once worked with a guy who was heavily into motocross . I had only been riding motorcycles for a year or two , and had never been on a dirt bike , let alone off road . This colleague of mine , talked me into joining him for an open day at Digger McEuan MotoX park in Taupo , and after one lap on his 2006 Honda CRF250R I was hooked . I decided there and then I wanted to buy a dirt bike , and knowing nothing about them I decided to get the same bike he had . This lead me on a very steep learning curve . There were many whisky throttle moments , and the bike spent more time on its side than on wheels . Since then I have owned two more CRF250Rs , a CRF230 and a Yamaha WR250F . Each bike had its ups and downs , but each one taught me something new about what I wanted in a dirt bike .

SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES When you are brand new to the sport , unless you have someone to guide you , it ’ s not easy to work out what style of riding you like , what you need , what you ’ re doing wrong and what you need to do to improve . Although I loved trying the big jumps of the motocross track , I tended to get more enjoyment from trail riding . A relaxed jaunt through the bush where you can ride with mates , go at your own pace and generally have

fun . However , riding a motocrosser on a trail ride brings with it its own irritations , like having to find a tree to stand your bike up when you stop . My love of trail riding is possibly something that lead me to adventure riding . It ’ s basically the same , but with an adventure bike there ’ s the freedom of riding anywhere , any time instead of waiting for an organised trail ride .

BETA RR430 This all may seem like a bit of a ramble , but much like a good trail ride , its meandering around , threading its way through the trees , and will eventually end up at the point ... that being the Beta RR 430 4T . The Beta RR 430 is an enduro bike , with a fuelinjected 430.9cc single cylinder engine , and that ’ s pretty much it . Oh , no , wait . It also has a button to switch between the two available power maps . There ’ s no ABS , no traction control , no Bluetooth . It ’ s just you and the machine . Weighing in at 109kg dry , it ’ s light , a lot lighter than the adventure bike I ride daily ( a Tenere 700 ). Taking a look at the side profile of the bike you can see it ’ s very flat from the nine litre fuel tank , back through the seat to the tail . The seat height is 940mm , which on paper I would have said is too tall for me , but it ’ s also very narrow making it very easy to get a foot down to the

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