This past Sunday, the guys over at Aether Apparel and RawHyde Adventures hosted Urban Assault Ride, a single day Adventure Ride designed to show LA’s riders that it’s possible to have an adventure in an urban setting. We thought our readers would like to see what the first (of hopefully many) Urban Assaults was all about.
Meeting at Aether in the morning.
Most of this ride might as well have been a BMW ad.
The organizers tried to set us out in groups, though that concept fell apart quickly. Traffic lights did a decent job of splitting up the original 100+ riders into much smaller groups.
Being blunt, the riding wasn’t incredibly interesting. Covering just 40 miles, the planners selected some good roads, but you weren’t on the road long enough to enjoy the rides between stops. To be fair, I’m not sure how much better you can do inside the city of Los Angeles! Stops included the Hollywood Bowl Overlook, a dirt parking lot underneath the Hollywood sign, and Griffith Park.
Wonderful BMW HP2 Enduro enjoying the dirt in front of the Hollywood sign.
One of the RawHyde guys decided he didn’t need to use his sidestand.
The best part was at the last stop, at a warehouse downtown where Million Dollar Baby was filmed.
R1150GS Sidecar Rig
Probably my favorite rider here was this lady on a low frame/low seat F650GS. Looks great with the Lava Orange paint and chunky knobby tires.
First of all, RawHyde and Aether brought out Kerry Schilf, a Sergeant with Burbank’s Police Department. Kerry runs the training program for Burbank motorcycle police, and he setup some cone courses that his cops use to train, including basic slaloms, ever-tightening circles, simulated lane changes, and more. He showed everyone the best way to approach the challenges, and then everyone was free to try themselves.
The Sergeant shows us the best way to navigate through the slalom as slow as possible.
More disdain for sidestands.
After that, though, it got even better. RawHyde set up an obstacle course inside of the warehouse. Called the Debris Field, it was full of cones, boxes, barrels, and other items strategically placed to give contestants fits. We didn’t get a chance to see the course before we entered the warehouse, making it a test of slow riding skill and one’s ability to pick out riding lines.
A MSF instructor tries to show us how it’s done with an incredible BMW HP2 streetbike.
Yours truly did passably well, only bumping two items through the course. Then someone went 2-up and only hit one cone. Yikes.
The 2-up pair that only ended up hitting one cone.
Navigating the teeter-totter
Unfortunately, some riders had to put a foot down. 2 points off!
KLR enjoys more of the see-saw.
Great times were had by all. Keep your eyes out for the next Urban Assault – or set up your own little obstacle course and get your motorcycle club to give it a shot. You’ll thank us later.