SUPER MOTO LAND
As far as motorbikes go I’ve tried my hand at almost all the different disciplines that I can think of, from mopeds to motocross bikes, trials bikes to trail bikes, electric bikes to enduro bikes, I’ve done it all. But for nearly 30 years, there has been one form of motorcycle sport that’s eluded me – it’s supermoto, and it’s something that I’ve been desperate to have a go at since I first saw a slick-shod MX bike drifting gracefully towards a hairpin, completely broadside, smoke billowing from its rear tyre with footpeg-scraping levels of lean angle.
Every now and then we, at Fast Bikes, get the chance to take some supermoto-type bikes for a bit of a blast on the road, or if we are really lucky, on the track. In fact, only a couple of issues ago we featured a trio of mental motards that we pasted round the track as well as on the road, and what a terrific time we had. But these road-going ‘motards’ wouldn’t quite cut the mustard in a proper supermoto race. To experience supermoto properly, you need to be on a proper, full-fat supermoto bike.
For the chance to take a full-on supermoto bike for a ride, I always thought it was going to be a case of either finding a generous supermoto-bike-owning mate that was willing to let me take his (or hers) for a ride, or spending a bunch of cash to buy one. But thanks to a gentleman named Mat, that’s no longer the case.
Mat Ford-Dunn, the former British Championship GP125 racer and two-time Spanish Supermoto Champion, decided that running a successful transport company was too much like hard work so sold it all and bought himself a house with a garden big enough to build a supermoto track in,
