Welcome to the final Moto 360 presented by Alpinestars of the year, where we reflect upon some good times and the year that was. With Christmas edging ever so closely, we’re beginning to wind down at MotoOnline.com.au for the season, as does the industry.

It’s not simply a case of computers off until January, but as of this coming Wednesday we will definitely be running in a ‘limp-mode’ of sorts. As news breaks we will still be staying on top of it, as we do, and we’ll be on social media, however in terms of feature content that will be back in 2017.

We’ve enjoyed a strong end to 2016 and there’s been plenty going on – both on- and off-track – but it’s definitely been more of a challenge to generate great content day in, day out of late. Thankfully we’ve managed to maintain momentum and the readers are still tuned in.

Before I hand this over to Adam below, I wanted to personally thank everybody for their support from an advertising perspective, our audience for stopping by moreso than ever before, plus all the riders, teams and people within the industry who have been happy enough to work with us this season. Bring on 2017! Here’s Spence…

Image: Alex Gobert (Foremost Media).

As I mentioned in the previous edition of Moto 360, MotoOnline.com.au was invited to attend the official Australian launch of the 2017 Honda CRF450R on 14 December, and yes, I was excited. Was my level of excitement and expectation met with an equally exciting and impressive model? The answer is a definite yes.

It’s always an interesting situation swinging your leg over a completely new model for the first time. It’s not often that you sit on a bike that is totally foreign to you, and on Wednesday that’s exactly what I did! You can click here to read the full written Review, or click here to check out the Overview film, but I’m just going to say a few things here anyway.

It was great to see the Honda crew put on this launch event at Ranch MX in New South Wales. We had an awesome track that was prepped very well, a great group of people and an ample amount of bikes to get our hands on. Having Jay Foreman and his team on hand to cater to our needs all day was awesome too; all bases were covered, even down to the food catering.

It may have been one of the hottest days in a long time, and the heat did wear me down I must admit, but in the end I came away with a huge smile on my face. It was a great addition to our final full week here at MotoOnline.com.au for 2017 and we hope our viewers enjoy the content we have put together from the event.

Being the final edition of Moto 360 for the year, I’d just like to say a huge thanks to our viewers, the athletes and all of the industry personnel we have worked alongside during the year. It’s been a huge one for us, jam-packed with a whole lot of content, plenty of travelling and a tonne of good times. That’s all from me for the year, here’s Jeremy!

Image: Jeremy Hammer (Foremost Media).

It’s hard to believe we’re pretty much at the end of year already! This week has been pretty interesting in terms of content, with things starting to slow up, we’ve had to really search hard for news stories and bits and pieces on the site.

I mentioned the tear-off ban last week that will be implemented in 2017, but I’m bringing it up again. We posted an article earlier in the week with Dean Ferris’ thoughts on the ban, and well, there was a bit of backlash in the comments on social media saying we should ask other riders or personnel, not the top guy in the country.

So that’s exactly what we did for this week’s The Point feature – we gathered the thoughts and opinions from all aspects of the industry – a privateer, a factory racer, a team manager, a Motorcycling Australia representative and a representative from a goggle company. It was quite the effort to compile as everyone had a strong opinion on the issue, but it’s definitely worth reading.

While putting the feature together, I also uncovered some disappointing news for Dylan Long, who revealed he suffered a broken wrist in what was a really unfortunate incident at a ride park in Victoria. While no injury has good timing, Long is fortunate that there’s still quite a bit of time to recover and prepare for the opening round of the Motul MX Nationals in April.

As Spence said, thanks to all the industry personnel and riders for being great to work with this year, it always when makes our jobs a lot easier. And most importantly, thanks to the views for tuning in and reading out content. I’ve only been here at Foremost Media for a brief period of time, but it’s been a blast and I’m excited to get stuck into the new year of racing.

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