What's this "Throwdown"? It's a digital home for rumour, fact and innuendo, delivered on a weekly basis. Covering a broad spectrum of the off-road world's news, the Throwdown will touch on everything from racing to trailriding; from industry tidbits to issues facing the sport. It's about delivering you timely information all in one place so you don't have to scour the internet looking for it.

Canard taking one to the head. Pic: Hoppen.

All anyone was talking about at the Los Angeles round of the AMA Supercross last week was the Trey Canard/Ryan Morais crash, which we can only describe as heavy. The Star Valli Yamaha rider landed on Canard's head during the first triple after Canard caught a toughblock cover and was unable to make the jump. Since the crash, we've learned that Canard has fractured his T10-T12 and needs surgery, as there's slight pressure on his spinal cord. Meanwhile Morais broke his jaw, ribs, collapsed a lung and fractured three vertebra in his neck. The #65 has had his jaw wired shut for eight weeks. Doctors believe he won't require surgery for the neck injuries.

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Aussie AMA MX/SX vet, Michael Byrne's, pre-season neck injury isn't going away in a hurry. After the latest batch of scans late week, Burner tells us it's taking much longer than first thought: "Well, my neck is healing but it's still not ready," said Burner. "Four more weeks and then I should be good to go - after the Doc gives the all clear, that is."

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Was Bubba running a hydraulic clutch at the LA SX? According to Racer X's Weigandt, no.

Former AMA SX champ, Supercrossonline.com's Jim Holley, suggested that James Stewart would be running a new hydraulic clutch on his YZ450F last weekend at Round 3 of the AMA SX series - like Honda's Kevin Windham and Chad Reed did last year. We got Transmoto's USA Correspondent, Jason Weigandt, to double-check that. "Nope. I sussed both James' and Davi Millsaps' Team JGR bikes and they're running the conventional cable clutches," Weege reported.

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Reigning Australian Women's MX Champion, teenage sensation Meghan Rutledge, broke her thumb at the Coffs Harbour Stadiumcross held over the weekend and looks set to be sidelined for four weeks. The Kawasaki rider had a crash during the second men's race, broke her thumb and suffered an avulsion fracture. But through sheer determination, she got back up and finished the race, then rode and won the Women's race, too!

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Despite rumours published in last week's Thursday Throwdown about Brad Anderson allegedly having problems securing his visa for Australia, the Englishman was in the country last Friday, visiting Honda HQ in Melbourne with Carlton Dry Honda Team Principal, Yarrive Konsky. But there was almost a problem, according to Konsky, who confessed, "It was more than a rumour. We had to hire an immigration lawyer who got his visa secured last week."

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This week Williams Event Management (WEM) announced a number of changes to the 2012 MX National championship that includes a three-year deal with Tag Heuer as the official Watch and Timing Partner for the series, modified race formats and a sponsorship changeover. Part of the partnership with Tag Heuer includes their Track Intelligence software, which is claimed to bring the registration and results well into the 21st Century, and the winner of the Pro Open series will receive a Tag Heuer watch. We gave WEM's Managing Director, Kevin Williams, a call to find out what it all means for the upcoming motocross season. Read the interview.

Here's reigning Women's A4DE Champion, Jess Gardiner, with her friends and the "Goon Squad" at AMA SX pits during January. Livin' the SoCal dream, eh?!

The Goon Squad.

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Motorex KTM Off-Road's Chris Hollis was also at the Coffs Harbour Stadiumcross over the weekend. He won the first moto in the Pro Open class and then got fourth and fifth in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively. Hollis tells us there was a massive pile-up in the first turn during Moto 3 that left him with a few burns after having a bike's back wheel spinning behind his head, but he finished the night third Overall. Reports say MX Nats regulars, Jake Moss and Kade Mosig, were battling it out, too. Hollis says he'll now return to the Institute of Sport in Canberra for another week of training: "I drove 10 hours up the coast because I love the event. It's only two hours from my home in Port Macquarie and it's always a lot of fun. I'm now back in Canberra for another week of training at the AIS."

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When the make-up of the 2012 ISDE team management was announced a couple of weeks back, Damian Smith (Assistant Team Manager in 2011) was a surprise omission. Most interesting of all is that the new Assistant Team Manager, Mick Carusi (a mechanic on the Motorex KTM off-road team) remains unsure whether he'll even be going. "In late September when the ISDE is on, I've got a lot of bikes to prepare for the Australian 4-Day Enduro in October," Carusi told Transmoto. Anyone else get the feeling there are a few communication shortcomings going on here? More next week on this one.

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The Melbourne Enduro X, which takes place in less than two weeks on February 4, will see some of Australia's top off-road riders compete in a technical battleground of rocks, logs, tyres and mud holes. It's staged just 10km out of Melbourne's CBD, and will be professionally filmed for a 30-minute program that'll be aired on Speed TV. If you're down in Melbourne, check out the event at the Broadmeadows Motocross venue.

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US racer Ricky Dietrich has signed with Husqvarna CH Racing Monster Energy team to race the 2012 EWC series. This week, he also confirmed he'll contest the Husqvarna British Sprint Enduro Championship - a series run and promoted by Transmoto's European Correspondent, Jonty Edmunds.

