2023 ADV GUIDE P53
Ricky, give us just a quick
intro about your history with
adventure bikes and how you
got into it.
I was looking just online one
day looking at the Triumphs. I'm
like, "Man, these things are re-
ally nice." Come to find out, my
old boss at Suzuki
[Rod Lopusnak]
is now the main
man in charge
of Triumph
here in the
U.S. One
thing led to
another, I got
on a Tiger
900, and
here we are
today. I have been bitten by the
adventure-riding bug. No doubt
about it.
So, did that start before
your current relationship with
Triumph officially
started? Were you just
interested in it?
Yeah. There was interest
before any relationship with
Triumph. It just looked fun to
me. What I like about it, to make
it super simple for everyone, is
I love the road aspect of it, but
I also like to have that option
to take a killer route off-road.
There are so many routes to
take, whether it's a dirt trail or
fire trails, whatever it might be.
You can't do that on road bikes.
That's the cool thing about ad-
venture bikes.
The balance and capability
of the new adventure bikes,
including all the new Triumph
models obviously, to tackle
both ends of that spectrum is
spectacular.
It is. They are so much fun.
Another thing too, it's just the rid-
ers that we have that tag along
on our rides, that makes it fun
as well, as you know. It's about
the camaraderie. That's a huge
aspect for us, as well.
This year you guys went
from Spokane, Washington, all
the way across Idaho, through
Montana and into Colorado.
They're some of the biggest
WE CHAT WITH
SUPERCROSS AND
MOTOCROSS LEGEND
RICKY CARMICHAEL ABOUT
HIS NEW PASSION FOR
ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLE RIDING AND HOW HIS
"RC SUMMER ADVENTURE" RIDE CAME TO BE