Story and photos by Karley Brown

Few series have seen the longevity and continued success of longtime ATV MX frontrunner John “Ironman” Natalie. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Natalie wrapped up the 2011 AMA ATV MX Championship for Team Motoworks/Can-Am aboard his trusty DS 450. In preparation for the 2012 season, we caught up with Natalie to make him the next ATV Rider Exit victim.

Every once in a while I’m presented with the opportunity to take a trip and test new machines and explore some of the greatest riding areas this country has to offer. Some of these have been the experience of a lifetime for me, but I’ve never been as touched or impacted as I was on a recent trip to San Antonio, Texas. At the end of October, I was invited to attend the Honored American Veterans Afield (HAVA) Family Day as a guest of Yamaha, which is a sustaining sponsor of the organization. If you’ve never heard of HAVA, it is an organization that was created by a group of shooting sports industry executives who wanted to do something that would help our disabled combat veterans heal and reintegrate back into normal American life through participation in outdoor events. In short, they try to help our wounded soldiers live the normal life they had before they were injured in combat.

In our May/June 2011 issue we featured the Moore brothers (Caleb and Colten) who during their second year competing in the Winter X Games made history by doing the unexpected and pulling off the world’s first tandem backflip on a sled. Little did we know then that while all of that was going down in Aspen sparks were already flying back at a shop in Texas where work had already began on Caleb’s next endeavor. Caleb had approached All Terrain Research, a performance off-road parts manufacturer, with the plan to backflip a Polaris RZR.

When it comes to riding fast and for long periods of time, most people only think of suspension and engine tuning but forget the very basics like proper bar and control positioning. Maybe that brand-new quad you just picked up comes with what is considered the hot ticket in handlebar options, but the settings from the factory might not be in the optimal position for you. I recently met up with Cole Townsend and Chris Avery from Fasst Company at one of our local tracks to discuss this topic. I figured that if I had any questions on this subject, who better to ask than the guys who make one of if not the best bar in the ATV industry.

This past January, Polaris introduced a whole new class of side-by-side with the RZR XP 900. Building off of the launch, Polaris is introducing another extreme performance side-by-side to the family, the RZR XP 4 900. This launch will bring Xtreme performance for four while delivering the ultimate combination of power, suspension and agility found in the entire RZR family.

From the November/December issue of ATV Rider Magazine

From the September/October 2011 issue of ATV Rider Magazine

From the September/October 2011 issue of ATV Rider Magazine

From the September/October 2011 issue of ATV Rider Magazine

Three Dog Night couldn’t have said it better when singing their hit song “One,” just ask Josh Creamer. If it wasn’t for the fact that they wrote it in the early ‘70s (roughly 15 years before Josh was born), you’d think it was written about his 2011 season.

From the September/October 2011 issue of ATV Rider Magazine

From the September/October 2011 issue of ATV Rider Magazine