I Ride: Travis Coyne - Dirt Rider Magazine

_Raced in the NASCAR Ultra Wheel Spec Truck Series; received Toyota 2007 Milestone Award for completing all 2,296 miles of the SCORE desert racing series for the trophy truck class; SCORE Laughlin Leap winner with a jump of 157 feet 7 inches; races the Pro 4 Class in the Lucas Oil Off-Road Short Course Series and the Trophy Truck class in the SCORE desert racing series; over 20 podium finishes in off-road truck racing. 31 years old._www.cpgrider.comI started dirt bike riding when I was three years old, probably just after I was beginning to walk. My family has always been involved in motorcycles and the motorcycle business, so I grew up in it and around it. I started out on a little PW50 and through the years graduated to quads and then back to dirt bikes and did some amateur racing. Just being brought up in the business, we always had a garage full of toys. I always tell people my passion for motorcycles was just kinda bred into me.I raced some local amateur motocross and motorcycle desert racing series and always found time to freeride with friends in our local deserts. Those experiences are what forged my competitive spirit and taught me to push hard.The correlation of how you read lines and getting around people and picking spots to pass is really the same . So those skills I learned early on racing dirt bikes really carry into the four-wheel stuff.

When I was 15, before I had my driver's license, I was racing a desert buggy in the 2-1600 class in the SCORE series in Baja. you can definitely drag the brakes going off lips and jumps, but not as efficiently as you can on a bike. And just like in motocross or supercross racing, when you're in the air you're not moving forward or going fast. You want to get that thing back down on the ground and on the power. Scrubbing's definitely an advantage dirt bikes have over trucks.I still play ride and pull out my dirt bike and go hit Glamis, but unfortunately not as much as I'd like to and I don't get as gnarly as I used to. I just can't take the chance of taking myself out of an event or missing multiple events because of the level of corporate sponsorship commitments we have.Passing in a truck, you definitely have the advantage and the security of a cage. On a bike you might be a little more hesitant cutting somebody down low or doing a block pass and risk getting tangled up, but with trucks almost anything goes out there and you can slam 'em pretty hard. Short-course racing has been described before as like a UFC fight. You see fenders flying and lots of banging. Nobody's afraid to rub and that includes going off lips of jumps, so it gets pretty intense sometimes. Whereas on a dirt bike you're not bumping and banging as hard as you do in the truck.