First up there was the Australian Motorcycle Expo at at the very start of this month, where we pressed the flesh all show long and signed up another 348 subscribers to TRAIL ZONE, all of them keen to get in on the action of our latest Choose Your Ride subscription promotion.

It’s a wicked promo, where one lucky subscriber will get to choose his/her ride from a line-up of prize bikes that includes the Honda CRF450X, Kawasaki KLX450R, KTM 400 EXC-R, Suzuki DR-Z400E and Yamaha WR450F.

The contest still runs for a couple more months yet, with the lucky winner drawn on February 27, so if you want in, get your entry in now.

Or you can simply pick up the phone and call the TRAIL ZONE office on (02) 9982 9444 and we can process your subscription over the phone.

Whatever works for you is too easy for us -- and you might just win yourself a brand new thumper!

The Expo in Melbourne was excellent, with an absolute feast of machinery, accessories and action attractions for the crowds to check out.

The story will be the same this weekend at Homebush, with the Sydney Show firing into life on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For all the latest details, check out the www.sydneymotorcycleshow.com.au web site.

I have always wanted to be part of the Snowy Ride, and was stoked to finally make it this year. Almost 3,000 riders turned out for the event, which raised a whopping $250,000 for the Steven Walter Foundation and childhood cancer research.

The event included dedicated adventure ride sections for the first time this year, which covered some of the best dirt back roads the Snowy region has to offer.

I'm already planning for the 2009 Snowy Ride, which is set down for November 7, so all you adventure bike riders, bang that on your calendar and make plans get along to a big weekend of motorcycling that is all in the name of a very good cause.

It's another chunky issue, which will be bundled up with our second annual DVD production: IN THE ZONE 2, which boasts a whopping 80 minutes of the continuing adventures of Clubby, Popgun and Russ. Or in other words, more awesome footage and content of your three favourite stooges chasing carnage on the trails of some of Australia's biggest and best off-road rides!

Right now though, it’s time to load up the TZ transporter with magazines, back issues, T-shirts and show bags and get set for the Sydney Motorcycle Show at Homebush.

Make sure you head out there over the weekend and say g'day to all of us on the TRAIL ZONE stand ... it promises to be another mighty weekend, so we'll see you there!

Wow: Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland one week ... the Hume Highway to Melbourne the next! You can't say the TRAIL ZONE wrecking crew doesn't mind racking up the miles.

We wound out our European Vacation last week with exactly that -- a week of vacationing after being wide-open the week before to take in the Intermot Koln show and the Maxxis World Enduro Championship final round in the south of France. 

From the enduro event we cruised around the edge of the Mediterranean (including a lap of the F1 track at Monaco!) and up into northern Italy for a couple of days and then made the climb over the alps into Switzerland where we spent last weekend at a tiny village called Grindelwald, which sits in the shadow of the mighty Jungfrau mountain.

Speaking of the Australian Motorcycle Expo, it's our next port of call, and Tania and I will be loading up the TRAIL ZONE Trafic transporter and hitting the Hume Highway next week to set-up the TRAIL ZONE stand and promote the mag and our current Choose Your Ride subscription promotion. TZ Tech Editor, Dr Phil Gielis and Lance 'Russ' Turnley from www.offroadexplorer.com will then be jetting in for the Expo weekend, so the TZ team will be on-hand in force.

One very special inclusion in Russ's gearbag on the flight to Melbourne will be a master disc with a preview of the final edit of our upcoming IN THE ZONE: EPISODE 2 DVD, which will be going out with TRAIL ZONE issue #21. We'll be running highlights of the DVD at the TRAIL ZONE stand, so make sure you check it out. Sounds like there's plenty more 'Carnage' on this DVD...

The other big news is the Expo at Melbourne has totally sold-out exhibitor space, so there will be absolutely no shortage of bikes, accessories, gear sales, action attractions and displays to check out. The Expo actually starts a day earlier this year, on the Thursday evening, so if you're a solid dirt bike or motorcycle fan and you're within cooee of Melbourne next weekend, make sure you get down to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre at Southbank and take in the Expo. Like I said, the Expo runs from Thursday evening right through to Sunday night, so get along and check it out.

