The Bet – Overland Motorcycling Pt 3

This is part 3 of our continuing series on our big offroad motorcycling wager. 
You can read part one here.

You guys, can we all get real for the exact same moment? We are 6mos into our 1yr overland motorcycling challenge of manhood that we have concocted, and I am feeling confident.  Between Gary and I, we have taken to this activity pretty well and learned enough in a short time to be fairly competent offroad riders. Even more so, the differences between us are growing more apparent and therefore my strategy to crush Gary in the final competition is coming into clearer focus.

See, it has become a regular occurrence during our monthly practice sessions that we will be 10 minutes into riding – warming up really – and the Gerber Baby will start whining about how tired he already is. Now, is he a whiny child in general? Absolutely. Without a doubt. Lazy too. BUT, he is also a prideful creature that wants to win this contest just as much as I do. As we train more and more it is coming into sharp relief that he has a lot of the techniques down  better than I, but he is less willing to take risks and is easily tired out. With those strengths and weaknesses in mind, I’m going to craft the perfect final challenge to test us – and utterly exploit Gary’s weaknesses. Hey, I want to win…

The ultimate test is going to have to be carefully planned. There are ample opportunities to screw up and make the test too easy, concentrated on the wrong aspects, or not easily measurable. This 12 month experiment is not a contest around buzzing around a motocross track the fastest, or bucking sick jumps yo – it’s about navigating from point A to point B with no roads or civilization. How do you take a motorcycle over wild land and survive with man and machine intact? Therefore, the final contest can not be allowed to turn into a sprinting race or held in an offroad park and just timed. It needs to be a grueling crucible of man, machine, and mind. I’m going to have to get creative…

Los Angeles to Los Vegas – first man to check in to the hotel at the end is the undisputed winner. Done the hard way and sticking to dirt only, the route takes 2 days. There are ample routes to choose from, convenient halting points and refueling stops, and there is a wealth of information from others who have done it. This kind of a route keeps it from turning into a sprint, is short enough for us to do in a 3-day weekend, and has a buffet at the end. But many questions remain… What if we each choose the same route and it turns into a race? I promise I will hurt myself if that happens because I’m too competitive to back off when common sense says I should. LA to Vegas is the current frontrunner for this contest.

But is a race the best test of our technique? We could be better served, and a lot safer, if we rode together and had an impartial adjudicator along silently – or mockingly – watching and judging our every move to determine who is the best overland rider. But it is far easier to argue or dismiss a judge than it is a stopwatch, and now that’s three people and three bike to corral…

Speaking of bikes, our current ones just won’t do for The Contest (I’m going to capitalize it now, because it’s a pretty big deal). While mine is nicely lightweight and utterly chuckable offroad, it’s quality of being kickstart only means it is impossible to restart on a hill and has led to me walking the bike down a grade several times. As for Gary, his is really a learner bike that was good to start with but is gutless and not very well suited to hardcore trail travel. So while we are still deciding on exactly what the final contest should be (got any ideas? Leave them on our Facebook page), we have decided what bikes we should be riding. And I’ve already bought mine. To be revealed next time…

Click here for Part 4 and a look at our new bikes!