So it has to kill performance right? Well, in actuality, you can’t even feel a difference in normal trail-riding situations, and this was a big surprise. Even when holding the bike wide-open for some long runs on roads, it was hardly noticeable, and it withstood all the abuse we put it through. Although it weighs in at 2 pounds, you hardly feel it was there while riding the bike. It has the added benefit of making it really hard for water to enter the muffler. Some goop will accumulate on the Snorkel, but it wipes right off with degreaser.Right now, the dB Snorkel is only recommended for two-strokes. The manufacturer has not done enough testing on four-stroke bikes, whose exhaust is hotter (and louder-we really need it for these!) than a two-stroke’s. Hopefully the company will have a unit for them out soon. -Jimmy Lewis
www.thedbsnorkel.com800/694-0287Moto Knee Carbon
Carbon fiber. Ahhhh, just saying it brings forth images of aerodynamic top-secret super jets and factory-tuned race bikes. Well, the gurus at 661 have taken basic knee protection to the same supersonic level with their $100 Moto Knee Carbon guards. Starting outside, the hard, protective knee and shin plates represent their namesake well as they’re actually made from high-quality carbon fiber. Now, real carbon fiber has many benefits in a knee guard. It’s light, it’s super strong, and it actually makes knee cups look cool. Underneath the slick outer shell is abundant padding of thick open-cell foam, two massively wide and ultrastretchy Airprene straps and, most important to my riding pals, removable and washable liners. While I’m almost completely distracted by the carbon-fiber parts of the guards whenever I put them on, I have to admit it’s the way the pads stay put while riding and the washable liners that are really winning me over. Basically, I forget I’m wearing the 661 units when I ride. No rubbing, moving-around or fit issues ever arise. At 100 smackers, these are sure pricey, but not dealing with the smell of my old pads is worth it. -Jesse Ziegler
www.sixsixone.com888/52O-4888Acerbis
Plastic Kits
Acerbis offers Yamaha complete plastic kits in stock blue and other colors. The kit comes with fenders, shrouds and all three number panels-more than enough to make a tattered bike look new. Our YZ250F wasn’t rough, but I wanted it to look different, so I ordered the kit in white for $129.95 (www.yamahaoftroy.com lists the stock parts at $153.52). The Acerbis parts take more fussing to mount up than the stock pieces. No cutting was required, but I did open up some holes. Once on, the parts look like a factory fit, with no odd gaps or misalignments. With white and 1989-style shroud stickers, the bike confused more than a couple of people, and that was fun. The ’89 stickers don’t cover much of the plastic as modern graphics do, so the finish of the plastic took the wear, but all the plastic looks fine after more than six months of riding. No serious crash testing, but all the parts are still there. I liked having a different look, and thanks to Acerbis, I know I’ll do it again. Karel Kramer
www.Acerbis.comSee your dealerPC Racing
FLO X Air Filter System
Cleaning air filters is the dirty job we all hate to do. And if a company can make the terrible chore easier, we’re definitely buying. Well, PC Racing has been sort of a pioneer in this game with its ingenious Filterskins. Like a nylon bootie slipped over a standard air filter, Filterskins essentially give your air filter a tear off layer. Filterskins make between-moto filter changes a breeze, and they’ve become standard equipment on a lot of professional off-road races and trips to the sand dunes. Now, PC Racing has taken the Filterskin one step further with its new FLO X air filter. The FLO X filter kit consists of a solid, dual-stage standard air filter and a pair of coarse-foam Filterskins. Just like the nylon-type Filterskins, these heavier, coarser layers are oiled the same as your main filter and then slipped on in the airbox. With two skins and one filter, the kit really gives you three filter changes in one, all of which can be done without touching the wing nut on Japanese bikes (KTM owners will still have to move the spring bar, but hey, KTMs are easy to access anyway!). I tested these over a long moto weekend, and I’m very stoked on the way they work. I oiled all the components with my favorite bio-friendly products and installed a filter and skin in my KTM 250 SX-F Long Haul bike. I stashed the extra skin in a sealed bag and hit the track. The first day I tested these was an open practice day. When the day was done, I peeled off the Filterskin and was immediately ready to ride again. The next day was a race day. I ran a whole set of motos in the morning, peeled off the second Filterskin and ran my second set of motos with a seemingly brand-new filter even though it’d been in my bike for two days! It was incredibly easy. The FLO Filter’s Filterskins are also easy to store since they’re about a fifth of the size of a standard filter. Think about it: These take the same amount of time to clean and oil as a standard filter, but you get three filter changes out of them. The $24.95 setup has officially taken residence in my Long Haul test bike, and you can bet they’ll be on board whatever I ride on winter trips through Baja or during some of Jimmy’s infamous “half-day” rides. -Jesse Ziegler
