Ron Lawson

The first round of the 2026 EnduroCross season took place this weekend at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. Last season's champion Jonny Walker took his Triumph 450 to the top of the standings with a score of 1-4-1. For former champion Trystan Hart, it was a disappointing evening. He suffered poor starts in all the motos and eventually crashed to finish eighth in the final race. It was a standout performance for both Ryder LeBlond and Cooper Abbott, who rode up front in all three races.

Between sales, championships and pure public adoration, the Husqvarna FX350 has been an unqualified success. In fact, going into 2026, the FX350 was the only competition four-stroke that Husqvarna kept. In a rough year of reorganization, the company thinned out its offerings to the most essential models. It made sense; if you had to rest the future of the company on only one bike, the FX350 has all the bases covered. It can do everything. The FX350 formula calls for an off-road bike that is in the same state of tune as the full-race FC350 motocross bike. It produces the same peak horsepower and it revs to the same redline. There are eight concessions to the off-road world; different suspension, a six-speed gearbox, an 18-inch rear wheel, a 2.3-gallon fuel tank, handguards, a skid plate, a kickstand and an O-ring chain. The mapping is the same as well as all the power-producing components.

One year after the arrival of its first motocross bike, Ducati confirms its commitment to the market segment by continuing its development, which sees racing and production bikes grow in parallel. Feedback gathered during the first racing season has led to the introduction of an evolution of the Desmo450 MX, with the aim of further improving performance, ergonomics and robustness.

The 3 Bros. 24 Hours of Glen Helen is never easy, but the 2026 edition might well go into the books as the most difficult ever. At first, the light rain that fell early in the race was a welcome change from the heat that has beset Southern California in recent weeks. But, by nightfall, the accumulation of rainfall turned the race into a mud run. By sunrise the course was a quagmire. One of the most difficult sections was the famous Yamaha uphill leading from the national track to the west ridge. It became a challenge that required multiple attempts for some riders and absolutely stopped others.

If there are multiple universes, there's almost certainly one where the KTM 690 Enduro was originally offered as an adventure bike. In the current universe, it first arrived as a really big dual-sport bike. Back in the early 2000s, KTM saw the 690 as a way to unseat Honda as the king of the Baja 1000. That didn't happen. As it turned out, the 690 was just too much motorcycle, even for the vast stretches of Baja. Yet, for the next two decades, the 690 returned year after year as a big dual-sport. In the

Round nine of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC series at Mesquite, Nevada was brutal. On Sunday, Tropical Storm Rachel brought a steady downpour. A deep-sand track is hard enough when it's dry. Add inches of rain and it becomes a different race entirely, one that rewarded survival as much as speed.

Dirt Bike Magazine test rider Pete Murray was a Maico man. In fact, he recently discovered he was the last U.S. Pro rider to actually earn points on a Maico–a dubious honor, but one that might mean something to someone. Last month he made a pilgrimage to Germany where he once lived and raced in a previous life. He went to ride a 1979 Maico 250 in the FIM Vintage Enduro Trophy. This is an event spawned by the same people who organize the ISDE, but exclusively for old bikes and old riders. Fred Hoess, Terry Cunningham and Billy Burns won the event for the U.S. Trophy team this year. Pete was a member of a less prestigious U.S. Vase team. He did not win. In fact, he wasn't an official finisher. But he still had a story to tell when he got back. Here's what he said:

Kawasaki has shown its 2027 dual-sport line and the highlight is the new KLX300 ABS Explorer. This is a variation of the KLX300 with a collection of standard feature that will make long excustions and adventure rides more accessible. Here's the official word from Kawasaki.

Trystan Hart won two of the three EX Pro motos Saturday night at the Ford Idaho Center to take the Round 2 overall in the 2026 AMA EnduroCross Championship.

Beta is a great company to deal with. Early last month, Rodeny Smith drove from his home in Boise, Idaho to Beta headquarters in Paso Robles to pick up a