all the way to the exit, which means looking further ahead than you would

on hardpack. Looking ahead also stops you from getting transfixed on the wheeltracks that tend to crisscross most sandy corners. If you keep your eyes up and use the throttle properly, you’ll make your own tracks.

Controls You’ve heard the adage that the throttle is your friend in the sand.

But it’s a misconception that you need to pin the thing all the time. So long as the power is being delivered to the rear wheel, the bike will maintain momentum and a good front-to-rear chassis balance in sand. Because the rear wheel will get up on top of the sand and drive better when the engine’s in the meaty part of the rev

range, I use the tallest gear possible without having to resort to excessive clutch (though you’ll see in all the shots here that I’ve got a finger constantly poised on the clutch lever in case the engine starts to bog). If you shift down an extra gear and then rev the bike too hard in the soft stuff, it tends to dig trenches and go nowhere. Remember also that you want to be accelerating seamlessly the whole way through the corner. And the best way to do that is without gear-shifts. If the engine is already screaming before the corner exit, you’ll lose drive over the big acceleration bumps that tend to form in sand as you drive off the corner.

Flowing vs Squaring As mentioned above, the fastest way through a sandy corner is usually

by flowing around the outside line – which, when you think about it, means you’re placing a lot of faith in that 30cm-high berm holding up. So to minimise the risk of your front wheel blowing through it, you need to focus on placing your wheels at the base of the berm, where its firmer, rather than up in the fluffy sand of the berm itself.

Also, because you’re rarely going to get a perfectly formed semi-circle rut or berm through a sandy corner, scan ahead for sections of the berm that have been blown out. Try to get your turning done beforehand so the front-end is nice and light as you pass that section, and then pick up the berm again where it’s a better shape. If you don’t do this, you’ll get sucked into the berm’s ‘hook’ and lose all your speed.

Again, it’s all about making the turn

one smooth, flowing arc.

In some instances, however, it’s just not possible to find that ideal flowing arc through a sandy corner. Trailriding and enduro always throws unexpected curveballs at you, meaning there can be rocks or roots or square-edged bumps on the ideal line. Even though you know changing lines will rob you of speed, you’ve got no option when confronted by these sorts of obstacles that threaten to eject you off the bike.

So how do you square off the corner without losing too much momentum or increasing the risk of a crash? Well, it comes back to technique. You need to ensure your body position is nice and central on the bike and that you’ve got a finger on the clutch to make sure the engine doesn’t bog. In both shots on this spread – one where I’m flowing

around the corner and one where I’ve started to push the front wheel to square the turn off – notice how similar my body position is.

To square off a corner, I’ll come in a little hotter than I normally would and brake harder. Then, by getting off the brakes suddenly, it gives me a small window when the bike is settled and the front-end slightly unloaded. And that’s the window in which I’ll get the bike turned quickly – ideally using a small bump or firmer section of berm to initiate this turn. The coordination between the bike’s lean angle and your throttle and clutch use is critical to getting this technique right and not washing off all your speed by burying the bike in the berm. It also requires you to be 100 percent committed.

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How to:

Controls

CORNER EXITS

Tech

Riding Sand

As you can see from the shot below, I’ve kept my finger poised on the clutch lever for the entire corner, the exit included. And I’ve kept my inside leg well forward and close to the fork leg to make sure I stay forward in the saddle and keep the front-end on the deck as I get heaps of drive off the corner. Because the rear wheel is getting plenty of traction and is unlikely to step out unpredictably at this point, I can afford to keep the bike leant over as I feed on more power.

I’ve done this to ensure I stick to a narrower line on the exit and miss the large acceleration bumps further

out. There should be no need to give it a handful of throttle at this stage.

If you’ve performed the turn properly by getting on the gas early and progressively feeding it on through the corner, you should already be at or near full throttle.

Forward Vision In sandy conditions, it’s harder to identify where the corner’s ‘exit’ starts because you’ll be on the gas from the second you’ve settled the bike into the turn. In sand, the exit is the part of the track that you’ve lined up much earlier in turn. It’s where you plan to stand the bike up, get the bike

pointed where you want it to go and set yourself up for the next section of track and/or the next turn. Because acceleration bumps form faster and are generally bigger in sandy terrain, getting your exit strategy right is more important than ever because all the speed that you’ve maintained around the entire turn could be lost in a second if you slam a series of big holes on the exit at the wrong angle.

That’s why it’s key to get both feet back onto the pegs as early as possible; so you can stand up to absorb the bumps and keep the bike tracking straight and driving, and to shift up a gear when necessary. To save energy, I’ll often

use the first bump to help me get to my feet, so I’m ready to drive the rear wheel into the next hit. Standing also forces me to extend my vision from about 10 metres in front of me to 50 metres down the next straight. When you lift your head to look further down the track, you’ll find that the bike follows suit by standing itself up. Your head and bike always follow where your eyes are looking – so if you look at a big hole too long, you’ll end up slamming into it nine out of 10 times. They call it ‘object fixation’, I believe. More than any other type of terrain, you need to remain fluid and use your imagination with line selection in sand.