All I know is that judging by Clubby's International Scale of Financial Exchange, here in Europe they are doing it tough, because by my long standing financial barometer -- the price of a Big Mac meal deal -- is through the roof! Every time Tania and I peel off the Autoroute on our trek across France, I end up forking out Euro 6.80 for Ronald's finest combo deal, which in good ol' Aussie dollars right now is more than 12 bucks! Yow! That's twice the price of a Big Mac meal deal back home in Aussie.

I just dunno how the Frenchies can afford it ... it's no wonder they live on baguettes and cheap red vino.

We arrived on Friday and after registering at the press centre in the heart of town, headed off into the hills to check out some of the special test sections. We pulled up at the Enduro test and were scoping things out when two dudes dinking on an Aprilia pulled up, with the rider saying, "Hey, that looks like Clubby ..." to which Tania replied, "That's because it is!"

It was Kiwi-cum-Aussie enduro gun Stefan Merriman himself, with a visiting young friend of his from Victoria, Mitch Harper, turning up to check out the test. We gabbed on for a while before Stefan disappeared into the bush to walk the test, which was laid out in a gnarly creek bed in a culvert beside a major back road.

Now, if you want to understand the meaning of the word atmosphere, get to Europe and experience a WEC event -- it is nuts!

The WEC race clearly took over the entire town, with bikes charging about everywhere, up and down the cobblestone streets and howling off into the hills.

We got out to all the tests and no matter how far into the bush we hiked or how steep the hills were to get there, there were locals there already, hooting and hollering for the riders, and going absolutely bananas any time a French rider came past. It was wild!

In the E2 class, the French fans went nuts when local Yamaha rider Johnny Aubert clinched the world title, despite KTM rider Juha Salminen winning the class both days.

Finally, in the E3 big-bore dvision, KTM 300 EXC-E rider Samuli Aro did all that was needed to win the world title ahead of team-mate Marko Tarkkala, to put an orange whitewash over the class.

As for us, well, we're back in the TZ Opel renta-racer and taking aim for the Mediterranean coastline for a few days R&R ... and I'm already fretting about what a BIg Mac meal is going to cost in Monaco ... gulp!

TRAIL ZONE has been fortunate to jet across the globe to take a close-up look at the 2008 Intermot Show, which has just kicked off inside the cavernous halls of the Koelnmesse centre in the heart of the proudly historic German city of Cologne.

This report is coming to you from a tiny cubicle (otherwise known as a room, that is priced at a whopping 159 Euros!) inside the Ibis Hotel that is just across the road from the Koelnmesse centre.

We've just done today's official Intermot Press Day, which involved a full eight hours spent combing the various halls (there are seven of them, each one massive in itself!) as a huge scrum of media members followed an itinerary of new model releases from one major manufacturer to the next.

Trying to see it all in one day is just about impossible -- but we gave it a big nudge, and made maximum use of the taxis laid on by the event organisers to shuttle we members of the media from one hall to the next ... that's how big the place is!

So what were some of the show highlights? Well, in no particular order, here goes:

Honda kicked off proceedings with the first media conference to promote its New Beginnings ethos. Some trick little CBR125 roadies, a CBR600RR sports bike with electronic ABS and the all-new CRF450R took pride of place in the launch, before the wraps came off a sensational, futuristic road bike prototype dubbed the V4, which Honda hinted might just be a sign of the V4 sports bike of the future. Take a look at the photo of the V4 -- it's wild!

On we then proceeded to the Kawasaki stand, where Team Green made maximum use of the promotional hostess theme. Half a dozen dancing girls clad in black PVC had the flash bulbs popping in all directions as the latest line-up of Kawasakis were unveiled, but once again road bikes were the major thrust.

With the shoe leather burning up at a rapid rate, it was time again to back-track a couple of halls to the Husqvarna stand, located right beside the BMW enclave. While the BMW stand was complete with cafe, bar and lounge, there were no such luxuries for the Husky boys, but they nevertheless dished up a full range of off-road hardware, of which I have to say, the new TE310 mid-size thumper does look especially tasty, along with the new WR300 oil-burner.

