Quinn Cody and Michael Lafferty at Touratech Rally EastIf you’re a serious adventure rider, you undoubtedly know of Touratech. The Germany-based brand has been designing – and testing – accessories for adventure-touring motorcycles for over two decades.The company’s stateside branch – Touratech-USA – has taken the brand one-mile further by hosting rallies that highlight the ADV motorcycling lifestyle, which includes riding in some of the most remote areas of the states to camping and camaraderie.
This tradition continues for 2016 as Touratech-USA once again will hosts two events – its sixth annual Touratech Rally West and second annual Touratech Rally East.Read our Touratech Rally Review.Amish culture at Touratech Rally EastThe Touratech Rally West Date is set for June 23-26 with home base in Plain, Wash. The Touratech Rally East Date is set for August 18-21 in Hungtingdon, Pa.As for numbers, the 2015 Touratech Rally West had over 500 riders; the innagural East edition drew nearly 200 riders but is expected to grow for 2016.The big news for 2016 is the addition of the legendary off-road racer and Dakar finisher Jimmy Lewis, who will teach his two-day riding course at Touratech Rally West. He was also oversee the rider challenge competition at both West and East events. Additional world-class rider training will be offered by DirtFIRST on the West Coast and Pine Barren Adventure Camp in Pennsylvania.“The Touratech Rallies are an awesome experience. I enjoy them so much I went to both of them last summer and I won’t miss either of them this year,” says Dennis Godwin, 2016 BMW GS Trophy qualifier.For additional information, visit touratechrally.com. A limited number of volunteer positions are available for those interested in helping run the event.
Touratech Rally Photo Gallery
Quinn Cody and Michael Lafferty at Touratech Rally East
Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.
In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!
In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.
In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it!
At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.
Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?
Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.
So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
