The world of mopeds is a small but passionate world. There is a whole network of people making helpful content, interacting, creating art, new parts, or just simple recording histories of bikes and groups. There are clubs, rallies, racing, forums, shops, and plenty of other ways people have been contributing to the scene for a …
I’ll start the year with admissions. I’m not good at keeping a schedule for things like a blog. I take on too many projects and then shift focus too frequently to keep the plates spinning. But, as so many other fools do this time of the year, I’m going to attempt to shape up. I …
Having just moved back to the midwest it means I was moving into a new region of moped racing. I spend the last 12 years racing west coast at the Pacific NW tracks, Tomahawk Cup, Moped GP West, and a visit to the OG Polini Cup as well. The concept is the same but the …
I will start with an apology. I tried to craft a reader base and that requires frequent, preferably weekly new posts. I have not held up my end of the bargain. Been so busy actually doing the thing I haven’t had time to talk about me doing the thing. I still don’t, spoiler alert, but …
The final day of Bakers is 150 miles to Thomas and Ashley’s house in Richmond, VA. By now every team knows the score. The bikes have been battle hardened or dnf-ed. Teams knew how to navigate, and knew how to just get on. It was a race still for the pride of being the first …
Day 6 is the long day. A 250 mile ride from the Blue Ridge mountains to the Allegheny mountains on the border of the Virginias. There will be roads but probably not good ones. There will be dirt and ruts, and none of it will be flat. Two routes divide the teams but both travel …
There is always at least one day of this race that tests the riders more than the rest. Not really a fun day but more of an experience to be conquered. The forecast for the area was flash flooding and thunderstorms. The storms were still a couple hours to the west at the start so …
If you want to tell an effective story there are a handful of basic templates that everyone loves. One of them is called the Man in a Hole arc. It goes like this: The protagonist starts the story doing just fine, then tragedy strikes. The protagonist must then climb out of the hole and triumph, …
An endurance race is usually punctuated with long bouts of difficulty. Weather, planning, mechanical durability, mental stress, preparedness, luck, all factor into successfully completing the journey. Winning, even in a such a low stakes venture as a moped race with no cash value and very little bragging rights, is still a towering achievement of grit. …
Day 2 is listed as the fun day of the race. It’s a short, 50 mile hop from the campsite in Tellico Plains to Deals Gap, North Carolina where the teams can relax and enjoy the local sights. It is not an easy ride though. That fifty mile stretch contains 4,500ft of elevation to climb …