MAKING THE BEST OF YOUR BIKE
The Trail Tech section of the site brings together a series of articles on setting up dirt bikes for NZ trail riding conditions. While these articles were written recently they draw on many years of competition racing experience up and down the country.
While modern dirt bikes are incredibly reliable they do take maintenance and I'll be passing a few tips on in this regard, the main thrust of Trail Tech will be bike set-up.
I am continually amazed by the number of trail riders I meet whose bikes are badly set up for their skill level, physical frame and the conditions they are riding in. I can't stress enough that NZ trail conditions can be very different to those in many other countries. There is also a trend in magazines (and remember, I worked in this field for 25 years) to either interview Google, or simply gloss over the difficult questions. Fudging the technical stuff does no one any good. The other stand-in of the deadline pressed journo is to rely heavily on set ups provided by pro level racers. What pro level riders do to their bikes makes interesting reading, but doesn't always translate to the sort of riding we as trail riders are trying doing on our bikes, nor does it usually relate well to our practical levels of skill and fitness.
Hopefully Trail Tech will give you some helpful pointers for real world trailriders.
While modern dirt bikes are incredibly reliable they do take maintenance and I'll be passing a few tips on in this regard, the main thrust of Trail Tech will be bike set-up.
I am continually amazed by the number of trail riders I meet whose bikes are badly set up for their skill level, physical frame and the conditions they are riding in. I can't stress enough that NZ trail conditions can be very different to those in many other countries. There is also a trend in magazines (and remember, I worked in this field for 25 years) to either interview Google, or simply gloss over the difficult questions. Fudging the technical stuff does no one any good. The other stand-in of the deadline pressed journo is to rely heavily on set ups provided by pro level racers. What pro level riders do to their bikes makes interesting reading, but doesn't always translate to the sort of riding we as trail riders are trying doing on our bikes, nor does it usually relate well to our practical levels of skill and fitness.
Hopefully Trail Tech will give you some helpful pointers for real world trailriders.