Do you ride a supermoto and wish you could have all those glorious jumps without having to deal with the dirt section? The answer is only a plane flight away.
Last week, we shared a video of Andy DiBrino making public roads, kart tracks, and MX tracks his bitch on a supermoto. The comments section showed me that our community of readers is a wild mix of riders, from people who race supermoto to those who had never seen it until the post last week. The comments section also blessed us with this:
This all-asphalt track in Pleven, Bulgaria, is the home of the FIM Supermoto of Nations - but somehow only every other year or so... I think. The track doesn’t have any sort of website (the FIM site lists the Bulgarian Motorcycle Federation as the website) and, somehow, even their Facebook page is completely devoid of pictures of all of those beautiful paved jumps.
WHY AREN’T THESE THINGS EVERYWHERE?!
Apparently, Josh Herrin’s track in Georgia has a few paved jumps, and there seems to be a track in Italy somewhere that is similar, but I CAN’T STOP LOOKING AT FLIGHTS TO BULGARIA.
Okay, okay. I’m calm. And I’m sorry. People always ask how supermotos can be so good on dirt with their slick tires, but the answer is that they really aren’t. They’re light enough, and site like a dirtbike enough, that people just learn to make it work despite not having nearly the traction or control that comes from a motocross bike.
At Adams Motorsports Park, the track I normally ride, a lot of the guys leave in the afternoon once they open the dirt section because they don’t like the dirt section or having to clean their bikes every week. I thought that sounded pretty embarassing until I took my DR-Z recently and spent three hours the next day trying to clean red dirt out of every orifice of the bike. If I were riding there weekly, I’d be the same UNLESS I WAS AT A TRACK WITH PAVED JUMPS!
The only real negatives here are that a) Bulgaria is far and b) crashing on paved jumps has to hurt something fierce.
Everyone can thank DamnTheNoise for this wonderful video.
Photos courtesy of the National Motorcycle Sports And Safety Association.
Sean MacDonald is the brand spanking new Editor of Lanesplitter. He likes long walks on the beach, searching for the best new burger spots to ride to, and his girlfriend says his snoring sounds like “braaaaap.” Follow him and his adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.