We also caught up with Aussie enduro legend Geoff Ballard, as well as Matt and Dave from Ficeda Accessories, while the king pins from McLeods, Cassons and Serco were also pounding the halls and drumming up business with their various suppliers, while no doubt also keeping a keen eye out for new product lines.

Finally, you just couldn't help but note the massive number of China bike displays ... there were sooo many. We tried hard to find a Chinese 250cc thumper that actually looked like it might be worth putting your hard earned dollars down on, but we've gotta say, none of them met the mark. The Chinese clearly have the small-bore scooter and road bike market in their grasp, but they've still got a way to go when it comes to making pure dirt bikes. 

According to the organisers web site, the Intermott show will fature over 100,000 square metres of displays in almost a dozen halls, so the TRAIL ZONE team will be burning up plenty of shoe leather checking it all out.

From Cologne we then take the keys to an Avis rent-a-racer and set a course south, all the way from the top of France to the very bottom, and a date with the final round of the World Enduro Championship next weekend.

The WEC finale is being held at the mountain village of Mendes in the very south of France, and it promises to be a ripper, with the might of the KTM, Yamaha, Husqvarna and BMW factory teams all battling it out for final honours for the year -- along with Kiwi-cum-Aussie hero Stefan Merriman, of course, who will be thundering through the mountains aboard his booming Aprilia V-twin.

After the world enduro, we'll then be taking a leisurely cruise across the top of Italy, up into the Swiss alps and back into Germany for another week, which will be pure European Vacation time.

Keen readers of TRAIL ZONE will know that I have said this many times over the years, but I am going to say it again (with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek): when you're the editor of a dirt bike magazine, you really do cop some hard days at the office.

Three days of last week were just such occasion, when BMW Motorrad staged the Australian media launch ride in Victoria of the much awaited F 800 GS adventure bike and equally anticipated G 450 X enduro machine.

I've been itching to ride both these bikes, so I pulled rank on Dr Phil and Russ and kept the BMW invite for myself, and instead despatched the TZ wrecking crew to the annual KTM Sunny Corner Trail Bike Rally near Bathurst - where the heavens promptly opened up and turned the course into a quagmire. Hmm, I definitely lucked out, twice - by dodging a mud bath and getting to ride a couple of trick new Beemers.

It doesn't take long to decide the 800 GS is a blast to ride. The power delivery is strong and smooth, pulling from almost zero revs right through the rev range, with BMW claiming the engine pumps out 63kW at 7,500rpm and 83Nm of torque at 5,750rpm. The motor clearly benefits from a unique mass balance shaft located below the crankshaft that helps reduce vibration and smooth out the power delivery.

For a large capacity twin, the F 800 GS actually feels like a dirt bike, as opposed to a road bike, by adventure bike standards -- if that makes sense? What I'm trying to say is, the 800 is nowhere as big, bulky and heavy as its famous big brothers in the R 1200 GS range. If a 1200 GS is just too big for you to manhandle when the going gets tough, the 800 GS is going to be right up your alley.

In fact, we'll be curious to see just how many 1200 GS owners swap over to the 800 GS as stocks arrive in the country in coming months.

There are now a whopping dozen bikes to choose from in Australia in the 450cc four-stroke enduro class and while the BMW G 450 X is one of the last to join the game, it has arrived with its game-face on.

Priced at just $12,450 plus ORC, the G 450 X is right there in the midst of the showroom wars, but where it works best is out on the trails. The new BMW is a deliciously rideable 450 that offer slim ergos, strong power and a host of top-shelf detail parts (including an Ohlins shock!) as standard equipment, as well as a two-year warranty.

Now, there are only 22 BMW dealers nationally, but if you're in the market for a new 450, take the time to check out the BMW and definitely get along to BMW's dealer ride days where you can even test ride a G 450 X before you buy.

In fact, we’ve given-away no less than seven bikes in the past four years, and now it’s time to do it again with our latest awesome Choose Your Ride subscriber promotion!

All you have to do is complete the coupon on the form linked with this Trail Boss Blog update (or hit the Subscribe link on the www.trailzone.com.au home page) and subscribe to TRAIL ZONE. 

