Editorial

welcometo rustmagazineBy SI MELBER, photo: selfie

Hi there

WE’RE RUST. A new dirtbike Sports Media Company, and a whole new brandfounded on 20 years of industry experience. RUST takes over from the highlyacclaimed TrailBike & Enduro Magazine (TBM), bringing together modernmultimedia content with 20 years worth of resources, case-hardenedknowledge and incredible imagery.Why RUST? Because rust is what happens when we stop riding: metalcorrodes and decays, and our bodies weaken. In short we become ‘rusty’.RUST is all about challenging that notion. RUST is an anti-brand.Moreover RUST encompasses our own experiences. RUST is the ‘witnessmark’ of a lifetime of dirt and grime. It’s the proof you ride in all seasons,irrespective of the conditions. And it’s the knowledge we’ve gathered over theyears that reflects our hard-won experiences. Ultimately RUST is the piece ofgrit in the oyster that makes the pearl…

RUST aims to be maverick, opinionated and hard-hitting, but it will also behonest and fair. RUST will blend wit and wisdom: in-depth stories with consid-ered editorial, expert advice with a real-world angle. RUST is about people,places and points of view as much as the bikes, the kit and the performance.And shortly every RUSTafarian like you and me will have a new dropping-offpoint. A place to go with your morning coffee, lunchtime sandwich or eveningbeer. Where you can sit and read about dirtbikes and simply chill.In the meantime we want you to get a taste for what RUST is all about, sohere’s the first issue of our new digital magazine absolutely free. Future issueswill remain free to download from our website. We hope it inspires you to getout there and ride…

Si MelberWe want to hear from you. Contact editorial@rustsports.com with your feedback.

“Rust NeverSleeps”-Neil Young-

Staff

Georgia Wells (aka PitGirl) describes herselfas addicted to Enduro, crazy about animals,mad for music, daft for dancing, obsessedwith MotoGP and generally awash withRed Bull. We know her as the most eruditeenduro journalist we’ve ever met. This socialmedia geek lives in Wiltshire with twoBurmese cats and says her favouriteperfume is the scent of two-stroke oil.

Gary Freeman - Gazza - is a full-time bikephotographer with over two decades spent inthe fields of MXGP and new model launches.In that time he’s worked with the best, be itStefan Everts or Ryan Villipoto; and the worst- that’s probably RUST’s Si and JB. If he hasa claim to fame it’s that Ricky Carmichaelonce mistook him for a Team GB MXdN rider- which probably says as much about howRC viewed our team as it does about Gazza.

Chris Evans is a gastronomic refugee livingin Paris. Born in England to a New Zealandmother, a Welsh father and now based inFrance he always manages to claim the win-ning side of any rugby match. His passionsinclude exploring parts of France no-one’sever heard of, with his dog Kenneth. He hasa licence to fly drones, but the allegation heused one to spy on his attractive neighbourwhilst she was undressing was never proven.

Si Melber is the founding editor of TrailBike &Enduro Magazine, former features editor ofMotorcycle International Magazine and awinner of the Rookie-of-the-year award in the24hour Citroen 2CV endurance challenge.As a kid he built his own sidecar push-bike,but now rebuilds various dirt bikes, a ’57Chevy pick-up and his crumbling old house.His work has appeared on the AdvertisingStandard Authority’s ‘Wall of Shame’.

Rick Kemp cut his teeth as an assistantphotographer (and fluffer) at Vogue Studios.Riding from the age of 15 he raced enduro ona Yam IT175, worked on Dirt Bike Rider andscooped top journo at the inaugural WestonBeach Race. The former editor of F1 Newsand founder member of the Groucho club, henow lives with two dogs, an old Mercedeswagon and several motorcycles old and new.He is currently tuning up his Stannah stairlift.

Andy Riley is a cantankerous, hairy old biker,who has been designing magazines since’81 (that’s 1881). He has worked on CustomCar, Hot Rod & Custom, Auto Performance,Automotive & Commercial Refinisher, AutoTrade, Heavy Duty, Back Street Heroes,Which Bike, Breaker, HOG, MotorCycleInternational and TBM. And in that time hehas learnt virtually nothing. He still owns aHarley, though like him it hasn’t run in years.

Jon Bentman is the founding editor of Moto Xmagazine, and former editor of EnduroExtreme, Motorcycle Sport & Leisure andKiwi Rider. He is a two-time winner of theNew Zealand Dusk-till-Dawn Dog Sled Raceand once edited Good WoodworkingMagazine. Nevertheless he admits hedoesn’t actually own a saw and all theshelves in his house in Kent are crooked.

David Knight is a three-time World Endurochampion (E3), twice American GNCCchampion, 19 times British champion, doubleErzberg Enduro winner, multi-time ISDEgold-medal winner and victor of countlessother outdoor and indoor extreme enduros.He lives on the Isle of Man with his two dogsDaisy and Rosco. And loves to compete onold trials bikes with his brother. Occasionallyhe likes to vigourously polish his MBE medal.

Warren Malschinger (aka Gunslinger) is aSouth African born Australian, pescatarian,gym-going, reggae-loving dirt bike nut.He hides in plain view disguised as an ownerof a private equity firm (and what was previ-ously TBM) but secretly his true identity is ananarchistic motorcycle enthusiast. He lives inGuernsey in the Channel Islands with hiswife, son and cat, Purlock Holmes. Hisfavourite words are; travel, ride, anywhere…

THEY SAY DRESSING in a ‘casual chic’ style takesan inordinate amount of time whereas putting on a suitand tie is a much quicker option. I wouldn’t know -I do neither. Writing this column however is a similarproposition. You might think that its charismatic chaoticconstruction and rambling stream of consciousnesstakes merely minutes to concoct. Tragically the desiredeffect can take days, even weeks to achieve. Which iswhy, saddened though I was by the demise of TBMand the resulting hiatus in my writing schedule, it didat least give me the necessary time to embark on aproject that I have dreamed of since first setting aknobbly tyre on French soil 27 years ago… A north tosouth diagonal crossing of the country, off-road.An homage to the rural France I have grown to love.In actual fact this project began back in 1995 when Ilaunched off-road travel company Sport Adventure. I’dplanned just such a trip back then but after a week ofreconnoitring tracks south from Le Havre I realised thetrue enormity of the task involved and ended up creat-ing a Normandie trip instead. But as Neil Young sang,‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (had to get that in somewhere).And so more than two decades later, in August thisyear I was back in Le Havre, again on a 350, thoughthis time an EXC not a DR, for the run through of the‘Trans-France’ route. Destination St Tropez…In the intervening 20yrs I’d learnt a few things aboutmaking routes and running off-road trips, the mostimportant of which is that preparation is everything.Before you even start the months of riding around, youneed to have a very clear idea of what you’re going todo and how you’re going to do it. The French call it a‘cahier de charge’, a sort of flow chart where the basicprinciple of what you are trying to achieve leads you tomake the right choices from the outset. My cahier decharge went something like this: The trip must take nolonger than seven days to complete, as nobody haseither the time or energy to ride any further. The route

