#supermoto

Have I died and gone to motorcycle heaven? Pretty much. EICMA is the world’s biggest motorcycle trade show; anyone and everyone who has anything to do with motorcycling is there. From all the OEMs, to aftermarket performance parts manufacturers to riding gear and apparel companies – it’s all there in unimaginable abundance. I was tasked to sniff out the top five coolest things at EICMA this year and thought – well, that ought to be easy! Boy was I mistaken…

First the good news: KTM confirmed what we already knew, thanks to spy photos: The 2018 KTM 790 Duke was going to be a production model. The bad news: It will arrive in the United States as the 2019 KTM 790 Duke – meaning we’ve got to wait a bit longer, though hopefully not until the calendar clicks over to 2019. What we’re jonesing for is one of the most anticipated middleweight motorcycles to enter the naked/streetfighter class in years.

I asked around at the launch of the Dorsoduro (and Shiver) 900, why was this bike named “Dorsoduro”? I know what the Dorsoduro is and have visited the district in the Italian city of Venice on two separate occasions, but I was looking for an answer full of emotion and history which I have come to expect from Italian manufacturers (and their marketing departments). To my surprise, everyone began to tell me what the name was rather than why it was named as such. Well, after having ridden the 2018 Aprilia Dorsoduro 900, it is clear to me why the Italian manufacturer would look to one of Italy’s most iconic cities and why they would choose the sestieri of Dorsoduro as its namesake.

There’s no denying that Supermoto is one of the most intriguing forms of motorcycling. It combines the best of motocross, flat track and road-racing. The light weight, speed and agility of a dirt bike paired with the glue-like traction of road-racing slicks can make any Average-Joe feel like a MotoGP superstar. Add professional skills into the mix and you’ve got yourself one helluva two-wheeled spectacle.

It’s finally happened. I bought a bike. For the first time in over a decade I own a motorcycle again. For all these years I never found the need to actually buy another bike, especially since I’ve got new ones to ride all the time, but the bug finally bit me. So what did I buy? A Suzuki RM85 converted to full supermoto trim.

Check out KTM RC Cup Ambassador Chris Fillmore as he wheelies and slides his way around Barber Motorsports Park aboard three different KTMs: 1290 Super Duke R, RC Cup race bike, and 450 SX-F supermoto.

Remember that time, two years ago in 2014, when we put an electric bike up against an ICE motorcycle… and the electric won? The two protagonists in that matchup were the Zero FX, modified for supermoto use by our friend Harlan Flagg, proprietor of Hollywood Electrics, and the Suzuki DR-Z400SM. At that time Zero had yet to officially have a supermoto version of its FX in the lineup, but other than the obvious change in wheels, brakes, and tires, the FX was otherwise a stock bike.

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

Husqvarna announced a revised FS450 supermoto for 2017, updated with air forks and traction control. The 2017 model is currently listed on Husqvarna’s U.S. site but U.S. pricing and availability is still to be confirmed.

Who crams a V-Twin into a dirtbike frame, anyway?! Aprilia, that’s who, and in 2005 it just happened to cram a highly oversquare 77-degree V-Twin into not one, but two(!) different models: the SXV supermoto, and the RXV enduro model. As if that wasn’t audacious enough, Aprilia even made each bike in two engine sizes: 450 and 550. Personally, I remember lusting after the SXV when it launched, dreams of sliding back tires happily floating through my mind. As the years wore on that lust slowly faded as I learned that the bike needed constant attention and upkeep wasn’t cheap. Still, I’d love to flog one around for a day… and then give it back to someone else. Here, let’s jump back in time and let then Senior Editor and current MO contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin, and MO’s beloved former staff photog, Alfonse Palaima, tell you how both bikes perform. Of course, there are tons more pics. Visit the photo gallery to see them.  

If you ask me, there’s no faster way to get your license revoked than to get a supermoto. Why? Because riding one instantly makes you turn into the hooligan you never thought you could be. Take Yossef Schvetz, for instance. The good-mannered moto-journalist he is (was?), even he couldn’t resist acting like a fool once he threw a leg over a SuMo. Of course, when that motard happens to be a 2004 Husqvarna SM450R, it’s easy to see how Yossef would let his inner teenager loose. So let’s turn back the clock to late 2003 to get Schvetz’ take on the SuMo scene of the day and where the Husqvarna stacks up. And for more pics of the SM450R, be sure to visit the photo gallery.

If you’ve been following MO for a while then you might remember the tale of woe that was our experience racing a Honda Grom for 24 hours, wherein we obtained a Grom, ordered up a ton of parts for it (the monetary sum totalling more than the bike’s original cost), slapped them all on, and went straight to the racetrack the next day to race with our friends at the United Mini Racing Association (UMRA) with visions of glory. Instead, it took mere minutes to discover our “modified” machine was nearly unrideable, dashing our hopes for victory and killing our spirits in the process.

If you’ve been keeping tabs, we’ve ridden the Zero FX quite a lot. First in 2013 when I rode one to the top of Pikes Peak, during the 91st running of the iconic event. Later that year I was fortunate enough to be drafted onto a team that raced another FX twice around the clock, making history as the first electric motorcycle to do so. In 2014, Zero’s VP of Global Marketing, and off-road racing legend, Scot Harden, invited E-i-C Kevin Duke and myself to his backyard track to get a taste of the FX in its natural (dirt) environment. Following that, Editor Roderick and I took another FX to Adams Motorsports Park to put it head-to-head with a Suzuki DRZ-400SM, for a gas vs. electric supermoto face-off – where it won! And, because I hadn’t had enough of the FX, in early 2015, I had the bright idea to take one to the short track at Del Mar to try my hand at flat track “racing” (in quotes because I had no idea what I was doing). So, with no less than five Zero FX stories in our archives, a natural next question might be: “Another Zero FX review?!”

Zero Motorcycles today unveiled its 2016 lineup, and the biggest news is the addition of two new models: the Zero DSR and the Zero FXS. We first reported about Zero filing trademarks for the DSR and FXS names back in March, hypothesizing on what the new models would be. It turns out we were right. Read on for more details.

During the middle years of the start of the new millennium the Supermotard craze made a resurgence, and no company jumped on the craze more so than KTM. Ducati may have brought the Hypermotard to market, but KTM brought a whole host of SM models to the masses, including the outlandish 950 Supermoto. In 2006, Gabe Ets-Hokin  wanted to see what the mega-moto craze was all about. Here, he takes the 950 for a quick spin to see just how much trouble he can get himself into. He somehow manages not to land himself in jail, and all the while he extols the virtues of riding a big motard. The gist? They are insanely fun, but a big threat to your driver’s license. See what he has to say below, and be sure to look at the photo gallery for more 950 Supermoto images.