OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE. Off road racing and recreation in Canada is at a point where it can stand on it’s own! No longer do we need to ride the coat-tails of the motocross or street-biased media. Canadian off-road racers are bringing in epic results from around the world, the Royal Distributing Canadian Enduro Series, Presented by Parts Canada , is a huge hit, cross-country races are gigantic in Quebec and the slew of Western series are breeding the best young dirt-bike talent ever to come from Canada. In Ontario the new CMRC/WEC Ontario Cross Country and XSprint Series promise to be the most exciting ever. The ‘stadium-style off-road race’ class at the Montreal Supercross in 2009 and 2010 stole the show in front of 40,000-plus fans, leaving the motocrossers standing in the shadows with their balls in their purses. We may be Ontario based, but we will not be Ontario-biased. As such, look for regular Western and Quebec features, often with a version in French, to appear. The time for Off-Road in Canada is now. The place is right here at www.offroadmotorcycles.ca

We’ve assembled a great team of contributors that continues to grow as www.offroadmotorcycles.ca matures. Our logo is blue, the color of honesty, because our intention is to provide honest bike and product reviews, news and nonsense that appeals to regular dirt bikers. Test bikes and products are evaluated by testing them as normal people would use them. Motocross bikes will get ridden in the woods, enduro bikes will get ridden on motocross tracks and dual-sport bikes will get ridden to the beer store. We won’t be testing bikes at one prescribed location with the manufactuer rep staring over our shoulders. We strive for honesty in reviews; our test pilots come from all levels of riding and physical ability and our test locations are carefully selected to represent typical areas where you’d ride your own dirt bike. We’ll swear when we change tires or bust our knuckles during product tests. We like stuff that is a good value for the dollar, not pointless moto-bling. Our aim is not to appeal to ‘wanna be’ rock stars, technoids, posers, professional motoheads or armchair preachers but to normal weekend warriors like you and I. As such our contributors won’t be edited, castrated or otherwise neutered.  Here at www.offroadmotorcycles.ca we encourage our contributors to let it all hang out, warts and all. Of course we aren’t going to take responsibility for what they say or how they say it, but we are going to enjoy watching the sparks fly!

Dirt bikes are tools for having FUN! Nothing more, nothing less. Here at www.offroadmotorcycles.ca having fun is our prime motive. We’re big into off-road racing, play riding, dual-sport, trials, dirt track and even vintage motocross. It’s not like we don’t like modern motocross, motocross racers or riding motocross bikes. We do, a lot! But www.offroadmotorcycles.ca is intended to give the long overdue respect to all the dirt bike stuff and dirt bike people the mainstream motocross media doesn’t care about. Our punky, low-key attitude will be a refreshing change from the ‘holier than thou’ attitude so common in the motorcycle media. Think of www.offroadmotorcycles.ca as a virtual dirt biker benchracing session with your buddies, full of questionable wisdom and complete with a roaring bonfire, a nice friendly dog and an overwhelming passion for simply riding and racing motorcycles in dirt.

Let’s Ride!

dan

JUST WHO THE HELL ARE WE, ANYHOW?

Dan Paris

When I was a little kid, maybe five or six, I spent most of my time reading ‘Dirt Bike’ magazine instead of Mr. Mugs or learning math. I’ve known all along that moto-journalism, not racing, was my calling. If you’ve had the misfortune to witness me flailing around on a dirt bike you know that’s the truth! But I was like a little sponge, growing up surrounded by racers and soaking up an appreciation for all forms of dirt bike racing and recreation. When I went to college I took a half-assed combination of print journalism, broadcasting and other random classes simply because they were full of hot chicks.

Following the career advice of former Dirt Bike Magazine Editor Tim Tolleson I became a licensed motorcycle mechanic, working on Harleys and all the Japanese brands. Eventually I wiped the grease off my hands and became Off-Road Editor at Inside Motorcycles, Editor at Inside Motocross, Off-Road editor at www.directmotocross.com , test bike coordinator for www.motorcycle.com and contributor to www.offroad.com My writing also regularly appears in both Trail Rider and PartsMag.

I have also written press releases for big Canadian motocross teams like Blackfoot Yamaha and OTSFF Suzuki, as well as Arctic Cat Snowmobiles and American Yamaha Snocross and ATV divisions. My biggest honour as a writer was being asked to write the introduction of the spectator program for the U.S rounds of the FIM World Enduro Championship in both 2006 and 2007.

Offroadmotorcycles.ca is proud of our contributors!

We’re very proud of the exceptional growth of www.offroadmotorcycles.ca ! Our growing tribe of readers stretches from one end of Canada to the other. We’ve got readers all over the U.S and around the world. So ya, we’re stoked! But we couldn’t do it without the support of the motorcycle industry and the bigshots of the sport here in Canada. Most importantly, we want to thank you, the readers! Every time we see an www.offroadmotorcycles.ca T-shirt or sticker we get all warm and fuzzy feeling.

The following select group of people will be providing regular coast to coast and international flavour to our site, each in their own way and without being told how to behave in public. No longer crushed under the booted heel of the motocross-biased media, we at www.offroadmotorcycles.ca are turning the following group of off-road animals loose to shoot their mouths off however they see fit. Our collective goal is to unleash a new era in dirt bike journalism and give overdue respect to all the branches of our sport that have been overlooked by the media for so long.