Chris Evans

FrenchLessonsBy Chris Evans,photos by Chris Evansdog: kenneth

[Chris Evans runs 3-day enduro bike tours in France, to contact him call 0033 662 487190 / www.sport-adventure.com]

should be no more than 2000km and no morethan 50% off-road. And as motorways and

A-roads are agony on a dirt bike the rest of theroute would have to be made up of those empty littletarmac byways France has in abundance. It had to bedo-able and enjoyable for a rider on anything from a125 to a 1200. The solution: a bale-out option forvirtually every off-road section on the route. I wasn’tintending to put in anything too extreme, but I never-theless wanted to give all my enduro riding regularssomething to get their teeth into. To navigate I’d haveto ditch my beloved road book system and issueeverybody with a preloaded GPS. This was the mostdifficult decision to take but the alternative was hand-ing out four rolls of road book per rider per day.Once I was happy with my flowchart I needed toactually write the route, but before I started the daysof riding around linking tracks and B-roads together,I decided to get out my address book, containing allthe off-road friends and acquaintances I’d made sincearriving on the other side of the channel and enlisttheir help. Happily for me they covered virtually thewhole length of the route from Le Havre to St Tropezand I owe them all a huge debt of thanks. Withoutthem I’d never have completed my mission.But complete it I did which is how I found myselfrolling out of Le Havre on a blustery, late summer’sday in the company of Sport Adventure’s only socialistcustomer, Ian Golton, who’d bravely agreed to accom-pany me on the inaugural run through.The first day I already knew well and if you haveever ridden our original Normandie route that startedfrom Le Havre you’d recognise bits of it as well. As I’monly planning to run the route in the summer monthsI wasn’t bothered about avoiding the boggy bits and itwas a pleasure to be back there and say hello to barowners that I hadn’t seen in over 15 years.The second day was the one I’d been most

concerned about, and waking up in the morning topouring rain did nothing to dampen my disquiet. Thoseof you who know France well will know that south ofNormandie you get into a long flat plain all the way tothe Loire Valley. And while there are plenty of trackscriss-crossing the area, the countryside they runthrough isn’t particularly interesting. To respect myseven day limit I’d decided therefore to cross thisregion as quickly as possible, cut the off-road ratiodown to about 25% and get 340km under my beltlickety-spit. The Dakar organisers would have calledit a liaison day - but as we squelched into a café coldand wet, my riding companion Ian was calling it otherthings, unprintable in a family journal. But then magi-cally, as we crossed the Loire, the weather brightenedup, as I had promised, and everything came right.From then on as we headed across the Limousin,the Rhone Valley, Chantal, the Ardeche, towards theVar, the temperatures rose along with the altitude ofthe terrain. The off-road ratio increased, the tracks gotstonier and the scenery became progressively morearid. But if the scenery changed, what remained thesame, from start to finish was the impression of acountryside abandoned by its former inhabitants.The 1957 French population census showed that -at the time - more than 50% of them earned their livingdirectly from the land. This was barely more than adecade after the Second World War had ended andessentially France was a population of low-paid peas-ant-farmers. However the last census a couple ofyears ago, revealed that in modern-day France 75% of

Chris Evanspeople now live in an urban environment. In the inter-vening years there has been a mass exodus from thecountryside that has left farms abandoned, villagesdeserted and roads and tracks empty. Only the veryold remain, waving at us from their porches as we rodeby. All this interspersed with inexplicably tarted-upenclaves where the richer northern Europeans haddecided (on a seemingly random basis), to maketheir second home. It makes undertaking such a tripinfinitely easier, but I couldn’t help wondering whatwill happen when the current inhabitants of ruralFrance die off. Some say that the digital revolutionwill repopulate the French countryside, but they’llhave to work on their 4G network first…And then 60km out from St Tropez the world turnedon its head. Renault 4s and Citroen Xantias weresuddenly replaced by Rollers and Ferraris; old ladiesin pinafores by Russian supermodels wearing verylittle at all, and we actually got stuck in a traffic jam ofwall-to-wall Bentleys driven by richly coiffured playboyswearing chinos and light blue shirts. St Tropez itselfwas an almost unbearable culture shock and ourpeaceful hymn to rural France transformed into anear splitting rap to excess.Tired and somewhat surprised to have reached ourgoal, Ian and I treated ourselves to a celebratory pizzaon the waterfront and watched the Lambos ooze pastas we tried to hold onto the memories of the endlesswoods, fields and tracks, mountains and plains, roadsand tiny villages that now seemed to exist in someparallel universe but which our passion for off-roadriding had given us privileged access to.The next morning we wearily climbed aboard a TGVback to Le Havre and did the whole trip backwards inhyperdrive. A strange experience. If you feel a yearningto see the true face of rural France - a visage that haschanged little in centuries - then there is no betterway of doing it than from the seat of a dirt bike…

‘’

Some say the digital revolution willrepopulate the French countryside,

but they’ll have to work on their4G network first...

Words: Jon Bentman Pics: Jon Bentman & Iain McGee

2015 YAMAHA WR250F v 2015 KTM 250EXC-F

It’s a shootout!End of 2014 - after an eight year wait - Yamaha has at last updatedthe WR250F. And how! It has the same radical reverse cylinder head,backward slanting motor and curly-wurly exhaust as their fantasticYZ250F motocrosser. It has the same under-seat fuel tank too. It’sall about mass centralisation. Yamaha says it has the same enginespec and the ultimate performance is decided by the electronics.So if you want 40hp you’ve got it...

When?The WR has only recently arrived in the UK, so we immediately setup a comparison test against the class leader, the KTM 250EXC-F.Forget the specs, the battle will be won and lost on the dirt.

WHAT’S THE STORY?

2015 KTM 250EXC-F £7199 2015 YAMAHA WR250F £7249

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So let’s set the scene… Here we are, at the Yamaha Off-Road Experi-ence (YORE) in Wales, run by ten-time British enduro champ GeraintJones. We’re here to see if the promise that the new WR250F showedat the world launch back in Sardinia (last December) really does parlayinto the real world of UK enduro. The first 2015 WRs in the UK hadarrived here on the Friday before our test and we gave Dylan Jones andJohn Begley (the day-to-day driving force of YORE) just three working

Where?We’re at the Yamaha Off-Road Experience in Powys, Wales.

Home ground for the blue team, but when it comes to mud, roots,ruts and rocks there’s never a home advantage.Who?The test team are: Jon Bentman, long standing test rider andfeatures writer for RUST, he’s been testing enduro bikes non-stopsince 2003; Dylan Jones, ahh yes a Yamaha man, but we allknow the Jones boys can’t lie, even if it hurts, ‘DJ’ is a formerchampionship level racer and ISDE gold medalist; Iain McGee isa proper trail rider, a road rider turned dirt bunny and fan of two-strokes who rides an old but nicely-kept 250EXC.Why?Because the new Yamaha is the most dynamic new enduro modelto come to the market in years and we need to know if it changeseverything. Or not...

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IT’S LIKE, ‘BAM! In your face, dude’. Properpunch in the nose delivery… that’s how thenew Yamaha WR250F hits you. A little ‘two-fiddy’ four-stroke shouldn’t make your eyeswater like that. But this is 2015, the world ischanging. Heck, some people are drivingmid-range cars with nothing more than a900cc three-cylinder engine under thebonnet; across the board - cars, bikes,trucks, outboards - there’s a new age ofengine-tech going on - smaller, more power-ful and much more efficient - and this newWR is very much part of that ethos. So as itgoes, yes the WR is proving that a 250Fenduro really can have mind-warping,hair-stripping performance. Which is greatnews. Unless you’re KTM that is.

