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Erzberg Rodeo

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What are you doing for the next 4 hours and 45 minutes? Take a break from your office-drone life and come watch the hardest single-day motorcycle event in the world.

That’s right, the entire Erzbergrodeo is up on YouTube (complete with a livestream chat feed), for your dirty-biking pleasure and two-centric practice of schadenfreude.

This year was the 24th running of the Erzbergrodeo, and this hard enduro hare scramble lived up to the hype once again. Only 23 riders finished this year’s race in the four-hour time limit (out of the 1,500 entrants and 500 qualifiers), and the clear winner didn’t emerge until the end of the course.

The “Iron Mountain” proved once again to be a great equalizer in rider skill and machine setup, which is why so many people flock to this old iron mine in Austria.

Over the years, thanks largely to the support of Red Bull, the Erzbergrodeo has become one of those iconic motorcycle races that lives a live of its own. Each year we see more top riders flocking to Erzberg, and this year saw the debut of the race’s first electric competitor: Ty Tremaine with Alta Motors.

We don’t want to give too much away, for those who don’t know the result and want to come into the stream clean, but it’s a worthwhile watch. Grab a beverage (or ten), turn off the phone, and enjoy!

Episode 80 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and it is a lesson in how not to record a podcast, as the first 30 minutes of show were lost to some technical errors.

We recouped though, and the show is even more entertaining the second time around…maybe.

First, we talk about Quentin’s recent stint as an endurance racer, as he participated in a six-hour race at a local go-kart track.

After a lengthy discussion, we turn our attention to other racing events that happen to be going on, namely the MotoGP round at Mugello, the Isle of Man TT, and the Erzberg Rodeo.

The episode is a bit late to get out, so not all the racing news might be current, but we think it is still a pretty interesting show.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

Episode 79 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we get a little dirty. Fresh from Eric Bostrom’s flat track school, Quentin tells us a story about sliding the rear wheel, which contrast Jensen’s dirt-bike crashing ways very nicely.

We then take a look at the new Honda CRF450L, which brings a street-legal 450cc dirt bike from a Japanese brand finally back to the US market. This also leads us into a conversation about the Erzberg Rodeo, which Alta Motors will contest in.

Racing is the topic of the day, with more talk about the Dakar Rally maybe moving back to Africa; the MotoGP Championship silly season showing just how silly it can get; and the start of the Isle of Man TT.

It’s a fun episode, with lots of side-stories. It might even make you hungry…hungry for more.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

Episode 78 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we talk about an omnibus list of topics. 

As such, the show begins with some racing news, both for the Isle of Man TT and for the World Superbike Championship, with a conversation about Bosch’s safety thruster technology stuffed somewhere in-between those topics.

The conversation then turns to some timely news, namely the continued rumors that Honda is readying a V4 superbike, MV Agusta is building a Moto2 bike, Ducati will return to Pikes Peak, and Alta Motors entering the Erzberg Rodeo.

We then shift gears into a long conversation about the rising trend of motorcycle fatalities, when compared to total on-road vehicle deaths.

The show finishes with a look at how profitable halo superbikes can be for motorcycle manufacturers, and how that could be the future of sport bike sales.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

We broke the story yesterday, but today the news is officially official: Alta Motors will race in the 2018 Ezerberg Rodeo, which is part of the Red Bull Hard Enduro series.

The most grueling and difficult single-day event in motorcycle racing, the Erzberg Rodeo sees 1,500 entires whittled down into what is usually a single-digit summation of race-finishers – and not every year sees a racer cross the finish line – that’s how tough this race is.

Racing for Alta Motors will be Ty Tremaine and Lyndon Poskitt, two riders with a lot of off-road experience.

For those who don’t recognize those names, Tremaine is currently racing with Alta in the 2018 AMA EnduroCross series, meanwhile Poskitt has previously competed in a number of enduro events, including the Ezberg Rodeo, and most notably just soloed the 2018 Dakar Rally to completion. 

