Project Machines

-- A desert wagon made to drive hard -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels Allen Knowles is the owner of CT Racing, and he has managed something extraordinary. No, we aren’t talking about this cool four-seat desert monster he built. He’s managed to find a wife who still likes to get out and hit trails in a rowdy UTV. Roxanne can navigate, feed the crew, or drive the dually and the trailer. Even more, she can stand to be a passenger when “Crazy Al” is driving. We’ll admit, we will only ride with him when the alternative is…

-- Doing what a quad can't -- In most states a 3-wheeler is considered a motorcycle and is regulated under those rules. Motorcycles are street legal if they come with the required equipment, so therefore, 3-wheelers can fall under the street legal category too. The easiest way to make a 3-wheeler street legal is to begin with a street legal dirt bike. These have been called Dual-Sports and lately the bigger ones get the Adventure Bike title. If you add brake lights, turn signals, mirrors and such to your Honda ATC250R,…

-- A PROJECT UTV BUILD YOU'LL LOVE --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels. The Polaris General brought a new flavor of fun to the UTV industry. Polaris decided to further bridge the gap between the sport performance class and the utility class with a more recreationally inclined machine that offers more comfort and capability than any machine previously built for either class. We picked up a Polaris General 1000 Deluxe model and decided to build it into a more-than-trail-capable machine. We envisioned a UTV that…

-- Raiding the fast parts shelves with an employee discount -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels Let’s say that you work at an aftermarket company that makes excellent and very cool products. Imagine that the company is Assault Industries. Further suppose that you just bought a Polaris RZR Turbo S. Tom Cavish faced this exact scenario, and he needed to make decisions about his RZR Turbo S build. The Turbo S is no bargain-basement ride. It comes with 15-inch wheels, ITP Coyote 32-inch tires, four-point harnesses and an…

Hunter Lovelace hails from Muskoka Canada and likes to build brilliant old school custom ATVs. He took one of his old prized machines, a 1988 Yamaha Blaster, and decided to rebuild it better than before for his younger brother. A lot of the parts that Hunter installed are near impossible to find these days and give it a custom look and feel from the 90's! The mods include: Motor: Duncan / Paul Turner ported, decked and polished motor, 175 PSI compression running on VP C12, Pyramid reed valve, factory 7 air box,…

-- Making this popular quad new again -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels, Photos by Pat "Ride in focus" Carrigan There is no doubt that Duncan Racing International (DRI) helps breed winners. Erin Simmons relies on the DRI team of Loren and Leonard Duncan to build and prep his AZOP championship-winning Honda TRX450R. Going fast in Grand Prix-style racing is no small feat. Having a quad ready to tackle multiple types of terrain is half the battle of competition at a pro level. Simmons is no slouch on a quad, either.…

-- Radical flat track racer -- Francis Raynauld is a Dirt Wheels reader up in Quebec, Canada and here is the 1979 Honda ATC70 that he put together. You'll note that the engine is not the stock 70 unit.  It is a 160cc engine purchased from one of those pit bike companies. Their motor mounts are designed to lineup with ATC and mini frames. Some of the most fun you can have is getting a bunch of ATC70s together and racing around a small oval. It's a total blast when those things drift out sideways with the throttles…

-- Single-seat adventure from Maxxis -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels Maxxis Tire race support stalwart Mike Farmer has done a lot of racing and riding on two wheels, and he still owns dirt bikes. But as he says of his fairly recent passion, “I just can’t stay out of these UTVs!” Even though the companies he offers event support for (CST as well as Maxxis) are powerful players in the UTV market, it was seeing neighbors in rural Utah having fun in UTVs that finally motivated him to step into a dealership. He is a family…

-- Street legal wheelers -- By D. West In the motorcycle world adventure bikes are the big thing now. These vehicles are basically street bikes that are able to handle dirt roads and easy trails. They’re usually bigger than dual-sport bikes that tend to be in the 250cc to 450cc range. For those whose riding adventures occur more on dirt roads than paved roads, they actually would be better off on a mid-sized dual-sport than a 1000cc aadventure bike.  Brad Baker is a Dirt Wheels reader in Colorado who may have put…

-- BFD Off-Road cages the beast -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels BFD Off-Road lays claim to being the number-one manufacturer of high-performance sand cars and UTV accessories in Southern California. What we know for sure is that it makes some radical-looking sand cars, and that sand car style is carried over to its UTV parts. The signature BFD Off-Road part is the Can-Am X3 bolt-on cage and matching contoured composite roof. The cage offers race-car strength and safety, and it is a very nice piece, but the roomy…

-- Ultimate dream machine -- It would be great if KTM made 3-wheelers, but since they don't Nico Smith built one himself down in Laredo, Texas. He started with  the frame of a 2002 KTM 250 SX dirt bike. For the engine he installed a freshly rebuilt 2003 KTM 300 EXC 2-stroke. The seat and rear fenders came from a 2009 KTM quad. The wider triple clamps for the forks came from Emig Racing. Nico made the swing arm and sub-frame himself. Various other parts came from Yamaha Banshees and Tri-Zs. The front fender came from…

-- Dirt Wheels reader builds a National level ATV MX race machine -- Hi Dirt Wheels, my name is Mack McDermott from Rhode Island. This is my 2009 Kawasaki KFX450R. Bought it a little over a year ago in bone stock form and after riding a track a few times I decided to get full blown into racing and build my KFX450 to as close to a national level build as I could. I Teamed up with Tranghese Motorsports out of Springfield, Massachusetts to help me build it and race in the NEATVMX series. Photos by Mike Fig Photography…