Endurodays to get one out of a crate, built-up,run-in and de-bugged (emission laws canstifle the life out of a competition bike).In fact there was good news on set-up:whereas in the US they need a whole newECU to replace the super-restrictive onefitted to meet Californian laws, here inEurope we get the full-power race ECU asstandard. So no faffs, no added expense.The bike’s even fitted with Metzeler Six-Days FIM-spec knobblies so there’s noneed to change the rubber either, just setthe pressures (mousses can wait for seriouscompetition days) and go. As PDI/prep goesit was actually quite straightforward.

And in the Orange Corner...Course RUST haven’t arrived at the Jones’empty-handed, we’ve brought along a 2015KTM 250EXC-F with us, care of KTM UK.This bike is the reigning class champion: itwon the 2014 E1 world championship (careof Christoph Nambotin) - oh, and the 2013and 2012 titles as well - so it’s pretty muchconsidered the best 250F on the market.No quibbles. It’s worth rememberingexactly what this bike is about. This modelstarted out in the 2014 model year (whichmeans it was first sold mid-2013) and wasconsidered all-new at that time since it fea-tured a brand new motor shared with the2013 250SX-F (and 350F). This was a big-ger-bore shorter-stroke motor than the pred-

It’s a familiar layout to the KTMcockpit: simple, functional, neat.Rear Brembo lacks the plasticprotector found on the Yamaha but isnot particularly vulnerable and workswell. KTM claims the torque war...

Yamaha cockpit super neat andfunctional too - front brake hosedoesn’t obscure the view as muchas you might think. Yam’s Nissinbrakes are magnificent. But it’s theyam’s engine that impresses most...

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ecessor, which very much changed thebikes’ character. On its launch the MXversion was described as a ‘screamer’ giventhe heady 14,000rpm rev-limit. And thebigger valves allowed by the bigger boremeant it could really breathe deep and long,making for a bike that was measurably morepowerful than any other 250F in the pad-dock (the SX-F has also won three worldchampionships, back-to-back). KTM enduro-ised the SX-F motor into EXC-F spec byway of a heavier crank, a counter balancer,a six-speed gearbox and a lot more, andwhere the previous 250F felt rapid, this onefelt rapid and torquey. Just what you want ina small-bore enduro thumper.Suffice to say it was a weapon, AntoineMeo (factory racer) loved it and simplycoasted to two world championships beforeNambo’ made it three. In 2013 we got tocompare the then new 250EXC-F factoryracer in a back-to-back test with JuhaSalminen’s works Husqvarna TE250R (backwhen Husky was still Italian) and the KTMwas easily more torquey and plain faster -better, in every dimension then.So Yamaha’s opposition in this segment isno lame duck. The KTM is serious kit that’sgot a serious amount of fight in it. Forgethandbags at dawn, this is going to be onefull-on, bloodied-knuckle conflict.

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A Matter of ScalesWith dirt bikes, weight really is aninescapable truth - and it’s the enemy ofdynamism, ask any DR-Z400 owner. Now, inour launch test we reported with some con-cern that Yamaha’s claimed (wet) weight of118kg for the WR250F was heavier than theclass-leading KTM. We said at the time thatit didn’t feel at all that heavy and we thoughtthat Yamaha were being pessimistic.Well, by good fortune we had the Jones’sunbelievably accurate sheep-weighingscales at our disposal so we took the time tofind the truth. Both bikes were immaculatelyclean with brimmed fuel tanks so that we’dget a truly comparable measure.First on the scales, the KTM: 114.5kgbrimmed. That compares to their statedweight of 105.5kg (dry). Next up, theYamaha: 116kg fuelled. That’s actually twokilos lighter than their claimed (wet) weight.We looked at Dylan, who looked at John,who pointed to a box of bits at the back ofthe YORE garage. The Yamaha comes witha fair bunch of road bits to meet homologa-tion requirements, but of no real use to anenduro or trail rider, so the guys hadstripped this stuff off. We didn’t argue, andbesides the KTM was as stripped as theYamaha, with no indicators, no horn etc.The bottom line however is that the Yamaha

is slightly heavier - and it carries 1.5-litresless fuel too. All that said, if you were tofit the Akrapovic muffler and remove theweighty electric fan from the radiator (itnever triggered once in two days riding)you’d probably come right down to theKTM’s weight. So the KTM is the winner ofthe weightwatcher’s competition, but it’sdamn close.

Tippy ToesWe didn’t hang about. Next job: get on thebikes and head into the woods. Straightaway there’s a marked difference - Yamahato KTM - with the WR being so tall. Thestats sheet suggest the KTM is onlymarginally taller (970mm to the WR’s965mm) but that wasn’t what we found, theWR seeming to stand a good two-inchestaller (we love the old measures) in thesaddle. That was okay for this tester, but forDylan (a more compact specimen) therewas definitely some tip-toeing going on.It was noticeable too that the handlebarswere a fair bit higher than the KTM’s, whichby comparison felt very flat, very low andeven a bit wide. I was definitely morecomfortable on the WR, without it feelingat all ‘trailie’.A quick word here, and a ‘sorry’ to KTM forthis, but the 250EXC-F didn’t start on thee-start when cold. There just wasn’t the juicein the battery to light it up, despite the bike

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coming direct from KTM UK’s workshops.KTM UK said this is normal, first start you’rebetter off using the kickstart, after that thee-start works just fine. And they were rightabout that.Both days, first start we had to kick, thenfor the rest of the day, probably given a bit ofcharge feeding into the battery, it would startpromptly on the button. That could be aresult of KTM’s weight-saving policy. Youcould spec a bigger battery and have e-startright from the word go, but then carry aweight penalty of 250-500 grammes for therest of the day. As it is the kickstart workswell enough, maybe not first kick, or evensecond, but mostly before the sixth - it wasnot a sweat. But, by comparison, theYamaha, just days old, sprung into life firsttwitch of its button, hot or cold. That’s veryJapanese, that is. The Yamaha possessesa kick-starter but it was never called intoaction.

On the TrailWe expected some difference in feel andperformance between these two, but franklynot as much as we found. Somewhat reas-suringly, the Yamaha was exactly the ma-chine it had been at the launch. ‘Lithe andathletic’ is how I’d described it back then,and that is exactly how it felt in Wales. The

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motor revs-up instantly and the bike simplybounds its way up the trail, springing keenlyoff the bumps, and spinning its rear tyre atevery opportunity. If you doze for even aminute on the KTM then the Yamahadisappears out of sight.By comparison the KTM felt almost slowrevving (despite being described as ascreamer just two years ago…). And it’s notjust the engine where the KTM feels oldereither. When it came to the handling, theYamaha felt light years ahead.Just to be clear the KTM was doingnothing wrong; it was steering sweetly, andcarving tight lines through the corners. Butsomehow the Yamaha always felt sharper,more focussed, better defined. And not justby a small amount either.It has to be said, it all comes at you thickand fast on the Yamaha. The motor is notimmediately torquey. It doesn’t seem to carefor such niceties, it simply revs quickly andlightly through the bottom third of the revrange, keen-as-you-like to reach its mid-to-top, whereupon it lights up like a MotoGPracer, just howling as it races up the revscale, creating fantastic pace.The wide-ratio six-speed box feels close-ratio, because as you shift up, there’s nodiscernible gaps between gears, the motorjust keeps singing and the front end stays

light, floating in mid-air whilst the Kayabashock dutifully tracks the bumps andwhoops. It is amazingly fast for a 250F.Stupidly so? No, but hey, you do questionif you really need more.The KTM meanwhile feels a wholegeneration older. It picks up nice andsmoothly off the bottom, and over that firstthird it’s noticeably punchier than the WR -it’s got good grunt for a 250F. But thenmid-to-top, there’s just this vast plateau,not of torque or power, just revs.The revs come up but the front end fallsdown. The torque seems to be ebbing awayand so the front drops into the hollows andgets loaded up as the bike tracks theupslope of the next whoop. And that feelslike it’s creating a whole load of drag, it evenmakes the handling feel a bit imprecise. And

Right: Using theoptional Yam PowerCommander it takesonly 30sec to change

the WRF’s powercharacteristics.

