Bill Dragoo wins American Adventure Rider Challenge

Well fellow Okies, we have a celebrity in our midst. Bill Dragoo recently competed in the 2008 American Adventure Rider's Challenge held each year in California. This event puts riders on big dual sport adventure travel motorcycles and puts them through a series of skills challenges, such as riding up knarley trails, across a swinging suspension bridge, and u-turns through heavy sand - things you might come across on a world-spanning adventure ride.

Bill was representing Ride Oklahoma and Adventure Motorcycle/Dual Sport News magazine at this event. He was initially supposed to ride a 2008 Kawasaki KLR-650 but the factory bike was late arriving, so KTM stepped in to provide him a 2008 950 Super Enduro.

Well, Bill did us good there. He WON the event against well over 50 world class adventure riders! Yep, top place overall. Pretty darn cool.

Watch for a full story in an upcoming issue of Ride Oklahoma Magazine.

Don't Run Over Your Wingman

Brian Hopkins has a very funny post about riding the new Black trail at Crosstimbers riding area east of OKC.

It felt like I hung there a minute (that whole time dilation thing), doing a headstand in the water, watching fish swim by my submerged head, checking out their reflection in my mirrored Thor goggles, their little fish mouths O'ing "WTF, dude?" Then I fell over like a lumberjacked tree, submerging my sorry ass completely in the cold creek.

CLICK HERE

Danny, my "brutha from a different mutha," Wingman extraordinaire -- in the parking lot, just before we left to ride the Black. Yes, he always looks that maniacal before a ride...

Riding Safe

Brian Hopkins just returned from a sport bike trip to Arkansas and unfortunately lost an acquaintence there on the Talamena Drive.

"I spent this past weekend at the second annual Eureka Springs ZZR1200 Rally. Sadly, a ZZR rider from Missouri crashed on Talimena Scenic Byway Friday afternoon. He and his motorcycle left the roadway and struck a tree. Despite him wearing all the right safety gear and aggressive and immediate CPR administered by those riding with him, he died on the scene."

More here.