www.pcracingusa.com951/698-4962Kenda
K772 Carlsbad Sticky Tires
I’ve been a big fan of Kenda’s tires for a while now. They offer decent performance and excellent durability at a fair price. The Carlsbads, or K772s, are my particular favorite since I mostly ride in dry and hard conditions. So when I saw the availability of a “sticky” version, I really wanted to see how they rated. I threw a $72.95 100/100-18 rear and a 80/100-21 front on our Long Haul Husaberg FE650e, with both directional tires mounted in the “hard” direction as I like the braking feel much better this way. The rear may have been a little small (Kenda’s sizing runs a little smaller than average and a big bike should use at least a 110/100 or 120/100, though I regularly run smaller tires for a different “bite” feel), but its hookup exceeded my expectations. The sticky compound, a softer rubber, got a notable grip and grab when the dirt went from loose to hard-packed, as good as any tire out there, leaning or in a turn. On all other surfaces-loose and sandy, loam or generic normal dirt-it was the typical, average Kenda Carlsbad that I get along with just fine; it does nothing spectacular and nothing funny, just like in its long-lasting regular compound. This rear, however, didn’t wear so well. The initial edge of the tire went quickly, in under two hours, or 40 miles, and then the knobs between the center row and the sidewall really took a beating and chunked heavily over the next 100 miles. And performance fell off, especially when accelerating on flowing, midspeed turns. My take on the sticky rear is that for a racer, the added grip advantage might be worth the loss in durability, but for trail riding, I’m sticking to the nonsticky compound out back.The $68 front tire was a different story. Right away, this tire lacked one of the only issues I have with the Carlsbad front, or most Kenda fronts for that matter: a wallowly feeling on hard, flat, straight riding. It doesn’t have that loose feeling; it is 100 percent normal. The rest of the time the tire finds good traction and gives the feel that I like from this tread pattern, if not just a little better grip the whole time. It really stood out under breaking-a notable improvement over what I remember of the standard Carlsbad. There was no noticeable increase in wear from the front. So I’m going to keep using this one. -Jimmy Lewis
www.kendausa.com614/866-98O3Fast By Ferracci
Husky TC250 Pipe And Ignition
There may not be a lot of Husky 250s out there, but I’m sure every owner would like to see a little more snap and performance from his or her TC. FBF has a kit, consisting of a full-exhaust system and a dual-map ignition to get even more pizzazz out of the Italian mill. The $399 ignition bolts on in minutes, but the same is not true of the $549 pipe, which took some intricate moves to get the dual header around the frame downtube and lined up on the flanges. Yes, it needed almost an hour! But once on, the pipe tested at 98 decibels, a bit louder than stock but still easily passing the AMA sound limit. Once on the track you know you’ve bolted on some pretty impressive gains. We tried each component individually, and the increase was moderate, but together they really woke up the TC everywhere, especially in the mid and top, where the bike was already impressive. The TC now easily makes KTM power or better in the upper Rs, and it will dominate on a long start straight. We were hoping for more snap; one of the ignition curves, easily switched via a handlebar-mounted switch, definitely gives it a little boost down there, but it wasn’t as much as we were hoping for and was definitely not in the league of the Japanese 250Fs. But I’m sure as soon as Eraldo Ferracci reads this he will be programming new maps to produce more bottom-end hit or have another combo in mind-the man knows how to tune. -Jimmy Lewis
www.fastbyferracci.com888/337-7222Tire Ball Development CompanyOff-Road Pro Version Tire Balls