Main Pic: Yam ridestaller in the ruts but ittakes a good rider toexploit the advantage!

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when the Yam - running arrow straight - hasscreamed off down the next section of track,the KTM is still puffing along, wallowing everso slightly as it feels the strain of trackingevery peak and hollow. With more effort,and with a fanned clutch, you can really getthe KTM to scream, but the effect isn’t thesame - the WR smokes it every time.

Lunge & ParryThere was for a good while a sense that theWR was going to simply run away with thistest. Arriving at a fast triangular special testlaid out across a hilltop it zipped round feel-ing way quicker than the KTM. On thebrakes it once again felt precision-cut -you could pin the front on the anchors(the Nissins were more than a match forthe KTM’s Brembos) and the forks neverfelt troubled. It would then spring its waythrough a section of small bumps, jumpsand rocks, before skipping its springy waydown a downhill cut. Almost effortless.The KTM on the same terrain was simplyunable to match it. On the fast straight it feltlike it lost an easy half-second (just on onestraight!), and when it came to the 90º turnat the end it felt slow to turn-in (surely not?).However, over the bumps and rocks, it wasreassuringly secure running low and track-ing resolutely straight, able to make good

Endurodrive. Even then there was a sense it wasgamely trying to keep up, choking in thedust cloud left by the WR. Then through arocky section of chicanes leading into thedownhill cut, while feeling secure the steer-ing simply didn’t feel fast enough, akin tothe sensation of water dragging on a rudderwhen changing course on a sailboat - theopposite of ‘rapier’ sharp. It didn’t help thatwhen swapping between the KTM and theYamaha, the EXC-F’s low-set handlebarsfelt lower than ever (oh, my aching back).Fortunately in the woods - and these beingtypically Welsh, they came with pronouncedroots, off-cambers, mud and deep ruts - theKTM’s enduro pedigree began to shine.Here’s where the WR’s bounding gait is ofless advantage. It remains light on its feet,but sometimes it jumps around a little toomuch for its own good and so you spenda little energy reining it in, forcing it to bemore deliberate, less carefree, so as notto bounce unwittingly into a tree. As well,you’re measuring the power as you exitthose tight turns, it’s not pulling quite sofirmly from the bottom, and if you acciden-tally reach too far into that boisterousmid-range then things might get a little tooexciting for your own good. It’s not putting afoot wrong, but you’re checking its progress,for safety’s sake.The KTM meanwhile is a safe pair ofhands in this terrain. It knows this stuff from

grip and not taxing the rider. Meanwhile, inboth those corners the lively Yamaha wasby comparison a more hectic ride. To makethe WR stick in the shallow ruts you neededto ride quicker and more decisively, lookingto compress the forks a little more so as tofind the grip. And then you had the task offighting the wheelspin on the way out; itbeing an uncertain matter as to whether youshould rev it harder and spin your wayahead or try to force the motor to bog andfind grip.Once out of the corners, upshifting intothird gear, and with momentum overcomingthe wheelspin, the Yamaha’s youthfulnessshone through and it sprinted away wherethe KTM lacked that killer mid-range kick.And that light touch was handy throughsome of the technical climbing where youcould jump the WR over hollows that theKTM was inclined to drop into. The WR didrisk getting wrong-footed, but if it ever wentwrong it could play its emergency-issueslow-slog card and still scale the hill.

He Aint Heavy…While we’d been weighing the bikes I’dcaught myself doing a quick check on theold ‘personal baggage allowance’. Turns outthis rider, completely togged, knocks over afair 97kg, which is a lot. Of course Knighterprobably weighs more, but most racers mustbe in the 80+ kilo range. What’s interesting

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years in the game. It tracks a rut morenaturally and it uses that grunty bottom endto punch itself free from one rut to another.It rides lower in its suspension too, and thatmakes it feel less tippy and reassuringlyground-hugging when you’re leaning itthrough the deeply cut-out turns. It pullsstrongly from zero, finding good grip as itpulls its way over the banks and cambers.The WR will also find grip, but you have toforce it to slow down to engage its tractor-like low gear plod - and any time you allowit to rev up you’re encouraging unwantedwheelspin. So you’re inclined to lug-n-bogthe motor on the WR slightly just to keepeverything inline. And that gives the KTM -for once - an advantage.

FightbackOn our second day of testing, picking morewoods riding over the open test-type terrainof the previous day, the KTM continued towork hard to claw back the lost ground.In a leafy, loamy wood with not so muchin the way of roots and ruts, it was close.The KTM again relied on its grunt and itspredictable cornering manners to pick uptime. We set up a loop with two uphillswitchback corners, one with positivecamber, one without. In both corners theKTM was able to pull strongly, finding good

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about that figure is that it puts me in aweight range where KTM typically advisestepping up on spring rate in the forks andshock so as to keep the suspension workingin the correct part of its stroke.It was noticeable however that on theYamaha there was no sense of needing tochange the spring rates in the fork or theshock. The suspension seemed to ridemostly in the first half of its stroke, stayinghigh and keeping the pegs clear of trouble.The altogether lighter Dylan certainlywasn’t taxing the suspension like I was andconsidered adjusting the forks - by reducingthe compression damping and adjustingthe spring rates - so as to allow them tocompress more. Our consensus being thatthis would lead to a more secure feeling inthe ruts and corners.On the KTM, with my heft, it felt that thebike was riding much more in its mid-strokeand while this meant it didn’t feel as nimblein the fast stuff, it certainly helped in trickywoods riding. On balance I could probablyhave benefitted from slightly firmer springsin the KTM.

Slowing it DownThe evaluation so far had been led by theYamaha. We’d spent two days on the trailschasing whoever was riding the WR as it

sprung its way gazelle-like here and there. The opinion is that Yamahahave the race side of the equation very much sorted. For expert-levelracers there’ll probably be some fine-tuning to be done with the suspen-sion, but this is top-spec Kayaba kit - and chances are they’ll arrivequite readily at a high-quality optimal setting. There could also be a littlesorting with the Power Tuner, which will allow a fine degree of optimisa-tion in engine response to suit the rider and the terrain. The WR is goingto be a truly formidable enduro weapon and in E1 it’s bound to makesome waves. Even though it didn’t win the world championship this year

that takes just 30-seconds) and we did finda suitably low-power map that finally tookthe keen-rev out of the WR. It actually gavethe WR a very similar character to the KTM,with the same sense of rich-jet low-end‘Bwoooarr’ (pull) but it couldn’t quite repli-cate the same sense of flywheel weight thatgives the KTM the full stamp (or stomp) ofauthority. Yep, for the trail you might wantto tame your new WR. For now, though, ifasked which makes the better trail machinewe’d say the KTM.

