carries a jacket and fire extinguisher , and while the extinguishers weren ’ t needed , I was very glad to be wearing my jacket when the temperature dropped . 35 kilometres later ( and 75km in total ) we pulled into camp after covering a huge variety of terrain . Tired and a little broken , but happy , we agreed it was a truly epic ride with stunning views and great riding , despite the unexpected mud and ruts causing some harder than expected going on the Lion and King section of track . Even better was when I went to
get the van keys out of my pack , which Sutherland senior insisted he ’ d put in there at the start of the day , were missing . How we laughed as we walked the first km or two of the track looking for them , only to find them over an hour later in his pocket , just before we were going to break a window .
BUCKET LIST RIDE
If you ’ ve never ridden at Tussock Buster , you should .
The numbers on their own are impressive . 1510 riders over the two and half days , with 961 riding on the Friday alone . It ’ s a stunning weekend of extremely well-organised trail riding that has something for everyone from beginners on 125s to gnarly old exracers on restored classics and everyone in between . The Army training ground near Waiouru covers some 63,000 hectares ( 630 square kilometres ) and this is the only time you can ride there . That in itself is a major draw , but it ’ s the sheer variety of riding and the level of organisation by passionate volunteers which makes Tussock Buster a mustdo event . I ’ ll be back in 2019 , will I see you there ?
THANKS
A big shout out to the volunteers who make the Tussock Buster possible , and thank you to Warrick , Dave , Sam , Doc and everyone else for welcoming a ‘ newb ’ into their ranks . See you next year .
KTM 300 EXC TPI
Our long term 300 makes riding easy
While Todd and Ryan were swapping between their own KDX200 and the borrowed CRF250X , I got to play on our long term test 300EXC . Having not ridden dirt bikes in any meaningful way for a number of years I admit to being massively impressed with the new two-stroke . I absolutely love the electric start , which makes it easy to get going again , no matter where I stall . The suspension is set up pretty soft , which helped stop me getting too tired and cosseted me around the training grounds . I can only imagine how beaten up I ’ d have been on a bike with stiff suspension . If you ’ ve not ridden an up-to-date enduro bike you really should give one a go , this EXC makes me look reasonably competent , which is a minor miracle in itself . And the best bit is this 300 two-stroke used less fuel than Sam ’ s KTM 250EXC-F fourstroke – ok , so Sam rides waaaay harder than I do , but to get well over
Mike Pero rode in and sponsored MotoFest
100km out of the tank of a 300 twostroke is nothing short of amazing .
62 KIWI RIDER