I have been racing with Tire Balls for about a year, and all I really need to say is that they are awesome. No worries about getting a flat tire without the dead feeling of a foam insert-it’s a great thing. The balls cost $199.95 per wheel, which is about $50 more than a foam insert, but they do last longer. The company guarantees its balls for a full year and will replace any that pop for free! Installation is fairly involved; you have to lube each ball individually, with silicone-based lubricant, and getting the tire on the rim with 30 to 40 balls installed takes some work. But after a little practice and using the right tools, I can now install them in about half an hour per wheel; most of that time is used for lubing and inserting the balls into the tire carcass.When riding with the balls, there is a noticeable difference in feel from foam inserts and even standard inner tubes. I am pretty heavy (215 pounds), so I normally have to run fairly high tire pressure (14-17 psi) to keep from getting a flat in a race. Tire Balls can be set up to run as little as 8 psi of air pressure. I had my balls set up for a 10-psi feel. For me, the lower pressure was an instant improvement in traction, stability and suspension performance. No more bouncing through rocks, but it still had the reactive feel of having air in the tire. The lower pressure also allowed the tires to grab more when cornering, so I can turn harder and faster, especially on flat ground.I have used Tire Balls in both 18-inch and 19-inch rear wheels and have enjoyed the best performance from the 18-inch ones. I have never popped a ball in the 18, but I flattened some in the lower-profile 19-inch wheels. I had several go flat at one ISDE qualifier that was moderately rocky, and a friend of mine flattens a few in his 19-inch rear at every rocky event. My advice is to pair them with an 18-inch rear wheel. Although they’re fairly expensive and a little hard to install, they’re worth the investment to any serious racer, especially when compared to foam inserts. They are one of the best add-ons I’ve put on my race bike in a long time. In my opinion, they’re a zillion times better than tubes or foam inserts-I won’t race without them! -Derek Steahly
www.tireballs.com877/847-3225Sunline/ARC
Alloy Shifter
CaptionDamaging a shift lever on a modern bike can be a shock to the wallet. The knurling on the folding tip of the shift lever on DR’s 2006 YZ250F was looking smoother than stock, but that wasn’t the reason I went looking for a new shifter. Ever since I installed Fastway pegs for a roomier ride, the shift lever seemed to be a stretch, and that is with size 13 boots! I looked over the affordable selection of $29 shift levers from Sunline/ARC to see what could be done. It turned out that a shift lever for a ’02-’05 YZ450 was a touch shorter than a stock ’06 YZ250F shifter. The 450 shifter went on perfectly, was snug on the stock splined shaft and looked great with the gunmetal anodized color. The new lever makes shifting a much more positive experience. The ignition cover has an indentation to clear the shift lever, and the ’06 lever actually runs outside of the cover rather than in the notched area. The Sunline 450 shift lever fits the indentation perfectly, and it ended the hide-and-toe-seek we had been dealing with when needing a quick shift. Naturally, the Sunline unit made for the 250 fits and looks as nice as stock for those needing a stock replacement.We have a couple of months riding with the new lever, and it has never loosened up or grown floppy on the shift shaft. The anodizing is worn through in high-rub areas, and the knurling on the tip is wearing faster than the stocker did. Considering that a stock shifter was more than $70, though, I can live with the faster wear. If you don’t feel like looking through the selection and finding a shifter like I did, look at the Sunline/ARC Hammerhead shifter line. The Hammerhead comes with different tips to personalize the placement of the folding tip, and for $69.95, there are even more options than the shifter comes with. Sunline/ARC makes sure you’ll never be shiftless. -Karel Kramer
www.sunlineracing.com661/257-2756
www.crossupinc.com661/257-2711DB Snorkel
Dirt Rider has taken a strong stand on the noise issue, and we are always looking for better solutions. The dB Snorkel is just that: a fresh idea in quieting down two-strokes. It is simple, effective and retails at a very reasonable $85. The biggest drawback to the dB Snorkel could be its looks, but if it bugs you when you ride, the bigger problem is you looking at your muffler instead of the trail. Its conspicuous appearance is also a great way to kick off a conversation about sound issues. But we’ll dock it for fashion, on principal.The instructions are huge, like blueprints for a house, but they are easy to follow. Install time will range from 30 minutes to an hour. The trick is to get the snorkel’s hard parts to clear the brake caliper and attach securely to the muffler; this process was simple on our FMF Q. It fits on the end of most two-stroke mufflers with a circumference close to 971/48 inches and seals securely with a series of hose clamps and brackets.With the help of DR friend Charlie Williams and his KTM 300 EXC, which sounded in at 94 decibels with fresh silencer packing, we bolted up a dB Snorkel; his bike now tests at 82.3 decibels. On our KTM 200 EXC, we went from 92 decibels down to an astonishing 78 decibels. These bikes were so quiet that you do not actually hear the exhaust note any longer but rather the growl of the intake and the tinging inside the expansion chamber. Having a pipe shield damps the noise even further.
