One of the things that I knew I was going to struggle with the most in Dubai was not having my own bike. I have learned over the years, as I am sure most of you have, that I need to have my outlet; and riding is that outlet.

It’s why we all ride.

It’s a healthy form of escapism that lets us disconnect from our normal stresses of daily life, gives us the time to be free of mind (free of self if you are a mediation groupie like me) and return back after a session on the bike a better version of who we were before we left.

There are more layers to it than that though if you want to dive a little bit deeper. There’s the physical health element of riding that can’t be discounted. Riding a bike is hard. A 20 minute moto for me means pushing my body much harder than it wants to go and there are some consequences when it goes wrong. In a normal moto I am pushing my body to keep my heart rate around 170 BMP and using every muscle in my body to try and keep myself on two wheels.

There is the problem solving element and the task of keeping my mind on the job. The attention that needs to be paid to having your bike set up just right to give you the confidence to perform at your highest level.

And then there is the social element. Of course there are tools at the track that don’t just live in your toolbox, but for the most part people who ride are birds of a feather. To be hard core into moto means there are some shared interests that allow for some of the best friendships I personally have. Favorite riders, favorite tracks; there is always something to bench race about.

If you google “moving to a new city” one of peoples first suggestions will always be to join a club or a gym and it’s sound advice, so as soon as I got here I got on the hunt for a new bike so I could head out to the track and join in the fun with the rad community of riders that Dubai has.

Like a lot of stuff here, bikes are pretty expensive. To buy a brand new KTM 350 was going to run me $16,900 Australian Dollars… Jesus. So I had to turn my attention to the used market to try to find something that was a little bit more reasonable. I found a 2022 Gas Gas 450 (blasphemy) for just over $14,000 (bruh) but it did come with a full set of KTM A-Kit suspension. Some Cone Valves on the front and Trax Shock on the rear.

My thinking is that because I have a set of standard KTM suspension at home, I could actually sell this bike with the standard stuff when I do sell it and only lose a couple k and in the end I might actually be up on this bike.

At the end of the day, with World Vets at the end of the year it is important that I get as much riding in as I can, so I just need to get myself some wheels. The plan will be to do a bit of a build on this bad boy as content on the member site and put in as much time on the MX Ride Dubai track as I can in preparation for vets in November.

It’s a challenge riding out here. The track is 7km’s long, super rough and fast and for right now it’s really hard to even remember the track, but it’s a new challenge and I hope it’s going to make me a better overall rider. Excited to bring this Gas Gas to life and stoked to share it all with the Gang!