Archive for the ‘News’ Category

DIRT BIKE SHOW 2010

So I think it’s only right that I start off today’s post with an apology. Sorry.  A combination oph a aulty keyboard and lack of photoshop made an entry into the blog a near impossibility. I’ve managed to get some editing software but the keyboard is still missing a few letters. It makes typing  a most jofyul experience. Once I’ve typed this out, I’ll have to go back and copy and paste a my f’s &  w’s. Needless to say I’ve been spending an unhealthy amount of time on the Dell website drooling over some new hardware. I plan to vent my frustrations with a long run as soon as this is online.

Right, no that’s out the way we can get down to business. Incase you haven’t figured it out, we were at the Dirt Bike Sho in Stoneleigh Park, Coventry. We went up on the Wednesday just to get things going and set up our stall.

As you can see, there was a lot of work to do beore things kicked off the following day.

Eventually we got things set up.

You might also notice that we were not alone in our stall.We were lucky enough to be sharing with Austin Vince of Mondon Enduro and Terra Circa fame. He was there to promote the HUMM, as well as the Travel film festival, taking place in Devon in June next year. I can’t find anything online yet but when I do I’ll put it up. We are also in the process of getting the Austin Vince Pyrenees maps produced and hopefully they will be seeing daylight in the next couple of months. As soon we know more, so will you, I promise.

The event itself was a huge success. hile the Satmap Active 10 is an established product, it is not very ell knon in the oroad orld. And it’s our job as Azcari to change that. Having said that, there were signs that our hard work was finally starting to pay off. e Had several customers who came to the show especially to chat to us and get a more hands on experience with this amazing piece of kit.

Thursday as quiet but was a good chance to see how things were going to go during the 4 days. I was a bit reluctant at first. Ater all I’m no salesman and secondly, I had limited knowledge of the unit itself. I picked it up quite quickly though and by Sunday I was styling. I was even able to close a ew sales.  I used it on a couple of runs as I didn’t know my way around the local area. It was awesome! I’m going to find a way to streamline one into my running kit.

Playing around with the Satmap Active 10 on the demo stand proved popular with the masses passing through Stoneliegh Park. Explaing the awesomeness only went so far. Showing them and letting them play around was what it was all about. Looking with your hands.

I’m taking a bit of strain having this busted keyboard so I’m going to sign off very soon. I’ll put a few more photos up and put the rest on our facebook and flickr pages if you want to check them out.

I think all in all the show was a massive success for us. Every event teaches us more and more and this one was no dierent. We’ll be even better prepared for next year as we go from strength to strength. And lets hope by then the word of Azcari & Satmap will have spread far and wide.

Cheers for now gang. Next time we speak I’ll using my new machine and then nothing can stop me from have an attack of the verbals. MUAHAHAHAHAHA….HA.

Zed

The boss giving these gents one more demo before they bought 2 units! He must have had his business socks on that day.

Austin Vince in his tradmark overalls sharing one of his many stories. On more than one occassions he had large groups of people hanging onto his every word.

Hall 1, G-07  is where w’ell be folks. Make sure you come and say hello.

The 2010 International Dirt Bike Show at Stoneleigh Park

Off-road motorcycle sport in all its varied forms is fast-paced and action-packed for both spectator and participant alike and the new International aspects of the Show will reflect this with its Live Action Arena featuring 30-minute non-stop action performances throughout the day, over the four-day period of the event. Big names from the off-road world are gearing up for the annual dirt bike fest at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry.

On the metal front, Husqvarna will unveil an all-new enduro and motocross version of its radically-designed 449 series. Incorporating the 450cc BMW-designed motor together with a host of aesthetic and technological advancements, the new Husky will line-up alongside its smaller stable-mate the TC250 which benefits from fuel-injection for 2011.

KTM has some exciting plans to display full factory race bikes alongside its production SX, EXC and XC model ranges. And, having just wrapped up both quad-cross and quad cross-country national titles with multi-champion Paul Winrow, the Austrian company will also have something pretty special on show for the many quad enthusiasts who visit the Show every year.

Rieju has been steadily building a reputation for quality and reliability with its range of Yamaha-powered enduro machines, and the Spanish manufacturer will make full use of this year’s Show as a launch pad for its 2011 range spanning the 50cc to 450cc capacity classes.