| Hard parts |
89 |
| installation | 17/20 |
| function | 48/50 |
| durability | 8/10 |
| design | 7/10 |
| price | 9/10 |
Carbon fiber. Ahhhh, just saying it brings forth images of aerodynamic top-secret super jets and factory-tuned race bikes. Well, the gurus at 661 have taken basic knee protection to the same supersonic level with their $100 Moto Knee Carbon guards. Starting outside, the hard, protective knee and shin plates represent their namesake well as they’re actually made from high-quality carbon fiber. Now, real carbon fiber has many benefits in a knee guard. It’s light, it’s super strong, and it actually makes knee cups look cool. Underneath the slick outer shell is abundant padding of thick open-cell foam, two massively wide and ultrastretchy Airprene straps and, most important to my riding pals, removable and washable liners. While I’m almost completely distracted by the carbon-fiber parts of the guards whenever I put them on, I have to admit it’s the way the pads stay put while riding and the washable liners that are really winning me over. Basically, I forget I’m wearing the 661 units when I ride. No rubbing, moving-around or fit issues ever arise. At 100 smackers, these are sure pricey, but not dealing with the smell of my old pads is worth it. -Jesse Ziegler
| GEAR | 91 |
| Style | 18/20 |
| Comfort | 9/10 |
| function | 48/50 |
| wash/care | 10/10 |
| price | 6/10 |
Plastic Kits
Acerbis offers Yamaha complete plastic kits in stock blue and other colors. The kit comes with fenders, shrouds and all three number panels-more than enough to make a tattered bike look new. Our YZ250F wasn’t rough, but I wanted it to look different, so I ordered the kit in white for $129.95 (www.yamahaoftroy.com lists the stock parts at $153.52). The Acerbis parts take more fussing to mount up than the stock pieces. No cutting was required, but I did open up some holes. Once on, the parts look like a factory fit, with no odd gaps or misalignments. With white and 1989-style shroud stickers, the bike confused more than a couple of people, and that was fun. The ’89 stickers don’t cover much of the plastic as modern graphics do, so the finish of the plastic took the wear, but all the plastic looks fine after more than six months of riding. No serious crash testing, but all the parts are still there. I liked having a different look, and thanks to Acerbis, I know I’ll do it again. Karel Kramer
| HARD PARTS |
89 |
| installation | 15/20 |
| function | 48/50 |
| durability | 9/10 |
| design | 8/10 |
| price | 9/10 |
FLO X Air Filter System
Cleaning air filters is the dirty job we all hate to do. And if a company can make the terrible chore easier, we’re definitely buying. Well, PC Racing has been sort of a pioneer in this game with its ingenious Filterskins. Like a nylon bootie slipped over a standard air filter, Filterskins essentially give your air filter a tear off layer. Filterskins make between-moto filter changes a breeze, and they’ve become standard equipment on a lot of professional off-road races and trips to the sand dunes. Now, PC Racing has taken the Filterskin one step further with its new FLO X air filter. The FLO X filter kit consists of a solid, dual-stage standard air filter and a pair of coarse-foam Filterskins. Just like the nylon-type Filterskins, these heavier, coarser layers are oiled the same as your main filter and then slipped on in the airbox. With two skins and one filter, the kit really gives you three filter changes in one, all of which can be done without touching the wing nut on Japanese bikes (KTM owners will still have to move the spring bar, but hey, KTMs are easy to access anyway!). I tested these over a long moto weekend, and I’m very stoked on the way they work. I oiled all the components with my favorite bio-friendly products and installed a filter and skin in my KTM 250 SX-F Long Haul bike. I stashed the extra skin in a sealed bag and hit the track. The first day I tested these was an open practice day. When the day was done, I peeled off the Filterskin and was immediately ready to ride again. The next day was a race day. I ran a whole set of motos in the morning, peeled off the second Filterskin and ran my second set of motos with a seemingly brand-new filter even though it’d been in my bike for two days! It was incredibly easy. The FLO Filter’s Filterskins are also easy to store since they’re about a fifth of the size of a standard filter. Think about it: These take the same amount of time to clean and oil as a standard filter, but you get three filter changes out of them. The $24.95 setup has officially taken residence in my Long Haul test bike, and you can bet they’ll be on board whatever I ride on winter trips through Baja or during some of Jimmy’s infamous “half-day” rides. -Jesse Ziegler
