Touratech’s Showroom Manager and sometimes blogger Eric Archambault is currently on a 2-week odyssey that will take him to the KTM Adventure Rally in Colorado and the Horizon’s Unlimited Meeting in Northern California. We asked him to share his experiences with a daily (or semi-daily) account of his adventures.
Two Weeks, Two Rallies Part 3
After arriving at the KTM Rally site late on Wednesday, the next few days of the rally sorta blurred together.
Thursday 17 September 2015
With the driving done for a few days, and only the Touratech-USA booth to set-up on the schedule, I decided it was a good day to sleep in a bit. Driving down to the town of Crested Butte from the hotel I found a nice little restaurant, and had an awesome Ruben for breakfast. I should have snapped some pictures of the town, but I am not a good tourist like that. The town is an old mining town, and has the look and feel that a traditional ski-town should have. Lots of small businesses, in old buildings, with amazing views every which way you look.
Yep… That’s the new Aventuro color!!
The rest of the day was spent getting the booth set-up and chatting with venders and riders as they arrived. I started the process of rejetting my KTM 950 for the altitude, but after dropping and losing a bolt early in the process I decided to just run very rich with the sea-level setting. Morgan finally made it in later that night from Seattle.
Friday 18 September 2015
This was the first day of actual riding. Morgan and myself paired up with a few other northwest guys and ran one of the shorter loops. I figured this way we would leave after the big rides went out, and be able to get back while most of the riders were still on the trail. The riding was great, we stopped quite a bit to take pictures, I think I’ll just let them do most of the talking.
Photo by Brian Englund
Photo by Brian Englund
Saturday 19 September 2015
I went out on a short ride, and small photo shoot this day. In hindsight I really should have gone on one of the longer more challenging rides, but didn’t plan ahead enough to make that happen. In the evening everyone was shuttled to the top of the mountain for the awards dinner. KTM always does this right, good food, and lots of laughs. After the dinner a few of us went into town of the Vinotor, a traditional fall festival. I only heard the short story of what happens, so forgive me if I over simplify. The Grump (a large wooden stickfigure) is filled with the towns grievances (or grumps), then is put on trial. After being convicted guilty, he is dragged to the edge of town and burned. All of the grievances are burned, and everyone gets to start fresh, or something like that. Walking in the huge crowd yelling “Burn the Grump!” as it was dragged to the edge of town was a pretty awesome experience. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it made for a fun night.
Photo by Justin Coffey
I’m back on the road now. More updates to come as I head to Yosemite, CA for the Horizions Unlimited Riders Meeting.
About the author: Eric is an incurable motorcycle nut. He’s owned and wrenched on everything from vintage scooters and vintage motocross bikes to modern machines, and now spends much of his time riding and talking about adventure motorcycles. If you have called the Touratech store in Seattle or called the offices, chances are you’ve talked to Eric. Eric came in second place in the adventure class at the Stumpjumper Desert 100 Race in 2014, and recently finished the 2015 race in eighth place in the same class. He is a key part of the Touratech race team, and when he’s not racing a local hare-scramble or vintage motocross race, or working on motorcycles in his garage, he can be found roaming the Cascade mountains on his KTM 950 Adventure looking for new routes for the annual Touratech Rally.
To read more of Archambault’s Angle CLICK HERE.