Eastern Oklahoma

Man, I love riding in eastern Oklahoma. Actualy I love riding anywhere in Oklahoma, but the area around Clayton is my favorite, and Clayton Lake State Park is my #1 favorite spot in Oklahoma. It is not very well known, so not many people go there. But you would swear you were in Colorado when camping at the lake.

I had to do some work in Eufaula on Thursday so rode my BMW R1200GS Adventure there and afterwards meandered 50 miles south to Clayton, where I spent the night at the park. It was a bit hot that evening but once the sun set it cooled off nicely. Here is the view of my camp.



The next morning I woke up and this is the view out my tent flap.



Had a great ride to OKC after breakfast. Followed Highway 3 home through Coalgate, Stonewall, Ada and Shawnee. Great overnight trip on my smooth running, comfortable GS.

Ride Oklahoma web stats

After our revamp of the Ride Oklahoma web site earlier this year, our traffic growth has skyrocketed from this time in 2008. Here are the stats comparing May 2008 to May 2009

May 2008 visitors = 2,663
May 2009 visitors = 5,678

That is a 113% increase - double the traffic.

In addition, viewers are reading more pages as outlined below:

May 2008 Pageviews = 5,268
May 2009 pageviews = 20,423

That is a whopping 288% increase! We have double the viewers and quadruple the number of pages viewed on our site.

We have plans to ad even more content to the site soon. I am hoping to install a wiki so that readers can post information about places to ride and visit in Oklahoma.

How do we compare to other Oklahoma motorcycle related sites? Pretty good in fact. I just started tracking every Oklahoma-related motorcycling web site I could think of or find on Google and ran their rankings through Alexa, the most respected web ranking site on the Internet.

Oklahoma Motorcycle Web Site Rankings

2009 Rawhyde Adventure Rider Challenge

I returned last week from 3 weeks on the road, traveling first to south Texas for work, then to Castaic, California for the 2009 Rawhyde Adventure Rider Challenge competition. Ride Oklahoma's own Bill Dragoo won the event last year and he and his wife Susan rode their BMW bikes to California where Bill defended his title.

This year the competition was much more intense, the tests more diabolical and challenging, and the event grew to include several hundred riders. The Challenge is designed to replicate the skills needed by an adventure rider on a epic world tour. Each morning started out with a several hundred mile ride through the California countryside, routing over not only paved highways but dirt roads, logging trails, and the Mohave desert. Straight on dirt bikes were not allowed, nor were they practical for a 400 mile morning jaunt. The bike of choice was the rugged, reliable BMW R1200GS. Riders also used bikes such as the BMW HP2, KTM 950 Adventure, and the newer BMW F800GS, along with a smattering of KLR's and KTM Super Enduro's.

Bill's 3 man team won first place in the team competition, which saw team members ride, push, pull and wrangle big adventure bikes down a canyon many people would not take a dirt bike down. The second day saw a jaunt through the Mohave desert, followed by an individual skills competition that required riders to navigate a motorcross like course, followed by deep sand and gravel pit, hillclimb, and the "Pendulum" - a series of swinging hammers that forced riders to accellerate and stop the big bikes so as not to get tagged by a "hammer" and lose points.

A complete story will follow soon in a future Ride Oklahoma. For the meantime, enjoy pictures from the event.


BMW Rawhyde Adventure Challenge 2009 - Images by James Pratt

Off to California

Lunch in Meers, OK on my BMW R1200GS Adventure

I departed on Sunday for the west coast on a new scooter. Last week I traded my 2008 Goldwing for a 2009 BMW R1200GS Adventure! What? Those are two very different bikes.


My new BMW along a county road south of Snyder, OK

Actually I consider them very close relatives. When I first purchased the Goldwing exactly a year ago, I had a very hard time deciding between the Goldwing and the R1200GS. Both were close to the same price. I had decided to buy the GS since I like traveling to unusual and out of the way destinations that sometimes include dirt roads. But before making my final decision I talked to my wife Kay and she said she might ride behind me some one the 'wing. That clinched the deal for me. But I found out later that she really prefers just to ride her own bike. She doesn't like the view of the back of my helmet. So I ended up riding the Goldwing mostly by myself. I really enjoyed the bike, but was limited on the places I could go.


My mind of sign!

So after one year I went down my friends at BMW of Oklahoma and worked out a trade - my nearly new Goldwing and my old BMW F650GS Dakar for a new R1200GS Adventure with bags.

I picked up the BMW on Friday but the bags were delayed. So I contacted my friend Dr Dan as we call him and borrowed his side bags for my planned trip to California. Thanks Dan! Great to have friends.


Camping near Post TX

So Sunday saw me load up my R1200 and hit the road. I had to dodge weather but since I have XM weather on my Garmin GPS, I could easily bypass most of the bad stuff. I needed to work in Lamesa TX for a day on my way to Cali, so I headed southwest. Like I prefer, I bypassed the major roads and took mostly county roads and state highways. I stopped in Meers for a quick lunch and then on down to a small lake near Post, TX where I camped for the evening.