| HARD PARTS |
95 |
| installation | 20/20 |
| function | 49/50 |
| durability | 8/10 |
| design | 9/10 |
| price | 9/10 |
K772 Carlsbad Sticky Tires
I’ve been a big fan of Kenda’s tires for a while now. They offer decent performance and excellent durability at a fair price. The Carlsbads, or K772s, are my particular favorite since I mostly ride in dry and hard conditions. So when I saw the availability of a “sticky” version, I really wanted to see how they rated. I threw a $72.95 100/100-18 rear and a 80/100-21 front on our Long Haul Husaberg FE650e, with both directional tires mounted in the “hard” direction as I like the braking feel much better this way. The rear may have been a little small (Kenda’s sizing runs a little smaller than average and a big bike should use at least a 110/100 or 120/100, though I regularly run smaller tires for a different “bite” feel), but its hookup exceeded my expectations. The sticky compound, a softer rubber, got a notable grip and grab when the dirt went from loose to hard-packed, as good as any tire out there, leaning or in a turn. On all other surfaces-loose and sandy, loam or generic normal dirt-it was the typical, average Kenda Carlsbad that I get along with just fine; it does nothing spectacular and nothing funny, just like in its long-lasting regular compound. This rear, however, didn’t wear so well. The initial edge of the tire went quickly, in under two hours, or 40 miles, and then the knobs between the center row and the sidewall really took a beating and chunked heavily over the next 100 miles. And performance fell off, especially when accelerating on flowing, midspeed turns. My take on the sticky rear is that for a racer, the added grip advantage might be worth the loss in durability, but for trail riding, I’m sticking to the nonsticky compound out back.The $68 front tire was a different story. Right away, this tire lacked one of the only issues I have with the Carlsbad front, or most Kenda fronts for that matter: a wallowly feeling on hard, flat, straight riding. It doesn’t have that loose feeling; it is 100 percent normal. The rest of the time the tire finds good traction and gives the feel that I like from this tread pattern, if not just a little better grip the whole time. It really stood out under breaking-a notable improvement over what I remember of the standard Carlsbad. There was no noticeable increase in wear from the front. So I’m going to keep using this one. -Jimmy Lewis
| REAR TIRE | 78 |
| New performance | 27/30 |
| Used performance | 15/20 |
| durability | 10/20 |
| Mounting | 9/10 |
| price | 17/20 |
Husky TC250 Pipe And Ignition
There may not be a lot of Husky 250s out there, but I’m sure every owner would like to see a little more snap and performance from his or her TC. FBF has a kit, consisting of a full-exhaust system and a dual-map ignition to get even more pizzazz out of the Italian mill. The $399 ignition bolts on in minutes, but the same is not true of the $549 pipe, which took some intricate moves to get the dual header around the frame downtube and lined up on the flanges. Yes, it needed almost an hour! But once on, the pipe tested at 98 decibels, a bit louder than stock but still easily passing the AMA sound limit. Once on the track you know you’ve bolted on some pretty impressive gains. We tried each component individually, and the increase was moderate, but together they really woke up the TC everywhere, especially in the mid and top, where the bike was already impressive. The TC now easily makes KTM power or better in the upper Rs, and it will dominate on a long start straight. We were hoping for more snap; one of the ignition curves, easily switched via a handlebar-mounted switch, definitely gives it a little boost down there, but it wasn’t as much as we were hoping for and was definitely not in the league of the Japanese 250Fs. But I’m sure as soon as Eraldo Ferracci reads this he will be programming new maps to produce more bottom-end hit or have another combo in mind-the man knows how to tune. -Jimmy Lewis
| HARD PARTS | 85 |
| INSTALLATION | 15/20 |