COMMON MISTAKES IN SAND According the Matt Phillips, riders tend to make a few common mistakes in sand.

Luckily, if you heed Matt’s advice in this How-to article, they’re easy to eradicate: ● Lack of preparation.

Riders don’t prepare because they don’t realise they need to take an entirely different approach to riding sand. ● Not looking far enough ahead. If your vision is just in front of the bike, everything comes at you at a million miles an hour; and your upper body tends to be hunched over, which makes it harder to control the bike. When you look further ahead, things start coming at you really slowly, meaning you’ve got time to set up and prepare for them.

Lifting your vision also helps roll your shoulders back, which puts the weight on the rear, where it needs to be in sand. ● Not riding in a tall enough gear.

People think they ought to go down an extra gear for a sandy corner to make sure the engine doesn’t bog. But this usually results in the rear wheel digging trenches, or mid-corner gear-shifts that interrupt your flow. ● Erratic movements. Entering corners too quickly, trying to turn too sharply or being too aggressive on the brakes create a greater risk of losing that allimportant momentum in sand. ● Changing their bike set-up. For really sandy motocross tracks or desert racing with big whoops, I’ll run more rear-end sag and drop the fork legs through the triple clamps to give me an added safety margin when I’m pushing to the limit all the time.

But for sandy trail or enduro, I run my standard set-up. Once you’re riding sand properly – and by that, I mean not rushing into turns and transferring all the weight forward – using the chassis balance you’re used to with your bike is much better.

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STORIES OUR SPORT IS BUILT ON

RIPPING YARN The 1992 MX des Nations in WA, where two enterprising Aussie ‘journos’ jagged a show-stopping photo of Jeff Emig – an image that remains the multiple AMA champ’s all-time favourite.

SCOTT RUNCIMAN

M

y mate Terry Baker is a colourful character. And I’m not just referring to TB’s wall-to wall tatts, no-f@#ks-given attitude, or ability to make each and every day an adventure. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”, and that right there pretty much sums up TB. Anyway, TB arrived at the 1992 MXdN in Manjimup, WA, fresh from the ISDE in Cessnock. Armed with his trusty happysnap camera, TB had attended Cessnock as an aspiring sports photographer. He didn’t shoot for any commercial benefit, but simply as a true moto fan. He’d cart his rolls of film to the local chemist to have them developed, and then chase down the pictured riders to sign the prints; keepsakes for his personal collection.

After his Cessnock experience, TB hatched a cunning plan for the upcoming Motocross des Nations – as it was called back then – at Manjimup. “We hit the biggest race ever on Aussie soil,” he says to me, eyes ablaze. “We get the ultimate up-close access, take photos, get ’em signed, generally kill it on all fronts and come out smiling!” I liked the sounds of that.

TB had business cards made up, boldly emblazoned with “Sports Photographer”, while my angle was to masquerade as a sports journalist from the Geelong Advertiser. And, boom, we were on our way. With cards, a camera and a ‘can do’ attitude, we literally slid into the event on the Friday morning, tyres smoking in our hire car. We headed straight to the Media tent, where we were asked for our passes.

Of course, we hadn’t sorted our media accreditation, and they hadn’t heard of

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TERRY BAKER

either of us. But, having anticipated this hurdle, TB quietly passed over his business card and suggested that organisers “call the office” to substantiate our stories.

The ‘office’ was Terry’s home, where he’d got his girlfriend at the time to play receptionist for the weekend, dutifully answering every incoming call with, “Good morning. You have called the Geelong Advertiser. How may I help you?” She went on to explain to organisers how Terry and Scott were commissioned to write a huge article on the event for the paper and to please extend them every courtesy. And just like that, we were granted credentials – full pit and track access, and free food to boot. Hello, MX Heaven!

With Manjimup being a remote country town with limited weekend trading hours, we knew it’d be a real challenge to get our photos printed and then signed by all the riders, so our next stop was the local chemist. TB walked straight in, asked for the owner and launched into a convoluted story designed to convince the chemist to remain open all day Saturday and again on Sunday morning so he could print off our ‘proofs’. Again, we had a little bit less than no idea what we were talking about, but it seemed to be enough that weekend.

Somehow, the guy agreed.

Without a telephoto lens, TB’s camera wasn’t up to the task of getting the long-range action shots. So to capture the up-close images we were after, we developed an ingenious technique. TB would lie on the track in front of the oncoming racers. I’d grab him by his collar and belt and when the bikes were almost on us, I’d reef him off the track as soon as I saw his trigger finger move. Incredibly, the technique worked without incident –

until Kurt Nicoll came barrelling through on his Kato 500, blew straight through the berm and right over the top of TB without buttoning off one bit. TB wasn’t injured, so who were we to complain?