Talon, Michelin, Putoline, Fly Clothing, Prox, Ipone, Smith Goggles, Pro Circuit, Acerbis, Alpinestars, Troy Lee Designs, DEP Exhausts, Renthal, Answer and MSR Clothing, EVS, Arai, Boyesen, Hebo, Hinson, Lightspeed, Polisport, UFO and Fro Systems, together with International heavyweights Fox Head Europe,

One Industries Europe, Madison, O’Neal Europe and Leatt are amongst the many companies that are committed to this year’s Show.

The International Dirt Bike Show is traditionally a family affair and so, in addition to the host of machines and kit on display within the exhibition halls, the organisers have a number of free-of-charge family-friendly features in place throughout the duration of the Show.

To the front of the entrance will be a kids quad riding facility, climbing wall and mountain bike stunt display and, once inside, the Show Guide will be provided at no cost, as will frequent bursts of entertainment on the stage in hall three.

Parking is free of charge, accompanied children aged six and under will be admitted free and a family of four purchasing an advanced ticket via www.dirtbikeshow.co.uk can enjoy a day out for just £30.

Tickets

Buying tickets in advance* gives a substantial saving and for every ten tickets purchased; the 11th is free.

Accompanied children aged six and under, can take advantage of free admission. Prices start from £6 for youth and senior visitors and £12 for adults, with advantageous family packages also on offer.

For just £3 per head, show-goers can incorporate some whooping and hollering into their visit and enjoy mini-bike racing, mini-bike freestyle competitions and back flips, BMX freestyle and street-bike stunt riding all demonstrated by top freestyle riders Dan Whitby, Samson Eaton, Arran Powley and UK Streetbike Freestyle Champion Paul Hanks.

For ticket information please click here.

The eleventh Dirt Bike Show is due to run at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry from Thursday 4th – Sunday 7th November 2010, and we’ll be there!  We are also very lucky to be sharing a stand with Austin Vince. I’m sure this will make for an entertaining few days. If you’ve been lucky enough to meet the man himself then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

If you’ve never been to the show and want to find out more about it then head over to their site and have a look. They’ve got all the info you’ll need. I’ve been looking through it myself and it looks like it’s going to be good. I wonder if they will be able to top last year. They estimate upto 25000 people will be there over the course of the event. That’s a lot. I’ll be there with my camera fully charged and a few memory cards to be filled. There will be some excellent photo opportunities and I don’t want to miss them.

Make sure you come find our stall as we’ll be running some pretty good deals on the Satmap Active 10 PLUS & BIKE GPS units. We are also running a competition and will be giving away an amazing prize so come say hi.

I’m going to leave you a few photos from last years event. If these don’t get you excited, nothing will.

Cheers for now

Zed

If you’d like to see more here is a short cut to the photo gallery on the official Dirt Bike Show site.

The guys at TBM recently took one of our Satmap Active 10  Sports GPS units out on an adventure. They’ve sent us a few photos and were hoping to try get a copy of the article  that we can upload. In the mean team, if you haven’t already, I suggest you get hold of the latest issue.

So without further delay here are some of the pics.

If you’d like to see a few more then head over to our Flickr page.  I’ll put the article up as soon as we get it.

That’s all for now.
Cheers

Zed

Azcari were invited by Touratech to ride down with them to the Ace Cafe Reunion/ Brighton Burnup not too long ago. Here are a few photos from the days happenings. If you’d like to see more of the photos then please visit our FLICKR PAGE.

Pyrekneesup 2010 Llavorsi, Spain

Craig Zocher: Author and owner of Azcari, distributor of Satmap products.

Watch a Video clip of the Azcari Limited Pyrekneesup experience. Click Link.

My First Pyrekneesup event, July 2010 Llavorsi, Spain.

A last minute invite from Austin Vince and his charming wife Lois Pryce to attend this year’s Pyrekneesup threw my schedule on its head. With less than a week to go I was making plans and trying to get my bike shipped down to llav and book flights etc. After few phone calls to the guys at Adventure Spec, Kriega and a few other  places I heard that Nick Plumb was in a similar predicament to me.

After the briefest of calls had made arrangements to share his Touratech van the costs and the driving down to Spain on Sunday 18^th July. All went well and after a butt  numbing 11 hours driving from Calais we arrived at the Riberia Hotel in Llavorsi at about 1.30 am. Rooms were rustled up by the night manager and we both crashed. Nick having done all the driving and me having done all the co piloting, changing the audio book CD every hour and opening bags of junk food that would have delighted any 12 year old.

