#rally

KTM announced a new 890 Adventure R and a limited edition 890 Adventure R Rally, introducing a new, Euro 5-complaint follow-up to our reigning Motorcycle of the Year, the 790 Adventure R. The 890 Adventure R will be the standard model, while the Rally model adds a number of race-ready components and will be produced in a limited run of 700 units worldwide (with 200 units destined for the U.S.). KTM hasn’t explicitly said whether the 790 will continue in its lineup alongside the 890, like it’s doing with the Duke line, but from the way KTM describes it, that doesn’t seem likely.

When you’re not scrambling to make ends meet or get ahead, it seems like you’re constantly rallying the troops, possibly ’round the flag but usually just trying to instill pep. It’s always something, and both of those things are so ingrained in my psyche that I barely even miss roosting on the track or burning up the backroads. We were less impressed with the all-new Triumph Speed Twin than we expected to be a couple weeks ago, but when SoCal Motorcycles let us swap it out for a new Scrambler 1200 XC, it was love at first ride. Maybe in the ’60s, scramblin’ meant riding around in the desert with McQueen and those guys, but with the current state of infrastructure, now you can interface gnarly terrain without leaving the city. Scrambling is now something you can do every day.

Good news: after giving us looks at a concept and a prototype, plus a prolonged promotional campaign, Yamaha officially introduced the production version of the Ténéré 700.

It’s a new year which means it’s time once again for the world’s most grueling off-road endurance race, the Dakar Rally. Celebrating its 40th edition, the 2018 Dakar Rally runs Jan. 6-20, starting in Lima, Peru, crossing into Bolivia with a rest day in La Paz, and then entering Argentina for the finish line at Cordoba.

The following public motorcycle events and rides are happening in the second half of June 2017.

From the song “Little Honda” by the Beach Boys:

If you’re a motorcyclist, you’ve heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. With Sturgis being one of the largest motorcycle gatherings in the world, people think they know what there is to do when attending the event. However, when questioned, they mostly mention shenanigans that take place on Main Street – activities that are so numerous that they’ve long since spilled onto and taken over nearby Lazelle Street. Or perhaps newbies express their desire to attend the events at the famous campground, concert venue, and all around party central, the Buffalo Chip. While these two locations are essential to the Sturgis experience, so much more is available to riders who attend the rally.

Celebrating our Independence Day is always better on two wheels, and this weekend there are multitudinous destinations beckoning your attendance. One of them is the Hollister Independence Rally. The area surrounding Hollister is awash in wonderful two-laners, and if you like garlic, Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World, is right next door. For California motorcyclists looking for a destination this weekend, look no further than Hollister.

Although the fat lady hasn’t yet sung – she’ll take the stage Saturday at 1:00 pm in the form of the Daytona 200 – the 75th Daytona Bike Week has begun to wind down. When you actually sit back to think about it, the event is really quite something. If you attend it, you know that Bike Week is something else – in the best sense of the phrase.

Once a year, the popular Los Angeles Griffith Park – known for its world-class zoo, Gene Autry Museum and Griffith Planetarium – offers another attraction, serving as a gathering point for fans of the sidecar, a.k.a. sidehack. Attendees trundle in on three wheels from all over the country for the annual Griffith Park Sidecar Rally, now celebrating its 44th event. All shapes and sizes, from antiques and classics to super swoopy high-tech wonders arrive, each rig as unique as its owner. This year’s rally also attracted many spectators rolling in on two-wheelers who enjoy learning about another aspect of motorcycling.

In 2007, a group of SoCal vintage bike enthusiasts were looking for a good party complete with cool bikes, tasty grub, cold brew and hot music. Not finding what they wanted and energized with backgrounds in a variety of professions – graphic artists, engineers, musicians, film makers, bike builders, computer geeks – they decided to build the party themselves.

The Hansen Dam Rally, officially known as the All British Hansen Dam Ride, is a SoCal tradition decades in the making and hosted the first week of every November by the Southern California Norton Owners Club (SCNOC). The  day-long event includes a 95-mile loop through the canyons of the western San Gabriel Mountains and culminates in a bike show at the Hansen Dam Recreational area located in the northeastern San Fernando Valley, some 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

While it’s difficult to say which is the top rally in the popular consciousness of American motorcycling, both Daytona Bike Week and Sturgis feature prominently in biker mythology. If you break down both events into their most basic components, they look something like this: Bikers arrive from all over the country and other parts of the world, take over the main venues of several local cities/towns, make lots of noise, consume tons of food and drink, go for rides around the local area, consume more and make more noise, spend tons of money, and go home happy, already talking about next year. Daytona has a little more racing (to this crowd) and Sturgis has a lot more riding. Both are considered must-do motorcycle events.