Thumper Articles
News
RideApart 11: Hell On Wheels Moto Rally
From ratty old motorbikes built out of swap meet parts to well polished classic beauties, there's a racing class for it in the Annual Hell On Wheels Moto Rally. Ever keen to have a go on anything with two wheels and an engine, Jamie Robinson shows up with nothing and manages to snag a go on a vintage 70's Yamaha, lining up on the grid for a day of dirty action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS4s...
25 June 2012
Virginia City Grand Prix is Nevada's best dirty secret
The tiny mining town of Virginia City, Nevada holds a special, hard race every year. $70.00 to enter, ring what you bring. No bike is turned away at the gate so long as your bike passes inspection. More than 1000 racers enter in hopes to get, at the very least, a finisher pin. Over 3000 spectators line the streets cheering and yelling for any racer just because. Basically, the whole weekend is pla...
21 November 2011
News
KTM quietly faces the ugly truth about bikes
KTM is utterly desperate for the youth market. So desperate, in fact, that KTM Nightlight Session is a two minute video that has almost nothing to do with the KTM 125 Duke that the video is supposed to be promoting. If it wasn't for the beginning credits, nobody would guess it's even a KTM project since all of the visible branding in the first half of the video is for pinkpark and Scott. Neither ...
19 April 2011
News
Drake McElroy: Memo two
Freestyle master and Smoking Seagulls member Drake McElroy has recently been traveling and performing on the Gravity Slashers FMX Tour. We asked him to document his daily grind while on the road and send back reports."On my left is Big Al. His are the balls to blame. To my right, Joe Martin. He is always a good time and gets it on a dirtbike. He lived in Nor Cal but shipped off to TX. This picture...
06 April 2010
News
Want: Honda CS90 custom RC-style racers
Details are sparse for these amazing little racers built by Ted's Special, a Honda specialist shop based out of Japan. Our only issue with them is distinguishing real from reproduction, since the Japanese are such sticklers about making exact copies of older, non-replaceable parts. Take for instance the possibly original and extremely rare Honda Racing tachometer that goes up to 17,000 RPM. Of cou...
12 November 2009
News
2010 Yamaha YZ450F leaked with reversed single-cylinder
Update: the 2010 Yamaha YZ450F has been officially unveiled and, yeah, this was it. Click here to see it.This shot of the 2010 Yamaha YZ450F is getting a lot of attention and rightly so. We can't remember having seen any reversed cylinder machines sold to the public since the 1990 Yamaha TZ250A privateer road-racer. Beyond the reversed single-cylinder, the new YZ450F looks to be an entirely new bi...
18 June 2009