Kirk Gibbs made it no secret that he wanted to join the premier class ranks, and now reveals this week that he will do just that after picking up a ride with KTM Australia’s all-new in-house factory effort for 2013.

After multiple years in the 250cc class, the South Australian felt it was time to take the next step and will ride alongside current Australian motocross second place holder, Todd Waters, for the season ahead.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Gibbs to talk about his KTM deal, premier class hopes, his Coolum crash recovery and possible overseas plans for the future.

Firstly, how did the deal with KTM for 2013 all come to be?

I talked to Rob [Twyerould] a little bit before Coolum, obviously I’ve been looking to ride a 450 for the last year or two now, the opportunity sort of hadn’t come around. So I was talking to him, not crazy amounts, just here and there.

Rob was always jet setting away and that, so I could only talk to him here and there. Once they sort of finalised mostly their end, what was going on and stuff like that, we started talking a little bit more. Once they knew what they had and what budget they had, then it sort of all came about. I was on my way back to Queensland, I drove down and met up with everyone and signed the deal.

You are known to ride a 450 well, and as you said, you had been looking for a 450 ride for some time now. Finally now with your chance to enter the premier class, what will you be expecting from yourself?

I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, I know it’s my first year and I know there is a lot of guys stepping up to 450s. Obviously with Matt [Moss] and stuff coming back, it’s definitely tough competition and there is a lot of people in there.

So I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, but I know I can do well and I know I ride the 450 well. As long as I can get starts and stuff, I think I can run top five.

You had your first ride on the KTM this week, how do you feel on the bike at this point with only a short amount of seat time?

I really like the bike already. To start with I was a little bit rusty as it was, I hadn’t been on the bike for four months, so it took a little bit to get into it with all fresh gear as well, boots and everything.

So it took a little bit to get into it, but I think I found my seat pretty well by the end of the day and I felt pretty good on the bike. We spent probably a good three or four hours on the bike, which was good. I definitely felt comfortable on the bike and I’ll definitely be going out in the next couple of days again too.

You said you felt a bit rusty, obviously after your big crash at Coolum which sidelined you for a considerable amount of time. How has your recovery been since then and are you back to 100 percent at this point?

Yeah obviously I had a big crash at Coolum which sent me back a lot. I recovered well, I had to go see a head specialist and they said at least 10 weeks after my crash from the head knock that I had. But it was a little bit longer for my wrist to heal up anyway.

I got the all clear to ride at 10 weeks, but I just wanted to see if I could get a little bit more movement and stuff in. It’s been close to 16 weeks since my crash, and everything’s good. Obviously my wrist still isn’t 100 percent, but we’ve got plenty of time before the first round and I’ll definitely be 100 percent by the time that comes around.

Finally, your teammate Todd Waters mentioned he had plans to head overseas with KTM in the future, is that something you also have in mind for the future as you enter the 450 class with KTM?

Yeah, it’s always the plan to go overseas; everyone wants to and that’s where they want to be. I’d like to get over there, I’d like to just sort of establish myself a bit more on the 450 first, maybe a year or two – maybe even three here.

I want to go over there, I want to go over and do some races in America and Europe to just see where I’m at and what it’s all about as well – see which one I like a bit more. If I really like it in either America or Europe, I’ll try and persue that.