Don’t get me wrong, I love the low end power and pure tractor grunt of a thumper, but that is about it. So expensive to maintain, and so expensive to fix. For everyone who cries about mixing a little oil into your gas on a 2 stroke, I don’t think it is even comparable to dropping 3 drain plugs, an oil filter, and filling the mixing cup of a four stroke every other ride. I have been looking at new 450′s of all brands, and let me tell you it is disappointing to see that I could buy three 250 two strokes off craigslist for the same price as one fuel injected 450. When did dirt bikes get so expensive? In this dilemma of cost and maintenance issues of a 4stroke, and performance woes of a 2 stroke I have resorted to looking at how the whole electric motorcycle thing is coming along. Surprisingly these Electric bikes have come a long way. The sport-bike versions are insane, but in my opinion the Off Road electric motorcycle is still just an Electric Mountain Bike. There is one company that has a supermoto style that is looking close to a real dirt bike, but still has a long way to go before it is competitive with even a 250cc four stroke or 125cc 2 stroke. Until 4 strokes get cheaper or electric bikes get faster, Maybe I will build a big bore 2 stroke? Like a 280, or even a 300. What do you think?

Keith Sayers and Heath Frisby are really gettin their wheels ready for this summers Heavy FMX work load. Call after call,
“when you coming up, the riding’s great”!?! After watching this video Keith put together from this weeks riding they are not lying! Green grass, throttles twisting, and big sky. From the far edge of the United States Keith Sayers and Heath Frisby show us why the North West is a great place to ride.

Here is a segment that was added for the television version of ELEMENTS where Brody Wilson, (friend of the FREERIDEMX movement), and Vinnie Carbone, (keeper of Reche Canon) talk about the world famous riding spot known as Reche Canyon. Brody flips his first 4th gear dirt double, Vinnie shoots the moon on a huge hip, and Pastor gets inverted on a cliff. Other riders include: Greg Schaff, Destin Cantrell, Steve Haughelstine, and Dan Pastor.

MUSIC: “Fight” by: MAIN EVENT

-Steven Haughelstine: It was Renners job to ride in some photo shoots for KTM/Red Bull, and do his part at the world famous Red Bull X-fighters freestyle motocross contest.  My goal for the trip was to document and film as much as possible. From the culture, to Camels, to riding dirt bikes in the Arabian Desert. In our free time we rode and filmed at the local sand dunes. This was not very hard considering that the entire country is pretty much all sand. We were lucky enough to have rode with some of the worlds best rally bike racers and met some very nice locals to show us around. One of the locals we met was Sam Sunderland a young gun from the UK that moved to Dubai for race support from KTM. This kid can ride a bike. We were happy to have a local to ride with that could not only hang, but was even finding jumps and knew were he was going. For the first couple days it was super hot, then we got rare rain storms for that region that lasted for 5 days. Rain in the sand dunes is awesome for riding but bad for jumping. Either way we could not complain, we were on motor bikes riding some of the best dunes ever. The culture amazed me. In the city of Dubai it was clear that the city was made for tourism and was very westernized. We saw KFC, Starbucks, McD’s, Subway, Chilli’s, and even a California pizza Kitchen Restaurant. Dubai is also home to many huge man made islands, the worlds tallest building, and Ski Dubai, an indoor ski slope in the middle of the desert. The  local Muslim men showed their status by rolling around in Lambos, Farrarri’s and the most expensive cars I’ve ever seen. Some women were covered, and some not. I learned that not many people in Dubai were actually from there. There were many people from Lebanon, Europe, India, and the Asia’s. There was quite an interesting mix of people here. When I travel I want culture, I want to taste the local food, and see the way the locals live. The further we got away from the city the more this was true. Every time we went out to the dunes, we would stop to get fuel, waters and snacks at these little, and I mean little markets on the side of the road. These little markets are super cheap and we could get snacks for everyone for like 14 Dirham (4 U.S. dollars) Fuel we figured out was about 75 cents a gallon for 98 octane! This alone made me like the country. When riding the sand dunes you can just ride up to camels eating grass as if you were riding up to a cow in a pasture. They don’t seem to mind as long as you just cruise by. Also, the locals were very into riding sand dunes. There were long travel sand rails, Polaris Razrs, quads, and land rover tours everywhere. It was cool to see that even though we were on the other side of the world, people were enjoying the same things we do. In summery, I didn’t know what to expect from the trip, and ended up having a great time and meeting a lot of great people. Dubai seems to be the leader of the new for this part of the world, and I do have a different perspective on the Middle East now and what it could be in time.

Video will be up soon! Till then, heres some photos some by me and some courtesy of Global News Room:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

1234►

As a rider I make it my goal to have as much fun as possible on my bike. Sometimes this pays off. Sometimes it doesn’t. In this case it did. I have been in Racer X mag, Transworld motocross, Cycle news, and now my first cover on a properly named mag like FreeriderMX! Those of you from the states are like, “Why have I never heard of this mag”? It is a very well known Dirt Sports magazine from Australia that has some of the best pics, riding spots, and stories ever! This month is the issue where world famous photographer Garth Milan, myself, Myles Richmond, and Ronnie Renner shred the hills of Beaumont CA. A good old school free-riding spot that never disappoints. In the past 5 years, we have transformed what used to be an old school “hold it wide” riding spot into a new age Technical Hard Core proving ground. I don’t care who you are, a fast Racer, top FMX rider, or Trail Nazi, Beaumont CA is the ultimate spot for proving your riding skills. From super tech vert cliff jumps like the one above, to sketchy ridge riding and hill climbs, Beaumont is the best spot to Free Ride MX.

Be sure to check out this months Issue of FreeRider MX Magazine and see just how rad it is.

Also, be sure to check out the video that I put together from that day:

-Steven Haughelstine

So in this next video Professional FMX riders Dustin Nowak, Rich Kearns, Todd Potter, and Brody Wilson ride BMX with Nikita Misyulya and try to get back to the roots of motocross. Bicycles.

-Steven Haughelstine

For the first time in its four-year history, Australian riders filled the entire FMX podium at the 2011 Unit Farm Jam at the end of February. Western Australian Red Bull X-Fighters rider Josh Sheehan proved he is one of the best riders in the southern hemisphere when he beat the likes of Crusty Demons’ Unit rider Matt Schubring and X Games silver medallist Levi Sherwood around the predominantly natural terrain FMX course.

Producer: Allan Hardy for Unit Clothing

Music: Infinity by Phatchance, Bored With Sorcery by Monster Magnet