In ConclusionYamaha have come back with one hell of aspectacular bang. This new WR is revolu-tionary the way the first (2001) WR250Fwas. It’s a proper game changer. The fact itcan - in certain situations - make the KTM250EXC-F (the reigning world champ) feelalmost geriatric really says something. It’sextraordinary too, that Yamaha can comestraight back in to enduro and do this. KTMare up to their spuds in enduro, month-inmonth-out. Yamaha meanwhile dips in onlywhen the whim takes them. They did so in2001 with amazing results, less so in 2007(with the alloy-framed WR250F) - and wewere truly left wondering just what they werethinking with the 2014 WR450F. But nowthey’ve come back with this new WR250Fand shocked us with their brilliance.Rest assured, KTM are far from finished

Enduro

- Farioli KTM are a tough team to beat - itstill stands to be hailed as king of the E1s.However, here at RUST we’re not allracers, in fact globally probably only a fewof us really are. And when it comes to trailriding we have to ask do we need a bunchof blue racers bounding excitedly down thegreen lanes? The new WR is - as you cantell - a very different animal to the old WR.By nature it struggles to do ‘slow’, some-thing which the old WR very amiablyaccommodated. It’s going to do green lanesvery easily, but maybe too easily and alongthe way it might just tease its rider into a fewtricks, or maybe a little extra squirt of speedhere and there. Not always a good thing inthe public domain of the byway. Against thisthe KTM has a steadying personality, it’sseriously adept, but it doesn’t need to beshowy with it. The KTM can deliver satisfac-tion by dispensing with technical terrain in aquiet, efficient manner. It’s a little lesshooligan and a little more conservative.Who’da’ thought it…Dylan, John (and Geraint) at YORE arereading this situation as well, their feedbackis that the new WR is going to be a greatracer but will need a little adapting to trailand school duties. While we were testing,Dylan was inputting various engine mapsinto the WR via the Power Tuner (a process

Yamaha WR250FPrice: £7249Engine: liquid-cooled DOHCsingle cylinder four-strokeDisplacement: 250ccBore & stroke: 77x53.6mmCarburetion: Fuel injectedGearbox: Six speed, cableactuated wet multiplate clutchStarting: Electric and kickFrame: Aluminium doublecradleFront susp: Kayaba 48mmUSD forks, 310mm travelRear susp: Kayaba shockwith linkage, 318mm travelFront brake: 250mm disc,twin piston Nissin caliperWheelbase: 1485mmSeat height: 965mmGround clearance: 325mmFuel capacity: 7.5 litresWeight (claimed): 118kgfully fuelledWeight (tested): 116kg fullyfuelled (minus road kit)Contact: 01932 358000www.yamaha-motor.eu/uk

SPECIFICATIONS

KTM 250EXC-FPrice: £7199Engine: liquid-cooled DOHCsingle cylinder four-strokeDisplacement: 249.91ccBore & stroke: 78x52.3mmCarburetion: Fuel injectedGearbox: Six speed, hydrauli-cally actuated DDS clutchStarting: electric and kickFrame: Chro-mo central tubeframe, alloy sub frameFront susp:WP USD 4860MXMA PA forks, 300mm travelRear susp: WP PDS5018DCC shock, 335mm travelFront brake: 260mm disc,twin piston Brembo caliperWheelbase: 1482 +/–10mmSeat height: 970mmGround clearance: 345mmFuel capacity: 9 litresWeight (claimed): 105.5kgwithout fuelWeight (tested): 114.5kgfully fuelledContact: 01280 709500www.ktm.com

Dylan ‘DJ’ Jones and John Begley at Yamaha Off-RoadExperience for getting the WR sorted in such a short timeand then hosting us for two days. You too can ride the newWR250F at YORE, anytime this year, check them out atwww.yamaha-offroad-experience.co.uk or callthem on 01686 413324. Tell them we sent you!

Enduro

though. This season (the 2016 model year)they have an all-new range of motocrosserscoming and we can tell by the buzz fromtheir staff that these are going to be amaz-ing machines. Not that they need them…KTM are already dominant in motocross.Point being what’s new in one year for theSX/SX-F range typically flows a year laterinto the EXC/EXC-Fs. And this will happen,KTM have already confirmed new endurobikes for 2017. So while Yamaha might havewon this battle - and quite convincingly - thewar is far from over.But we can’t end like that, it’s never fair inlove and war, there can only be the onewinner, and we should call it. That winner isthe new Yamaha WR250F: fast, agile andamazing, it’s put Yamaha right back on topof the pile and rocked KTM back onto theirheels. If you’re a fan of the blue bikes, a fanof enduro, or just a fan of great dirt bikesyou owe it to yourself to try one…

THANKS TO: KTM UK (Ross Walkerarranging and Gareth Edmunds in theworkshop) for supplying, prepping and thenwaiting patiently with the 250EXC-F whilethe Yamaha fought its way through EUhomologation. Thanks to Yamaha UK (KarlRadley) for allowing RUST to be first in thesaddle of the WR250F in the UK. Thanks to

Obviously my year started well over the winter - winning the BritishExtreme Championship - and I had a good beginning to the indoors,then went downhill rapidly with the virus. But I have become strongerand stronger throughout the year, winning the British Cross CountryChampionship and still in with a shout of the British Enduro title aftermissing rounds 1&2. Also the ISDE went well too: I was slowly improvingand had a cracking final couple of days.One of the questions I’m often asked about is how have the bikes andcourses changed over the years I’ve been racing? Well my take on the bikesfrom let’s say 2005 (10 years ago) to now is that they have changed - buthave they improved at all? During the past 10 years we have seen a moreMX orientated enduro bike: fuel injection arrived, stiffer chassis, suspensionhas got firmer, air forks have arrived. Things that haven’t changed much arethe brakes are nearly identical, the clutch system is identical, tyres andmousse are pretty much an identical model and compound so on that frontnothing has changed.Fuel injection is the biggest change and in my opinion it’s a backward step.Don’t get me wrong, it definitely has its advantages - like being able to easilychange the mapping and fuelling - but you cannot beat the feeling that acarburettor gives you. Maybe coming from a trials background where a carbhas much more feel and connectivity with the rear wheel makes the on/offtype feel of fuel injection more difficult for me to use. It has got better in thepast few years and will eventually surpass the feeling a carb gives you, butthis is one area I struggle with on the latest bikes.Chassis stiffness is another thing that has changed a lot. On the olderbikes you had loads more feel on stones, roots and slippery surfaceswhereas the new bikes feel a lot more nervous on this type of going. This isa change that has definitely got to do with the special tests becoming moremotocross orientated over the past 10 years. A modern chassis will cope

WELCOME TO MY new column in RUST magazine. I’ve missed having acolumn since TBM’s demise, so it will be nice to let everyone know what’shappening in Knighter’s world at the minute.So since the start of the year, the Indoor Championship started well untilI was struggling with energy and tiredness. After many tests and a lot ofmoney spent I was diagnosed with CMV virus and EBS. These are chronicfatigue viruses that have been absolutely horrible, and apart from rest, restand more rest, nothing can be done to get rid of them. No drugs or anything,just simple things like get plenty of rest, eat a good diet and hopefully it’ll go.Which mine has now - but post viral fatigue syndrome can last for up to ayear whilst the body repairs itself. It’s hard to begin to understand howdifficult and tired you can get unless you have been through it but thankfullyI’m over the worst so can plod on steadily until I’m back to feeling 100%,hopefully by the beginning of 2016.

tripleworldchampdavid knight writes for rust...