Day one was a revelation as we had arrived in the dark we had not been able to fully appreciate the beauty around us.  A big breakfast and a coffee on the patio restored us to being half human. Quite a few of the other participants were there and general banter about the various means and methods of getting from the UK to Spain were the topic of the morning.

Unloading the bikes was easy as and after about 2 mins of visual maintenance were stashed in the undercover garage at the hotel. Later that afternoon as the participants rolled in from all corners Nick and I took a trip into the village to top up with gas and get some essential supplies for the next few days. Well kitted in shorts and flip flops for the short ride we discovered the nearest gas station was around 12km away. A cautious ride got us there and soon we had a rucksack full of bottled water, sweets and chocolate to see us through the next day or so. The scenery was breathtaking and was just a hint of what was to follow over the next days.

At 8pm all the participants were on location and Austin held his pre knees up briefing. Mindful of local customs and emphasising a respect for the local populace Austin managed to make it more of a stand up routine than a briefing which was a welcome change from the boring old farts normally hosting these type of events. Unexpectedly Austin called me to the front of the class and proceeded to sing the praises of Satmap and Azcari, much to my delight and surprise as I was expecting a much lower key intro to all the people at the pyrekneesup.

The rules of the event were explained and last minute questions answered in the familiar Vince touch of humour. On the way out of the garage where the briefing had been held I was approached by many people asking loads of very precise questions. An absolute revelation to me as I was not answering the usual string of  banal questions. All the folk here clearly had a good understanding of maps, map reading and navigation. This after all is what the pyrekneesup is all about. More so than just plain riding skill.

Dinner was a sober affair for most and much map reading and planning was being done at a few of the poolside tables. A quietly purposeful hum as the team’s fine tuned their strategy for the event.The pyrekneesup is planned and hosted by Austin and Lois who go to the chosen area one year in advance of the event and ride the trails and set out the route and place the markers.

A few weeks before the event participants are given a map and reference book made up by the Austin. On the full sheet map there are various routes and checkpoints set out covering a large area of the Pyrenees. The guide books give a detailed snapshot of the checkpoint location with a photo of where the marker may be found. Under a rock, nailed to a fencepost, tied to a tree and a few other obscure locations are the norm.

In the instruction book one is prompted to record a selection of the characters off the little plaques and enter them into the space provided on each page. Each checkpoint has a value assigned and generally the harder the trial to get there or the more obscure locations are awarded the highest points.The aim is to get to as many checkpoints as possible and gather the highest number of points over the two day event with some of the teams covering nearly 700km in the two days.

The teams are generally limited to a max of three riders so that it is less intimidating for the walkers and other users of the area. It also attracts a lot less attention than having large groups of riders haring through the countryside. The only occasion in two days where we met two other teams at the same checkpoint was also one of the closest to the hotel so many teams headed here at the start of day one.

On day one I was teamed up with Rupert who had flown out from Australia to attend the event. His regular bike, a BMW R100 was awaiting sopares from the UK so he had the use of Lois’s bike, a 250 Yamaha, for the day.  Much slower than his regular choice of bike it was non the less great to be out there in the hills. We took a rather leisurly approach to matters and as I was focused on my Satmap I left all the navigating to Rupert, who was very experienced in the event and navigating in general. We were only ‘lost’ a few times the whole day and never for very long.

Lunch was another leisurely event and as we sat on the patio of a tavern in Organya where we watched a few of the other teams whistling through town on their tireless quest for points. After lunch we had a chance to do two more checkpoints bringing our total for the day to seven.

The ride back to the hotel was an odd affair with Rupert going very slowly on the uphill’s on the small bike and then whizzing downhill as gravity and momentum changed sides and assisted him. A few blokes passed us with their heads down, bit between the teeth and aiming only on one thing, making ity back to the hotel before cut off time at 8pm.

On arrival at the Hotel logbooks and scores were handed in to Austin and Lois who tallied up the points standings. Al most everyone hung around to see who had done what on day one. Jenny, the favourite to win the event  rolled into the final stage of the day well ahead of most other teams after having  had a nasty crash on the way back to the hotel. The need to win seemed to have rendered her impervious to pain and she was in very high spirits.