By signing up for a subscription on the official entry form, you will go in the draw to win your choice of a brand new Honda CRF450X or Kawasaki KLX450R or KTM 400 EXC-R or Suzuki DR-Z400E or Yamaha WR450F. 

It’s that easy – and yes, you get to choose the bike you want to win! One lucky subscriber will be drawn at random to choose their ride. 

So don’t wait: subscribe to TRAIL ZONE now – you’ll save money off the normal cover price of the magazine, plus you'll receive your each new issue before it goes on-sale at newsagents ... and you could win the bike of your dreams. Good luck!

There is no doubt about our treasured TRAIL ZONE readers -- some of them are pure 24-carat gold!

I have just returned from a memorable day in northern NSW checking out what has to rank as Australia’s best 1968 model Yamaha DT1 restoration.

This Yamaha DT1 is the proud possession of TRAIL ZONE reader Glen Palmer -- and if you are confirmed trail bike historian like myself, you will know the Yamaha DT1 is the father of the modern-day trail bike and helped to launch the past time we all know and love today.

In the past 12 months Glen has completed a fabulous resto, which I have to say smokes the last Yamaha DT1 restoration that I had a close-up look at, which was at the Australian Motorcycle Expo in Melbourne a few years ago.

I was staggered by the finish and original inclusions of this bike, right down to the white (not black!) rubber grommets that mount the tail light and battery. Now, that’s wicked attention to detail on Glen’s part. He even tracked down a genuine rubber surround for the genuine tacho, which any DT1 purist will tell you is one of the hardest parts to find of all.

Glen sourced many OEM and NOS parts from the USA via Ebay, and from Grayson-Sonter Yamaha at Coffs Harbour as well as from Phil Drummond at Kempsey, plus he used various local machiners, painters and finishers to rebuild various parts of the bike.

It had been a while since I'd spent some time exploring the wide-open wastelands of far-west NSW around Broken Hill and across the border into South Australia.

That was just the excuse I needed to rustle www.offroadexplorer.com web master and TRAIL ZONE adventure bike columnist Lance 'Russ' Turnley into gear and rack up a big mile off-road ride through the middle of nowhere for the best part of a week. Perfect.

So just over a week ago Russ and I descended on the tiny hamlet of Hillston out on the edge of the Riverina district, where we lined up a real odd couple of machines for a five-day, 2500km romp from there to Broken Hill before crossing the border into SA and making a lap of the Flinders Ranges, after which we'd return back to Broken Hill and then turn south down the Darling River to Pooncarie and east back to Hillston.

Like I said, it was a real odd couple of bikes. The Transalp was decked out with luxuries such as heated grips, taller windscreen, top box and panniers, while the mighty DR-Z was, well, pretty much in trailriding spec, save for an IMS 15-litre tank, Whipp's alloy rear rack and Wolfman luggage. 

The DR-Z was awesome every time we hit a decent section of dirt, but, of course, the long transport sections were a real grind, especially when you're battling a horror headwind on the Silver City Highway and the ambient temperature is only five degrees! Still, it was awesome to be 'out there' and doing it, a long, long way from the civilised world.

Along the way we met a few fellow trail and adventure riders, not the least of which were a crew of blokes from Maffra-Sale in Victoria, who were heading up into central Australia to find the grave of Ellis Bankin, who died out there in 1936 while exploring the desert on a side-valve Triumph 350. The gang was being lead by Ian Kennedy - better known as 'The Captain' - who is a good mate of Aussie enduro legend Norm Watts (yeah, Shane Watts' old man). 

The Captain and his crew of fully-loaded DR-Z and XR riders were staying at Arkaroola in the Flinders the same night we passed through, so we had a great night catching up on stories of their travels, as well as picking up on a feast of tips from a group of blokes who think nothing of heading bush for 21 days and 7,000km and being self-sufficient the whole way.

Entries are now open for the biggest trail bike rally event on the NSW calendar each year: the annual KTM Sunny Corner Trail Bike Rally.

This year's mighty event is set down for the weekend of September 13/14 and as always will take place in the lush pine forest trails of the Sunny Corner State Forests between Lithgow and Bathurst in central-west NSW.