David Knight

AT THE ISDE this year, people were asking me whythe Australians and Americans were so fast comparedto the top European riders? I know how fast they bothcan be, having raced against the Aussies in the Aus-tralian 4 Day, and the Americans in the GNCC series.And here’s the thing… in Europe races have becomeway too easy of late. Being able to walk the tests forfive days or so beforehand allows you to rememberevery corner, bump and root, whilst having fewer riderscompeting (normally 80 or so in an EWC race), meansthat the terrain never gets badly cut-up. This - to a

large extent - removes the need to learn to read theterrain on the hoof. This is different to how it is in aGNCC or National Enduro in the USA for example.At this year’s event, near the end of the week Istarted to ride the special tests looking ahead moreand riding on instinct - reading the ground and noteven trying to think about what was coming next,something I used to be exceptionally good at, buthaven’t had to do since probably GNCC in 2008.At the 6 Days there are 500 or more riders so testsget very rough and change a lot, something thatdoesn’t really happen at EWC or British endurosanymore. There were some long tests and I foundthat when I rode them choosing lines on instinct Iwas certainly fast and it came easily.I really enjoyed the ISDE this year and had loads offun figuring things out again. World Enduro has madethe riders soft and the Europeans are losing out.Meantime the Yanks and Aussies don’t have to knoweach and every bump and root that’s coming their wayand can just twist it regardless. And they are nowbeginning to reap the rewards for it… Knighter

‘’

I’m always looking for minorimprovements to gain time on

the competition...

David Knight

much better in motocross conditions but offers a littleless feel on an old school enduro special test.Times are changing and bikes have to evolve tocope with the changes. I for one love evolution but Ialso love mechanical simplicity, which is disappearingfrom modern enduro bikes. I love testing and playingwith stuff; I always believe you can make somethingbetter and this has always made me a bit of a thorn inthe side of factory teams as they think I’m never happywith a bike. But in reality I’m looking for minor improve-ments to gain time on the competition. Which to mymind should be the normal mentality if you want to win.My 2005/2006 EWC bikes and 2007 GNCC bikewere pretty much identical - only the capacity wasdifferent (one was a 525, the other a 450). They were,and still are - I believe - as near to perfection as youcan get. I still give them a run-out now and again andthey are shockingly good still - from suspension toengine. So yes, modern bikes have changed a lotbut as far as I’m concerned they haven’t necessarilyimproved, they have just changed along the lines thatenduro has changed...

WK400 TRAILWords & images: Jon Bentman

Adventure

In search of the ultimate travel bike…

FOR YEARS SERIOUS adventure ridershave bemoaned the paucity of choice forthose seeking a robust light-middleweightadventure machine. So far both Japan andEuropean Enterprises have turned a deafear. Now the Chinese are answering thecall. But with Chinese bikes having ahistorically poor reputation for quality, canwe really take the WK 400 Trail seriously?I think I can define my state of mind asI prepared to test the WK 400 Trail as....High hopes and low expectations. It’s adifferent mindset to that of testing a newKTM or Honda. There’s no sense of faitaccompli. Instead everything is to play for,anything can happen. The Chinese arelearning fast, and with each year the qualityimproves, the shortfalls diminish and theyget closer to parity with the establishment.But by the same token each year we haveto ask, are they there yet?The latest offering from China is a mid-size, mid-capacity, mid-everything adventurebike has been the dream of many a seriousoverland traveller for years. And a light-mid-dleweight adventure bike is what we’rereally saying, for there are already plentyof options in the 650cc capacity; bikes likeYamaha’s Ténéré and BMW’s Sertão. Andsome markets also see the likes of Honda’sXR650L, Kawasaki’s KLR650 or Suzuki’sDR650. But even those can be a bit too bigfor some; too tall, too heavy, maybe tooexpensive as well?

Adventure

And that brings us to this light-mid-dleweight segment. Bikes that follow the trailblazed by machinery like the Suzuki DR350,XR400 and then the DR-Z400. That’s wherethe WK 400 Trail comes in. It’s a new bike,fresh to the market and - importantly - wherethe DR/XR/DRZ offerings were essentiallytrail bikes that owners had to adapt in orderto undertake long-distance work, the 400Trail is built to be a long distance machineright from the get-go (and ultimatelymis-named). It’s a big-tank bike, completewith a screen, comfy seat, even one of thosecheeky little rails that run above the speedoto take a GPS. Hey it even has properaluminium panniers as an optional extra.It is, correct us if we’re wrong, the firstfactory-standard adventure machine in thiscapacity class.

Nice JobSo we can’t help but praise the WK 400Trail right from the outset. It’s as if the manu-facturer read Chris Scott’s website (www.ad-venture-motorcyclingh.com - the h is correct)and have taken his every observation toheart. The spec is impressive: a simpleSOHC air-cooled motor, big 18-litre tank,mid-to-long travel suspension, 21/18inwheels, a screen and sump-guard. TheChinese have done an amazing job. Simple

Adventure

sleeved down to a more modest 397cc.The simplicity is important. No water-cool-ing means no radiators or hoses to split orcrush. With inspection caps on the cylinderhead it’s a simple job to check and adjust thevalve mechanism too. Cable actuated clutchmeans no hydraulics to fail and fuel injectionlends improved fuel economy and hypotheti-cally it’s more reliable than a carburettor.It’s not entirely basic though, there’s acounter-balancer geared off the crank, sothe engine is fairly smooth in operation.Not Honda-smooth, but y’know, not bad, allthings considered. Oh, and with just under30hp available it’s fairly modestly powered -but all the better for that. It means the motoris in a relatively low state of tune, so moreable to handle the lower grade fuels you getin some parts of the world, and is generallyless stressed (which also means it runscooler). This is not an engine you need - orwant - to buzz. This is an engine for sittingback and watching the world go by (or goby you if I’m honest). But when you thinkabout it, that’s really the only way to travelif you want to see the world.We got the WK with barely 80 miles onthe clock. And the motor was tighter than abuilder’s T-shirt - to the point that it made theride a bit awkward at the start. In the courseof the test we put a solid 250 miles on top of

