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By Michael Dapper
VRA Page Webmaster
It’s been quite a week in the frozen north. While we have been stuck between snow storms, barely able to get our bikes our for more than half a day here and there, four New Zealanders rolled through town on a pair of Victory Visions acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
Mind you, New Zealand has a warm, fantastic climate where grass and flowers grow year-round and there’s no snow, ice, frost nor temperatures in the 20s and 30s (Fahrenheit, that is).
So we were mightily impressed when these four fantastic Kiwis – Noel and Ruby, and Emil and Brenda – contacted us to say “we’re in some bloody hotel here in someplace called Bloomington [Minnesota].”
That taught us a couple things:
1. They are hardy and can definitely handle riding in wintry snowbelt weather.
2. You cannot trust for a minute their “route” as posted on their very entertaining website, Bums on Bikes.
Their posted schedule had them coming through Minnesota later in April, but rather than following a schedule, they seem to follow the wind, and their noses, and whatever whimsy spurs them to pursue another interesting U.S. attraction.
In about six weeks on the road leading up to their Minnesota visit, they had rolled up over 5,000 miles and they were having a ball.
Some back story:
These two couples, great friends for the past decade, decided to take an epic, year-long motorcycle trip across the United States and throughout Europe – six months on each of the two continents.
They had planned to purchase some Milwaukee iron for the American leg, but last fall they learned of the new Victory Vision AND LAST NOVEMBER NOEL AND EMIL FLEW TO SAN FRANCISCO SPECIFICALLY TO DEMO RIDE VICTORY VISIONS!
(Did we emphasize strongly enough how stunning we find that bit of their story?)
They were, of course, impressed by the Victory Visions, so they placed down payments, flew home to New Zealand to fetch their brides and luggage, and returned in early March 2008 to begin their trek.
You’ll read more about them and their journey in an upcoming issue of Victory Rider, but we wanted to note here how much fun it was to meet and spent time with these charming visitors.
Now back to details about their Twin Cities visit: After rescuing them from their Bloomington motel, we enjoyed a long lunch with them, showed them around St. Paul, Minnesota, by car, then arranged for them to visit the Victory Product Development Center the following day.
At the development center in Wyoming, Minnesota, the visitors got to meet several members of the Victory Engineering team, including some who were instrumental in the development of the Victory Vision.
They got a brief tour (but most of the facility is strictly off limits because of confidential projects) and they were treated to exciting RANGER RZR rides with members of the Polaris RANGER engineering staff. Down the trail and through the woods and the mud they went, loving every minute.
By the time the New Zealanders were ready to hit the road, the sun had finally emerged, teasing us with yet another hint of spring and lighting the Kiwis’ road to their next American adventure.
They climbed aboard their Victory Visions and headed east – or wherever the wind might take them.
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