Acerbis, Rinse Kit, Alpinestars, Shift, FMF | Fresh Dirt

A number plate is a number plate, right? Yes and no. Yeah it is a place to put your number 14 so everyone knows that you are Windham fan, but it is also like the face of your bike. And like a face, it can intimidate other riders and make them flea at the site of you. Well, we might be exaggerating but this new Raptor front number plate has some pretty cool, aggressive styling. Also, it is useful since it has rubberized upper fork protectors that are nice and soft on your fork tubes but tough on roost.

Water in a bucket isn’t anything new, but the fact that you can use just a normal hose spigot to pressurize the RinseKit is very convenient. Everything comes in the kit – you just put the adaptor on the spigot, fill for 20 seconds or so, and that’s it. Now you can spray to your hearts delight. There are other system out there that are similar but what makes the RinseKit stand out is that there is no pumping involved. Just the pressure of the incoming water is enough to create enough force to send the water back up the hose when you need it. Now, the big challenge is going to be figuring out if we want to spray down our boots, helmet, and chest pro after a day at the track, or ourselves.

The boot itself is the same ol’ Tech 7 Enduro that we have known and loved, but what is new is the colorway. Gone are the days of boot only coming in white, black, or a combination thereof. Now there boots to match gear in nearly any mishmash of colors and the latest for the Tech 7 is this navy, orange, black with a smattering of white. What makes these boots “Enduro?” The tread pattern is lugged like a knobby tire or work boot rather than the moto version’s relatively smooth sole. In the arch area where the peg with be in contact the most the sole is just like the moto version (flat with a low diamond pattern) and the aggressive tread is in the heel and toe areas for better off-road–walking grip.

In the last few years, and months even, we have seen some very innovative gear being introduced. They have featured new materials, unique construction, and have been made with lasers, for Pete’s sake! But Shift brought us this gear set that is innovative for another reason – the price. Yeah, we’ve all seen the bargain priced gear the the local motorcycle shop and there is nothing wrong with it if you only plan on riding six times a year. But it is really cool to see a well known gear brand coming out with some very affordable gear. No, it doesn’t have elastomer stretch zones or ceramic-glazed knee cups, but it is legit gear for a good price. Kudos to Shift for not only catering to the elite racers. We’ll be definitely testing this gear soon to see just how well an sub-100 buck pant and jersey stand up to real riding.

Pipes are just cool, there isn’t really any way around it. Yet, and this is a big yet, we don’t like loud pipes or pipes that are more bling than boom. KTM’s usually have pretty compliant pipes noise-wise and the newer 450s almost have a MegaBomb-like header stock so it will be interesting to see where the FMF system changes or moves the power. Overall, MegaBomb headers on most bikes give a noticeable boost at the bottom and in the middle of the power, which is where KTMs could use a touch more juice. We just hope that it doesn’t take away from the top end power which is where the orange bikes really stretch their legs.