| FUNCTION | 47/50 |
| DURABILITY | 8/10 |
| DESIGN | 8/10 |
| PRICE | 7/10 |
I have been racing with Tire Balls for about a year, and all I really need to say is that they are awesome. No worries about getting a flat tire without the dead feeling of a foam insert-it’s a great thing. The balls cost $199.95 per wheel, which is about $50 more than a foam insert, but they do last longer. The company guarantees its balls for a full year and will replace any that pop for free! Installation is fairly involved; you have to lube each ball individually, with silicone-based lubricant, and getting the tire on the rim with 30 to 40 balls installed takes some work. But after a little practice and using the right tools, I can now install them in about half an hour per wheel; most of that time is used for lubing and inserting the balls into the tire carcass.When riding with the balls, there is a noticeable difference in feel from foam inserts and even standard inner tubes. I am pretty heavy (215 pounds), so I normally have to run fairly high tire pressure (14-17 psi) to keep from getting a flat in a race. Tire Balls can be set up to run as little as 8 psi of air pressure. I had my balls set up for a 10-psi feel. For me, the lower pressure was an instant improvement in traction, stability and suspension performance. No more bouncing through rocks, but it still had the reactive feel of having air in the tire. The lower pressure also allowed the tires to grab more when cornering, so I can turn harder and faster, especially on flat ground.I have used Tire Balls in both 18-inch and 19-inch rear wheels and have enjoyed the best performance from the 18-inch ones. I have never popped a ball in the 18, but I flattened some in the lower-profile 19-inch wheels. I had several go flat at one ISDE qualifier that was moderately rocky, and a friend of mine flattens a few in his 19-inch rear at every rocky event. My advice is to pair them with an 18-inch rear wheel. Although they’re fairly expensive and a little hard to install, they’re worth the investment to any serious racer, especially when compared to foam inserts. They are one of the best add-ons I’ve put on my race bike in a long time. In my opinion, they’re a zillion times better than tubes or foam inserts-I won’t race without them! -Derek Steahly
| HARD PARTS | 87 |
| INSTALLATION | 15/20 |
| FUNCTION | 48/50 |
| DURABILITY | 8/10 |
| DESIGN | 9/10 |
| PRICE | 7/10 |
Alloy Shifter
CaptionDamaging a shift lever on a modern bike can be a shock to the wallet. The knurling on the folding tip of the shift lever on DR’s 2006 YZ250F was looking smoother than stock, but that wasn’t the reason I went looking for a new shifter. Ever since I installed Fastway pegs for a roomier ride, the shift lever seemed to be a stretch, and that is with size 13 boots! I looked over the affordable selection of $29 shift levers from Sunline/ARC to see what could be done. It turned out that a shift lever for a ’02-’05 YZ450 was a touch shorter than a stock ’06 YZ250F shifter. The 450 shifter went on perfectly, was snug on the stock splined shaft and looked great with the gunmetal anodized color. The new lever makes shifting a much more positive experience. The ignition cover has an indentation to clear the shift lever, and the ’06 lever actually runs outside of the cover rather than in the notched area. The Sunline 450 shift lever fits the indentation perfectly, and it ended the hide-and-toe-seek we had been dealing with when needing a quick shift. Naturally, the Sunline unit made for the 250 fits and looks as nice as stock for those needing a stock replacement.We have a couple of months riding with the new lever, and it has never loosened up or grown floppy on the shift shaft. The anodizing is worn through in high-rub areas, and the knurling on the tip is wearing faster than the stocker did. Considering that a stock shifter was more than $70, though, I can live with the faster wear. If you don’t feel like looking through the selection and finding a shifter like I did, look at the Sunline/ARC Hammerhead shifter line. The Hammerhead comes with different tips to personalize the placement of the folding tip, and for $69.95, there are even more options than the shifter comes with. Sunline/ARC makes sure you’ll never be shiftless. -Karel Kramer
| HARD PARTS | 91 |
| INSTALLATION | 19/20 |
| FUNCTION | 47/50 |
| DURABILITY | 7/10 |
| DESIGN | 9/10 |
| PRICE | 9/10 |
Crossup Inc.
