Oregon's BIGGEST and BEST ADV Motorcycle Rally: The 2023 Giant Loop Ride

A ghost! Oh my god, is that Giant Loop Ambassador Critter Moto? A little bit of an unexpected weather development. All right, we're here at the, we're at the VB40 Beer Dispensary. Good morning! I am in Crane, Oregon at the Crane Hot Springs at the 2023 Giant Loop Ride. The biggest and best ride in the history of this event. We are going to have over 700 riders here this weekend exploring the deserts and forests of southeastern Oregon. And we are just, I'm just so stoked to be here. It's my third time at this event. It's always a blast. We had a great time last night. Maybe had a few too many beverages. That happens when you're hanging out with good friends and good people and doing fun stuff. And looking forward to getting out and doing some riding. This year I'm going to be helping lead a workshop for the Veterans Back 40 group. They have some new riders who haven't ridden off-road much and so I recruited the man himself, Todd, to help put that together. And I will be assisting him and we're going to run that together and take these guys out on their first off-road ride so they can get their feet under them. That's going to be fun. It's a fantastic event, obviously put on by Giant Loop. There's presentation, there's vendors, there's all kinds of good riding, great people, good food. It's a beautiful setting and I look forward to this every year and it's finally here and I'm pretty excited to bring you guys along with me. So I'm getting my coffee in this morning and then I'm going to go check in. It's going to be a heck of an event. Camp Dorkside is all set up at the old toy hauler and this will surprise some of you but I brought the rally on this trip. The 450L is still getting some suspension work done. It's going to be fun. I'm excited to be trying it out. Headed over to the registration booth but first, a ghost! I shouldn't make fun because I'm twice as pale as you are but I'm also not shirtless. The VB40 guys setting up the most popular booth in the entire place because it's where the beers are distributed. And again, I know I've mentioned it many times but this is a beverages included event so you don't get that at many other. In fact, none of the other rallies I've been to have had unlimited free beer. Howdy, Hemi. There's Chad doing Chad things. Harley's here. Got Bader back there. Big Vendor Row this year. Biggest event ever. So much so that the Vendor Row is now starts at the entrance and goes all the way down into the campground and loops around. Triumph is here. Rolled in last night. So we got some scramblers and some tigers. We got Lexton. We got Trail Tech. We got Ian. Ian's here and if you're not sure which channel it is that he has, you're not using your context clues very well. Have you been to Giant Loop before, right? This is my, I'm popping the cherry right now. This is my first one. Oh sh**. I know! Why did it take so long to get here? What do you think so far? It's freaking rad because we made a journey to get here and then get here was just like last night getting here, everybody just put cameras away, was hanging with family, it was just hanging with friends. It was just a super rad time. Yeah, I think maybe we should keep the cameras out so we drink less from now on. It's probably a great idea. Oh my god, is that Giant Loop ambassador Critter Moto? Oh my god, everybody's here. Oh geez, what is up? Yeah, I found food. That looks freaking delicious. When Critter's not cooking, he's finding food. See, that's the biggest gripe that I have right now is that there's not a pancake feed in the Well, I thought with a Canadian here that was taken care of, but his bike runs on maple syrup. I'm contractually obligated to get footage anytime Ryan is actually working. We are checking in. How you doing, Dork? Hey, what's up man? How are you? Good seeing you in person. You guys want a sticker? Yeah, there you go. Thank you, sir. That's a solid one. How many times have you been to the Giant Loop ride? First time. First time? What do you think so far? Yes, sir. Loved it so far. Lots to take in. Hey, I was thinking I might check in. Is that cool? I just want swag. I don't get any swag? Yes, you're amazing and you're fantastic. Inspiring. Thank you. Thank you. A little bit of an unexpected weather development, but it is supposed to clear up in about an hour and then we're supposed to have sunny 75 the rest of the trip. So we'll see, but people spirits are not dampened, despite the fact that their bodies are. And dinner's served, the beer tent's flowing, everyone's having a blast, rider's meeting's over, everyone's ready to settle in for the first official night of the Giant Loop ride 2023, and we're all very excited Good morning. Day two, officially, of the Giant Loop ride. Last night it rained from on and off about six until, well, I think it just stopped. So we are, as I mentioned, running a training for the Veterans Back 40 guys this morning. I had a route scouted and now I don't know if it's going to work if it has this much rain on it, because it gets real slippery. So we're going to check it out this morning and improvise if we have to, but we're still going to get some basic skills training in and give those guys a good solid foundation to build on. Everyone's getting breakfast. It's early. Nice thing about these ATV rallies is everyone gets up early. It's like ATV riders are a different breed. Today is the first full day of riding, so people are getting geared up. Got to head up and make that happen. So my plan is to run this training in the morning and then maybe do some demo rides in the afternoon since I only have half a day today. Let's ride. Some variable terrain traction with the hay. I thought it'd be more interesting. Did you say, hey, I have an idea. Yeah, I did. Are we starting with like slalom work here? No, just wheelies. Perfect. Well, it's the first time this has ever been dropped, so. No, not once, man. And there it is. Now I can't ride ever again. No. What do we do? This is John and he's graciously or foolishly allowing me to take this thing out and see what's up. Very stable feeling off road, at least here in this loose gravel. In terms of riding too fast on a poorly maintained road, this thing