2014 Overland Expo West
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There’s a common thread that courses through the veins of many motorcyclists and adventurists, synonymous with the air they breathe, with many offering life and limb before relinquishing “freedom” as they know it. It’s also why I ride, and why as a young girl the fictional character Tarzan lit my adventurous spirit.
Back then the simplicity of nature beckoned as I ran barefoot through the forest behind my grandmother’s house mimicking Johnny Weissmuller’s famous jungle call. Today, many of us yearn for the freedom of those bygone years. And perhaps that’s the lure of adventure and motorcycles—the essence of what Overland Expo delivers in spades.
Last May, event founders Roseann and Jonathan Hanson tantalized the growing crowds at Overland Expo (West) 2014 with an overflowing table of adventurous delicacies. They loaded this expanding event with exhibitors to gear us up, presenters to inspire us, and classes to give us the educations to get out there like never before.
And to top it off, the annual film festival showed us what our adventurous dreams may look like by those who are living it. OX is one of the biggest and best adventure travel events of its kind in the world, and for the last three years it’s been presented in an ideal venue outside the Ponderosa pine country of Flagstaff, AZ—a gateway to some of the best riding in the state.
It’s located at the charming, western-style Mormon Lake Lodge and campground, and with over 300 acres, there’s plenty of room for the event to grow. The OX team arrives weeks in advance to make sure everything runs smoothly, while bulldozers groom the terrain into the challenging Land Rover driving course and Moto Village’s corral of whoops, railroad ties and sand pits for the RawHyde adventure motorcycle training course.
An event this dialed in to the pulse of the adventure market doesn’t happen overnight. It’s been percolating, growing bigger and better with each of its six years. Case in point, 2014 delivered another 25% growth overall with 8,000 attendees—and Saturday’s attendance alone was 50% greater than 2013.
Along with steadily increasing sales from the likes of BMW, KTM, Kawasaki and Yamaha, the numbers are letting us know that the North American adventure motorcycle scene continues to ramp up. This is the third year in a row that our posse has carved out a home-away-from-home with friends who form a “tent city,” where all we have to do is roll out of our sleeping bags in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing over the camp stoves of our riding neighbor's.
With a fresh cup o’ Joe in one hand and a slab of ADVTrio’s Sandy Borden’s famous breakfast walkabout bacon in the other, life looks pretty good. Moto Village also had a record number of participants this year with one third of the entire attendees rolling in on their adventure bikes.
I had a ball chatting with new and old ADVMoto subscribers alike at our booth. And, with the extra help of my ex-hubby Pablo, I was able to jet over to participate in panels across the event.
Always the icing on the cake, and what’s become an OX tradition, are the Ural rides with Mark Tetreau of Scooter and Auto Source of Prescott, AZ. There’s also the annual “ladies’ ride” where one of the lady riders hops on the Ural to scoot around the event picking up other gals along the way. This year photographers Alphonse Palaima and Jack Borden, 12-year-old wunderkind from ADVTrio, were lucky enough to climb aboard without having to wear wigs.
New this year for me was moderating the panel “Are You the Adventurous Type? How to Introduce Reluctant Overlanders to Adventure.” With great audience participation as well as a fabulous panel of three wide-ranging overlanding couples, we uncovered some beautiful traveling gems that could apply to any relationship.
What’s some of the best advice at the top of the list? Well, if the idea of the journey is born from one person, give the other something to plan on the route. This helps to even out the consideration of control.
There’s also conditioning another to the idea of overlanding by starting out on easy weekend adventures that may include little luxuries such as wine or beer, a cot or blowup mattress. It was clear from the lively audience involvement and enthusiasm that this was a hot topic.
The coup de grace was slipping away from the frivolities of happy hour to watch German round-the-worlder Daniel Rintz’ film debut, “Somewhere Else Tomorrow.” Daniel is a Ted Simon Foundation “Jupiter Traveler,” that encouraged him to share the insights of his journey with the world in the medium of his choice.
Even though he had no film experience, he captured video footage of a soul travelling the world by motorcycle, without a budget or predetermined income source. He’s poured all of his enthusiasm and energy into the project.
The result is a powerfully moving story that captures the hearts of the audience—and one of the most professionally produced documentaries we’ve seen in this genre. As the event came to a close there was a sense of something new in the air.
More were planning big adventures, sniffing around for anything that would give them a stronger sense of freedom. And one thing we all had in common was that from here on out, we’d all benefit from beating our chests and calling out to the wild to let the rest of the world know we are coming. OverlandExpo.com
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