…and just tell us that you’re racing in the Erzberg Rodeo. ?

For the last week, Alta Motors has been teasing a big announcement on social media, an announcement that features enduro racers Ty Tremaine and Lyndon Poskitt, along with the hashtag #hardenduro.

The news that we should hear officially tomorrow, as our Bothan spies tell us, is that Alta Motors is going racing in the hardest single-day motorcycle race in the worldthe Erzberg Rodeo.

Shut out from more traditional competition avenues – like AMA Supercross and Loretta Lynn’s AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship – Alta Motors is taking a different tack, and going into the belly beast while they’re at it.

When it comes to inappropriate dirt bikes, we’re your guys. So, it shouldn’t surprise you then to read that we’re all about this KTM 1290 Super Duke R that’s set to compete in the 2016 Erzbergrodeo. After all, what’s not to like in a 180hp off-roader?

I’m not going to lie, I have a school boy’s crush on the KTM 1290 Super Duke R, after finally getting a chance to swing a leg over one; and there’s something that tickles me about the idea of using a square peg to fill a round hole, when it comes to motorcycles.

That all being said, Ji?í Heiník’s latest creation, the “KTM 1290 Super Enduro” tickles us just in the right way…he’s clearly our sort of crazy.

The Erzbergrodeo billed as the toughest single-day motorcycle race on the planet – a name the race more than live up to each year. For 2015 though, Sunday’s Red Bull Hare Scramble, as its known to the marketing-hip, was something out of Dante’s seven circles of Hell.

500 riders qualified for the main event, a number that was whittled down from the 1,500 entries. Of those 500 riders though, only 5 of them finished the course, known better as “The Iron Giant”.

Though the Erzbergrodeo is known for its low-finishing rate, this year’s event was extra difficult because the race organizers added an additional 21 miles to its length, including the new “Downtown” section, which was a virtually impassable with its ravine and steep muddy hill.

With four co-winners (Jonny Walker, Graham Jarvis, Andreas Lettenbichler, and Alfredo Gómez), and a fifth lone finisher (Mario Roman Serrano), we bet this will be a race talked about for some time. Luckily if you missed it on TV, we have the full TV episode right here, after the jump. Enjoy!

The Erzberg Rodeo billed as the toughest single-day motorcycle race on the planet, and all you have to do in order to check that superlative against hyperbole is to ask a competitor about the Red Bull Hare Scramble event.

With 500 riders qualifying for Sunday’s Red Bull Hare Scramble, out of some 1,500 entries, only five…yes five…finished the gruelling “Iron Giant”.

As if the past races in the open-air Austrian pit mine, haven’t been hard enough, this year’s event included a number of changes, including an all-new section lovingly named “Downtown” that was right before the finish line.

Adding 21 miles to the previous course length, the Downtown section was virtually impassable with its ravine and steep muddy hill, even for the top entries. Accordingly, the Top 4 riders banded together in order to make it through the meatgrinder and finish the race.

As such, Jonny Walker, Graham Jarvis, Andreas Lettenbichler, and Alfredo Gómez are this year’s joint Erzberg Rodeo winners, with Mario Roman Serrano credited as the fifth and final race finisher.

In case the race wasn’t breath-taking enough, the photos seemingly do it justice. We have 71 high-resoltuion shots for you, after the jump.

Billed as the toughest single-day enduro in the world, the Erzbergrodeo certainly seems to live up to the hyperbole. Four days of events, the Erzbergrodeo is crowned by the last day’s Red Bull Hare Scramble, where 500 qualifiers (pared down from over 1,000 entries) take to the Austrian quarry, and only a handful find the finish line.

The Erzbergrodeo is mildly ridiculous, and completely laborious…so, obviously we like it. Thankfully for the 2014 competitors, the rain wasn’t too big of a factor this year…because you know, it’s not like the hare scramble wasn’t hard enough to begin with. We won’t spoil the results for you, so a summary video (along with a bunch of hi-res photos) is waiting for you after the jump, while you can watch the 4hr long version right here.