Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126776
lard has done much of the dirt bike testing for Revs, an Australian motorcycle newspaper, and is not afraid to sit down at the typewriter to put his words on paper. Jenny gets into the act too, shooting many of the photographs that appear 'alongside Ballard's words in the paper. Enduro schools also take up much of Ballard's time. He teaches four or five schools each year, each three days in length. You might also find him putting his upholstery skills to work occasionally - usually making fanny packs. As the athletic type, Ballard is at home in many types of sporting activities. A popular weekend spoit for Jenny and Ballard is wind surfing, or simply hanging out at the beach. Running is also not out of the question - Ballard often joins older brother Paul in 10- to IS-mile foot races. Or you might see Ballard and many of his enduro/MX buddies in one bf the aerobics classes that Jenny teaches when they are home. Since he and Jenny came to the U.S. in February, much of his free time has been spent at Barry Higgins' H&H Maico - Jenny behind the parts counter and Ballard in the shop assembling new motorcycles and doing service work - at least on the days when he's not on the road to the next event. "I had ridden against the Americans in the IS DE and always wanted to spend a season over here to see how they run things. I worked out a deal with Can-Am to ride for them here." Ballard was quick to point out that enduro in Australia are quite different than those run in the U.S. "All the enduros back home are run under FIM rules - you don't really do any timekeeping since they are run much like the ISDE Qualifiers over here. You would have two special tests usually one cross country test then a motocross. When I try to explain how the U.S. enduro are run to one of my friends, they think the Americans must be crazy to want to go that fast in the really tight woods, trying to maintain 24 mph. I thought it was crazy at first too, but now I can see it can be good fun. I'm also surprised how much the terrain varies in the U.S." Ballard has created a stir in the offroad community after his performances in ·the U.S., and things are likely to heat up somewhat now that he has been selected as a member of the U.. Vase team for the ISDE in Holland. "I came over here hoping to do as well as I could, and I didn't want to be put on the team for the U.S. I had to surrender my Australian competition license to compete in the U.S. for the year, so there was no way I could go back and make the Australian team. I thought there would be a chance of that, but I later found out that couldn't happen. After I started doing pretty well in Some of the Three-Day. Qualifiers over here, getting a slot on the U.S. team sounded like it might be good. "In some ways, I'm a bit disappointed about not getting on the Trophy team - after all, I was the top 2SOcc qualifier. But I plan to go to' Holland and do my best on the Vase team." And we fully expect Ballard to feel right at home in Holland. "I've been in Europe for much of the past seven years, but even before that I had spent a lot of time traveling to various countries. I feel comfortable in just about any country, even if I can't speak the language. That's helped me a lot in the ISDE, since I'm able to adapt well to just about any conditions." As far as we can see, the wandering Aussie i far from ready to settledown. • [:t:r~I~-~ PIPE PRODUCTS ...... ...... RZ 350 PIPES GUARANTEED PERFORMANCE 101 DID We GUARANTEE that our pipes perform better than any other pipes on the market at any price or we will refund 101% of the purchase price + freight. 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