It ’ s been a long time since I ’ ve ridden with my ol ’ mate Mat . Since he sold his CRF250 Rally , he ’ s been a hard guy to entice out on two wheels . So , I hatched a plan . The first thing I needed to do was source a bike for him to ride . Luckily , I knew of a Beta 300 Racing that was kicking around at KR . With that and my own RR430 , I reckoned we ’ d be pretty well sorted for a bit of dirt fun . My main questions were ... will he be enticed out and can he ride a two-stroke ? We were going to find out . Bike sorted , the next task was to find an event we could both ride in . With Berm Buster making a return for August , he seemed pretty keen , so I booked two weekend entries and we locked it in . I would be loading my RR430 on the trailer and dragging her up from Wellington , with KR tester Liam Calley meeting us in Taupo with the 300 Racing , fresh from his test , which you can read in this issue of the Kiwi Rider .
LIKE EXCITED SCHOOLBOYS I met Mat in Taupo on the Friday night before the event . We were both excited . Neither of us
had kids to worry about for the first time in ages , and we were going to be spending two days riding motorbikes . We hadn ’ t ridden together at all since Matariki weekend 2023 , and we hadn ’ t ridden Berm Buster since the time we took ADV bikes around it over 2 years ago . We had an early night with only a few beverages consumed because we were in for an early start and a big day on the trails . Saturday morning arrived all too soon , a crisp but beautifully clear morning in Taupo . We arrived at the event and Liam was waiting to hand over the 300 . We set about getting to know our bikes n on the short demo loop . Once warmed up , I gave Mat the option of which bike he rode . He chose the 300 , which was fine by me , as I ’ ve never really spent much time on a twostroke .
DAY ONE Out on the trails we went ... and quickly realised how unfit we were . I ’ m not sure how it came about , and it wasn ’ t a total surprise , but we started referring to our selves as ‘ Dad-bod Racing ’.
KIWI RIDER 33