Dirt Bike Australia - The Early Dayz

Dirt Bike Australia had its humble beginnings in early 2008. It began as a single page with some useful links, intended to save dirt bike riders the grief of many fruitless hours of web searches. DBA was picked up quickly by the search engines as soon as the first few articles came on line. Since then, the site's appearance has been redesigned and the articles continually expanded, resulting in a surprisingly high and steadily growing number of unique visitors every month.

Thank You All for Your Interest and Support!


More than a Magazine

The Dirt Bike Australia web site is being grown into a useful reference for all things dirt bike. It is not intended as a dirt bike magazine or trail rider's news web site. There are already more than enough of those out there, sucking up bandwidth with their wall to wall advertising and replicated press releases.

The MX magazine sites are however part of the reason Dirt Bike Australia was created. It was what they didn't provide that inspired the creation of the Dirt Bike Australia web site.

Sure, magazine and news web sites do have some great articles, but does anyone have the time to search for them? Half the time, when you're done searching, you get to a page with a pic or two and a measly paragraph of information (which may or may not be what you were after), and that often pitiful offering is buried in a mess of advertising.

Though the Dirt Bike Australia web site will also carry some ads and the occasional press release, information of lasting value to riders will always be given priority. And importantly ... because the Dirt Bike Australia web site is privately owned and operated, the views expressed on Dirt Bike Australia will not be effected by convenient corporate "arrangements". If it's good or if it sucks ... Dirt Bike Australia WILL say so!

That said we welcome all sponsorship and advertising related inquiries as long as there is no implied or expressed expectation for biased reviews, views and/or opinions.


A Nexus, Not A Club

Dirt Bike Australia is not a club or a forum. Perhaps an online forum will be added one day, if there is enough genuine interest. However, DBA is intended as a nexus or hub for dirt bike, trail bike and MX enthusiasts. It's the place you can go to when you want to find something related to dirt, trail, MX or Enduro riding and racing. There is still a lot of growing to do, but there is no hurry. The aim is to do it well.


About the Editor

Perhaps it would be more impressive if I could brag about a long and illustrious career in the world of popular dirt bike motor-sport. Alas, that is simply not the case. Like most bikers, I'm just a (more or less) ordinary guy, neither hero nor legend.

My first "dirt bike experience" when I was only around twelve years old, hairing around in a paddock in Beaconsfield, Victoria (close by the Cardinia "Cardy" Creek) . Unlike today, back then there were very few "real" or purpose built dirt bikes. So I learned my first lessons about "mud", "roosters" and staying upright on an old (and it was old even back then) BSA 250.

In later years, exploits into the Cardinia reserve on a friend's Honda 90 trail bike provided lessons (occasionally painful) on the deeper meaning of logs and creek crossings. Other adventures of the day included things like building a home-made go-kart, using a 250cc Vespa scooter engine ... then thrashing the hell out of it until our rather amateur welding and/or some salvaged part gave up the ghost.

My late teens provided some further valuable education in the form of a road trip to Adelaide on a Honda CB360. I remember well how it was pissing down with rain and there was a particularly nasty northwesterly gale blowing. I quickly learned about cross-winds, slip-streaming, interstate trucks ... and how not to end up underneath them.

So by the time I got a bike license, getting around on two wheels was perfectly natural. It was quite some years later (I think I was around twenty-four) when I finally decided to get a car license. And to be honest, that was only because I needed to cary tools to a job in the city. So biking was a way of life for many years. At times I lived with bikers, worked with bikers, rode with bikers, ate, drank and well ... the rest you don't need to know :-)

Back then I used to do almost all my own bike maintenance, repairs, upgrades and even learned how to rebuild engines (on the side of the road if need be). It was not something I set out to do, it was just necessary and on occasion extremely useful. For a while there, I also put my artistic talents to use by providing custom paint jobs on motor bikes, vans and cars. Sadly, I didn't have even a half decent camera back then. Many of the paintjobs were lucky if they survived for more than a year before getting thoroughly bent out of shape and becoming wall hangings.

Unlike my younger brother who still races dirt bikes over in Perth, I've never been enthusiastic about taking part in the competitive side of biking. It's probably to do with the fact that I've never liked the idea of broken bones and assorted dislocated body parts. As an artist and musician I'm keen to keep everything in its proper place, particularly with regard to my hands.

So ... Being in my fifties now doesn't make me a biking expert ... just a survivor, with a lot of really great riding experiences to remember.

Enjoy the Dirt Bike Australia web site!

Peter - Editor