On October 16th, I had the opportunity to ride my 1200 GS Adventure in the Scrub Pines Enduro in New Jersey.  I joined twelve other adventure bike riders who registered to compete in one of two exhibition big bike classes – 600-1000cc or 1000+cc.  These time keeping events are typically reserved for the smaller, more athletic brethren bikes, but Jack O’Connor (a.k.a. “Jack Splash” on advrider.com) had a great idea to work with the Ocean County Competition Riders club president Rocky Spano to invite the pigs to come out and play.

Jack created and coordinated the big bike route at the event.  The course included several challenging single-track sections that tested our ability to negotiate tightly wooded and sandy terrain (video from event).  Everyone completed the course successfully and had a great time doing it, which begs the question, “Why don’t more clubs across the country add big bike classes to their enduro events?”

For those less familiar with what it means to compete in an enduro (which was me about three weeks ago), I want to differentiate an enduro from a rally race.  An enduro is a thinking person’s race that focuses on motorcycle finesse over a long period of time.  Both event types test a rider’s ability to navigate the course and handle various obstacles, but the difference lies in how time is handled.  An off-road rally is a race for the fastest time from start to finish, whereas an enduro tests the rider’s ability to keep to a predetermined schedule (arriving early or late to a check point will cost you points). Please note there is a difference between rally racing and similarly named rally gatherings, which is widely used to also describe non-competitive events where riders gather to socialize and ride more casually.

A big barrier to acceptance is the misconception that adventure bikes can’t handle the off-road terrain.  Few people understand the capabilities of our machines, including some owners.  In the U.S., we are a fairly small, but growing, rider community with very little exposure outside of the inner circle.  We are caught between the clubs that cater to the road tourers and ones that serve the off-road riders.  Adventure riders are underrepresented and we fly under the radar when we do ride off-road (chalk it up to having a quiet exhaust).

Without a doubt there are some things pigs can’t do well but that can usually be overcome through careful course planning, teamwork amongst the competitors, or simply adding a section bypass.  Dropping an adventure bike more than once can really start to fatigue a rider and recovering a bike stuck on a log, buried in deep sand or mud, or caught between some big rocks can sometimes be more than what an individual can realistically overcome.  So I propose that the new adventure bike class be set up with competitors riding the course in two-person teams, each on their own machine but riding together (most useful when some man-handling is required to clear special tests and tougher sections). This idea is not too different than the BMW GS Challenge but could make competitive adventure riding more accessible to the riding community and could create a feeder series to help discover the best competitive adventure riders.

Adventure riding is not a “when in doubt, gas out” style of riding.  It takes incredible skill and patience to finesse the machine through a variety of rough terrain.  Enduros provide an opportunity to test those skills in a format that is already widely used across the country.  It wouldn’t take much to modify the rules and the events to accommodate adventure bikes.  So if you agree that enduros provide a great opportunity for expanding the sport of competitive adventure riding, here’s your call to action:

• Reach out to your AMA district representative and share your interest in creating the new enduro class for adventure bikes.  Every year the AMA congress reviews proposals that could amend the rule book for the following season.  We can aim to have the adventure bike class officially added as a competition class in the rule book for the 2013 season.
• Get involved locally.  Work with event organizers in your area to add and promote the new big bike class concept.  Help them plan the course and spread the word through forums like advrider.com or other social networking sites like Facebook.  This would make the case to the AMA more compelling by showing that it can work and there is sufficient interest in the sport.
• Share this information with other riders and ask them to get involved.

It doesn’t take much to get this going but we have to reach out to the organizations sponsoring these events and express our interest in participating.  They provide great riding opportunities with the added benefit of bragging rights.

What are your thoughts on the subject?  Please comment on this post and share why you think this is a good or bad idea.