Dirt Bike Magazine, April 2009

So Dirt Bike Magazine was my favourite back in the 60's and early 70's, when I was racing motocross and making pilgrimages to Saddleback Park and Carlsbad, and they had some crazy assed guy named "Super Hunky" writing for them and making me laugh my ass off. Haven't really read them since then.

This month they had a "dual sport" piece, which included the WR, so of course I decided I need to buy a copy for old times sake.

Interesting comparison of all the bikes in there. Also interesting to see how the dirt racer types view the world. I wasn't offended in any way, but it is rather amusing when you compare dual sport bikes and can only talk about how close to being race-competitive - in the dirt that is - they are. Nor discuss maintenance costs, maintenance schedule, etc - those are considerations for a few of us, even if how they ride on the tar isn't. Of course, it was interesting to hear that disconnecting the EXUP system causes a loss in power, and the only aftermarket pipe is from Dr D.

Yeah, kind of interesting... but I think I made the right choice for my kind of riding with the WR.

Anyways, it was kind of a fluff piece from a dual sport perspective, but if you need to see coverage of your WR in the bike magazines, this might scratch that itch. Or perhaps piss you off. Whatever.

I am a Dirt Bike subscriber and have been debating weather I should post that article here, begin a discussion on the topic, or just ignore the article all together.

Were they fair to the WR, no. Did they talk about things that real world riders want to know, like maintenance schedules etc? Not really.
As you can imagine, and Jäger acurately described, they were more concerned with wich bike was closest to race ready in stock form.
I know this article was written 2-3 months ago, but they are still way off when talking about the after-market. I have already written a letter, hope to see it in print, but I doubt it. If anyone wants to "see" the article, but doesn't have access to a news stand, PM me ;-)

boogn1sh wrote:

I am a Dirt Bike subscriber and have been debating weather I should post that article here, begin a discussion on the topic, or just ignore the article all together.

Ah, post it here... everybody loves a good fight.

I wasn't offended. The whole article just seemed irrelevant to me. However, given that most of their readers aren't particularly interested in street legal dual sports, perhaps the whole article was irrelevant to them as well!

I don't read any of the bike rags to speak of, so I don't know which one would be most relevant for a true dual sport review. Hell, many of us would say the monster "dual sport" adventure bikes aren't exactly dual sport either. What's the criteria? Can easily handle some basic single track, ride in the sand dunes, etc? Hell, I used to take my RD350 out and play flat track hero on forest service gravel roads... Why? Because I didn't own a Harley and didn't have a clue to where I could find a flat track. Does that make my RD350 a dual sport?

Totally irrelevant trivia that just came to my mind: how many here know that Malcolm Smith is a Canadian, born right here in British Columbia?

I gotta get out of here - the army awaits my attendance for the next three days of fun and games.

While we are kind of still on topic, what are some good bike magazines out there. I look at the book store whenever I'm there, but I never see anything worth picking up. Either sport bike rags or motocross. Looking at motocross is cool, but I could really care less . I would rather read about adventure riding and real world bikes and biking. Let me know what you guys think.

I'm with you on the adventure riding.

asheville thumper wrote:

While we are kind of still on topic, what are some good bike magazines out there. I look at the book store whenever I'm there, but I never see anything worth picking up. Either sport bike rags or motocross. Looking at motocross is cool, but I could really care less . I would rather read about adventure riding and real world bikes and biking. Let me know what you guys think.

I have found the magazine "Rider" to be quite entertaining. Lots of "adventure" type articles.

I've been reading Road Runner Motorcycle Touring and Travel. They cover mostly road travel, but at least once every issue or two they have a great adventure worthy story, like this one:

http://www.roadrunner.travel/gallery-6594.php

or this one (TAT coverage!):

http://www.roadrunner.travel/gallery-6456.php

I haven't subscribed yet, but likely will.

I'll admit to subscribing to Motorcyclist and liking it. They actually seem to like dual sports and supermoto bikes (and not just the Euro stuff). They do comparisons on bikes I actually care about like 'naked' bikes.

I always find it humorous that when someone is bad mouthing the WRX/R they never bring maintenance or total cost of ownership into it. After all, what could they say:
" Oh, and it's only got a 26,000 mi valve adjustment interval. I just can't abide by these maintenance hungry bikes."

malibu_dan wrote:

I've been reading Road Runner Motorcycle Touring and Travel. They cover mostly road travel, but at least once every issue or two they have a great adventure worthy story, like this one:

http://www.roadrunner.travel/gallery-6594.php

or this one (TAT coverage!):

http://www.roadrunner.travel/gallery-6456.php

I haven't subscribed yet, but likely will.