Since the event only finished at 8 pm it was a bit of a late start at the bar where the freshly showered participants downed the first few ice cold beers and shandies of the evening. Dinner was far livelier than day one and some of the braver teams stayed up well passed pumpkin time drinking and regaling each other with stories of super human riding skills.

Day two was a creaky affair and I felt like I was made of very dry wood as I creaked out of bed. Little did I know worse was to come. Rupert had been struck down by what looked like an award winning hangover but was in fact something else entirely. Not yet dressed for the day’s events and now minus a team mate I was promptly  inducted into the Austin Vince Nick Plumb team of lunatics as third rider and occasional photographer. My mission was to take photos of the Satmap in use and was not really prepped for the competitive spirit of things. Austin and Nick had set their minds on winning the event and then stepping away as it would have been unfair on the mere mortals who attended the event. I made a mad dash back to the hotel room, puffing away as I kitted up and gathered my cameras, video helmet cam and other paraphernalia for my Satmap quest. When i got to the garage my new team mates were sitting on their bikes tapping their fingers. A theme to be repeated throughout the day. The first part of the day was a tar road for the first 15 minutes or so and this lulled memento a temporary sense of able capability with my machine and rider skills.

Watch a Video clip of the Azcari Limited Pyrekneesup experience. Click Link.

The moment we left the tar road it was like following two madmen possessed by Loki and Nike in equal measure. Hanging onto the throttle for dear life I figured they just need to blow off some steam and things would settle down to a more reasonable pace after a while. Actually they were still warming up….

After a while I actually started enjoying myself and pretty soon was having a few yeeha moments with Nick on my back wheel and Austin not far ahead and thus caught up had no option but to ride at the same pace. Scary and fun at the same time. Lugging a 650 BM around the trails was no easy task but then as I was this close to Austin I realised that even though he had canvas panniers strapped over his front mud guard, a huge map reading screen made of wood fixed to his handle bars and a few other environment friendly modifications on his multi thousand miler Suzuki Dr 350, he was still as quick as.

And then I wondered, in between trying to avoid crashing through the trees along the road, how fast would he be if he were on a modern trail bike like a WR 250. Maybe a question that needs answering sometime soon…..

During one of our 15 second rest stops I pondered the difference between the navigation gear on our three bikes. Mine with a Satmap on the bars.  Austin’s with a wooden map holder and Nicks with everything imaginable for rally bikes from the Touratech catalogue.  This was really the essence of the Pyrekneesup event where one had every kind of bike from old to new and knackered to pristine. Off road clothing was the same story with some folk riding in jeans and a shirt whilst others had all the required safety gear for a pain free crash. Fortunately no hi viz clothing in sight for the entire 4 days.

And so the day rolled on with Austin and Nick showing the most amazing amount of patience with my lack of speed. The major downside of being a tad slower was that as I was catching up to them at a checkpoint they were just about ready to set off again so I would barely have time for a wave and a thumbs up before cranking the throttle and racing off into the scenery in hot pursuit of Loki and Nike.

At some point, with sweat trickling down the inside of my helmet and my chest thumping I looked at the clock and got a major shock to realise it was only 10.15am and I was already feeling tired. A few hours later we were haring up a mountain side when we can upon a scene of picture postcard beauty. This necessitated a short stop for some snapshots, the only time the whole day we were to do so.

The descent was magnificent and were it not for the speed we were doing I would have tried to take more photos. As it was we were heading for our formula one style pit stop lunch. A short trip into the nearest town for fuel and some more 12 year olds favourite food. I had a chocolate covered cream filled pastry in a cellophane  wrapper chased down with a diet coke. Diet coke? and a mars bar i meant to say. Odd.

Austin and Nick had similar lunches with the aid of some red bull. Surely not the height of Spanish cuisine but all it was all they had in the way of food in the service station.

After lunch I managed to do another hour and half of crazy capers but soon felt like I was about to have a second heart attack. The guys generously offered to do one of the loops by themselves and would catch up with me as they passed through La Seu d’Urgell on the end of the loop. At least we were spared the embarrassment of meeting in the town nearby, Arseguell, the butt of many jokes.

So i was given a rest and took the time to ride slowly and shoot some pictures for my website and blog. This did wonders to revive my spirits and also gave me pause to remember that in my rush to get ready earlier that morning I had not taken my smorgasbord of tablets as usual. That would perhaps explain the breathlessness but not the slow riding, I would have to work on an excuse for that.