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GHR Honda has announced the team will attend the Condo 750, Finke Desert Race, Hattah and the Australasian Safari this year, while also making preparations for their second Dakar campaign at the 2013 event. They hope to take both Jake and Todd Smith. Jake Smith finished 32 in the 2011 Dakar racing for GHR, and was running in the top-20, but succumbed to mechanical problems during the final leg.

Do you own a 2011- or 2012-model KTM 250SX-F that has become hard to start or is losing performance? If so, contact your local dealer. KTM has acknowledged that, in some instances, the steel inserts in these bikes' sparkplug caps "leads to functional problems". To address the issue, we understand they're replacing them with brass inserts.

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Following Triumph's release of their Tiger 800 in 2011, the company has announced the Tiger Explorer, a 1215cc three-cylinder adventure bike that's designed to directly oppose BMW's 1200GS. It will retail for $21,110 - compared with the 1200GS's $22,190 and $27,290 for the Adventure model. Triumph isn't the first manufacturer to go directly up against BMW though; Yamaha released the 1199cc twin-cylinder engine Super Tenere to Australia last year for $19,990.

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French-based motorcycle manufacturer, Sherco, has released prices for their 2012 range of enduro weaponry. Spearheading the line-up is the all-new 2.5iR and 3.0iR. Priced at $11,290 and $11,490, respectively, the 250 and 300ccc machines come with an all-new perimeter frame, WP suspension and bodywork. The 450 and 510 models (the 4.5iR and 5.1iR) only get modest upgrades for 2012 and retail for $11,690 and $11,990, respectively. That's some very sharp pricing for the Aussie market for what are well-specced hardnose European enduro bikes.

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Tullera Racing's Ben Mulherin railing a berm at Goanna Tracks

Transmoto contributor and Tullera Racing's Ben Mulherin was spied railing this powder berm at Coonabarabran's Goanna Tracks over the weekend. Judging from the shot, it looks like hot pink is in this year. Nice one, Ben! PS: What happened to salmon?

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The 2012 Honda Broadford Bike Bonanza kicks off on April 6 at the State Motorcycle Sports Complex in Broadford, Vic, to celebrate the Golden Era of motorcycles - the '70s and '80s. Aussie international MX star, Jeff Leisk, will be attending and his 1989 Honda Factory RC500 will be on display as well as a number of his Aussie title-winning machines. Plus, MX historian, Roger Harvey, is compiling a 120-page book of unpublished photos of the stars of the early era of Aussie MX and Scrambles, which will be on sale at the event.

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Long-time Team CDR Yamaha technician, Shawn Hodgetts, and his partner, Melissa, are celebrating the birth of their first baby girl, Tahlia Giuliana. Congratulations!

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Fresh off the success of the ground-breaking "Dream Ride" video, Team JDR KTM videographer Jason Macalpine and his posse have let slip that their new cinematic extravaganza will 'drop' on February 15 - the week before the AMA East Coast Supercross begins. "For this one, we've used a heap of cable cams and a Phantom camera," Macalpine explained over the phone to Transmoto, en route to some night snowboarding in California. "Dream Ride was a bit of a novelty shoot and all about the slow-mo, whereas this next one is more of an interesting insight into the running of a race team - all the R&D that goes into it and the logistics of having riders race on both coasts of the USA. It's based around the JDR KTM team, but also features comments from a bunch of big-name KTM and industry guys." Something tells us Macalpine has just done his first interview with the great Roger DeCoster. Go get 'em, Gypsy!

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Andrew Johns admiring Blizzard's 2011 Summer Nats experience...

Even former rugby league great, Andrew "Joey" Johns, can't keep his mitts off the now infamous 'Bogan Blizzard' stubby cooler - a now iconic piece of merchandise first released at Transmoto test pilot Garry Blizzard's bucks party last year. The classic shot of lady-loins Blizzard - taken by Simon Davidson at the 2011 Summer Nats, after GB's lengthy session on the cans - was first run as a double-page spread in Street Machine magazine. Not a favourite with the wife, that!

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Check this insane video of a two-stroke trailrider hitting a snow-covered ridge that, at times, is less than 30cm wide and a damn long way down a steep, slippery slope. Do you have the plums to ride that? Speaking of plums, drop in on some of Will Ferrell's finest meaningless work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVcniAcWg0Q

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Yamaha's official off-road coaching arm, Y-Aim, is back in 2012 with Chris Urquhart, Shane Booth, Cameron Taylor and Shane Metcalfe utilising their vast knowledge to hold coaching weekends in NSW (yaim-nsw.com), Qld (urkymx.com), SA (shanemetcalfe.com) and Vic (camerontaylormx.com). Follow the links for each state for dates and booking information.

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The 2012 Manual of Motorcycle Sport is now available to view and download from Motorcycling Australia: http://www.ma.org.au/moms

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Motorex KTM Off-Road has signed WesTrac as key sponsor for 2012. WesTrac is the Caterpillar distributor in NSW and ACT and offers a range of products and services in the construction and mining industry.