The Adventure Challenge

This entry is part 25 of 24 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #3

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The Adventure Challenge is for reals. It’s here now, and it’ll be the biggest thing to happen to adventure riders since Preparation H.What’s it all about? We’ll tell you.

The concept

Once a rider grabs a bike and gets kitted up, he – or she – is quite often left standing, looking vacantly out the shed door, wondering where the Fukuoka they can ride.

The road’s there to share, and that’s part of the problem. A big attraction of adventure riding is to get away from the overpopulated centres and overused roads, and to see those wide, open places that haunt the dreams of adventure riders everywhere – the mountain passes, river crossings, deserts and trails that even four-wheel drivers don’t know about.

But how does one – or two or three – find those places?

One way would be to grab a stack of maps and see what can be seen. Another way would be to ride to remote destinations and ask people – if you can find any

But who has time for that?

Those who take the Adventure Challenge can log on to advridermag.com.au, decide how much time they have to spare, then choose from a plethora – yes, plethora – of possible destinations and trails. Having decided which one or two will suit the time available and the adventure the rider is looking for, it’s as easy as punching the location into the GPS, or marking it on a map, and heading on out there.

That’s all there is to it.

Once the destination is achieved, take a selfie, or have a mate shoot a pic, showing the landmark and the rider wearing the shirt, and upload it to the advridermag forum.

That’s all there is to it. That challenge is taken and conquered.

All good

The smart riders will pick off some nearby locations on a day or weekend, and those with annual leave might get together to scratch a couple off the Bucket List.

And you’re not being spoon fed. It’s up to each Challenger to work out the route. If you find an especially fantastic road, trail or section, make sure you tell everyone on the website. The aim is for us all to share great locations and awesome riding.

The idea came from Your Local Shed Market kingpin Chris Laan, purveyor of high-quality adventure-bike shelters and maker of none-too-shabby coffee in his luxuriously appointed camper.

“It just seemed like a very good concept,” BMWed Chris, scowling at some nearby ducks in desperate need of a feed.

“Too often I’ve been on trips and I’ll pull up at a pub and talk to blokes. They’ll ask where I’ve been. I tell them, and they say, ‘Gee, 20km back, if you’d turned left and gone 300 metres, there’s a spectacular lookout or waterfall (or something).’ And I’d find myself wishing I’d known that.

“And we’d find a lot of fabulous places on our rides. We didn’t know they existed, and we’d tell others about them.

“So I was wondering how we could get started on a database of unique, interesting places or roads, and at the same time, raise some money for a good charity.”

The Adventure Challenge was the answer.

Making it easy

“Often one of the hardest things about planning a ride is where to go,” Chris GSed. “You know the roads you’ve been on, and I hate being on the same road twice. If people not only put their pics on the forum, but outline the routes they used, other people are going to find new ways to get from one location to the next.”

And where does the charity come into it? To sign up for the Challenge you… Hang on. That’s the next bit!

Chris Laan, prime mover behind the Adventure Challenge, has 40 locations in NSW and he’s keen to share them with Adventure Rider Magazine’s readers.

Be part of it

So how do you get involved?

First up, log on to www.advridermag.com.au and go to the forum. Chances are you’re already a member there, but if you’re not, sign up and get your member on there.

After you’ve finished saying hello to all your mates – because they’ve all been spending their work days chatting to other Aussie adventure riders when they should’ve been earning a living – go to “The Adventure Challenge”, about halfway down the page.

Click on that bastard.

Straight away you’ll see a button that links to a T-shirt order, and another button that links to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

To sign up, click on the RFDS link and make a donation. When that’s done, click on the link to buy the T-shirt.

From there you can work your way through the pages, reading how the idea developed and who’s doing what.

The next step is to have a look at the locations, pick one, and ride there. When you arrive, get a pic of yourself with the shirt in front of the landmark.

Then, when you’re next at your computer, upload the pic to the forum, tell everyone how you got there, and brag like anything about how great it all was.

You’re a Challenger. Done.

How to become a challenger

Log on to www.advridermag.com.au. Click on FORUM up the top there.

On the forum page, log in. If you’re not already a member, sign up.

Click on “The Adventure Challenge”.

The fine print

Not so much fine print, but just to tie up a few little loose ends because we’re having to go to print a fair way in advance of the Challenge kicking off.

As we write this, we’re in high-level, top-secret negotiation with a very large and important player in the Australian motorcycle industry. This company is looking at the possibility of slinging a few prizes in the direction of some Challengers who achieve various milestones, probably measured by the number of destinations they cross off. We can’t say any more until negotiations are concluded.

Everyone will no doubt want to know how many destinations there will be. We’re still not sure yet. Chris alone has 40 in NSW. Robin Box of Touratech Australia is running up a list of Victorian POIs, and John Hudson is covering Queensland. There’s likely to be a lot of possible destinations. Remember the idea isn’t for everyone to get to every destination. The idea is to offer a heap of possibilities in distance and terrain. Chris points out that all destinations can be reached in a Hyundai Getz with bald tyres. It’s up to the riders to decide how tough they want the route to be, but if they’re so inclined, it can be very easy indeed.

Also, there’s no requirement to actually be on a bike. If someone is on annual holidays with the family, and within cooee of a destination, grab the shirt and bang off a pic. That counts.

There’s no obligation on anyone to do anything except donate to the RFDS and buy a shirt. After that, riders can do a single destination for the whole year if they like. Or they might just choose the ones they’ve always dreamed of reaching. That’s up to each individual.

On the very first post there’s two buttons. Click on the first and make a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Click on the second and order a T-shirt.

Go through the thread and find the locations. Pick one that suits you. Click on it in Google Maps. Put the info into your GPS or on your map.

Get going!

So there it is. Log on and start riding. Get those pics up there and let’s see this fabulous country.

Have a ball riding to the destination/s with your mates. When you get there, get a pic of yourself with your T-shirt at the landmark. Post that pic on the The Adventure Challenge thread. Done. The more destinations you get, the bigger legend you are.

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