Adventure

where needed, yet sophisticated in the details.For instance, we like the instrument set:a digital speedo and analogue tacho, then aclock, a fuel gauge, battery health indicator,odometer and trip meter. It’s neat and smartlooking. If slightly generic - or perhapsoptimistic is a better description - there’sno redline on the tacho which reads up to11,000rpm while the bike starts busting alung at 7000rpm. We also like the use ofmodern (low current) LEDs for the tail lightand indicators - right on the money withthose. The controls are getting better witheach passing year, too. There’s a foldinggear lever, and well designed switchgear -hell, even the kill switch looks identical to aKTM/Husqvarna one, so their componentbuyer is clearly watching the marketplace.The seat is comfy and certainly big enoughfor cross-continental travel. The optionalpanniers are frankly Touratech-clones andare both well mounted and feature stronglock mechanisms. We like the gaiters overthe fork stanchions too. Little details like thatmake all the difference on an overland bike.I guess what we really appreciate thoughis the simple air-cooled engine. It’s reputedlysomething of a copy of the Honda XBR500motor. Some have called it an XR400 copy,but those who have dug a bit deeper aresuggesting XBR (the mid 1980s road bike),

that and by the end it was a lot looser - andconsiderably better. So if you get to test ride abrand new one bear that in mind. It becomesa smoother more fluid ride with every mile onthe clock - even the top speed, or top cruisingspeed, improves.First miles we did were a transfer from Lin-colnshire to Norfolk using B and minor A roads.Long straight ones as this part of the countrytypically offers. Riding in the company of aHonda CRF250L - an ideal comparison - wefound they’re an even match on accelerationand cruising speeds… on both we settled intoan easy 55-60mph on the level. And at this

Adventure

Adventure

speed the WK was quite unhurried and re-markably vibration-free, revving at 5000rpm.The screen was doing its job superbly, theseat was okay and the whole ergonomicpackage wasn’t bad at all. If I wasn’t 6ft tallI’d say it was really very good, but being thisheight I’m often a little cramped on anythingsmaller than a GS.By comparison the 250 Honda was just assmooth, but the motor was buzzing alonghigher in the rev range, and the lack ofscreen and thin saddle meant it was a littleless comfortable and a little more tiring.While the Honda and WK are comparable,given their price point and marketing posi-tion, they’re far from identical. With itspanniers attached, the WK actually hasa lot more presence, is noticeably bigger(without panniers its about 15kg heavier),and looks and feels sturdier all round. Thatsaid the Honda is better finished and has athoroughly modern engine. The WK mightbe easy to service but the Honda needs farless frequent servicing, by comparison.The WK’s presence is unfortunately rein-forced by its louder-than-average exhaust.Despite having two neatly designed mufflers,the WK does bark. It’s not competition pipeoffensive, but it’s a fair deal further up the dBscale than the whisper-quiet Honda - to thepoint that I’d roll the throttle mid-overtake so

Adventure

It’s worth spelling out just who makes thisbike. It’s a firm called Shineray, some 17years old now, and one of China’s heavy-weight motorcycle producers. They currentlyproduce nearly 100 models, from ATVs toscooters to 650cc motorcycles. But thebiggest headlines they’ve written recentlyhave been their Italian acquisitions: firstlythat of the Husqvarna factory and tooling, leftover after KTM bought up the Swedish/Ital-ian brand (Shineray reportedly paid less than€25 million for an asset haul they valued at

TheChineseWay

as not to frighten motorists.And the WK, like the Honda, is a bit tall inthe saddle. It’s a fair swing of the leg to getyourself into position - though both of coursesettle into the suspension once you’reseated. But that initial mount - especiallywith the panniers to avoid - can look a touchcomedic. Perhaps we need to face up to thefact that if you want 250mm of ground clear-ance, if you want nine-or-more inches ofsuspension travel (both adventure standards- and note how I mixed the units there) thenthat comes with a lofty seat height. That’sthe unavoidable trade-off.

Into the Rough?Well, off the tarmac at least. Not havingdone the sensible thing and contacted theTrail Riders Fellowship (TRF) for some localknowledge we played it safe by riding onlythe byways as marked on our brand newOrdinance Survey maps. These were to befound in the lower reaches of the ThetfordForest and consisted of some fairly flat, well-graded sand tracks (not even deep sand).The WK wasn’t perfectly equipped for this,riding on smoothish tyres (made by Kenda).Despite being well equipped with rim lockswe left the pressures as we’d used on theroad (yeah, whatever WK had put in them!)and just ploughed on. The motor was spot-

Adventure€50 million). And secondly, the purchase ofthe SWM brand - or brand name. Cleverlythe two acquisitions are brought together tomake one new motorcycle, so they’re nowmaking models that are a development ofthe Italian Husqvarnas as we knew them(TEs and Terras) branded as SWMs. Makeno mistake, Shineray are big-hitters, andare likely to become bigger still.Having explained all that, we shouldmention that the 400 Trail arrives here witha ‘WK’ badge on the tank. In this instance -as has been the Chinese way - the bikehasn’t been imported as a Shineray, or anSWM for that matter, but effectively broughtin unbranded, to be named by the importer.And so here in the UK the bike is a WK 400Trail, elsewhere it’ll have a different name,such as in France where the importer hasnamed it the Mash Adventure 400.All the same, the bike fits into WK’s ever-expanding range of scooters, trail bikes,even tourers. WK is a British firm with asolid 14 years in the business (they startedas a quad importer, and still are - in factthey’re arguably the biggest quad importerin the UK, and so boast a pretty comprehen-sive dealer network. They’re possibly thebiggest small brand you’ve never heard of.Although given that WK put a bike into theLightweight/Supertwins class at the TT thisyear and qualified second fastest it’s morelikely you will hear a lot more about them infuture…

Adventureon for this kind of stuff however, we’d seta speed of anywhere between 15-25mphand the air-cooled SOHC did that old thingof amiably plodding along, whether insecond or third gear.The suspension wasn’t quite so accom-modating. The forks clonked audibly - moreso when topping out as the front came lightover bumps and roots - while the shocksqueaked and squonked as if desperatefor a bit of lube. The actual action of bothwasn’t so bad and will most certainly dealwith everything an adventurous travel riderwill throw at it (say, a jog across the Anato-lian Steppe) but without a doubt you’dwant to fettle the set-up before you set off.Riding on traditional 21/18in wheelshelps and this combined with the easylolloping power of the unit, meant thateven when we encountered sloppy muddysections the WK was quite competentapplying good old fashioned ‘plonk’ toovercome the lack of grip.The brakes were a disappointment how-ever. Both front and rear lacked power(especially for the road), which was odd asthe calipers (twin-piston on the front) andthe master cylinders all look to be good kit.When we returned the bike the guys at WKexplained it was most likely the stock brakepads. Replace them with a decent set ofaftermarket pads - they inform us - and theperformance improves appreciably. They’remost probably right, and that’s an easy fix,

it’s just a shame the Chinese couldn’thave sorted that right from the start.

Going the DistanceThe 18-litre fuel tank is a wonderful thing.Without radiators or associated plumbing totake up much needed volume, the WK canhave a big tank yet be neatly narrowed forcomfortable riding. With the accuracy of fuelinjection we were recording impressive fueleconomy too, 67 and 68mpg on the tworefills we made. Of course we didn’t need torefill, these were occasioned by the Honda,which despite offering 80mpg has such asmall tank that the rider gets nervous fromabout the 110-mile mark. So even if youfitted one of those 12-litre tank options tothe Honda, the WK would still outlast it bya good 60 miles. Yeah, by our calculationsthe WK is good for 270 miles at a go. That’sa gold medal effort in travel bike terms.As dusk fell we discovered the WK’s oneproper weakness. The twin bulb headlightwas too dim whether on dip or main, in factmore light was reflected backward by thescreen than actually lit the way. The Honda’s,by comparison, is light years ahead (groan).