Guy Giroux

Guy is the grand high poobah of Canadian moto-talent. He’s been a top-10 Pro in the Canadian MX Nationals, he’s kicked ass at Dakar, GNCC, Enduro, Hare Scrambles and has more FMSQ Endurocross titles than you can shake a stick at. He’s also a gifted storyteller, relating his racing experiences in his always entertaining version of Franglais. We tried to edit his work once we got a flood of angry emails from his fans, who begged us to never do it again!

Cory Graffunder

Cory Graffunder needs no introduction to racers anywhere on the globe. His unreal performances at FIM World Enduro and Extreme races like Xtinction, HellsGate, Last Man Standing and Erzberg have earned him a following in Europe, where he is simply known as ‘Cory’. A factory rider for ZipTY Racing/Husqvarna USA, Cory is taking on the world one gnarly step at a time.

Patrick Beaule

Patrick is a multi-time Canadian National Enduro Champion, racing CMA, FMSQ, OO and WEC competition. He’s driven to compete, he’s as fast as hell and when he’s not busy working for KTM Canada he’s one of the friendliest guys in the pits.

Marty Halmazna is a four-time Canadian Cross Country Champion, an ISDE medallist and has a great record at Extreme races like Erzberg, Last Man Standing and Hells Gate. His ride with Feeding Performance Husqvarna is a far cry from when he learned to ride on one of those ‘82 YZ 80s with the radiator on the forks. We’re lucky to have him as a contributor here on www.offroadmotorcycles.ca !

Jillian Kings

Jillian is a great example of what we’re all about at www.offroadmotorcycles.ca. She races CMRC womens Pro motocross, GNCC, WORCS, and CEC enduro. She also rides trials bikes and is big into bicycling. So ya, she’s faster than you. Jillian was the only woman who even dared to try and qualify for the Xtinction race, which made her a celebrity and earned her a ton of respect!

Steve Fracy

Steve is Canada’s trials guy. He’s been a factory rider for all the trials manufacturers at one time or another in Canada and the U.S. Steve has competed at the FIM World level, promotes the World Enduro Canada Canadian Trials Championship and is mentoring his son, Matt, to become even better. Over the years we’ve noticed one thing is common to all the top dirt bike racers from any branch of the sport: Trials bikes. They’ve all got ‘em! We’re thrilled to have someone of Steve’s calibre on our team!

Geoff Nelson

Geoff Nelson is one of the power-trio of Canada’s best all-around riders. He’s proven his skills at the Canadian enduro nationals, earning the 2010 National E3 enduro title. He’s also great at extreme riding, charging to fifth at Xtinction and seventh at the Montreal Endurocross in 2010. He’s a good tour guide too, helping shuffle us around BC between the Western CEC national rounds.

Mike Labelle

Mike Labelle is one of the select few Canadian dirt bike racers to earn a ride with an American team, competing in the AMA Flat Track Pro Lites class for Weirbach Racing. http://weirbachracing.com/Weirbach/Weirbach_Racing.html The fact he’s a Niagara local makes him a hometown hero for us! This well-rounded rider has been helping with Offroadmotorcycles.ca bike tests since we launched. Mike rides motocross and off-road just as well as he goes fast and turns left, with a career goal of someday adding Pro-class off-road and motocross racing to his already impressive resume.

Alexandra Franklin

You’ve probably seen Alex bombing around on her KTM with a load of camera gear at the Eastern CEC rounds and off-road races all over Ontario. She’s a talented photographer and runs a company, Alexandra Franklin Photography, which caters to the off-road racing crowd.

Arley Orosz

Arley caught our attention when we noticed her hanging out taking photos “Just for fun!”at our local motocross track during a bike test. She loves all kinds of dirt bike racing and is equally familiar shooting motocross, flat track, speedway, off-road and even ice races. She’ll be helping us photograph our motorcycle tests again this year, but her most ambitious plan for 2011 is to photograph the Canadian Pro flat track and speedway racers who are competing in the U.S and the U.K.

Carrie Homenuck: Manager, Advertising and Promotions

Carrie is the brains of the operation at Offroadmotorcycles.ca. While the rest of us are dorking around with motorcycles she’s busy thinking up ideas on how to promote our magazine (and the sport in general!) and schmoozing with our advertisers.

Rob Paladichuk: The guy who makes www.offroadmotorcycles.ca run

Rob grew up surrounded by racing of all types, from Enduro Racing and Pro Karts to Dirt Oval Stock Cars and Nascar. His interest in the tech side of things has drawn him to a successful career in automotive engineering. He’s the brains behind the www.offroadmotorcycles.ca website, pulling this site out of thin air in record time while keeping me (the monkey with the typewriter) up to speed on all the latest and greatest techno-bunk. More than an egghead, Rob’s after-party exploits at the Montreal and Toronto Supercrosses and Indianapolis Dealer Expo have become the stuff of motocross legend.  When he’s not thinking up new ideas or hanging out in the pits at races you can find him buzzing around in his ultralight aircraft, probably with a NASA-calibre zoom lens aimed down your wife’s top.