Dirt and Trail July 2018 issue 2

The bikes come with

The bikes come with open-cartridge WP XPlor 48 Fork, separate function fork with compression adjustment on one side and rebound on the other. Also along for the day were Duane Kleynhans’ practice and race 250 fitted with SX slip-ons. Read about that a bit later… The ever-smiling Dieter took us for a couple of warm up laps around their training ground – what a cool venue it is short sweet and interesting with cuttings through the trees, donga’s and sand pits – well thought out but short for a ride like this. “Not to worry” says Dieter – let’s go and see the neighbours… And we were introduced to one of the best kept secrets in JHB. A farm with everything from rocky trails, to challenging climbs, the coolest riverbed… and three or so hours later we were all well tired out from the play. It was fantastic – not open to the general public, but watch this space we feel a Dirt And trail Magazine fun enduro coming on soon… As the day started we drifted towards our respective bikes – KTM does build a bike for everyone… and we might be trying to convince ourselves but they seem to be substantially lower in seat height than their previous models. You can now get your feet down all over – no issues. The bravest soul made his way to the 450 – we’ve ridden that a lot - last year it was our choice for the Tri Nations Adventure – perfectly suited to fast flowing trails. The ed headed across to the 350 – a great bike for everyone fast, slow and medium and the least experienced of the pack hit the 250. Throughout the day we chopped and changed as we went along. All three of the bikes are fuel injected with happy buttons. No kick start. Brave for sure but we had no issues for the duration of our ride. Modern technology is too cool! As it happens, the faster guys got ahead and blasted off. Two stragglers got lost the trail and headed down into deepest darkest Africa – a huge gorge and promptly hit a dead end… In fact, we got the bikes firmly wedged into a narrow, rutted groove. Oops! Muscle power kicked in and we tested the bikes respective weights (Very scientific ya knows), as we had to manhandle them out with a little bit of colourful language and a few huffs n puffs. Bjorn Moreira is brand new to dirtbiking – for him, this was baptism under fire… but man it was fun. He spent the whole day with a grin plastered on his rather sweaty face. Once we managed to extricate ourselves, we followed the rut in the opposite direction, hit a very cool riverbed section and clambered in and out while we looked for our colleagues. Here’s the interesting bit – we rode all of the slippery stuff perfectly fine while we were alone (Promise!), later when we were all reunited and the camera’s were rolling – both riders fell on their bums. Funny that huh! The bikes. All of these bikes share the same chassis and suspension. All of the bikes were shod in Pirelli Mid- Softs complete with mousses. The bikes were all totally at home in this terrain – and once again reinforced why four strokes often make sense. The 250, which was completely redesigned for 2017, is such a gem. Tight, light and nimble with such lekker power delivery. You don’t have to rev the wheels off it to get going and it absolutely held it’s own in this company. The wide ratio gear box is great for trail riding with second, third, and fourth gears being wide, but surprisingly useable. In fact, thanks to its user friendly nature and lighter weight – it was the choice of the day for three of the riders… high praise for the small cc four-stroke. If you are getting in to the sport – or have out grown bigger cc motorcycles – then this is a great choice for you – but… Make sure that you grab an SX-F slip on and fit it – it really brings this little bike to life… 88 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Exploring made easy 200cc’s of pure power ready for any terrain DINGO 150 A UTILITY WITH A PASSION FOR THE OUTDOORS all terrain vehicles 32 Hulbert Street New Centre Johannesburg 2001 011 493 6001 011 493 6101 www.kazuma-sa.co.za