Minnesota Adventure Riders

See press release here.

What will this mean for the brand?How will the owner align the business with KTM?

I guess we will all have to wait and see.

I have been shopping for a certain farkle for the past year or so and recently found that the best supplier was in India.  I was surprised that this small company in a country on the other side of the world really understood the needs of dual sporting. The product was just what I was looking for.
Today, I ran across the video below.  Its a Taiwanese bank commercial that relies on their country’s love for motorcycle adventuring.  Now call the commercial hokey or call it moving, but regardless, I am again struck by how universal the message of motorcycling no matter your culture, language, or background.

Watch the video.  It should put a smile on your face.

All, in case you haven’t see it, back in October there was a nicely done review of Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 in Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly.  Sorry for the late notice on this blog, I am way behind!  Hop on over and check it out.  Nice to have a Minnesota focused publication creating content for the ADV crowd.

Since Klim is owned by Polaris (Minnesota company) I guess I have an excuse to plug them in this blog.

If you haven’t noticed yet, Klim is running a special on their website right now on pants.  Klim gear is well known for being high quality, but notorious for also being quite expensive.  Here is your chance to get Klim riding pants for just $100.  There are a few other sale priced items as well, so poke around a bit and see what you can find.

I ordered the Dakar pants.  Just an FYI, these are NOT overpants.  They fit more like jeans or carpenter pants, pretty tight.  If in doubt, order a size larger.  They are none too loose! No time to test them out when it is -12F outside right now, but my first impression is that they are very high quality, thick material, with great venting, and very comfortable.  The only negative….Made in China! I’ll look forward to testing them in a few months.

The 2013 Dakar is all wrapped up.  The event was more exciting than ever, and the footage and photos coming back were amazing.  Cyril Depres sealed his fifth Dakar title, but American racers held their own too.

Johnny Campbell placed 40th:

Kurt Caselli picked up a win on the 11th stage proving this US rider really could be a contender in future events.  He placed 31st overall.

Final results Dakar 2013 after 14 stages
1. Despres, 43:24:22 hours (15 min penalty for changing his engine) – wins fifth Dakar title; twelfth consecutive title for KTM
2. Faria, +10:43 min
3. Lopez, +18:48 (15 min penalty)
4. Jakes, +23:54
5. Pedrero, +55:29 (15 min penalty)
6. Pain, +1:06:30 h
7. Rodrigues, +1:11:22 (15 min penalty)
8. Javier Pizzolito (RA), Honda, +1:26:07
9. Verhoeven, +1:26:35
10. Goncalves, +1:28:20 (15 min penalty)

Dakar Bike video summary:

Also some CNN Photos.  Very well done.

In case you need to pimp out that motorcycle themed garage or den of yours and are stuck on what to do for lighting, Classified Moto has a solution.
I found these motorcycle parts-turned-lamps a real work of art.  Nice to see people catering to the moto-crowd with furniture.

Maybe it will inspire you to start a craft project with all the left over parts in your garage!

Need something to keep occupied during this winter?  Duke has released its DVD of the 2012 International Six Days Enduro.  If your not familiar with this event the ISDE took place in Saxony, Germany, and was the 87th year.  It is sometimes called the “Olympics of Motorcycling.”

To order the DVD, click here.

Some time ago we decided to create a online discussion board for folks interested in talking about DS and ADV riding in Minnesota.  That system was used very minimally.  I believe this was mostly because we are all so busy these days that remembering to visit another website to see if there was anything new, was just too much to ask.  So instead we are trying out a mailing list instead.  The mailing list works just like Google Groups or Yahoo Groups. Send an email to the list address and everyone on the list gets the message.

Everyone who was signed up for the old discussion board has been migrated to the new system.  If you want to sign up just fill out the info on our contact form.  You also no longer need to provide an AMA membership number to join the list.  Just a name and email.

Thanks everyone.

Here are the U.S. riders overall ranking….

Caselli – 19th overall, and 5th in today’s race!
Muggleton – Withdrawn (16 riders so far have dropped out)
Campbell – 146th overall, and 38th today.

Despress (France/KTM) is #1 overall and Lopez (Chile/KTM) is #2 (but was the fastest today).

Today’s Car/Bike summary:

A little more media from Red Bull on preparing for the 2013 Dakar.