Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/215244
M ike Lafferty is padding across his concrete driveway in his socks. Coffee in hand, he is picking his lines carefully to avoid the scattered gravel and his two dogs twisting and wiggling at his feet. Inside the garage, the object of affection: a sparkling new KTM XC 300. He steps through the door and gives his new ride a long look as he slides into his chair and goes through his morning ritual of combing through the offroad media sites. While Mike sips his morning coffee, I set up for the sitdown interview we are about to do. For the short time that I've known Mike Lafferty, his garage has been a canvas of contrasting colors. A pine shelf spanning the back side of his shop displays the evolution of Arai helmets, decked out in varying themes of orange, blue and black. Scattered among the helmets are several orange, red and black front number plates with a 21A or a bold number 1 still speckled with dirt from a time gone by. A large black flat-screen TV hangs high on the front wall, flanked by a few posters that chronicle his long career with KTM. In recent days the center of the garage has been an enclave of blue and yellow, with Husaberg parts, plastic, and apparel stacked deep on a shelf along the wall that divides the garage. At present, the blue and yellow have been neatly boxed up and replaced by KTM orange and black. The garage looks good decked out like this. It must feel like a bit of a homecoming for the eight-time national enduro champion who has spent 16 years with the Austrian manufacturer. When he's done with his web search, he slides into a rickety fold-out wooden chair next to his new ride and signals that he's ready to begin. How does it feel to back with KTM? "It feels good. I'm back with KTM for my final year. It's something that we planned on back during the beginning of the year. Once I got on a KTM earlier in the year, I didn't want to get off. It wasn't that the Husaberg was bad, it's just that the newness of the KTM with linkage and all felt good. I couldn't wait to keep riding it. The only mistake I made was I spent too much time on it before the last couple of enduros and it kinda bit me a lit- November 2013 7