When the four-stroke CRF450R hit the tracks in early 2002, sales of the two-stroke CR250R plummeted. Most of the slump can be blamed on the four-stroke’s phenomenal motor, but we’d be remiss if we overlooked the less-than-stellar powerplant wedged between
Thor makes some of the most-attractive and highest-quality gear in the motorcycle industry today. This holds true with its new Core gear. The price tags of $145 for the pant and $50 for the jersey are a bit higher than
Although today’s modern bikes are getting closer to what we see our heroes racing, there are still many hidden things that are very simple to do to improve our new bikes. One of the easiest areas in which to get
You probably don’t think much about the “performance” of your gas can, but there is such a thing—and this is a high-performance gas can. Gas cans have not changed much over the years since plastic cans first became popular in
Redesigns are not necessarily a guarantee of success or even improvement. Messing with the original has often produced less-than-desirable results. Remember New Coke, the new T-Bird or On Any Sunday II? Sometimes it is best to leave a good thing
When it comes to hand guards, the basic design hasn’t changed much in the last few years: aluminum spine with plastic deflectors to shield the digits. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Motonation set out to simply introduce some refinements and
Anyone who is into motocross and PlayStation knows that the best motorcycle video game of all time was 989′s Supercross Circuit (excluding ATV Off-Road Fury 2 because it’s an ATV game, of course). Others have tried to develop some version
You can always count on factory parts fitting and working as they are supposed to, so the aftermarket must do things a little better to earn your business. There are several ways for aftermarket parts to succeed: They can perform
Half the allure of the Dirt Rider 24-Hour is riding the night loops, even when it’s cold. But this experience can quickly turn sour without a good lighting setup. And having a bike with a headlight is only part of
When Yamaha first shocked the world with its all-new and extremely innovative YZ400F and then a few years later with the YZ250F, many industry insiders were claiming this was the beginning of a slow and painful death for the two-stroke.
We didn’t expect much change for the 2004 125cc-class shootout-winning CRF250R (Jan ’04). The most we hoped for was more snap in the middle, to get it closer to the Yamaha YZ250F on tight courses, and the usual suspension fiddling.
If you are serious about your bike’s suspension performance, you should bleed the air out of each fork tube before every ride. Keeping the fork at zero pressure makes it move freely in the initial travel, and it is a
When our skid plate arrived from E-Line, it looked more like a curvaceous black sculpture than a dirt-bike part. We mounted ours on a KTM four-stroke, but the lightweight skid plates are available for a variety of makes and models.
In the race to make ever-lighter four-strokes, new production bikes are wearing some very exotic and expensive exhaust pipes. Add in new-age engines with headpipes that run at up to 900 degrees, and you have a recipe for a problem.
For those who ride in slow, technical conditions, there is nothing better for peace of mind than a bike with a coolant recovery tank (CRT). The design of a CRT isn’t that special; it is simply a catch tank attached