Just two hours drive from the Sydney CBD, the Sunny Corner event dishes up two loops of riding, with this year's course taking in an arrowed 75km morning loop followed by another 50km charge in the afternoon.

Anyone with a road licence and road registered bike can enter and all entries go in the draw to win a brand new 2009-model KTM 450 EXC-R thumper, while the runner-up will take home a 2009-model KTM 50 SX mini, provided by KTM Australia.

Riders have the option to arrive on Saturday and camp in the Sunny Corner State Forest whilst enjoying a bonfire and live band in the evening, or alternatively arrive for the first group departure early on Sunday morning.

Entry to the event includes the ride, plus a breakfast and lunch voucher, as well as your ticket into the draw for the two KTM motorcycles that are up for grabs. Early bird entries prior to August 22 cost $125 per person, while thereafter entry fees are $150 per person.

The organising Central Tablelands Motorcycle Club will supply sweep riders throughout the day to provide each group departure with mechanical and safety support on the well-arrowed and marked-out loops.

Wallerawang Public School plus the P&C Committee will again be on-hand this year, with full canteen facilities on offer as the event is the school's major fundraiser for the year, while motorcycle dealership Orange KTM will set-up a range of 2009 model KTM motorcycles for public viewing in the popular trade-alley section at the parc ferme.

For further information and entry details visit the www.sunnycorner.com.au web site and get in on the action, as the TRAIL ZONE team is looking forward to seeing you there!

Our busiest time at TRAIL ZONE comes every second month when we're on the final production deadlines for our next issue -- which is right now, for TRAIL ZONE issue #19, which is due out next month.

And how’s this: TRAIL ZONE issue #19 marks the kick-off to our fourth year of independent publication. How fast has that time gone? It's ripped past like Grabbo on his CRF450X in the desert with the sniff of a $10,000 Finke winner's cheque in his nostrils!

This current frenzy of deadline fever kicked off ten days ago, when I joined longtime TZ contributing editor Murray McLerie for a trip to Adelaide for the annual Yamaha 24 Hour Reliability Trial event.

The highs included scoring the cheers of the manic crowd at various competitive stages all night long around the massive 230km loop, while the lows including crashing his brains out at four in the morning in a bull-dust section in the pitch dark, not to mention hucking his breakfast up on the side of the trail a couple of hours later on the final lap because he was so exhausted.

Anyway, just like he did at the mud-bog NZ ISDE at Lake Taupo a couple of years ago, and in the last couple of A4DEs, Muz managed a mighty finish, which is no small feat given the high DNF rate of the 24 Hour.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Shane Diener -- get this! -- racked up his fifth straight win the event, to take his career tally of wins to ten. 

The new issue of TRAIL ZONE is also crammed with a feast of great ride reports -- including the Honda Watagan Trailbike Rally, a Fraser Island ride with Yamaha's new Club Y owners group and a dual-sport ride from Gympie in Queensland -- plus there's all the good tech advice from Dr Phil that you've come to expect with each new issue.

Oh, and while I'm dishing up snippets of new issue news, we've got another very special subscriber offer kicking off in issue #19 -- yep, it's time for our latest Choose Your Ride promotion where one lucky subscriber will get to win the bike of their dreams! 

Make sure you check it out and make sure you sign to subscribe!

We all like a good combo deal, right? Me, I'm a Big Mac combo deal and upsize it all the way kind of guy!

So when Geoff Henning and Kevin 'KB' Burrows up at Sunny Corner Trail Tours fired in a snippet of news about a very special trail tour they've got coming up, I just said to myself: 'Self, this has to rate as the ultimate combo for petrol heads like you and me!'

So what's the scoop? What have the Sunny Corner boys got going on?

They're staging a feast of octane-boosted dirt bike and V8 Supercar action, by putting on a special five-day package on the week of the annual Supercheap Autos Bathurst 1000 car race at Mount Panorama.

The five-day package includes pub-style accommodation all the way through, meals (alcohol not included), fuel, full tour support on the three days of the trail ride, transport to/from the Bathurst race track and a two-day General Admission ticket including pit paddock access for the Supercheap Autos Bathurst 1000 race at the famed Mount Panorama circuit.

