1991
Americans had been making the trip to Europe for many years, but in 1991 French double world champion Jean-Michel Bayle came to the United States and added three American national championships to his rsum. In an odd turnabout, Americans Trampas Parker and Mike Healey went one-two in the world in the 250cc class. Stefan Everts won his first (125cc) World title, three Americans-Bobby Moore, Willie Surratt and Donny Schmit-finished in the top 10 in the 125cc World Championships. At the same time in the U.S., our current crop of national MX heroes were getting launched. Tim Ferry, Damon Huffman and Jeff Dement shone at Loretta Lynn's on big bikes. Robbie Reynard, Mike Metzger and Ricky Carmichael were champions on 80s, with RC dominating the younger 9-11 years classes. Jeremy McGrath won his first 125cc Western Region SX title. Honda put better suspension and a rear disc on the XR600R, and Scott Summers made the bike famous in GNCC and Hare Scrambles competition, and suddenly XRs were everywhere.
Tom Webb | 
Rich Taylor | 
Ricky Carmichael |
1992
In his January column, Charlie Morey launches his three-year plan for Team Stealth: a Dirt Rider-driven PR campaign for quieter dirt bikes. Morey's plan made Dirt Rider few friends in the aftermarket exhaust industry during those years, but the idea proved ahead of its time. Petersen Publishing had already killed SuperMotocross, and Fran Kuhn had come to the Dirt Rider staff to head up a Moto section inside the magazine. Late in the year he got a too-good-to-pass-up offer from AXO's Jim Hale to start Inside Motocross magazine. Ken Faught was hired from Cycle News to edit the Moto race section. In off-road action, the U.S. Junior Trophy Team won at the 1991 ISDE in Czechoslovakia (which was covered in 1992 issues due to timing)-the first American team victory at the ISDT or ISDE since 1973. The riders on the team were Steve Hatch, Chris Smith, David Rhodes and Jimmy Lewis. Even though Lewis worked for Dirt Bike at the time, we put him and his KX125 on his first DR cover later in the year. Kawasaki made its perimeter chassis lighter, more compact and better ergonomically. In spite of the improvements, Kawasaki's only national MX title for the year came in the 500cc class with the old conventional chassis! Honda also made major improvements to its machinery. Probably the most important to sales was the use of translucent glow-red plastic. For riders, though, the 1992 CRs had the most powerful front brake ever seen in production. It led the way for the super-powerful stoppers on modern bikes. Husqvarna also entered the 500cc World Championship chase with a full factory effort to race a four-stroke against two-strokes. The FIM had no four-stroke rules, so the Husky had to compete with just 500cc. It was the trickest bike on the track. The Husky and Husaberg GP efforts were opening eyes to the potential of four-strokes. For the 10th anniversary issue of DR, Larry Roeseler is rated off-road racer of the decade, and Jeff Ward motocrosser of the decade.