#dirt

By now, hopefully you’ve already read our street installation of this two-part test. If not, STOP! Please do check it out because it outlines and dissects each and every bike in great detail, and it very well might answer a slew of questions you might have that aren’t addressed here, in the off-road portion of the shootout.

2018 Big-Bore Adventure Touring Shootout – Part 1: Street

For many, the thought of going to school has never been very exciting – I know I spent a large chunk of my youth counting down the days until school was over. But really, the reason many of us couldn’t wait to get leave the classroom was because the subjects were pretty boring. While we were physically in the classroom, our minds kept wandering to the one thing we’d rather be doing – riding motorcycles!

With that in mind, stop for a second and imagine combining the two subjects: School and Motorcycles. For many the thought of taking a riding school is far down the list of priorities, if it’s even on the list at all. The more you think about it, the more you can understand how beneficial taking a riding school can be. Whether it’s a street school or a dirt program (or both if you’re into supermoto), taking a riding school is nothing like sitting in chemistry class. Schools range in price from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand, and while that might seem steep, here are eight reasons why you need to get yourself back in the classroom.

Round four of the American Flat Track series, the Calistoga Half-Mile, needs no introduction, this thing is 2444 words long already, and so without further adieu…

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For 34 years, District 37 Dual-Sport has hosted the LA to Barstow to Vegas ride, providing participants with a 400 mile-plus dual-sport ride through some of the most scenic countryside in the Southwest. Perhaps this is why the event in known around the world and not just in this corner of the United States.

Every year, videos begin to trickle out from the event a few days after its completion, and this one by  Jim Kowalski is the best we’ve found for the 2017 LA-B-to-V ride. However, it should be noted that this video features a different route for the first day of riding (Instead, it covers from Riverside, up through the Cajon Pass to Lucerne, Hesperia, through Johnson Valley and Stoddard Wells to Barstow, according to Kowalski.)

You owe yourself this five-minute dual-sport vacation. If it doesn’t make you want to buy an adventure or dual-sport bike, you better check your pulse.

We all know what school self-taught motorcyclists end up attending: The School of Really Hard Knocks. Really hard. Since we think that MO readers are somewhat more intelligent and skillful than your garden variety motorcyclist, we thought we’d ask about your level of moto-education. What categories of riding schools have you attended? Have you stayed with street only, or maybe dirt only. Did you move up to performance riding? Perhaps even racing?

Basic Rider Training

Track/Racing School Buyer’s Guide

Rider Training Buyers Guide – Adventure And Off-Road

  Click the up arrow on all that apply, and we’ll show the world what MOrons are made of!

For 20 years, American Supercamp has been on a mission to teach the riding techniques flat-track racers use. In the process, they’ve been showing motorcyclists how challenging and fun flat-track racing is. Flat track is much more than just motocross without the jumps. Riders must constantly manage speed through sliding on corner entry and tire grip with throttle control on the exit to get a clean lap.

So, American Supercamp gathers groups of riders of varying ability levels at facilities throughout the country and invites them to play in the dirt. Only this isn’t unorganized free play, it is a step-by-step program developed by former flat-tracker and AMA Pro Road Racer Danny Walker along with his partner, seven-time AMA Pro Flat Track Champion Chris Carr. While the initial goal was to teach riders flat-track racing skills, two decades of teaching experience has shown that it makes all motorcyclists – no matter what their chosen form of the sport – better riders.

American Supercamp Riding School Review

To give members of the media an idea of what American Supercamp is about, Walker and Carr distilled the program down into a half-day experience, a sampler platter designed to whet our appetites. They were more than successful. Here’s why.

With an all-new motor and chassis layout the 2014 YZ250F represents the pinnacle of Yamaha motocross design, and after testing it this week, we think it may have even surpassed its super-powered YZ450F sister as the best motocross machine in the Yamaha family.

With unchanged or slightly revised 250s from Honda, Kawasaki, KTM and Suzuki for 2014, the YZ250F may also be poised to reclaim best 250cc motocross bike honors.

Our impressions of the YZ250F were made during a brief three-hour intro on a perfectly groomed track at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. To get the most out of the machine in that short of a timeframe, we once again enlisted the services of professional off-road racer Ryan Abbatoye, who also happens to be a heck of a fast motocross rider.

It’s also worth mentioning that our First Ride was conducted aboard a “pre-production” machine and not a regular production unit, but Yamaha officials assure us that what we rode is what you’ll get. Each manufacturer may have its own definition of the term, but for Yamaha pre-production simply means the first 50 vehicles (or so) to be run on the regular production line in order to check the quality and consistency of the line itself. All of the vehicle specs and settings are already set beforehand, so it should perform identical to what the customer will be purchasing when the YZ250F hits showroom floors this October.