Dirt Rider 2009 Torture Test

Terrain Test
Next in the queue was either the Terrain Test or the Extreme Test where the off-road prowess would come into play at racing levels, both going fast and going technical. Karel Kramer was on point at the Terrain Test with ace testers Ryan Orr and Kris Keefer handling the DR riding duties. All of the riders were allowed a sighting lap if desired. The times hovered at around five minutes for the almost 1.5-mile lap, and each lap contained fast and slow sections, off-cambers, deep sand turns and a few roots and rocks. Learning the trail definitely helped, and our test guys were faster than 13 out of 20 riders on their own bikes because of this. Note that we say 20 bikes as one machine never made it past the Escargot Test due to electrical gremlins. Of the hero riders, young GNCC star Duvall threw down the fastest time on the Am-Pro/Tucker Rocky Yamaha WR450F, hammering so hard it had no brakes left for our lap. Yamaha techs bled and cooled the brakes, and Keefer slammed out a lap within a couple of seconds. Everybody was feeling good about off-road guys when Ryno rolled up. On his first attempt he got sideways, high-sided and tumbled through bushes. He picked himself up, restarted and topped Duvall by a second. With a second lap Ryno lowered the time nearly 12 seconds faster than Duvall's fast time. Keefer's fastest time was on the Dr.D CRF450X, and Orr was quickest on the Precision Concepts Kawasaki KX450F.

Extreme Test
Across the pond I'd set the trap of an Extreme Test, just ask host Hughes who finally could not card a low time on his home turf. All it takes is a turn where there was none before and disregarding instructions to walk the course before you rode it. The test had sand gullies, Erzberg-in-California rocks, tight turns, a series of ledges, a soft hillclimb with no run then right back down, an off-camber wall-ride above a pond and a cliff climb-out. The lighter the bike, the better it worked and the smoother the power, the easier it was to navigate the course. Stiff or motocross suspension had you paying for it.

The Honda CRF250X was easily a favorite here and set the second-fastest time on its first run. Then later it reset the fastest and second-fastest times; like we said, light weight, controllable power and plush suspension make a difference. Team Green's EnduroCross bike could have been the best, but someone forgot to jet it for the elevation. It had everything but smooth power because you couldn't ride it below a quarter throttle. On the other hand the Zip-Ty Husky had smooth power and made up for its stiff suspension and heavy weight surprisingly well. The Christini AWD bikes showed moments of front-wheel-pulling goodness while being held back by setup issues; clutch fade on the KX450F version and clutch engagement trouble on the Rekluse-equipped KTM XC version.

Topping it all off was the brilliant performance of the Am-Pro WR450 with a low time of 2:14 with some kid on it. It was smooth, had some riders thinking it was a WR250, and the suspension, even though a little stiff, worked just right. Yes, a Yamaha WR450 smoked the Extreme Test.

Sound Test
The cat-and-mouse adventure of the day had to go to Chris Real and his stationary sound test that was anything but. He was like a ranger, chasing down team bikes and pulling them aside for a very official 20-inch sound test. Most teams complied, but some were running scared. At least we caught most of them with a 50-foot pass-by at wide-open throttle during our radar run to calculate the bikes' sound vanishing distance to a 60 dBa sound level. Look at the numbers on page 53, they tell a story on how a better muffler will go a long way, 1600 to 2400 feet to be accurate, in keeping riding areas alive. Personally, I was disappointed in this disrespect for our sport. I gave an inch in not posting a sound limit for the test, and some people took a yard making bikes too loud for most riding. There were bikes here that passed and still ripped it up on the track and trail, so noise responsibility isn't a performance detractor.