Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
By Lawrence Hacking
Photos by Steve Shannon
We got the band back together to ride the 2023 KTM Adventure Rally; this time, we entered a 4-man team of rally-hardened guys called Team 150 to actually compete this time rather than play around for the photographers like last time.
KTM took their event to the Auberge Lac Taureau near the quaint northern Quebec town of Saint Michel des Saints for the second year in a row. The surrounding terrain is as good as it gets for adventure bike riding; some of the single-track trail is seriously difficult, the two-track forest roads seem to go on forever, and wide gravel roads link everything together. The boreal forest is adventure heaven – undulating, rocky, and muddy. The two-day ride is self-guided via GPS, each of the 23 teams entered had at least three riders, and there were two routes to choose from: the expert level R1, which is 95% dirt, and the gravel-based R2 is a gentler version designed to accommodate lesser skilled riders. This year, 134 competitors decided to take on the challenge. The R1 route itself is not easy and quite relentless. The adventure bikes were a handful in the enduro-like trails, then there were the water crossings, swamps, mudholes, rocks, and steep climbs, and to add a cherry on top, it rained cats and dogs the second day.
The results showed that two-man teams were first and second places in the off-road R1 class. Less can go wrong with fewer riders, and it wasn’t surprising that the Blueberry riders and Team Foresco Holding took the top two steps on the podium in the overall results. Team Le Railleux slotted into third place, and Team 150 brought 4th place back to Ontario.
Our team consisted of Lance Webb, Keith Billings, Chris’ Hollywood’ Allen, and myself. The boys had their own Husqvarna Nordens, a 2022 KTM 890 Adventure R, and I borrowed a 12-year-old KTM 990 Adventure RR from my friends over at Tripleclamp Moto. The 990 started as a carbureted 950 Adventure, and its owner Amir Farr, spent countless hours refining it into a fire-breathing monster of a dirt bike. The fuel-injected V-twin ran like a scalded cat and growled like a panther passing a kidney stone. It was probably the oldest bike in the event and had the highest mileage on it. On the start line, it had over 134,000 km on it; the rally would spin another 580 km on the odometer. It performed flawlessly, and the fuel metering was seamless. It had a pair of high-mount HP Corse exhaust pipes that were soul-stirring to say the least. It was a blast to unleash the big KTM down the sandy dirt roads and squirt it around the corners using rear-wheel steering for most of the corners.
The format of the adventure rally is navigationally based, and the challenge is to follow the route as accurately as possible. The difficulty is not blowing by the hundreds of turns and riding almost 300 km of back roads daily, and keeping the team together as a unit. Each rider’s odometer reading is noted at each day’s start and finish, and the team’s distance is calculated to determine the results.
The challenge is easier said than done, and anything can happen. We had a flat tire early on the first day, and we were determined to complete the entire course within the allotted time; however, an error on the GPS routing at the end of day one had us ride into a peat bog that took a couple of hours to cross the short but difficult swamp. We were one of the few teams to get every member through while everyone else used a bailout route. It took a massive effort to drag and pull 500-pound motorcycles across 100 metres, but we did it in the heat and insects. Ultimately, it was worth it, and the satisfaction of completing the course earned us the ‘true rally spirit’ award.
Either way, the results were icing on the cake. We were there to ride the bikes through the beautiful countryside, hang out with our kind friends at KTM Canada and fellow adventure riders, and enjoy superb hospitality the Auberge Lac Taureau has to offer. In that regard, we all went home winners, and we can’t wait for next year!