A few minutes after schedule the guys were riding towards KM2 and our rendezvous point. They were in high spirits and I felt rested after my slow ride to the RV point. Soon we were back up in the hills and going for gold once again. At one point Austin stopped and showed us where the border with Andorra was and a place where in his past he had made a navigational error and regaled us with the story of the ensuing consequences of his error. Of course now that he is a Satmap convert such incidents will be avoided in future.

Pretty soon we arrived at the trail that was to prove to be the highlight of the two days of riding. After a rather steep ascent where i managed to drop my bike twice, in quick succession, and had to be helped up by Nick we made it to the trailhead. A wide, fairly smooth 8 mile long fire road through a forest. No dust, no rocks, just sheer bloody speed and the thrill of riding fast through the cool, post thundershower, afternoon air. Knowing that we had missed only a few checkpoints and would be back at the Hotel before cut-off time.

Shooting pics with one hand while travelling at speed results in a few blurred shots and some odd camera angles. The spirit however is not diminished by the lack of quality. To see some more of this watch the video footage of this short trail.

At last we were at the end of the day with rest and results in sight. The tar road back to the hotel was just pure unwind. We had all made it through the day with no breakdowns, no bad crashes and our collective sense of humour and elation intact.

The teams started to arrive shortly after us and the riders started to hand in the log books and scores. The place began to buzz again as everyone compared scores and stories of the days riding.

Listening out for the sound of engines as the last minutes ticked away.

Most the teams were in and some of the scores were pretty impressive but none had so far beaten Nick and Austin.

Eventually Jenny and her team were in and everyone went up to shower and get ready for the awards dinner in the hotel.

After a rather good meal Austin presented the prizes and after building a suitable amount of tension it was, as all expected Jenny who won the event with a score of well over 800 points.

The next day rolled around about 4 hours too early for my liking and we packed the van to the limit as we were asked to take a third bike back to London.

Nick and I settled in for the 11 hour drive back to Calais and listened to another fine audio book en route, making the time pass more swiftly. The ferry was delayed so we saw a gap on another ferry and dashed aboard with no one any the wiser. After dropping me off i Surrey at 1.30 am Nick had another 3 hours to go to Wales.

I cannot remember having such a good time with what was until a few days ago a group of virtual strangers. The camaraderie was exceptional and the riding better than one could dream of.

Personally I have not had my riding skills pushed so far past their limits for about 20 years. Having covered over 500km offroad in two days was also a revelation as we are pretty limited here in the UK.

Thanks Austin for the invitation, Nick for the company and driving and to all the people I met there who went out of their way to make me welcome. I hope to see all of you next year.

There and back again, a bloggers tale…

As we neared our destination – the 10th Horizons Unlimited meeting – I wondered if it was going to be any good. It took all of about 2 seconds after pulling up at the entrance to realise this was the real deal. We were greeted by a field full of  colourful tents, equally colourful people and some rather amazing looking motorbikes.

This was only our second event as vendors and our first HU meeting so I don’t have much to compare to it to but I must say I was impressed. The organisation was excellent, the people were friendly and there was always something going on to keep you interested and entertained.

Talks were held throughout the event covering everything from first aid on 2 wheels, GPS for travellers to stories of epic adventure including Paddy Tyson’s – An Italian bike. Being new to off road world I’ve had to seek outside help here. I’m doing my best to immerse myself and get up to speed though, so please be patient. Before  long I might even know what I’m blogging about. So among the 600+ strong crowd were people like Jacqui Furneaux, below, who also spoke at the event.

Other well known faces to be seen were Austin Vince, who for un eductated people like myself, has been around the world twice on the Mondo Enduro & Terra Circa adventure motorcycle expeditions, Simon Gandolfi who as I type am being told travelled from Mexico right down through South America on a “pizza delivery bike”. I’ve just read the article…wow! That is truly inspiring stuff. If I’m ever going to do something even close to that I guess my CBT would be a good place to start.

A few of the other highlights from the weekend included the roadkill cookout, the warm, sunny weather(you could be forgiven for thinking that Summer had arrived), the motorbikes, including this 1994 Electraglide Classic Harley-Davidson – the worlds most travelled motorcyle – belonging to Peter and Kay Forwood and the television in the pub. I only bring this point up as I was able to catch some of the Ghana vs U.S.A game and see at leats one African team flying the flag in this years World Cup. I’ll try keep mention of football to minimum on here, if I can, I’m not making any promises though…

While Satmap has been around for a few years, the Satmap GPS unit is still a relatively unknown product in the off road world so this event was the perfect soap box for us at Azcari to spread the word and make people more aware of this excellent piece of kit. The response was amazing really , with most people – when overcoming their amazement – asking why they’d never heard of us or where we’d been hiding. All in all the response and feedback from everyone was very positive with several sales confirming this. It seems with this event that we’d really found our target audience. Now we just need to keep the momentum moving forward and build on the weekend’s success.