6 issues for $25.00? It had better be a good magazine.

I've seen that Road Runner mag at the bookstore. It has the real thick glossy paper which makes the pictures look great. It looks like a good mag, but kind of expensive.

gas_pig70 wrote:

I'll admit to subscribing to Motorcyclist and liking it. They actually seem to like dual sports and supermoto bikes (and not just the Euro stuff). They do comparisons on bikes I actually care about like 'naked' bikes.

I will agree, I was always into street before my WRX, I have always liked Motorcyclist, a well rounded magazine.

asheville thumper wrote:

What are some good bike magazines out there. Either sport bike rags or motocross. I would rather read about adventure riding. Let me know what you guys think.

I think none of the leading magazines have a clue what adventure riding is. I think very few staffers of these magazines have any interest in dual sports. Motorcyclist has finally graduated from being 600cc crotch rocket monthly to looking at the occasional dual sport again, as they did in the May 2009 issue with the KLR650 and BMW G650GS. Give them credit for actually putting the bikes on a scale, running them on the dyno, and doing the performance tests. Nice to have apples to apples numbers when we can get them.

Cycle World is horrible on dual sports. When they get a dual sport to test they give it to racer boy Ryan Dudek. He's probably a wonderful kid, but he has no clue whatsoever about why anyone would own a dual sport, so he does a one page fluff with no specs and you end up learning more about Dudek than about the motorcycle. They should be giving the dual sport assignments to Paul Dean, who actually owns a TE Husqvarna.

Dirt Bike is so worthless now I can't see how they stay in business. Their reviews are too short to be informative, they don't seem to have access to a scale or a dyno, and nobody there can write. With the possible exception of Ed Hertfelder, and occasionally Gorden Jennings, nobody was as funny as Super Hunky, alias Rick Siemen, whose writing can still be found at offroad.com.

Here's the road test I want to see. Cycle World or Motorcyclist full staff tour. Include as many dual sports as possible but be sure to include a KTM450 or 530, a TE610, the WRR, KLX250S, KLR650, XRL and DR650. Full dyno, scale, and drag strip testing. Start at the Los Angeles office and slab it out to Moab, ride the most challenging trails there, then route home over twisty pavement and high speed fire roads. Run any gearing or tires you want, but they have to remain unchanged for the whole test. In a perfect world I'd put matching Renazco seats on every bike to take seat comfort out of the equation, but I realize that would be a logistical nightmare.

Would a WRR not have an excellent chance of finishing first in that kind of comparison?

Trail Rider magazine is a regional mag but does a good job on testing DS bikes whenever they can get their hands on one. The editor did have a WR² for a few days last summer and wrote a report on it. The editor used to work at Dirt Rider back in the 70's when Super Hunky was there. They have always been good friends and Super Hunky writes columns for Trail Rider too. The Duct Tapes, aka, Ed Hertfelder, who claims to be the perpetual C rider, also writes a monthly column.

http://www.trailrider.com/

montesa_vr wrote:

Here's the road test I want to see. Cycle World or Motorcyclist full staff tour. Include as many dual sports as possible but be sure to include a KTM450 or 530, a TE610, the WRR, KLX250S, KLR650, XRL and DR650. Full dyno, scale, and drag strip testing. Start at the Los Angeles office and slab it out to Moab, ride the most challenging trails there, then route home over twisty pavement and high speed fire roads. Run any gearing or tires you want, but they have to remain unchanged for the whole test. In a perfect world I'd put matching Renazco seats on every bike to take seat comfort out of the equation, but I realize that would be a logistical nightmare.

Would a WRR not have an excellent chance of finishing first in that kind of comparison?

I like the way you think...I would lay down some money to read that review!!!

humm when did dirt rider come in the mail? i'm thinking my neighbours got my mail again. Justin, send me that article if you can or post it here.

I have recently subscribed to http://www.dualsportnews.com/ No Hard-copy in the mail but I'm perfectly fine with that.

Here is some german Motorradonline article (4 pages) available for everybody. Please use translation service in case.
They compare
- BMW F 800 GS
- BMW R 1200 GS
- KTM LC4 690 Enduro
- Yamaha WR250R
onroad and offroad at different situations. First place winner for city usage and for offroad usage as well (and fastest offroad) is WR250R.

Kinda hard to follow, but I liked that german comparison! Not that I am biased or anything