#Supermoto

There aren't many options if you want to buy a supermoto from a dealership. Fortunately, the 450 SMR is one of them, and it's really good. Now it sports a little purple.

Begin press release:

News flash: Suzuki is still selling the DR-Z400SM. Can you believe it? One of the early adopters of the street-legal supermoto craze, Suzuki had a lot of people excited with this bike. Unlike former MOron Sean Alexander in his ride story below, I was less than thrilled with the bike. Anemic and heavy, it dulled the sensation of how cool a supermoto for the street (or just supermotos in general) could be. In fact, I still feel this way, and Suzuki isn’t doing itself any favors by keeping the bike exactly the same over the course of nearly two decades while KTM has gone and made some insanely fun street-legal SuMos.

Enjoy the read and tell us what you think about the DRZ down below.

GasGas officially revealed two new single-cylinder streetbikes, the ES 700 dual sport and the SM 700 supermoto. Both models will be released internationally as 2022 models, but North American consumers will have to wait for the 2023 model year.

GasGas is preparing to reveal its first street-legal models tomorrow, but photos of one of the models have already leaked online.

As we were first to confirm back in February, GasGas will be adding two street legal models to its lineup, the SM 700 supermoto and the ES 700 dual-sport. Over the last week, GasGas has been teasing an announcement on social media, hinting at two new models. Most notably, the teaser shows one bike equipped with mirrors, which suggests a street legal model, a first for the Spanish brand.

GasGas is preparing to introduce its first street legal motorcycles with a new ES 700 enduro and a SM 700 supermoto. Motorcycle.com can confirm those two models will be coming to the U.S.

[UPDATE: We’ve gotten our hands on a price list from two separate GasGas dealers in Spain confirming the SM 700 and ES 700. Prices in euros added below.]

The confirmation comes from vehicle identification number (VIN) decoder information submitted to the U.S. by KTM. The VIN decoder was recently amended on Feb. 16, with a cover letter noting the only changes were to add the “GG ES 700” and “GG SM 700” for 2022 and 2023, with both models marked specifically as being street legal. The decoder includes the two new bikes with models dating back several years from KTM, and its sister brands GasGas (labeled in the document as “GG”), Husqvarna (“HQV”) and the shuttered Husaberg (HSB).

The 2021 Kawasaki KLX300SM might be the best new beginner motorcycle on the market. Did that get you fired up? Lemme ‘splain. It’s obvious that the new KLX300SM can be a lot of fun for riders of all levels, but there are some clear advantages of a supermoto-style motorcycle for the uninitiated. 

Here at MO, we think training is important to keep our skills sharp; and training in other disciplines is one tool in our arsenal. So it goes without saying we are fans of anything that makes said training more affordable and accessible. As you probably know from our recent stories on participating in yet another 24 hour mini bike race and our very own Trizzle’s recent test of the turn-key ready-to-race 2019 Husqvarna FS 450 supermoto, we MOrons are big fans of taking advantage of the tighter confines and lower speeds of karting circuits as a way of refining one’s everyday ride craft – as well as race craft. Karting circuits are generally closer to home and the price of admission is significantly cheaper than full-size racetracks. As a matter of fact, almost any excuse to rip around a kart track on a turn-key supermoto is a legitimate one in our eyes.

Thanks to the recent launch of Live 100% Supermoto School, a supermoto rental, riding school, and race team for hire, we didn’t need to come up with any bogus excuses to take a day away from the palatial MO offices and get our butts back down to the kart track. Live 100% utilizes a fleet of wonderfully competent Husqvarna FS 450s, and I, your humble video producer/editor, got a chance to be in front of the camera for a change to give the new school a shot. In the process, I got schooled by a couple of fast MotoAmerica kids, but I also learned a lot, too. Check out the video to get the full experience.

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The joy and fun of riding supermoto is something I personally love, but apparently this sentiment isn’t shared by most. It’s too bad, really. Supermoto offers all the fun of track riding for a fraction of the cost of taking your sportbike to a trackday. And if you’re a dirt guy, there’s even some of that, too. By their very nature, motocrossers are light, narrow, agile, and come packed with potent engines. Converting them into SuMos isn’t more than a wheel change, brake swap, and suspension tweak away, and yet the apparent demand is so small most OEMs – with the exception of Suzuki and its DR-Z400SM – haven’t taken notice.

Gavin Trippe, motorcycle promoter extraordinaire, died July 2nd, 2018, in a car accident in California. Born March 20, 1940, in England, Trippe became a racer and motorcycle journalist before bringing his love of motorbike competition to America, where he started his own publication, Motor Cycle Weekly, in 1969. From there, Trippe’s myriad contributions to the sport of motorbike racing include: introduction of European style motocross racing, and later the first US Grand Prix of Motocross at Carlsbad Raceway (Ca.) in June of 1973,  the first Champion Spark Plug 200 AMA National Championship road race at Ontario Motor Speedway (Ca.), which drew an international field thanks to big prize money, the introduction of production Superbike racing into the AMA class structure – the list goes on.

