Places to ride

Now days finding a legal place to ride is becoming harder and harder so here are some tips and places to ride.

First of all if you are serous about riding Enduro you will need a road registered dirt bike and a licence, this is because the government classifies many dirt tracks as public roads, so you need rego.

Second of all find some local state forests because if you have rego and a licence you are allowed to ride in there, for me this is Ourimbah start forest near Gosford.

Ourimbah is a large state forest with a large variety of riding ranging form flowing open fire trails to tight gnarly single trail hills. It has a servo near by and takes appropriately 30minutes to get there and be ready to ride.

For more info on State forests here is the governments site 

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/forests/locations/ourimbah


http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=where+is+ourimbah&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x6b72cc8c57e1d261:0x5017d681632dcd0,Ourimbah+NSW&gl=au&ei=W-mcT8L0EYqhiQexpJm9Dg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ8gEwAA

One of the steepest downhills I have found so far

Louee, just past Tom's Hill

If you don't have a road registrable bike or don't have your licence a great place to ride is Louee


"Louee Features four Motocross Tracks a freestyle compond, special junior track and over 150km of Tracks and Trails designed specifically for off road riding and racing." (taken from Louee enduro main page)


It is a great place for young kids to go if they have experience and for the bigger kids to go and have an adventure on some of the best tracks around. a tip is book early as it does get booked out fairly quickly in the holidays.




Again here is the link for further info 
http://louee.net.au/


If you talk to people who ride regularly or talk to you local motorcycle shop they can normally give you an idea of where is good to ride in your area. Just amke sure you are road legal and have your road gear on your bike working and serviced.

Supercross video Seattle 2012

Seattle Supercross 450 main event 2012


Supercross is motorcross racing event that is held on an artificially mad dirt track that contains jumps, corners, straights and obstacles. It is a tedious and physically demanding race where 40 racers line up on a start line to battle against each other to win the title or victory. 


This race held in Seattle is apart of the AMA Supercross series in America for 2012, it is a highly professional race that shows the highs and lows of supercross racing. 


During the event you see Andrew Short on a Honda 450 win the race followed by Ken Roczen 2nd on the 350 KTM. 


It is a long video of the race however is a very entertaining video from Speed TV as it shows the series leader Ryan Villopoto crash and injure his knee, which is soon to mention that he has snapped his ACL and is out of riding for a year.

Video Game Review: MX vs ATV Alive

Last time, I reviewed a motorcycle game that was bad. Now I'm going to review a motorcycle game that's actually pretty decent.

MX vs ATV Alive is the latest in the MX vs ATV series of racing games which pit motorbikes and quad bikes against each other. I don't recommend this game for casual gamers, since it has fairly complex controls. You need to use both analog sticks for steering, one for the bike itself, and one for the rider. Also, many of the advanced techniques such as high-speed turns and making bigger jumps aren't explained in the game itself. Once you learn how to best handle your bike though, you'll be having a fun time racing.

One aspect that many motorcycle games have is that hitting other racers often ends with you falling off your bike and wasting many valuable seconds. MX vs ATV Alive doesn't adhere to this aspect. Colliding with another racer will only knock them off-balance, if not making them take a tumble. Also, if you get hit and are about to fall off your bike, you're able to regain your balance with a properly timed flick of the analog stick. This system makes races less annoying overall, since it doesn't heavily punish you if you make a mistake.

Much like in an RPG, races will earn you experience points and earning enough will level you up. Level ups unlock customisation options for your bike, as well as abilities for your rider that improve your performance. Furthermore, reaching certain levels unlock new tracks for you to ride on.

If there's one problem that MX vs ATV Alive has, it's that it lacks on-disc content. The game has 12 full-length tracks, 4 short tracks and a couple of free-ride arenas. Most of the tracks aren't available from the beginning, so you're going to be replaying a small handful of tracks a lot just so you can level up and unlock more tracks. Even after you've unlocked everything, there's still a total of only 18 places you can ride in, and only 2 gameplay modes. This makes the game seem half-finished. And wouldn't you know it, it is half-finished. The developers decided to release the game earlier with a lot of tracks, bikes and game modes missing from it. This content was released later as downloadable content. Not only does this show laziness from the developer's end, but it also adds to the cost of the game and screws over those who don't have access to Xbox Live or the Playstation Network.

