Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1547331
November 2026 35 They announced the upcoming Enduro Vintage Trophy in Zschopau, Germany, the castle-heavy region of Saxony (think Medieval Times but with be er food & beer) almost a year prior. Most for- eign events, knowing the process to do one plus the cost, don't even hit a cowbell from across the room in my cavernous echo chamber of a skull, but Germany? In late September? Several hours from the biggest beer bash in the world with beer that's actually beer, not that panther piss that gets passed off as "beer" wrapped in cliché names and designer labels at premium prices stateside. I'm ge ng off track here, but yes. Former East Germany, home to one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers of its me, MZ, now runs one of the coolest collec ons of pedigreed Enduro bikes ever. The town is literally called "Motorradstadt," aka Motorcycle City. Some mes in life, you need to do "the thing" when the opportunity presents itself. When else in a life- me would the chance to meet and race alongside several decades' worth of some of Europe's past fastest, like Harald Strum, present itself? Now what bike? '91 & older, though newer the bike and young- er the rider puts you at a worse scoring handicap versus a geezer on a Flintstone's era cycle, BUT as the Enduro rider saying goes, "To finish first, first you must finish." Our vast assortment of star ng points for a classic crust dirtbike build is deep. All 2-stroke, but FIM events demand a 13mm tall rear knob (because somehow spinning the rear re twice as much is be er for the environment...). This part of Germany, with its hills and finest silt dust when dry, recons tutes to bearing grease with a few drops of water didn't feel like a great combina on, but what about an old thumper? Suzuki's DR350s, when introduced, reinvigorated the mid-size 4-stroke craze, offering both a du- al-sport and an off-road-only dirt version. The la er saw some serious racing early on before the next bigger & be er 4-stroke came along, spawning the era of 4-stroke one-upmanship among manufactur- ers throughout the '90s and beyond. The dual-sport version was literally everywhere, a "Cockroach bike" par ally because you couldn't throw a Ski le at a dual-sport in the late 90s without hi ng three of them and because if the Apocalypse ever gets here, and it's all ass-less chaps Mad Max, they'll be one of the only bikes s ll running (if you can start it). A few calls later, I acquired a dirt-bike version of the '90 DR350 from O o DeJager, with its history laying Lissa Aldakimov Lissa Aldakimov