is handling it brilliantly. Dork in the road of the past. You're an idiot. This bike is very capable. For now and as always, I just want to say. Yeah, that's not what I normally say. We're doing a demo, but I need help. I need help for this one. So I've enlisted the effervescent Explore Adventure Moto and we're going to take this URL out for like a 20 minute test ride. I've always wanted to ride one of these. I'm very excited. I just did a two tire slide. I've never done that on a motorcycle before. It's very stable, obviously, but it also feels like it's going to flip over at any moment. Are you going to kill me because I have a kid? I might. Oh. Oh, dude, I feel like I'm in a toboggan at Disneyland. Like it is a very like out of control feeling like I want my legs underneath me so I can jump out of this thing. Absolutely. That is not how it is, but it is comfortable. So sitting down is fun. What's going on here, Ryan and Donnie? We're trying to recruit people for the slow race. Oh, so you set up a diabolical course? Yes. As a slow race winner yourself. I've seen you win a slow race in person. Do you know why he's in the finals? Because I just gave him a Dorfenrode sticker and it's on the side of his They'll be even more diabolical, but I think it's beer 30. In fact, let's go see if it is. All right. We're here at the we're at the VB40 beer dispensary and Merth check. I don't know. I need to be. Oh, lager me. Thank you. Appreciate it. It is Saturday here at the Giant Loop Ride. The weather has much improved, as you can see, and I'm headed out with Trav and Larry and Kevin, and we are going to go check out the King Mountain Lookout. I've never actually ridden the forest side out here, so I'm pretty excited to experience that. Going to take the 300L, put some miles in today. And there's, of course, the Todd. The Todd is here and he's not coming with us. He's not riding with no helmet or anything cool like that. But good night. Last night, campfire, shenanigans, beverages. But I'm feeling human enough to ride, so must have moderated well. It's like 70 degrees. Gonna be a nice day, I think. I'm excited for it. It is neat at the Giant Loop Ride to experience the diversity of terrain out here in this part of Oregon. People forget that Oregon is half desert and they think it all looks like this, and it doesn't. So it's neat to be able to see both in such a small area at one event. Oh, man, this would have sucked if it was muddy. It's like it's not bad right now. Oh, there's some mud. Yeah, quite a panoramic view. You know, these are fire towers, obviously. The point is the panoramic view, but they don't use them anymore because they spot fires with satellites these days. So they're just up here with roads to get to them and amazing views and snow. So it is the final night of the Giant Loop Ride and we are setting up for the second night of Moto Games. And by we, I mean Ryan, the diabolical genius behind tonight's obstacle course. I think the key was how Ian lovingly gripped Critter with his thighs. That is why they were so successful. It was sexy. The loving grip. There was real tenderness there. He does got a lot of hands that way. These are all the raffle prizes up for grabs. Well, I never needed to see that in my life, but I'm really glad I filmed it. It is morning of the final day here at the Giant Loop Ride and people are already packing up, getting out early. It's only 7.30. Quite a few people are gone already. They got long journeys to make and getting on the road. But I'm gonna get some coffee and see who's hanging around and enjoy my last morning here at Crystal Green Hot Springs. How was your 2023 Giant Loop event? Well, the biggest, most badass, wonderful event. We had 30 vets this year and had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them, get them all around on all these trails, had some great campfire time, having some beers, making new friends. Oh man, I think that this year just kind of took everything to this new level and it was amazing. We had twice as many vendors, twice as many riders. We had fantastic weather once we got over a couple of thundershowers at the beginning. I think everything came together better than expected. It was great. I actually really liked it. I was really concerned about the size increase, but they did a great job of handling where everybody was. It felt exactly like the year before. So no better at all then? Just exactly the same. No, I'm kidding. Because last year was already perfect. Exactly. Great. So how much better can it get? Oh, good point. It was excellent. It was so much more fun than I was even anticipating. The event's grown so much, but it didn't feel like a big event. I never felt crowded anywhere. Always tons of people to meet, which is super cool. So yeah, it was so much fun to be here. Scale of 1 to 10, I'm gonna say 9.8. You know, it's really, I think the community here, the people, that's what kept getting brought up time and time again about how many, seriously, the coolest people are here. And from a vendor standpoint, it was wonderful to get to talk to people and hear the excitement and really get to share our brand and really hear the instant feedback. I mean, it's about as organic of feedback as you can get when you send somebody out on a bike and they come back and they get to talk to you and what they loved and they're already on a high from being here and getting to ride all the other motorcycles. It's a smaller type of event and that's what I like. I think I may have talked to 80% of the people. You don't ever get to say that at bigger events. Feel very fortunate to be here. Fantastic. Wet at times. Really windy at times. Almost lost my pop-up. It's just gonna get thrown away when I get home. I put in a lot more miles this year and did more routes than I've been able to do in years past just due to it not being as snotty and completed some of the routes. King Mountain, easily my favorite. Had a really great time and it was a large event this year and it was still run really smooth. These guys, Giant Loop, really did a very good job of keeping everything together. It was awesome. I mean it rained a little bit the first day but it was great to come out here and you know show everyone the Alpine Stars Adventure gear and