Ken Faught
Founder, Speed & Sport Adventures

Ken Faught is the former Editor-in-Chief of Dirt Rider magazine, which grew to become the world’s largest monthly off-road motorcycle publication before transitioning to a digital platform. He is also one of the most dedicated and interesting motorcyclists that you will ever meet.

     Faught spent his early years as a photojournalist working for CN Publishing where he was Associate Editor of Cycle News and the Editor of Personal Watercraft Illustrated. After nearly six years working for the Long Beach, California-based company, he ultimately took various editorial positions at Dirt Rider. It was during this time that Faught worked for Petersen Publishing, which also owned titles such as Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Photographic and dozens more. As a world traveler and professional photographer, Faught was selected by Petersen Publishing Company, Canon and Kodak to help test and provide critical input on the first generations of their co-branded digital professional cameras. It was also during his time at the publishing giant that Faught became Photographer of the Year among 7000 employees of EMAP, the company which bought Petersen. In addition, he’s also an accomplished videographer whose work has appeared on television.

     From the technical side, Faught has also been extensively involved in product testing for over 20 years and has written stories on the performance of off-road motorcycles for nearly half his life. Most recently, Faught has focused much of his attention from 2005-2022 on indoor electric karting, where he co-founded the Pole Position Raceway brand which opened 16 locations across the United States and entertained approximately 10 million racers.

     During his career at Dirt Rider magazine, Faught was responsible for coordinating production for as well as co-hosting two TV shows: Motorcyclist on Speed Channel (now Fox Sports 1) and Dirt Rider Adventures on OLN (now CBS Sports). He also helped launch two other magazines: MXracer and ATV Rider while at Petersen Publishing. As a journalist, Faught’s favorite aspect of the job was adventure travel. He picked up the bug from longtime friend and co-worker Mark Kariya and has done adventure tours in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Peru, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Canada, Mainland Mexico, Baja and all over the United States.

     Faught is literally one of those people who have been there, done that! In fact, when CBS’ famed 60 Minutes II did a segment on motorcycle safety, Faught was chosen to be a motorsports industry expert and appeared on the broadcast along with Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Ricky Johnson and Kenny Bartram.

     As a professional photographer, Faught’s work has appeared in approximately 75 magazines and he's done work for dozens of high-end companies including Honda, Lexus, Hyundai, Fox, Medieval Times, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, KTM, Bell Helmets, Roland Sands Designs, Rockstar Energy, Kicker, FMF, Wild Rivers and Saleen, and has owned three commercial photo studios which operated under the Studio 38 brand.

     In 2004 and 2005, Faught was contracted to act as Team Makita Suzuki’s MX PR Coordinator for racing legend Ricky Carmichael. He has authored several motorsports books, is a patent holder, a licensed pilot and holds three land speed records at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and was a paid Factory Suzuki rider on Team FL Racing. Faught is married to Amy Faught, the daughter of Mel Harris who was once the head of Suzuki in the United States. Ken and Amy have two kids, Hannah Faught and Wyatt Faught. The Faught's also co-founded Soda Jerk, a popular ready-to-drink cocktail company that is distributed in 17 states, with long-time friend and business partner Craig Potter.

     More recently, Faught co-founded Off-Road Travel TV with a few dozen friends including Mark Mitchell, former Vice President of MavTV, Mark Kariya (arguably the most well-known motorcycle off-road race photojournalist), Vanessa Zito (former advertising executive at Vegas.com), Rob & Christjen Johnson (owners of Blacksky Entertainment video production), Neale Bayly (acclaimed off-road photojournalist), Matt and Sarah Girgis (off-road content creators), and many more.

     Additionally Faught started MXandOffRoadTours.com which is an alliance of off-road tour operators around the world. Established in 2023, the alliance includes Jeff Stanton Adventures, High Desert Adventures, Coyote Trail Adventures, Grand Valley Adventure, Utah Enduro Adventures, Mountain Slayerz, Unlimited Rides Costa Rica, Bali Wilderness Dirt Bike and the world-famous Gold Creek Lodge.