Launch Pad Bike Lift
The Launch Pad looks like a heavy-duty, larger-than-average bike stand, but inside is an internal scissors mechanism (with Delrin bushings at all pivot points) and a hydraulic unit that extends the stand from 15.5 inches to 36 inches. The pump pedal is a wide “U” supported on both ends that stays out of the way so you can lift a bike from either side of the stand. Instead of screws or turnbuckles, the Launch Pad uses strong springs that hook into the footpegs to hold the bike in place. When the stand is bottomed out, the springs have no tension, and they are easily rotated up and hooked in the footpeg. As the stand is raised, the springs increase their tension to hold the bike firmly on the 0.5-inch-thick rubber top.The high-quality hydraulic unit has through axles and bearings at both ends. There is no need to lock the stand in position. It takes only a few pumps to fully raise the stand, and it stays wherever you stop automatically. To lower it slowly and smoothly, lift the pump pedal with a toe. Since the top is solid, it isn’t great for oil changes, but is a true back-saver and super convenient for other routine maintenance jobs. When you pull the entire front end off a bike, the springs pulling on the pegs make it want to tip back a bit. Crossup has a turnbuckle in the works that will hold the frame to the front of the stand in such cases. Even a cursory look over the unit will reveal a finely crafted and well-engineered tool. The chassis is almost a monocoque construction that is strong without being as heavy as if it were welded up from angles or tubes. All of the parts are replaceable. At $499 (in graphite, $549 for team colors), the stand is pricey, but not out of line for a quality piece. This stand is lighter than other lift stands, but still hefty, so a wheel set is available. The $49.95 wheels let you extend the stand and roll it like a hand truck. I’ve found the stand to be so helpful that I’ve managed to find room in my mini truck to take it to the track with me for serious test sessions. Your garage is officially no longer trick unless you have one (or more) of these babies. -Karel Kramer
| Tools | 90 |
| Function | 48/50 |
| portability | 7/10 |
| durability | 18/20 |
| design | 10/10 |
| Price | 7/10 |
Dirt Rider has taken a strong stand on the noise issue, and we are always looking for better solutions. The dB Snorkel is just that: a fresh idea in quieting down two-strokes. It is simple, effective and retails at a very reasonable $85. The biggest drawback to the dB Snorkel could be its looks, but if it bugs you when you ride, the bigger problem is you looking at your muffler instead of the trail. Its conspicuous appearance is also a great way to kick off a conversation about sound issues. But we’ll dock it for fashion, on principal.The instructions are huge, like blueprints for a house, but they are easy to follow. Install time will range from 30 minutes to an hour. The trick is to get the snorkel’s hard parts to clear the brake caliper and attach securely to the muffler; this process was simple on our FMF Q. It fits on the end of most two-stroke mufflers with a circumference close to 971/48 inches and seals securely with a series of hose clamps and brackets.With the help of DR friend Charlie Williams and his KTM 300 EXC, which sounded in at 94 decibels with fresh silencer packing, we bolted up a dB Snorkel; his bike now tests at 82.3 decibels. On our KTM 200 EXC, we went from 92 decibels down to an astonishing 78 decibels. These bikes were so quiet that you do not actually hear the exhaust note any longer but rather the growl of the intake and the tinging inside the expansion chamber. Having a pipe shield damps the noise even further.