everyone's like getting demos in and getting their hands on the gear and that's pretty much what it's all about. What would you say to someone who's not sure if they want to come next year? You should definitely come out and if you're an introvert and you're like I don't like people there's lots of introverts here who are getting together and hiding from the people together. True. And if you're an extrovert you're the most popular person here. You absolutely have to come out. This is one of the, well here's an example. I spoke to the lady who runs this campground and she said this ADV event we are more low-key than their normal campground is on a holiday weekend. It's a great vibe. People are friendly. They're approachable. This is my fourth year here and I can't wait to come back next year. This is a really unique corner of our state here and you know I've had the good fortune of traveling and riding in a number of places around the world and you know and I've never seen any place that's quite like this and this is one of the reasons that I love sharing this area. This is really kind of the roots and origins of Giant Loop and so come and check it out. We have hundreds of miles of tracks to ride and it doesn't matter really if you're a fairly novice rider and you just want to go do some nice cruising on gravel roads or if you're a gnarly dirt bike guy and you want to go ride sand and bash rocks in the desert like there's a little bit of everything here for everybody and we're very welcoming and inclusive I think is what we aim to be. Come check it out. I think you know one of the reasons it's gotten to be the size that it is is that people come and have a good time. They go home, tell their friends and year over year it's just continually grown because of that kind of word of mouth. You're It's fun because the weather can't even spoil a good time because we're having the most wonderful last two days weather. The first two days was a little challenging but I think that's what makes it fun right. It's the community out here man. There's just some wonderful people every you know last I've been here two years in a row and I met some great people last year. I met even better people this year and what Giant Loop and use we and and and what Harold's built is such a such a special thing to see. So if you're a fan of motorcycling you have to be here. If you're a fan of adventure riding it's a must. If you've never been to one of these things before or if you have and you've never been to Giant Loop before come to Giant Loop. It's almost like you're catered to almost. You don't have to lift a finger. You just hang out with a bunch of like-minded people and everybody's just a good time. You need to go to Giant Loop 2024. You just do. You're at Hot Springs. You're in eastern Oregon. We have the GPS track so it's easy to go and have fun. Big group rides, vendors, tons of beer, great food. It's truly a unique experience. There's no other event rally ride in the U.S. that has that and that's the reason why it's the biggest ever and it keeps growing and big brands like KTM, Triumph, L.M. Field and a bunch of other smaller brands and local companies want to come out. They know, they've heard, the best of the best is here so come out. It will sell out I'm sure next year so get in early. Sweet and thank you so much. So Todd helped me out. You saw him in the video earlier but was uh I say helped me out. Really I helped Todd out with the uh with that little training we did for the the VB40 guys so thanks Todd. You're a rock star. Thanks for donating your time. So you're starting a company right? I am. It's Pacific Northwest Adventure Moto. Primarily we're doing training basic right from the beginning. If you've never ridden a motorcycle let me help you both road and off-road. We'd love to love to see you help you get more confidence. For those of you who don't know this is this is Matt who edits my videos so uh go subscribe to him but uh he's gonna edit himself into this tastefully. Tastefully. If I when I think Matt I think tasteful. There won't be any underlying inspirational music in my bit at all. Okay thank god because we've that's not that's not my vibe. That's not my vibe. No. Okay thanks man. Have a good travel travel. Have a good travels. Have a good trip home. Good travels. I hope your travels are wonderful. It's amazing how quickly this place goes from like a city to back to a campground. People are rolling out. It is about 10 o'clock in the morning. I'm actually all the way packed up so I'm about to take off myself. Things are winding down but shockingly you get another fantastic giant loop ride. Of course look forward to this every year. Looking forward to next year so if you haven't been to one I would strongly encourage you to get on that mailing list so that you can be the first to know when registration for next year comes up because it is the best event. Like I said nobody else has got the free beer. Riding out here is truly unique and just the community is absolutely the best part. So all right friends well I'm exhausted. It was a great trip. Great times. Great evenings. Got in hot springs last night at about 10 30. That was that was a treat with the full moon out and just hanging out with people but I'm loaded up. I'm sweaty as you can see. I'm ready to get on the road and get home so thank you to everyone I met at this year's giant loop ride. It means so much to me when you guys come up to me and talk about you know how my channel helped you or maybe inspired you. That's really what motivates me and keeps me going so thank you so much to everyone that came up and said hi. Thank you to those of you who brought me like cigars and I even got like a bottle of blantons and and a few other pretty amazing amazing generous honestly I'm just embarrassed to even talk about how generous people are gifts so thank you all for making this giant loop ride the best one yet for me and I can't wait to see all of you next year giant loop 2024 right back here first weekend in June. Let's hang out. Let's have a few brewskis. Let's ride in the desert in the forest all in the same day and have a great time so thank you all for watching. I appreciate you and please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Excellent!