Blogs

Why I am a Traitor.

Well it has been done and I hang my head in shame, I have turned blue. Why did you do this criminal act the masses of orange people asked as they made threatening gestures that questioned my manhood and my life. How could you go from the mighty Katoomb 520 and all it

By 9.30am 11 riders had assembled eager to go, especially Bob wanting his FIRST ride on the new 05 525, just a slight step up from the XR4.

Another first for AMTRA this ride as the ride leader Tom is an L plater! He also was keen to ride again after a month off while waiting for KTM to do the right thing & replace the cracked crank. To their credit, they provided the crank complete with conrod, big end, mains & gaskets even though it was well out of warranty. We completed the big reassembly job the previous arvo.

We did a loop on our property, introducing Bob

January 2002 saw me get back into riding the trails again. I guess it happens when your son gets old enough to ride and you have something of a mid-life crisis at 40. So I decided to get back into it in a big way. At 199cms (6ft6ins) and well and truly a centurion (100kgs plus) the bike needed to be big. So it was the XR 650 for me, mostly based on the Honda track record and bullet proof reliability. Once it was derestricted and a new exhaust tip installed it went really well, actually too well as the standard gearing is good for something like 180 clicks and the last time I looked there's not too many trails where that sort of speed is much use. After investing in all the new gear necessary to look the part I proceeded to learn how to ride again after about a 10 year layoff. joining up with AMTRA was a good start and a few camping trips started to get me into it again.

Its very early Sunday morning its dark and its cold and I am waiting for Mr Eardley to arrive so I can load my bike into the sponsors ute (Smith Brothers) and hit the black track to Pt Victoria for some fun in the sand. Unusually for me I have done nothing to the bike except dump the old engine oil since the last ride, not even washed it!! I

Jumping from the yellow to the blue team

After owning a DRZ400 for about 2 1/2 years I recently decided to take the plunge and upgrade to a new bike.

I decided I wanted something with a bit more off road capability, albeit a little more costly on the maintenance side. It had to be a great trail bike and I wasn't worried about the racing side of things. Basically there were two choices for me. Orange or Blue.

Yes there are others out there but at this point in time they were ruled out because when it comes time to upgrade again, they are worthless.

As one dealer said to me, "he would not trade in a lot of the new European bikes because he knows he will never sell them".

I am getting older, no doubt about it really. When you hit 50, it is impossible to disguise the fact. The Yamaha induced nose needed surgery recently, the KTM collar bone fractured easily when the Honda dumped me, the Suzuki haematoma on the leg aches a bit, and the Honda thumb forewarns of weather changes.

I started my dirt bike riding on a Yamahe DT360 in 1974. It was a prick of a thing really, but it was fast in straight line. I defected to a Montesa 250 (still have it in the shed in bits) and then back to Jap bikes that were cheap and reliable. A string of bikes including a lovely KS125 Kawasaki, and a couple of PE175 Suzukis. Tough and reliable bikes, but also heavy and under powered. It was then that I decided to start enduro racing. I needed power and suspension. I needed a KTM! At the age of 34 I bought a KTM 300. it was really a 270 cc 2 stroke, but it had long legs and a front disc. Much better. When I turned 35 I really wanted to win the Veterans class at our local enduro series ( green triangle enduro series: see gtenduro.com.au) so I updated to a 89 KTM250, with a power valve and 2 discs and I got fit. A series of second and third places and one flukey win , saw me earn one of those large ugly trophies for my shed.