In the late ’70s Trippe collaborated with then TV producer Bruce Brown, who together translated TV exec Bob Iger’s question (why don’t Kenny Roberts, Roger Decoster and Jay Springsteen race each other?) into a mixed multi-disciplinary style of racing that brought the “ABC Superbikers” to a nationally televised audience on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. That exposed millions of Americans to motorcycle sport, made the moto world a better place to ride – and even laid the groundwork for Trippe to help launch supermoto decades later.

This smooth criminal from Basking Ridge is being forced to part with his KTM 450 EXC Supermoto. Do yourself a favor and give this bad boy a read. Careful though, you may end up with a new bike followed by a whole slew of problems unrelated to the motorcycle. 

Harley-Davidson owners, chicken-legged dudes, and dicks need not reply.

Original Craigslist posting below:

The video begins with eight riders on Husqvarna 701 Supermotos messing about as they leave the track. Typical supermoto hooligans jumping their bikes and doing burnouts amongst other general acts of hooliganism. Turns out they may not be your typical motorcycle derelicts after all.

Things heat up when a Mustang rider pulls around the group at a light speeding out onto the highway and eventually right into a head-on collision with a couple in a Maserati. Without skipping a beat our fearless supermoto superman flies into action as the others follow suit. The rider checks on the gentleman who caused the collision before turning his attention to the couple with injuries and offering basic first aid.

As the video ends we find the riders are from all over the globe, with our main camera POV hailing from the Netherlands. Thank you Supermofools for being a shining example of motorcyclists and generally great human beings.

This video showcases many examples that we can all learn from. Let’s make a list:

As futuristic as the future may one day be, I’ll be the guy hoarding all the loud, leaky, inefficient, fossil-fueled motors that most of the world will consider to be boat anchors and giant paperweights – call it my Redneck 401k. One day they might be considered old-fashioned, but there’s just something extremely gratifying about an internal combustion engine that an electric motor could never replicate. Mostly it’s the sound and feel, obviously, and it used to be about the performance, but electric motorcycles have evolved and come a long way in recent years.

One company that’s leading the charge (get it? …charge?) is Alta Motors with its Redshift line of bikes that includes an Enduro, Motocross and Supermoto variant. All three bikes feature the same water-proof battery that crams 5.8 kWh into 30.8 kilos (67.9 lbs) with a maximum of 350V providing a claimed 40 hp and 120 lb-ft of torque. Range varies with output map selection, but Alta says to expect approximately three hours of continuous use depending on how hard you’re twisting the throttle. Recharging is said to take four hours at 120V and just two and a half at 240V. From there, the weight, suspension, wheels and geometry differ from model to model to tailor the bikes to perform best for their respective purposes.

Have I died and gone to motorcycle heaven? Pretty much. EICMA is the world’s biggest motorcycle trade show; anyone and everyone who has anything to do with motorcycling is there. From all the OEMs, to aftermarket performance parts manufacturers to riding gear and apparel companies – it’s all there in unimaginable abundance. I was tasked to sniff out the top five coolest things at EICMA this year and thought – well, that ought to be easy! Boy was I mistaken…

There’s something neat / cool / interesting / you-name-it, just about everywhere you look. Perusing the show for two days I could have shown you a list of the top five best (read: worst) man buns, or the top five most interesting haircuts (one guy had a two-inch mohawk with a twelve-inch rattail, for real, no joke), or the top five most beautiful girls – oh wait, there goes another one… But this is MO, not Maxim.

2017 EICMA Show Coverage

Below are five things (in no particular order) we found that really caught our attention that are unique each in their own way. I wouldn’t say they’re absolutely the top five best things at EICMA this year, but they’re all pretty damn sweet and certainly not things you see everyday.

First the good news: KTM confirmed what we already knew, thanks to spy photos: The 2018 KTM 790 Duke was going to be a production model. The bad news: It will arrive in the United States as the 2019 KTM 790 Duke – meaning we’ve got to wait a bit longer, though hopefully not until the calendar clicks over to 2019. What we’re jonesing for is one of the most anticipated middleweight motorcycles to enter the naked/streetfighter class in years.

2018 KTM 790 Duke Spy Shots

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I asked around at the launch of the Dorsoduro (and Shiver) 900, why was this bike named “Dorsoduro”? I know what the Dorsoduro is and have visited the district in the Italian city of Venice on two separate occasions, but I was looking for an answer full of emotion and history which I have come to expect from Italian manufacturers (and their marketing departments). To my surprise, everyone began to tell me what the name was rather than why it was named as such. Well, after having ridden the 2018 Aprilia Dorsoduro 900, it is clear to me why the Italian manufacturer would look to one of Italy’s most iconic cities and why they would choose the sestieri of Dorsoduro as its namesake.