Hey guys, thanks for dropping by for another Ask Ping.

We got a couple good questions tonight, so let's get at it.

First one comes from Marcus. He says, Hey Ping, loving the content here at Whiskey's

Rattle Media. I can't decide which new bike to purchase this year. I'm stuck between two.

Will you be testing the new KTM 250F? I really value your

opinion on these bike tests. Your feedback has always been spot on and matches what my impressions

are as well. Thanks for the work you're doing, Marcus. Thanks, Marcus. Appreciate you following

my testing over the years and swinging back by to see what we're doing here. Appreciate it. The truth is,

and this is kind of a weird deal. I don't know if I'll be testing any KTMs. They stopped inviting

me to their stuff a while ago. And we've had a little bit of a history going back to 2002.

If you can believe that, talk about holding a grudge.

I had a trip over there.

All the team riders went for some event, and I wrote a column that was just tongue-in-cheek,

poking fun at typical European stuff, cigarette smoke and all the diesel exhaust and warm milk and small hotel rooms and yada, yada, yada,ada you know B.O. Just standard stuff about Europe.

And they actually, the KTM folks saw it, called Kurt Nicol, who is our team manager and said,

you need to fire him.

So that weekend I happened to go out and win Anaheim 2 in 2002.

And so they're like, well, okay, don't fire him, but he's definitely done after Supercross.

So fast forward to years later, I'm with another publication and done racing now and I'd start doing shootouts.

And this was pre-decoster, pre-Dungi. The KTMs were not that great. And they were finishing

last in all of our shootouts, year after year after year. And their guy over there was getting so

mad that their bikes are finishing last. And I'm like, well, it's just feedback from the guys.

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