Have you every wondered or even wished there where a sport to race a dualsport motorcycle and actually be competitive? Well there is and it's called RallyMoto.
 
A few short years ago the idea was hatched by a few rally enthusiasts for a new class to race street legal dualsport bikes on the same gravel roads during the same events as Rally cars. After a couple years and a number of successful east coast events we finally got our shot here in the Pacific Northwest with the Mt Hood Rally this past October. An event that saw me bring my brand new BMW X-Challenge with the stock tires and paper license plate home to a 10th place finish. Not bad considering that event almost doubled my lifelong gravel road experience. And while placing high is great, for most it's all about the experience and camaraderie at these events. Since Mt. Hood we've also had RallyMoto at the Doowop Rally this past March in Aberdeen, WA and most recently the Idaho Rally on July 10th and 11th.
 
RallyMoto racing is like no other, consisting of service stages, transit stages, special stages, and rules. Yes rules, these rally folk are something else! And while the general rally, RallyMoto and event specific supplemental instructions consume enough paper to be intimidating there are only a few things you really need to know. I have found however that these documents double as an excellent sleep aid! And in case you haven't been exposed to rally racing before I'll try to sum it up with a few basics which are, you navigate from point A to point B on open to the public roads (transit stage), then you race against the clock on public but closed gravel roads from point B to point C with the competitors starting typically at one minute intervals (special stage), repeat to the next point B and so on, throw in a service stop here and there for rest and fuel (service stage) and you've got yourself a rally race. The rider with the lowest special stage total accumulated time wins.
 
While some rallies are one day events others are two day events such as the upcoming Wild West Rally and RallyMoto. This rally will be a two day event with a whopping 15 special stages being held on September 26th and 27th near Pomeroy, WA. The Idaho Rally we just completed was held in the Trinity Mountains area just east of Mountain Home, ID. It was a great 2 day rally event with 42 competitors including bikes, allot of fun and numerous oh &*@^ moments were experienced by all. For the motos the most difficult factor seemed to be how to manage the decomposed granite gravel roads. While I'm certainly not an expert on the subject of gravel roads I can tell you that traction was in limited supply, so much so that my G650 X-Challenge used up a new Pirelli MT21 rear tire in only 108 special stage and 280 transit miles while searching for traction. The 9 special stages ran us over a good mix of terrain ranging from high speed open stages to tight twisty stages running along lush rivers. They even had a huge spectator area set up on one stage that included a man made bump/jump that was as much fun for the riders and drivers as it was for the fans. And while our moto times fall short of the faster cars we have gotten nothing but respect and admiration from the drivers and co-drivers at these events even though they think were crazy. Us? Crazy? I can't imagine sitting in a car running these roads faster then we are, I guess they are the ones who are crazy, were just out riding and having a great time!

 

 
So if you think you might be ready to experience RallyMoto as a competitor, a volunteer, or just a curious spectator I think I can speak for the rally community by saying that we'd love to have you join us. The next event will be the Wild West Rally on September 26th and 27th near Pomeroy, WA.

 

Let's race!
 
Idaho RallyMoto results:
 
1) Roger Neth, Boise Idaho
2) Jerry Brown, Seattle Washington  (Note: Jerry is an official Team Ride West Ambassador, way to go!)
3) Mitch Comstock, Mt. Si Washington