Welcome to Weekly Dirt, your place to find the latest in off-road news in a nutshell. Sit back and enjoy your serving of dirt for the week!
Editor at Large Jimmy Lewis has been on a Pacific Northwest tour and here is what he has been up to:
My first stop was at the KTM Adventure Rider Rally. This yearly event has a steady following of riders on KTM’s larger dual purpose offerings, mostly the 990 and 690 machines. Held in Bend, Oregon this year there were demo rides, guided rides led by Mike Lafferty and Paul Krause as well as tech seminars and riding instruction classes. Even leading up to the event there were a couple of meet-ups for groups to gather, camp out and chart fun off-road routes to the event. Two hundred riders made the journey and had a blast comparing bikes, riding and bench racing even though there was no racing of any kind at the event.
After some off-road exploring in Central Oregon and its many lakes, I made a stop in Battle Ground Washington to meet up with my friends at Trail Tech to see some of the new products they are working on and of course to go for a killer trail ride. I also learned about some updates and upgrades available for the Voyager GPS and Ride Leader software, which I’ll share soon.
I headed to the Portland area where I was lucky enough to hit PIR Thursday Night Motocross (www.thursdaynightmotocross.com). This is the longest-running night motocross race track in the United States and actually takes place in a city park. It was one of the most professionally run races I’ve ever attended and really fun. I distinctly remember thinking the track looked like a prepped golf course as I pulled up. Though small, the track has a multitude of available configurations and the dirt is tacky considering the moisture that comes up as the sun goes down. I grabbed a couple of trophies in the age classes on my Husky CR125 that is now a 144. Plus I got to ride a couple of locals’ bikes, Krista Buck’s RM-Z 250 and Mike Pontious’ KXF 250 for Raeder’s Rides. I also ran into Brian Barnes, longtime announcer at Washougal who is a great friend in the moto industry. He told me what a race I missed the weekend before. Called the dream race it was a 125cc two-stroke challenge at Washougal with 70 entries.
While at PIR I learned that there was going to be a GP at Washoual MX park which is just up river. The Dick Jagow Memorial is one of the PNW’s best GPs due to the diversity of the terrain available at Washougal and of course the use of the National track. I gave the Husky another day out in the 1.5-hour race with a win in the 40 Expert class and had a blast even with the massive dust in the woods. There hasn’t been rain but the Scott Mountain MC really worked the water trucks to keep is as wet as possible. But what was really cool was to get to talk to a lot of the Mount Scott MC members and see how involved they are in the land use issues and keeping trails and riding areas open. If you are ever in the Oregon/Washington area look then up at www.mtscottmc.com.
Have you seen the new Honda Factory Rally bike? Well here is a sneak peak… (via Goo.gl/Pn01g)
If you are at all interested in Adventure bikes pushing 150 HP, look here…
http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/details-drop-2013-ktm-1190-adventure-r/
http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2012/04/this-is-the-2013-ktm-adventure-1290/
http://www.cycleworld.com/2012/06/27/spied-2013-bmw-r1250gs/
We’ll put knobbies on them and tell you if they are worthy when we get the chance. Dirt bike luxury camping anyone?
So you are registered to vote, right? It is the first line of defense when it comes to keeping your right to ride. Here is some important information we are passing along:
Dear Trail Voter,
Trail voters have just about 6 weeks until Election Day on November 6 where we can and will make a difference in the political arena. TPAC wanted to give its supporters a quick update on our key targeted Senate and House races as of today.
All of our key races are classic examples of where you have pro-access and pro-EPA reform candidates v. candidates who champion the closure agenda of the League of Conservation Voters, Earth Justice, Earth First!, and the Sierra Club.
TPAC Targeted/Key Senate Endorsements
Dean Heller (NV – Senate)
Denny Rehberg (MT-Senate)
George Allen (VA- Senate)
Jeff Flake (AZ – Senate)
Heather Wilson (NM-Senate)
Rick Berg (ND-Senate)
Others – TBA
TPAC Targeted/Key House Endorsements
Dan Lungren (CA CD-7)
Chip Cravaack (MN CD-8)
Others – TBA
Also remember that TPAC has joined forces with various OHV leaders to host its ONLY formal fundraising event -Dan Lungren (CA CD-7) – between now and November 6. It will be held on September 30 at the CAL4WD HQ in Sacramento at 6:30pm.
Here is link to event flyer with directions
http://www.cal4wheel.com/latest-news/292-cal4-and-trailpac-team-to-support-ohv
This is a critically important event for OHV politics since the Lungren race is viewed by most political experts as the hottest House contest in this election. Our event is right after his debate with Bera and we need to give Dan a warm welcome and a strong show of trail voter support.
Sept. 22 – SACBEE Article on Lungren Hot Race
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/22/4843618/hot-debate-set-for-a-hot-us-house.html
Please make plans to carpool to this event and if you can’t make it… please send in a donation to the Lungren folks since they have set up a special online donation link for this event.
https://www.efundraisingconnections.com/c/seitchikhq/Donate.aspx?PageID=120930
Please RSVP to Lindsey Seitchik/Lungren Campaign if you are coming – Lindsey@setichikHQ.com
Also, RSVP to Don Amador at TPAC – info@thetrailpac.com
PLEASE RSVP TO BONNIE STEELE AT CAL4WD HQ so she can plan on the number for seats, refreshments, etc. Bonnie is the CAL4 office administrator who is in charge of getting the facility ready for the event.
Contact Bonnie at: ca4wdc@cal4wheel.com
Thanks again for your continued support. TPAC has received a number of calls from candidates who value our active support and appreciate our efforts to publicly defend them from the Big Green political attack machine. TPAC is the only pro-recreation federal PAC that has taken on that important role at the national level.
Thanks for being engaged in this election.
Don Amador, Founder
The Trail PAC
- Jimmy Lewis
Graham Jarvis very well may have set a record this week for being the first dude to ever drop in on a mini ramp while wearing roll-offs. Oh yeah, and he was on a Husaberg! We spotted this cool video earlier this week of the extreme enduro star getting crazy on a skatepark, and boy is it cool!
- Chris Denison
Stay posted to dirtrider.com for daily updates from the ISDE, and if you’re anywhere near Denver, Colorado you should be signed up to race, or at minimum get your tickets to see, the EnduroCross at the National Western Complex. Check out endurocross.com for event details and race results and videos.
And in case you’re wondering about the 2013 bike shootouts, Dirt Rider’s 450 shootout kicked off today, and that will keep the staff busy through the rest of this week with 3 consecutive days of testing with a huge crew of test riders. Watch for great videos from testing the bikes and the full report in the February issue.