On Saturday arvo, during the businessend of timed qualifying, we were just running amok on the infield. Then, all of a sudden, America’s Jeff Emig came flying into the corner where we were standing, and with no time to check his camera’s exposure or focus, TB just spun around and started snapping. Pinned the entire way, Emig laid it in flat and hit that corner harder than any man, woman or beast has the right to do. We were both mesmerised, and TB turned to me, deadpan, and said, “I got it!”

After that session, we made a quick trip into town where the local chemist printed off our ‘proofs’. Sure enough, TB’s shot of Emig – admittedly slightly out of focus and a tad overexposed – was THE shot.

We returned to the track Sunday morning, and when we got to the Team USA setup, TB pulled out the images to get them signed (THE Emig shot, along with others of Mike LaRocco and Billy Liles). Emig was so stoked with the photo, he signed it on the spot and handed over his details, asking if we could send a copy to the States. Of course we could.

Who would have thought that, more than 20 years later, I’d be involved with Jeff Emig on multiple Shift and Fox projects as both work colleagues and mates. And we ‘closed the loop’ about TB’s now legendary Manjimup photo after our second or third meeting some years back now. It turns out that, to this day, Jeff says it remains his alltime favourite shot of himself.

T

RONNING

“Terry just spun around and started snapping as Emig laid it in flat and hit that corner harder than any man, woman or beast has the right to do!”

EMIG’S TAKE… his photo was shot during a Saturday practice session, and this one turn – out of the hundreds of thousands that I have taken in my life – is now part of motocross history. I first saw the photo on the Sunday at Manjimup, when two crazy Australians came up to me, presented me with the photo – one of the most insane photos I had even seen – and asked if I would sign a copy for them.

It sounded like a good deal, so I obliged. Team USA then went on to win the Motocross des Nations for the 12th year in a row. When I got home, I gave a copy to my father, Gary, who quickly had it blown up as big as possible to go in the race shop. Then a month or so later, it re-surfaced in Dirt Rider Magazine for

all the world to see.

“It’s hard to believe that, more than two decades later, we’re still talking about an amateur photo that was taken on a practice day

by Terry Baker and his sidekick, Scott Runciman. But to me, it was so cool that Terry – with Scott’s help – had the balls to lay on the track and put himself in danger to nail it. It’s a sure sign that these guys are hardcore moto fans.

“And I know exactly what you’re thinking – ‘Did Emig pull it off, or did he go down?’ Well, I’ll never tell, so I guess only Terry and Scott know the truth. Those two guys had the time of their lives that weekend at the MXdN, and they partied so hard after the race, it’s doubtful they’d remember.”

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PRIZED POSSESSIONS Daniel Sanders

KURT TEAGUE

LEE POPOWSKI IMAGES

D

aniel “Chucky” Sanders was one of the standout performers at this year’s International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Košice, Slovakia.

The 21-year-old from Three Bridges in Victoria topped the Enduro 3 class, finished fourth Outright and led the way for Team Australia to capture the FIM Junior World Trophy win – an impressive outcome for a young man who is only just starting to make a name for himself on the world stage. Since this year’s ISDE, the 2014 Australian Off-Road Championship’s Transmoto 19 & Under class winner has gone on to contest FIM Enduro World Championship rounds, and he’s still just getting warmed up.

This hotshot didn’t always have dirt bikes in his sights, though. Growing up, Chucky spent the majority of his time playing various ball sports and helping out his parents at his family’s beloved apple orchard. It wasn’t until he turned 13 that he started racing dirt bikes, and began to slowly forge a career out of it. With a bright future ahead of him, we decided to head down to Sanders’ place before his poolroom begins to overflow too much, and find out what he holds closest to his heart.

GRANDPA’S TRACTOR It’s a John Deere 1020 tractor that my grandfather purchased some time back in the 1950s for our family’s apple orchard in Three Bridges, Victoria. He worked hard to develop the farm into what it is now, so it’s nice to have something special like this tractor to remember him by. While my grandfather used the thing to build up the family business, we mostly use it these days for towing ourselves out of mud when we get bogged – yep, it still runs and it’s still useful.

ISDE JERSEY It was an honour and a privilege to represent Australia at the International Six Days Enduro in 2014 (Argentina) and 2015 (Slovakia). As an aspiring racer, I dreamed of competing overseas at a professional level. This year, rocking my green and gold jersey, I was able to lead my teammates – Tom Mason, Broc Grabham and Tye Simmonds; who were all ISDE debutants – to a win in the FIM Junior World Trophy division, and we all took home Gold medals for our efforts.

ISDE TROPHIES Heading into this year’s ISDE in Košice, I had no expectations.

Last year, I finished 21st Outright, and all I really wanted to try and do this year was finish within the top 15. Somehow, I won the Enduro 3 class and finished fourth Outright, which is something that I am incredibly proud of. Having my mum and dad overseas with me, and all of the Aussie riders and fans behind me, cheering me on, was enough to get me over the line. It’s a victory that I will treasure forever.

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