Homepage Bike Tests

By Chuck Sun From my personal motocross experience, big-bore 500cc two-strokes trigger deep emotions. First of all, a 500 championship was what all aspiring riders strove to achieve during my teenage years. And the 500 Nationals were the…
Read More...

Do you know who Tyla Rattray is? Do you really know, or are you just afraid to admit your ignorance? How can we be sure? Of course, now you know who Tyla Rattray is because he is racing the AMA 250 National Championships. But did you know…
Read More...

The 2009 season will go down as being one of the most exciting championship battles of the last decade. Chad Reed and James Stewart went toe-to-toe all the way to Las Vegas for the Supercross crown, while more riders won AMA 450 Nationals…
Read More...

Regardless of what Chad Reed's contingent of diehard fans think, James Stewart deserved to win the 2009 AMA Supercross title. Not only did he win seven races in a row to pass Reed for the points lead, but he came back again to win even more…
Read More...

The Honda CRF250 is a very good motocross bike. Yes, it has flaws, but apart from the harsh Showa forks (left over from last year), superfluous muffler (a bad idea that won't go away) and irritating bog (thanks to the 40mm carb), it…
Read More...

The three Butler brothers started their race team in 2004 as a way of supporting their own racing careers. Eventually, the brothers cut back on their racing and began using their team to help other aspiring pros. The Butler Brothers…
Read More...

You?re gonna want to read this bike test. This is a story of a project bike that got out of hand. A bike that should have been awesome, and, in fact, had lots of awesome attributes, but turned out to be just average. If only we?d been smart…
Read More...

Like everywhere else in the world, there is a constant battle over places to ride in Southern California. Whether it's public land, private property, closed track or open trails, encroaching developments threaten riding areas. Noise is…
Read More...

A few months ago the thought of testing this bike was a distant dream. Why? Word spread like wildfire through the racing world that Suzuki's 2009 amateur program went belly up. For all intents and purposes, Suzuki's amateur program was…
Read More...

The MXA wrecking crew has a soft spot in our hearts for underdogs. To show our support for those who are not given a chance to show their might on a factory machine, we devised a plan. Instead of $500,000 salaries, $100,000 per race bonuses…
Read More...

The name Kyle Lewis has been on the lips of American race fans since 1982 (when he was a major force in the National Minicycle Championships). In 1987, Kyle became the youngest rider, up to that point, to ever win a 125 Supercross (he would…
Read More...

Imagine, for a minute, the perfect motocross bike. Let your mind wander to unfathomable, unrealistic ideas. Draw up a sketch of the machine on paper, and don?t forget the vivid details. Odds are you would want to construct a…
Read More...

The MXA wrecking crew is a tight-knit group of riders. We ride every chance we get and race every weekend. Our crew is comprised of riders born in every decade (dating back to the 1940s), and while some are babes in the woods and others…
Read More...

To the majority of motocross racers worldwide, MDK is best known for its race team. In the past, MDK has sponsored a host of well-known racers (including Nick Wey and David Vuillemin on CRF450s three years ago) and, for the last two years,…
Read More...

At first, KTM didn?t want to divulge the secrets of the inner workings of their works engines, but we tricked them into telling us the whole story. Michael Sleeter is an AMA pro racer with a really cool job. He is employed by KTM to compete…
Read More...

MXA's goal is to ferret out the modifications, products and settings that work. In the dynamic world of motocross, where everything is constantly being updated, this isn?t as easy as it sounds. When the MXA wrecking crew has…
Read More...

The funny thing about slow bikes is that everyone who races them goes just as fast as on their fast bikes, save for the pros. Some race bikes are easy to test. Everything goes perfectly and all the MXA wrecking crew has to do…
Read More...

The MXA wrecking crew likes to explore all the possibilities when it comes to motorcycle hop-ups. Whether it is testing James Stewart's undefeated National bike, the production 2009 Yamaha YZ125, or Wiseco Performance Products?…
Read More...

By John Basher Palm trees - check. Perfectly prepped track - check. Brand new bike - check. Collectively, I sat on my behind for over 48 hours in a metal tin can of an airplane on my way to Husqvarna's 2010 TC250…
Read More...

Motorcycle test riders are a strange lot. The best are able to separate their personal peccadilloes from their professional responsibilities. Nowhere is this more evident than in the bikes that MXA test riders choose to race--when they are…
Read More...