Minnesota Adventure Riders

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Muggleton – Withdrawn (16 riders so far have dropped out)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.

Forbes had a nice article recently on Polaris and their effort to revive the Indian brand with all new models this year.  Here is a snippet:

“The new Indian is being engineered from scratch, with new frames and new engines, as well as a handful of classic Indian styling cues, such as the war bonnet, the valanced fender and the engine’s exposed push rods. “Think of how Chevrolet took the ’68 Camaro and brought it forward to 2010 when it was relaunched,” said Steve Menneto, vice president of motorcycles at Polaris. “It was a modern car, with all the technology, electronics and quality, without losing the brand heritage.””

Its too bad they are actually made in Iowa, but I look forward to see how this Minnesota company innovates this legendary brand.

Last Spring a new helmet law was introduced into the State legislature that would make it illegal to ride without a helmet if you don’t have proper insurance.

ABATE as a nice write up .  I personally have mixed feelings about this.  Making someone else pay because you are choosing to ride without ATGATT is not cool.  However, I don’t like the government continuing to invade our personal decisions either.

Anyone heard of the status on this?  I believe it went into committee, but that was quite a while ago.  Sound off in the comments if you know any details or want to weigh in on the subject.

Its that time of year again. We will try to keep you updated on stats right here. Two riders from the USA this year will compete; the legendary Johnny Campbell (41 yrs old) will make his return to the Dakar after a long absence and also Kevin Muggleton (46 yrs old).  Johnny will be riding for Honda (of course) on a Honda Rally CRF450 and Kevin will be riding for Redverz on a Honda CRF450 Dakar X. 

Kevin’s facebook page is here, with LOTS of photos.  Johnny’s is here.

You can watch the Dakar on NBC Sports Network at 1 AM or 1:30 CST each night. Can’t wait?  Watch the preview videos below.

Here is the schedule and route map:

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