What an awesome way to spend five days ... all you have to do is sign on, turn up and the Sunny Corner Trail Tour boys will take care of the rest.

The number of places for this one-off tour is strictly limited, so if you want in, get on the blower and get onto Geoff on (0407) 806 060 or KB on (0412) 193 631 ... and tell 'em TRAIL ZONE sent ya!

In the space of four years, the Honda Watagan Trailbike Rally sure has grown in leaps and bounds.

Organisers Rod Cartwright and Chris Flaherty from R&C Promotions have just staged their fifth event in four years in the Watagan forests near Newcastle, and last weekend's 2008 rally was another ripper.

The action kicked off Saturday, with a stack of riders hitting the trails and then making a big weekend of it by camping overnight and taking in the action at the parc ferme laid on by the organising committee. 

Then on Sunday it was time to charge off into the forests again, with the course offering up a range of easy and hard splits, as well as a brand new extreme section that delved down into some of the deepest, gnarliest sections of the forest.

By lunchtime Sunday the action converged back at the parc ferme, where a huge range of prizes were dished up to the assembled throng from a raft of sponsors, with the highlight being a brand spanking new Honda CRF250X thumper that was won by local Newcastle rider, Michael Kane. 

Now, Mike is no spring chicken and is just getting back into dirt bike riding -- so now he'll be doing it in style aboard a brand new CRF!

Russ nailed some classic footage of the bogs and swamps, so make sure you check it out and gain a few chuckles at the expense of other riders stuck some horror bogs!

And if you want to have a stab at the next Honda-sponsored Trailbike Rally events -- and you're mad if you don't! -- make sure you check out the www.trailbikerallys.com.au web site ... and we'll see you there!

As the months roll by at frightening speed, so too does each new issue of TRAIL ZONE magazine – the acknowledged insightful read for Australia’s massive ranks of trail, enduro and adventure bike riders!

Set to go on-sale from next Monday, June 16, (although subscribers already have their copies!), TRAIL ZONE issue #18 is another mighty production, featuring a boost in pages to include all the content we’re intent on dishing up to off-road riders. That’s right, this new issue dishes up more pages and more value!

Kicking off our latest editorial package is an exclusive test ride of KTM’s new 690 Enduro thumper, which we recently put through its paces on a rip-roaring ride across Death Valley in the USA.

We’ve also taken in all the action of the Kowen Forest Trail Ride in Canberra, and then dragged Dr Phil out of the workshop on an adventure ride with Russ and Clubby across the Barrington Tops region of NSW ... in the pouring rain ... and yes, the good doctor was suitably impressed!

If you've been on the fence about renewing or taking our a subscription to TRAIL ZONE magazine, quit the ginning around and get it done!

There are just two weeks to go in our latest TRAIL ZONE subscriber promotion, where one lucky subscriber will win his/her choice of a brand spanking new Honda CRF50F or Suzuki DR-Z70 or Yamaha TT-R50E ... yep, it's TRAIL ZONE's Choose Your Kid's Ride subscriber drive!

All you have to do is subscribe and you will be in the draw -- and the winner will be chosen entirely at random. Everyone has exactly the same chance of winning ... woo hoo!

So check out the subscription offer on pages 4/5 of TRAIL ZONE issue #17 that's on-sale now, or get back onto the www.trailzone.com.au home page and click on the subscription offer right in the centre of the page.

But get in and do it fast, because the promotion closes on June 17 and the winner is drawn on June 18. Good luck!

It's amazing the critters you come across in the forest sometimes.

There we were, me and Dr Phil, last Saturday morning, weaving our way into the lush green surrounds of the Sunny Corner state forest when I looked behind and was greeted by the sight of three thundering Datsun 1600s snapping at our heels ... what the?!

We rounded the next bend and were greeted by race-tape and a fleet of officials setting up a time control for a NSW state rally event.

Promoted the Manly Warringah Motorcycle Club, and organised by longtime vintage MX and enduro enthusiasts Rob Shoemark and Darren Ribbons, the Rockley event laid the foundations for a growing vintage enduro scene in NSW in coming years.