Big LoveHigh hopes, low expectations (a strap lineto English test match cricket up until the lastAshes series) that’s how we came into this

Adventure

Adventuretest. And actually the WK 400 Trail not onlyexceeded our low expectations, but it getsvery close to fulfilling our high hopes.The build quality is a step-up again onwhat we’ve seen on previous Chinese bikes.Still not quite up to Japanese standards, butcloser again, much closer. And the perform-ance is there; this engine - as it ran-in - wasgetting better and better. Perfect for a plodalong the lanes, smooth and easy at 60mphon the tarmac. In fact it was faster than mostof the traffic we encountered and so we dida fair bit of overtaking - which needs a bitof planning as there’s not much more thanabout 75mph at the top end and only modestacceleration from 60mph onwards. But onthe other side of the coin there’s enoughcomfort and more than enough in the wayof what the Yanks call ‘farkles’ to keep thefiddler-come-kit-fetishist happy.What’s most important though is this bikehas spirit. It’s the one aspect of a motorcyclethat’s the hardest to engineer-in, and somany bikes fail because of this. But the WK400 Trail is a happy, willing workhorse of abike and even with the shortcomings we’velisted it’s still a bike we’d look forward to rid-ing. That motor is a good one. That chassisand the ergonomics are decent as well. It’sinviting and when you ride it, it’s satisfying.Given a fettle it’ll be very good indeed.Big question… will it last? It’s difficult to sayfor sure but quite probably it will. Our mate(overland adventurer and author) Chris Scott

found a couple of guys from Germany/Italywho in 2014 made a 20,000km trek fromChina to home in the Alps - and yes oneof them was riding a 400 Trail (badged aShineray X5 as it was a home marketexample). It crushed some wheel bearingsalong the way, but was still in fine healthafter 127 days of non-stop adventuring.That sounds well-tested to us.Of course this was a ‘first ride’ type test.But we rode the kind of roads that suit thiskind of bike and the right kind of trails too.No, it won’t do enduro the way an XR orDRZ can, but then it was never designed to.As a travel bike, though, it’s quite possiblythe best attempt we’ve seen from anymanufacturer to date. A clever bit of kit.Not flawless obviously but at under £4000brand new with 24 months warranty, prettyimpressive. This Shineray team - theyclearly know a thing or two...

THANKSBig thanks to Henry Mablethorpe and theguys at WK Bikes for getting us the test bikejust as soon as they’d broken it out of thecontainer. And thanks too, to our mate AndyDukes for coming along on his own HondaCRF250L to afford us a great comparisonand good company. And thanks to the GreatBritish countryside - it’s an awesome place...

Adventure

Engine: Air-cooled SOHCsingle-cylinder four-strokeCapacity: 397ccBore & stroke: 85x70mmCompression ratio: 8.8:1Fueling: Siemens fuel InjectionIgnition: CDI/ECUStarting: Electric onlyGearbox: Five speedClutch: Wet multiplate,cable actuationFinal drive: ChainFrame: Steel tube, linkagerear suspensionFront suspension: 43mm ‘Fast Ace’forks, travel 210mmRear suspension: Monoshock ‘Fast Ace’,linkage, travel 200mmFront brake: 280mm disc,twin-piston caliperRear brake: 220mm discTyres: 90/90-21 130/80-18Claimed dry weight: 151kgSeat height: 890mmWheelbase: 1460mmClaimed power: 29hp at 7000rpmClaimed torque: 23.9lb.ft at 5000rpmTop speed: 75mph indicatedPrice: £3899Warranty: 2 yearsContact: http://www.wkbikes.com01507 522900

WK 4002015

TRAIL

WildCampingWe had a bit of fun on this test. A nicebackroads ride down from Lincolnshireto Thetford Forest. A bit of fun riding thegreen lanes for an evening and the followingmorning. And - just quietly - we wild camped.Proper British style, where we ate hand-somely at the pub, then mooched off underthe cover of darkness to camp alongside theremotest byway we could find. Then niceand early the following morning an hour’sgreen lane riding before finding a sweetlittle cafe for a full English breakfast.It was all good clean fun. On low-poweredbikes we couldn’t help but stay within thehighway speed limits (although we still gotstopped by a copper - making sure weweren’t on stolen bikes).When we wild camped we made theminimum of noise, didn’t get boozed-up,and made sure we left our camp site asclean as we found it (we just ran a tarpbetween the bikes and a tree). We didn’tlight a fire, we certainly didn’t crap in thewoods. And we rode the byways quietly,respectfully, greeting other users pleasantly.

Adventure

Not so

In return we saw no end of wildlife: hare,deer, plus birds of prey. We slept under ablue moon and woke to a brilliant sunrise,watching the first warming rays tickle thebranches of the pines. Glorious stuff.Yeah, I’m going to be pious here - if yourgreen lane experience is all about racingyour mates on your EXCs and such like,stop kidding yourself and go enter anenduro. We love enduro here and weheartily recommend it. If you’re riding ongreen lanes then ride appropriately.It’s about nature, not ego!

Adventure

Americans Justin Barcia and Cooper Webb.Believe it or not, Ben’s performance is not unparalleled in motorcycle sport.Mike ‘the Bike’ Hailwood’s victory in the 1978 TT after an 11 year break wasa similar sort of achievement. It demonstrates the astounding natural abilityof both these amazing riders.Here at RUST we love to see an old boy do well. Especially as the Ernéetrack was also the scene of Ben’s amazing 2005 MXoN performance:winning his first race by over nine seconds and pushing Ricky ‘the GOAT’Carmichael all the way to the flag in the final race of the day.Ben’s amazing return at MXoN made us smile. In a sense it’s one of hisfinest practical jokes ever. Effectively pulling the trousers down on the entireMXGP/AMA paddock. Now, as then… Ben brings a little fun to the sport.He’s a great antidote to the stultifying professionalism that pervades MXGPthese days, and it begs the question… Should BT come back? After Ernée,you can bet a few teams are pondering that right now.Ben Townley deserves a cup for that result. A C-cup we reckon...

IT’S AUGUST 24, 2004: serious photoshoot time with Ben Townley fora motocross magazine. We’re just getting everything set-up… and forpractical joker Ben it’s the perfect time to don a set of comedy breasts.Back in 2004, Ben Townley and Josh Coppins were living in the samehouse in Belgium. Two young guys striving to reach the very top of theirsport in the mad world of MXGP. At first they weren’t racing in the sameclass, but that all changed when Ben became 2004 MX2 World Championand moved to the MX1 class for the following season. This saw the house-mates banging bars at the weekends and then relaxing in-between GPs byBBQing together - complete with ‘BBQ accessories’ like the comedy apronBen’s sporting. For the record, Josh had a matching apron too!Fast-forward 11 years and the semi-retired Ben Townley rocks up at the2015 Motocross of Nations in Ernée (France) and posts second in the MXGPqualifying race, sixth in race one (MXGP & MX2) and an astonishing secondin race three (MXGP & MX Open). Just 3.179 seconds behind 2015 MXGPWorld Champion Romain Febvre, and ahead of the blisteringly fast

btcomeshome?words and photo by gary freeman

Confessions of an MXSnapper

What was the most outstanding ride at this year’s Motocross of Nations?We reckon Ben Townley’s incredible return nearly a decade after he leftMXGP. Gary Freeman remembers his wicked sense of humour...

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