Next morning saw a heavy drizzle but with plenty of rain gear and a heated vest, the weather was really no problem. Rode an hour on to Lamesa, dodging deer and wild turkeys along the way. Worked in Lamesa all day then further west along back roads to Denver City, TX right on the New Mexico border.

Helge Pederson Presentation at BMW

WOW! Last night I once again attended the presentation put on by Helge Pederson of GlobeRiders.com. Two years ago he was the guest of BMW of Oklahoma for a presentation that just knocked my socks off - all about his 10 years of traveling the world on a motorcycle. When I found out last week he was presenting again this year, I immediately dropped my other planned activities so I could attend. My son Adam joined me and about 50 other participants as we sat spellbound for 3 hours of the most incredible video and still photo coverage of his travels.


This year was a bit different. Instead of talking about his 10 years on two wheels, he started out with his trip in 2006 to document a group of German riders who traveled from Canada to Mexico off-road through the Sierra Nevada mountains, camping along the way. That presentaton was excellent but not quite as exotic as his travels to far off places. The best part came when he gave us a peek into his planning for an Indochina tour. He and his partners spent 77 days scouting a route through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thialand. This was what I came for! It was so exotic, yet he made me feel that anyone could do the trip with proper planning and preparation. If you want someone else to do the planning, Helge offers tours through his company Globeriders.com, which I highly recommend visiting.


I wanted to thank BMW of Oklahoma for bringing Helge in for the presentation. My only regret is I didn't have more advanced notice so I could invite more people to see this incredible presentation. But events such as this are the reason we as motorcyclists should BUY LOCAL! Support our local dealers like BMW of Oklahoma who strive to bring you interesting seminars and presentations, and are there to help you plan trips, gain experience, and introduce you to other local riders.

Eureka Springs Hillbilly Dual Sport Ride

Kay and I, along with several Ride Oklahoma readers, are heading to Eureka Springs, Arkansas this weekend for the 5th Annual Hillbilly Dual Sport Ride. This is a fun event put on by some friends of our from Kansas. Humm. Oklahoma riders going to a dual sport ride in Arkansas and Missouri put on by some guys from Kansas?

Unfortunately I have missed the past two years of this ride. Last year they encountered cold conditions and rain, so I am not too upset. This year we are expecting some fairly nice weather.

Dual sport riding can take many different forms - from primarily street with just a bit of easy dirt roads to knarly single track connected by logging trails. Our fall classic in Clayton tends to the latter - more dirt bike oriented with some tough, fun trails. The spring Hillbilly ride leans more to the tame side, good for KLR's and big Beemers and such. Of course, if you attend you can choose any type of riding you wish, but the group rides are fairly tame but still fun, with low water crossings and some scenic rides.

I like them all, just like I enjoy riding street, dirt, or even mountain bikes. If it has two wheels and tires I am in. We are expecting over 100 riders this year, pretty good considering the economy. My favorite part is renewing old friendships and making new ones at the same time. Should be a lot of fun and hopefully we will have another ride report this year, and maybe some video footage too!

Below is a picture from 2006 ride. Mostly old codgers except me, Brian Hopkins and Gary Miller of course!



All types of bikes come on this dual sport ride, including the Moto Guzzi.

Magazines aren't dying

If you read the news or monitor Internet sites, you hear that the newspaper industry is in a big pickle - venerable institutions such as Chicago Sun Times have filed for bankruptcy, The Los Angeles Times is a sinking ship, the Rocky Mountain News just recently folded, and even our own Daily Oklahoman and Tulsa World have felt the pinch, laying off dozens of staff and trimming expenses.

The magazine business is not immune from this fundamental change. National publications such as Best Life, Travel & Leisure Golf, and the American have folded, while even local publications such as Wichita (KS) have felt the pinch. Motorcycle magazines have also encountered trouble, including a major local publication in Arkansas.

A quote from Rob Haggard, a nationally recognized photo & magazine editor:

"It's not that magazines are dying: it's that magazines that were created solely for advertising or market share purposes are. Put simply, there are too many mediocre magazines..."

But does this mean all magazine publishing is in trouble? Here at Ride Oklahoma, we are having our best year yet. Our readership, ad revenue and profits are up substantially in our third year of publication.

Why are some magazines struggling while others are expanding? I think it is because many magazines are designed specifically to sell advertising, with little or no thought or effort put into content. I feel very strongly that our readers come first. It is our job to entertain and inform our readers about subjects that interest them. Advertising is just a by-product that helps pay the bills - and we certainly thank our advertisers for helping out.

But content - compelling stories, top quality photography, interesting topics - should be the primary focus of any magazine. This builds a loyal readership, which in turn attracts advertisers. Here at Ride Oklahoma we strive to bring you interesting, entertaining stories about rides, people and destinations across Oklahoma. Quality content is our #1 goal. If we give our readers what they want, I feel everything else will take care of itself.