And after all, vintage dirt bikes should never be laid to rest -- they should be put to good use in vintage enduro events!

Around 50 entries rolled in for the Rockley event, and there was a myriad of machinery amongst them.

If, like us, you grew up riding dirt bikes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you'll get an absolute buzz from some of the machines that fire into life in at a vintage enduro event.

'Vinduro' events have already gained a following in Victoria, and now the same looks set for NSW.

The Rockley ride was staged as a Poker Run, with a stack of prizes dished up after each day's action for the riders with the best poker hands. Riders could complete as many laps of a 7km course as they liked on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, with camping on-site overnight, and despite the chilly conditions, the benchracing would have gone on into the wee small hours.

I've ridden there with Rich before, so when he emailed earlier this year to say he was getting a posse of riders together for another Death Valley expedition, I just knew I wanted to get in on the action. So quicker than you can say 'Qantas red-e-deal!' and 'Ditch that deadline!' I was jetting out to LAX for a mighty five-day tour.

Now, when you're in the magazine game, this is exactly the time to call on your mates when you need a bike to ride –- and the mates I called on for this ride started with KTM Australia honchos Jeff Leisk and Greg Chambers, and promptly escalated up to KTM USA's Tom Moen, then all the way to the top: KTM Austria's Export Sales Manager, Franz Soellhammer.

So there I was, a week ago, an Aussie journo, on an Austrian bike, with an Ohio license plate, on the freeways of Los Angeles, heading off on the ultimate trail ride. And get this, the 690 Enduro I was on, was the only one on the road in the USA. 

I had to keep pinching myself to believe it was all real!

The first day of my ride I was on my own, rolling out of downtown LA and up the old Sierra Highway to the famed Mojave Desert. From there I headed north-west up into the Sequoia Mountains, catching a few snow drifts at 2,400m-plus elevation on Piute Mountain before dropping down into Lake Isabella for the night.

Suspension chores are handled by a 48mm WP USD fork up front and WP shock and Pro-Lever linkage rear end, with wheel travel of 250mm at each end, which helps to keep the bike's seat height down to just 910mm. The seat itself is extremely flat and stretches from the steering head all the way back to the fuel filler cap, which is located atop the rear guard.

Of course all the details of the bike are wicked, and include alloy big bars, a compact digital speedo and analogue tacho instrument panel, full-wrap plastic handguards, massive 300mm front brake rotor, DID Dirt Star rims, plastic bashplate, feather-light hydraulic clutch, alloy swingarm and so on and so on.

Third concrete causeway of the morning I went belly-up (while walking shooting photos!) and dunked my Nikon camera, which promptly gave up the ghost an hour later and I lost 88 images of our Suzuki DR-Z400 Project Bike set-up tips plus sundry other ride shots. The shots included priceless images of Lance on his side under his KLR in a creek crossing ... aarrgghhhh!

Then three more concrete causeways later Lance went down like a bag of spuds on the Kawasaki KLR650 Project Bike and ripped his left hamstring when he stuck his leg out in a vain effort to hold up the jolly green giant. Have you ever seen a grown man cry? A torn hammy will do that to you.

We then pushed on south and enjoyed a pleasurable 100km strop through the Avon and Chichester forests, which over the years have hosted many a famed two-day enduro and more recently Hoffo trail ride events. I was quite enjoying the DR-Z, Popgun was all over his little WR250R, while Lance was confident in the knowledge that the majority of his 
wordly possessions were strapped onto the KLR, "just in case he needed them."

As we popped out of the forest near Dungog, the heavens busted open again and drenched us all the way back to Singleton in the increasing darkness, at which point I discovered Popgun had de-wired the DR-Z's high-beam ... "to save vital power drain on the battery, Clubby!"

Our Project Bike is in A1 condition, having been prepped and maintained by the crew at Pro-Fast.

It comes complete with the mods to the bike featured in TRAIL ZONE, including the Tag big bars and Barkbusters up on the flight deck, stiffer rear shock spring, airbox and jetting tweaks, Mich