Overall, MX vs ATV Alive is a decent racing game with some questionable design decisions. If you don't mind a bit of grinding, check it out.

Dunlop GeoMax MX-31 Review

Dunlop MX31 tyre review

MX 31 tyre construction

Quick description
Your tyres are the only point of contact between you and the ground so choosing the right one is important, the Dunlop MX31 is a good choice. This is because its the companies lates and greatest when it comes to soft terrain motorcross tyres. It has many new innovations which lead to a great performing soft terrain tyre. These features include chiseld and staggered tread blocks, which help the tyre to sink in and grab solid ground under the soft top layer, and help to reduce the amount of tyre surface the soft soil and mud can stick to. The bike I have tested them on is a 99RMX 250 with a 120,90,18 rear and a 19/2.15 front.

Pros
Un-beatable traction on soft ground
Great allround traction on soft to intermediate ground
Wide variety of sizes to suit and any motorcycle from a Pee Wee 50 upto a KTM 300exc
Heavy side walls make them ideal for low tyre pressure 

Cons
very very soft compound that will wear quickly on hard/ rocky surfaces
not DOT approved to cannot be used on the road
little grip on hard surfaces suck as flat track
will wear out in 4-6 rides if used on hard ground

Overall
A great performing tyre that I will personally continue to use as nothing else can beat them. They have good wear if you ride soft to intermediate terrain, and I found they will last upto a year on soft terrain.
Buy these if you are riding soft terrain or sand regularly and do not have to ride on hard surfaces such as rocks and the road.
I would give them a 10 out of 10 for grip but 6 out of 10 for wear and life.

MotoGP

MotoGP

Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing. It is currently divided into three classes: MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3. All three classes use four-stroke engines. In 2010, 250cc two-strokes were replaced by the new Moto2 600cc four-stroke class. In 2012, 125cc two-strokes were replaced by the Moto3 250cc four-stroke class with maximum weight limit 65 kilos with gas, and the engine capacity for MotoGP increased from 800cc to 1000cc.
Grand Prix motorcycles are purpose-built racing machines that are neither available for purchase by the general public nor can be ridden legally on public roads. This contrasts with the various production-based categories of racing, such as the Superbike World Championship, that feature modified versions of road-going motorcycles available to the public.

Ducati Panigale 1199 Video

Here is 1199 Ducati Panigale on the track!

Ducati Panigale

 

The new Ducati superbike looks like it has seen BMW’s S 1000 RR and raised the stakes in the high-performance motorcycle game.

Despite the carefully staged releases of information prior to the unveiling of its new superbike, Ducati managed to pull off quite a coup with the dramatic release of the new 1199 Panigale, the latest in a long line of hypersport machinery and, at the same time, the start of a new chapter in the company’s history. Make no mistake; this is a turning point for Ducati.

Kicking off with the engine, the oversquare Super Quadro has a bore and stroke of 112 x 60.8mm and an output of 195bhp (145.4kW) at 10,750rpm with torque figures of 133Nm at 9000rpm. Valve sizes are 46.8mm for the inlet (up from the 1198’s 43.5mm) and 38.2mm (up from 34.5mm) and the valves are made of titanium, the lightness of which contributes to allowing such large valves in the4 first place.

Operating large valves at high rpm is a problem offset by the use of the desmodromic valve control. Relying on a rocker arm instead of springs to close the valve allows steep cam profiles, radical cam timings and high operating speeds. The cams are now driven by a chain and gear arrangement as opposed to the belt drive of previous models. The camshafts have +/- position adjustment for precise calibration, while the exhaust cams have a flyweight which retracts at speeds below idle and offers enough cam lift to act as a decompressor to make starting easier, thus allowing a smaller and lighter battery and starter motor assembly. A new six-speed gearbox with a wet, slipper clutch is fitted.