WORDS: BOOTHY
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, with one intention: to do what he does best – teach people the skills they need to ride a supermoto bike.
As soon as I heard about ‘Supermotoland’ I could think of very little else. After spending so many years being desperate t h t it I i ply had to o and ride Husqvarna ed my my MX lid bag (which er such a ombination) ore I knew it I boarding a asyjet flight to urcia ernational rport, ncandescentwith excitement. Supermotoland is situated near a town called Bullas, in the southeast of Spain; it’s a 45-minute drive from Murcia Airport and is dead easy to get to.
When I arrived, I was shown to my sleeping quarters, which was an immaculately kept two-bedroom, five-bed (two single beds in one room, three in the other) apartment less than 50 metres from the purpose-built SM (supermoto) track. There was a fridge with a few essentials like water, juice and bread (there were even a few beers in there) and plenty of room for me and all my kit.
It was great to see where I’d be staying, and I knew I’d be comfortable, but I was really keen to get outside and see the track. I’d watched a few on-board videos of the track at Supemotoland, but if I’m honest, I hadn’t really got to grips of where it went before I got there. When I finally arrived, it was apparent why I had struggled so in my attempts to learn the layout – there were multiple track layout options, utilising varying ratios of Tarmac to dirt, all of which could be run clockwise or anticlockwise.