Strange year 2020 has been. It started with one event in Munich and then we got hit by this pandemic…
Photos by Outback Motortek and @chita_otg (Instagram), PH Massimo Di Trapani, Hard Alpi Tour
Then it all went downhill in terms of “socializing” and whatnot. Isolation kicked in and with that so did 100% online living. However, it’s in our nature to try and find social companions. In the case of Outback Motortek I’m referring to social meetings. Meetings where adventure or simply moto touring fans gather, share experiences and stories.
By July there were signs of businesses coming out of the pandemic “hibernation” and the word began to spread about events. Fast forward to August, we were preparing for our first mutual “Meetup” with Mosko Moto Europe. The location couldn’t have been more ideal than in a small village surrounded by great paved roads and epic off-road trails between the Pyrenees and Barcelona.
Meetup #1 – Hostal Restaurant Grau
The place is run by an authentic rally raid fan, who himself races quads. The stage was set for our first meetup but something had to put a dent on it…
Rain and cold front! All August was hot and dry like it’s “supposed” to be in Spain but just overnight before the event it kicked in and the region got bombarded by a cold front and heavy rains. We literally went from +35C to +12C overnight and the rain was just coming down like no tomorrow.
We thought “It’s an event for adventure riders”.. The tough ones will show up! Sure enough we had a group of #toughcabrons” appearing despite the challenging weather conditions.
We shared drinks, meals, laughs and stories during the event and our buddy – Jordi who helped us organize the venue – even took a small group of 10-12 riders on some rain soaked trails nearby. We ended the day with full satisfaction and more motivation. The next event was being worked out already.
Meetup #2 – Hard Alpi Tour
It wasn’t our event alone but we setup again next to each other with Mosko Moto. This time we travelled to Sanremo, Italy to partake in an event with some decent history. Essentially it’s a group ride. GPS tracks are given to each rider of each group before the “race-like” event kicks off rolling down in style on a podium with lights shining all over the riders. Why lights? Because the “Extreme” category set out just before midnight to meet us vendors in a small town in the Italian Alps. Who cool is that!?
Setting up our tents and product stands at two different locations presented some challenges but it was so worth it. Our favourite spot was in the Alps: fresh air, cool morning, comfortable daytime temperature and stunning mountain peaks all around us.
The Alps’ portion of the event definitely brought in more visitors (whom were not part of the event) thanks to the fact that Sestriere and its area is home to some of the most epic off-road trails in Italy, not to mention the hoards of weekend tourers arriving on two wheels who randomly stumbled upon the event.
We did have a ton of fun here as well despite not getting all the attention which we actually happily shared with other vendors! Klim, Enduristan, Anlas and Nolan showed up as well.
Then we actually said “good bye” to the Mosko Moto EU crew. Some of them headed up to Sweden for a cool moto event in the woods, while we headed south to Tuscany.
Meetup #3 – Moto Tendata
Another event which we’ll never forget. Thanks to our Italian dealer and domestic adventure rider super star, Gionata Nencini, we got invited to another moto social event. Gionata organizes his own event every year, sometimes twice a year where the average attendance is over 500 riders. This time due to the still lingering COVID problem, the event was limited to 350 attendees.
We were stoked to come and setup our event tent and what an opportunity it was to connect with customers as well as future ones! We also learned more about Gionata’s extreme travels on two wheels around the globe. The amazing stories and videos just kept coming and coming. Hence Gionata was literally just signing his books and chatting with the attendees for 3 days.
At this event only Outback Motortek and Klim were represented. We definitely got a lot of attention. On Saturday night Gionata put on a presentation about Outback Motortek and our story of meeting, running some projects and establishing Outback Motortek Italia.
The Italian love truly overwhelmed us. A true passionate nation and a bunch of great riders. We hope to be back again!
This leads us to future Meetups. We have three more confirmed for this year!