Well I think that’s the first proper attempt at a blog out the way. Hope you enjoyed it.  All feedback would be greatly appreciated. This has all been quite a big learnign curve and I hope and expect things to get easier from here. And on that note folks I’m signing off. The table needs setting and bellies need filling. I’ll upload more photos from the weekend later this evening. Zed

A few of the interesting panniers on display

Tenth Annual UK Travellers Meeting - Thursday June 24 – Sunday June 27, 2010

Today is the start of the 10th annual Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting taking place in Ripley, Derbyshire. Azcari were lucky enough to get a stall before they were all snapped up, so we’ll heading up tomorrow and hopefully a good weekend awaits us. This is the perfect event to spread the word of Satmap GPS and meet liked minded people.

This is another first for us and we continue on the Azcari/Satmap adventure and I for one am looking forward to it. If for nothing than escaping the confines of my laptop. Fresh air, sunshine (hopefully), motorbikes and the chance to get the camera out.  Hopefully I’ll get a few good shots for the blog on Monday. I suggest you go and visit the site now just so see how awesome this event is going to be. If you don’t believe me read a comment from last years event.

It was my first meeting, and I think it is safe to say I walked around with a giddy grin on my face all weekend! Thank you all for making the weekend a memorable one. Fantastic organisation and brilliant venue. Thank you to Nick who took a very big group of us on an amazing ride out. (I think my eyes were like saucers the whole time! And yes, it was nervous laughter). A huge thank you to all of you in Nick’s ride-out group. I was happy to provide entertainment by finding the biggest puddles I could to throw myself into. Thank you all for getting me upright. A great weekend! Well done!

If that doesn’t get you interested nothing will.  Click on this link to find out more, you won’t be disappointed.

Speak to you again on Monday!

Zed

GS Trophy success
June 8th, 2010

The weekend of 05-06 June saw the selection of Team UK for the International BMW Motorrad GS Trophy 2010 to be held later this year in Southern Africa. The event involved 90 GS owners competing for just three places in the team at the 4000 acre Walter’s Arena in Wales – home of BMW Off Road Skills.

The three GS-owning riders who will be representing the UK are Alastair Allan who took first place in the final round, Kevin Hammond in second and Mark Kinnard in third.

The competitors were put through five varied stages testing a range of off-road and machine control skills. By the end of the first day the 20 top-scoring riders moved on to the next round – and every stage was extended and made a little more challenging. Sunday saw the 20 reduced to five – who then faced a final round. The tension was palpable, with the spectators following from event to event to cheer on the finalists.

The excitement rose to a peak when the scores were tallied and there was a tie for the final space in the UK team – when the instructors decided that the two hopefuls should ride the final stage again – backwards! Rider Mark Kinnard took the final spot in a truly nail-biting end to the UK qualifier.

The tests were completed on a range of 5 different BMW on-off road motorcycles with the final two rounds completed exclusively on the F 800 GS – the machine selected for the International GS Trophy Final .

The UK qualifying event and five special stages created were organised by seven-time Dakar rally competitor Simon Pavey and judged by his team of BMW Off Road Skills instructors and expert volunteers.

Simon Pavey, Chief Instructor at BMW Off Road Skills said: ‘Overall the event was a great success. We had 90 GS owners with a wide range of skills from the Level One of the Off Road Skills course through to life-long off-road riders competing on a challenging course but they all entered into the spirit of the event and it was fun for all involved. The standard of riding was excellent, especially among the finalists.’

The international round of the GS Trophy takes place from 13 – 21 November across South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique and involves teams of riders from around the world competing in off-road challenges and competitions. Other nations entering include the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Scandinavia (Denmark/Sweden/Norway/Finland), South Africa and Switzerland/Austria.

This weekend sees the 3rd annual BMW Motorrad GS trophy taking place in Wales. We’ll be going along and hopefully making a few new contacts and getting some awesome photos for you guys.