Motocross Feature

Finding ride time aboard our Fullnoise.com.au KTM 350 SX-F has proven to be difficult over the past couple of months.

Between the travelling to and from the MX National rounds which also cause shortened weeks behind the keyboard with Monday's lost due to travel, even a mid week ride has been out of the question of late.

The good news is as off Sunday just gone, the 9th of June, we have a full schedule of racing and riding planned for our KTM 350 SX-F.

Our plan with this bike was never to build it up in to a "BLING" machine, but concentrate on how the mid sized four stroke motocross bike handled a year of racing and riding across a variety of events. Though with a handful of parts from the KTM Powerparts range, a set of Orange and black wheels and Hubs via John Titman racing and one cool looking graphics kit from Ringmaster images, our bike does look a treat.

Since our last update on our KTM 350 SX-F, we have added nothing new to the bike, in fact apart from the standard oil, oil filter and air filter servicing there really has been nothing to touch on our bike.

We have managed to get a few races in so far this year, but to date all of them have been Motocross events, with three South Australian Motocross Championship rounds and a few local open and club meetings.

Sunday Just gone our KTM was entered in to its first Veterans race, again at a local club motocross meeting. The Veterans class just happened to be the biggest class of the day with around 25 riders lining up in the older mans class of racing!

Moving from the Clubman opens class to the Vets class is a bit of a weird deal. I have always been a back of the pack to mid pack at best Clubman rider, heading in to the Vets class, I am now faced with racing against past state champions and a host of really fast old guys. The Vets class is a lot faster and tougher out front than any Clubman class.

The good thing is there are also a lot of Vet riders out there for the same reason I am, the enjoyment of racing and riding as fast as possible and having some good mid to back of the pack battles, so as I found out on the weekend the racing is still great fun.

The other cool thing about hitting the vets class was getting the opportunity to race against my old man again! He to is mounted on a 2013 KTM 350 SX-F this year, so it was pretty fun lining up side by side next to him on the start gate in the final race on Sunday.

The race day went pretty well for both our bike and myself. In fact the day got off to a great start! Lining up on the 35th gate way down the outside I was determined to at least get a good start in my first South Australian Vets race.

When the gate dropped the 350 launched from the line, by midway down the start straight I looked across to my left and realised I was one of a handful of bikes with clear site to the first turn. Now I have been in this position quite a few times before and always let off way to early, it was not going to happen this time though!

I held it on as long as I was willing and ran round the outside along with the leading riders. I missed out on getting the hole shot, but as I looked up as I exited the first turn, there was only a handful of bikes in front of me, the 350F had left more than 20 mainly 450 machines in its wake down the long start straight at Gilman.

To say I was excited is an understatement and instantly, but with excitement came some very serious arm pump, something I don't usually suffer from. I did spend the rest of the race travelling backwards through the pack and spent more time looking over my shoulder than Mike Alessi in his whole career to date!

That start was the highlight of my day, the rest of the day was enjoyable, but nothing got the heart racing again like that start!.

With racing on Sunday over, the plan was for a quick wash of the bike a fresh air filter then a trip to a local ride park on Monday to work out what gearing to run for Hattah this year, which is fast approaching.

Unfortunately between the news coming in on Monday morning and some work do be done around the house my plans changed. I did however get out on Wednesday afternoon and achieve what I wanted to.

The number one thing as mentioned just above was to work out what gearing ill run for Hattah. Currently I am running a 52 tooth sprocket on the rear of the KTM along with the standard front sprocket. The 350 SX-F comes standard with a 50 tooth rear and the 52 has been great for most MX tracks that I have ridden.

There is no doubt that the gearing is way to short for Hattah, though in saying that even with the gearing I have at the moment, I would be lucky to get to fifth gear pinned and feel comfortable, well maybe it was a close call on Wednesday and on straights that were only a fraction of the length that I will come across at Mildura.

I think going slightly taller than stock will be the way to go, so the plan is to run a 49 on the rear. Ill have a 49 to try in the next week or so and will make a final decision after trying that out.

The other thing I realised was I am in serious need of some sand practice! I have some serious sand riding coming up in the next few weeks!

With Wednesday's ride over, the bike was given a good wash, a fresh air filter has been fitted, some fresh Pirelli decals added to the Pirelli Scorpion MX Mid Hard's that will be used for the next two weekends we are ready to go racing again this weekend!.

This weekend sees us heading to Swan Hill in Victoria for round two of the Victorian Motocross Championship. Myself and the KTM will hit the track on both Saturday and Sunday, as we race the Vic Veterans Clubman class on Saturday followed by the Clubman Open class on Sunday.

The following weekend it will be back to South Australia for round four of the SAMX championship, then the following weekend we stay in South Australia for rounds 7 and 8 of the Australian Off Road Championship which will be held on a Sandy property in Coonawarra.

From there we will head to Mildura in Victoria for the 2013 KTM Hattah Desert race. The original plan for this year was to race the full four hour Iron Man class. A recent development though has seen a last minute change to once again line up in the Trail Rider Magazine Industry Cup.

After winning the Cup in the clubman class last year, Myself along with Williams Full Tilt racings KTM 250 SX-F pilot of Jacob Williams will take aim at winning the Industry cup in the pony express class this year.

Keep an eye on our Interviews and Features section over the next five weekends as we keep you update with our racing progress and how our KTM 350 SX-F handles the variety of events.

Top Image: It was great to get out and spend some time on our KTM 350 SX-F on the weekend.
Credit: FULL THROTTLE IMAGES (Liz Shaw)