Tuesday General Moto News - BMW, Triumph and Fun

BMW is offering adventure loving riders a chance to get away from everything and ride in Portugal. It is a week-long trip in the Algarve region in the south of the country. It will be hosted by former Rally Dakar competitor Simon Pavey and will be done twice in February. The idea is to get away from the cold and enjoy some warm and fun off-road riding...but, that cold snap in Europe is taking over the entire continent!

http://tinyurl.com/yz2yvhw

The world's largest Triumph dealer, Pure Triumph in the U.K., has built a custom Triumph cafe racer based on the 2009 Thruxton. The number of changes is a very long list, the only parts not changed were the frame and the engine internals. They even replaced the tank with a tank from a T140 and adapted to use on the Thruxton. To learn more, you really need to take the link.

http://tinyurl.com/y9vtv5s

And, lastly in this post, we have a rather funny fake story about a group of animal rights activists show up at a biker rally to protest the biker's use of leather. It looks like something went terribly wrong at the fictional event and you need to see the results!

http://tinyurl.com/yb3hu35

Tuesday Afternoon Moto News from Around the World

Not much going on this afternoon, so I only have one to place here.

A blog which I have linked to many times in the past few months, Luxist, had some of the authors of the site take a ride at the BMW Performace Center in Spartanburg - outside of Greenville, South Carolina. They had one hell of a time, as you might expect. They also provided us with a look into the school and the BMW machines they use to train their students. There are even several quality photos of the time which was spent there. Take a look as you may one day attend this school as well...

http://tinyurl.com/ylctnrp

BMW to Manufacture G650GS in Brazil for Local Market

It will be the first BMW motorcycle manufactured outside of Germany, and BMW is quite happy about doing this. The G650GS motorcycles built in Brazil will only be sold in the Brazilian market, but the quality should be identical to the same model made in Germany. It is a great way to save on costs for a motorcycle which is sure to be popular in the South American nation.

http://tinyurl.com/yaudp3x

Third Annual BMW Canadian GS Challenge

The event went off during 18 - 20 September 2009, but this is the first report I have seen about it. The GS Challenge consisted of three fantastic itineraries which were categorized as Panoramic (beginner), Challenge (intermediate) and Double Diamond (advanced). All of those included sand, gravel, water and mud - love that mud! Riders came from around the world (as far away as Argentina and Germany) to tackle the challenge. And, it was perfect weather and all participants had one heck of a good time!

http://tinyurl.com/y9otdv5