Opening Note

Pedro Acosta finally did it. Fifteen previous podiums, an increasingly pointed list of near-misses, and then Austria — where he crossed the line first, ended KTM's four-year drought at their own circuit, and described the experience as having been somewhat afraid beforehand. He is twenty years old. Meanwhile, BDR has another route incoming, Sena has done something interesting to its flagship intercom, and the Red Bull Straight Rhythm is returning to Pomona in October. There is a great deal to get into.

MotoGP · Austrian Grand Prix · Red Bull Ring · Round 15 of 22 · Race

Acosta had crashed in the Sprint on Saturday, which added a certain narrative weight to Sunday's proceedings. He did not repeat the error. Starting from pole, he worked through three Aprilias in the early laps, took the lead from Martín, and then held it for the remainder of a demanding 28-lap race, crossing the line 1.027 seconds ahead. The crowd at the Red Bull Ring, which is to say KTM's home crowd, responded with the kind of enthusiasm that one imagines the factory had been waiting 1,449 days to witness. The last KTM Sunday win before Austria was Miguel Oliveira's in Thailand in 2022. Acosta, who joins Ducati next season, gave them a farewell gift of considerable dimension.

Martín finished second — a 1-2 result for the Martín-Acosta pairing that, combined with Márquez's troubled fifth after brake issues, means Martín leaves Austria 12 points clear. Bezzecchi completed the podium in third, which keeps him mathematically present at 33 points off the lead with seven rounds remaining. Márquez reported brake problems from the early laps and could do little more than manage the situation. Ducati will spend the coming fortnight studying the data from a circuit they have historically dominated but where this season has been, to put it politely, instructive.

Result

The championship heads to Japan next — Motegi, October 4. Martín 12 points clear, Márquez second, Bezzecchi third. Seven rounds remain. Acosta, who collects points for KTM through the end of the season before departing for Ducati, could yet play a decisive role in a title fight he cannot himself win. That is, if one is being candid, rather an interesting position to occupy.

RawHyde Wild Card Rally · Barber Vintage Festival · both in October, both worth attending

October arrives with two events on opposite sides of the country that between them cover most of what one might want from a riding weekend. Barber Vintage Festival runs October 9–11 in Leeds, Alabama — the 21st edition and the first since the death of founder George W. Barber earlier this year. Three days of AHRMA road racing on the 2.38-mile circuit, the vintage swap meet (400+ vendors), BMW Motorrad Days Americas, manufacturer demos, and the Wall of Death. The Saturday evening Motorcycles by Moonlight gala at the museum is, as Mads has noted previously, an experience worth considerable inconvenience. Leeds is twenty minutes from Birmingham, which is easily accessible by air.

A week later: RawHyde Wild Card Rally at ZAKAR, October 16–18 in the Mojave Desert. GPS-guided routes through Jawbone Canyon OHV, half-day clinics, chef meals, and the casino night that Mads continues to find difficult to characterise without resorting to a travel brochure. Early-bird $395, standard $450. Camping on site. The Mojave in mid-October is reliably excellent riding weather.

Red Bull Straight Rhythm · October 2026 · Pomona, California

The Red Bull Straight Rhythm returns to the Fairplex in Pomona, California this October. For the uninitiated: Straight Rhythm takes a half-mile section of supercross track, removes all the turns, and invites the sport's best riders to race it head-to-head. The format strips supercross down to its most elemental proposition — who is fastest in a straight line, over jumps, without the strategic complexity of corners. It sounds simple. It is, in practice, spectacular.

The event runs at night under lights, which contributes to an atmosphere that television coverage handles adequately and being present for handles considerably better. Red Bull TV will stream it live for those outside the Fairplex. Tickets are available through the Red Bull events page. Pomona is forty minutes from central Los Angeles, which, given Los Angeles traffic, Mads feels obliged to note is an estimate that should be treated with appropriate scepticism.

Big Bend BDR-X comes to West Texas · onX named BDR's official navigation app · Big Bend closures

BDR's expansion into West Texas is now confirmed and the route is available: the Big Bend BDR-X is a 618-mile loop through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert. The route passes through Marfa and Terlingua, follows the Rio Grande, and includes what BDR's routes manager describes as "Godzilla Hill," a name that should be taken at face value. Best seasons are October through November and March through April — which means the timing is essentially now. GPS tracks and the waterproof map are available at ridebdr.com.

Before going: Big Bend National Park currently has closures on Black Gap Road and Hot Springs Road following July flooding damage, with no ETA for reopening. Check the official NPS conditions page and download the latest GPS tracks — labeled BIGBEND-2026 — immediately before departure.

On the tools side: onX Offroad has been formally named BDR's official navigation app, a designation that formalises a partnership that has been building for some time. The practical implication is that onX now integrates BDR GPS tracks natively — riders can import them directly without the manual GPX process, zoom into each route section for detailed descriptions and photos, and navigate with offline maps in areas without cell coverage. For riders already running onX, this changes the workflow meaningfully. For riders not yet on onX, the BDR endorsement is as credible a third-party recommendation as the category offers.

Sena 60S EVO — Sound by Bose, lifetime warranty, and the question of whether any of it matters

Sena's 60S EVO arrived in May and has been generating the kind of conversation that a flagship product update tends to generate when it does something genuinely interesting. The headline is Sound by Bose — a collaboration that brings Bose audio engineering to the speaker and microphone system, with AI-based noise cancellation and echo suppression on top. Mesh 3.0 handles group intercom, Bluetooth 5.0 covers phone and device pairing, and Wave Intercom provides cellular-based communication for situations where standard Bluetooth range is inadequate. The last of these is the most significant for ADV use: Wave Intercom extends group communication range beyond the line-of-sight limitations that make conventional Bluetooth intercoms impractical on routes where riders can be separated by several minutes and considerable terrain.

Sena has also announced what they describe as the motorcycle industry's first Limited Lifetime Warranty on the 60S EVO's main headset unit — shorter coverage periods on associated components, but the unit itself is covered for the product's lifetime against defects in materials and workmanship. Whether this represents genuine confidence in the hardware or a calculation about the typical replacement cycle is a question Mads will leave to the actuaries. The practical effect is that the €429 European price becomes somewhat easier to justify when the warranty removes the replacement cost from the mental ledger.

The honest caveat: the existing 60S is already an excellent intercom, and the EVO's improvements — while real — are iterative rather than transformative. Riders who already run the 60S have no urgent reason to upgrade. Riders choosing a flagship intercom for the first time have a strong reason to start with the EVO over the standard model. The Cardo Packtalk Neo remains the other serious option in this class; the competition between the two brands has rarely been more even, which is useful for buyers and somewhat vexing for both manufacturers.