VOLUME 58 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 16, 2021 P91
T
his isn't going to surprise anyone, but I pretend to be a
factory racer a lot. Like, a lot. And maybe you do, too.
After all, aspiring to be the best, riding the best, and sur-
rounding yourself by the best is what got us and what's kept us
in this dirt bike racing mess for so long. If you don't remember
the dream of being on that team, you're probably not signing a
lot of race-day waivers today. But I might take it a tad bit too far.
The 2022 KTM 350 XC-F Factory Edition and I are nothing
alike. True, it doesn't have the real factory build treatment Ben
Kelley and Josh Toth enjoy on the hand-built rides they earned,
but for a ride you can walk into a dealership and buy, it gets
damn close. To find out if this is the real deal, I rode both this
bike and the real factory bike of Ben Kelley at the GNCC finale
in Indiana (haha, they let me do that!)—more on that later.
THERE ARE BIKES THAT LOOK LIKE RACE BIKES, AND
THEN THERE ARE TRUE RACE BIKES. IS THE NEWEST
KTM FACTORY EDITION THE REAL DEAL?
BY JESSE ZIEGLER I PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHAN MOORE
CHAMPIONSHIP
