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Former AMA Pro Superbike champion Miguel Duhamel got more than a surprise while cycling near Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, as he was struck in the head with what is suspected to be a BB gun pellet as a car passed by him.

“A car came behind me like they always do but this one came up and I heard a shot, like air disperse, it went pow!” said Miguel Duhamel, talking to FOX5 Las Vegas.

The incident left Duhamel bloodied, as the BB pellet passed through a vent on his bicycle helmet, penetrated a sweat cap, and punctured his skin. 

Vegas, baby! That’s the phrase that shot through my mind as I pulled up to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for the 2018 version of AIMExpo.

You may remember from a previous AIMExpo article that I wrote, that I found the energy level to be a bit low at this show. I wondered if being in Vegas would bring a new level of excitement and energy to the show that it lacked in the past.

Besides the glitzy location, the show was held in conjunction with Las Vegas Bike Fest and Monster Energy Supercross, with all of the events being lumped under the label of Powersports Industry Week. Maybe this could be a big deal?

With the success of the Superprestigio in Spain, AMA Pro Flat Track is looking to copy the model for the American market. Dubbed the Superprestigio of the Americas, the November 21st race will presumably heavily feature American riders, though no names have been announced just yet.

The announcement is just the latest of events to come from the Daytona Motorsports Group, in order to promote the sport of flat track racing in the USA. As you may know, Just recently flat track racing was included as part of the X Games in Austin, Texas, which gave the sport a captive mainstream TV audience.

Now appealing to riders from road racing, supermoto, and other two-wheeled diciplines, the Superprestigio of the Americas can bring together fans from different parts of the two-wheeled racing world…just don’t expect to see Marc Marquez going head-to-head again with America’s finest.

I’m actually surprised it has taken this long for a national player to enter into the motorcycle rental business, but this week Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced that it was launching its own motorcycle rental business, Motorcycle Rental by Enterprise.

For now, the business is limited to one location in Las Vegas, and Motorcycle Rental by Enterprise offers only a small selection of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Presumably if the Las Vegas experiment is a success, Enterprise could expand the concept to other locations.

All good things must come to an end, and so too must this Broventure. Our travels have forged our buttocks into iron, impervious now to the long days in the saddle; our minds have been steeled against the lonely nature of navigating the back roads of America; and our road beards prevent us from stopping within 500 feet of an elementary school — talking to members of the opposite sex has been proven to be difficult as well.

Our bodies show that we have gone to Moab and back, and along the way we took in many of the breath-taking sights that the Southwest has to offer. We traded in our track leathers for some ADV gear, and tipped our toe into the off-roading waters — there is a reason this site is called Asphalt & Rubber, but this whole dirt thing is starting to look appealing as well.

Day One is in the bag, and as expected it was a long and brutal ride. Tim and I knew that the first leg of our journey was going to be one of our toughest — since both of us were keen to get into the motorcycling playground, that is also known as Utah, as quickly as possible.

We had hoped to leave Santa Barbara as early as possible, which meant 10am, as Tim had one last conference call with his work before he was officially on vacation. As we finished tying up all the loose ends though, 10am rapidly became noon, and we were already sweating under the cool coastal sunshine — this of course meant that it was already well into the 100’s further inland.

Though it wasn’t originally a part of our plan, Tim and I figured that we should begin this 2,000 mile quest with a proper commencement, and thus we elected to start this great journey on our old Sunday morning riding route: HWY 150 to Ojai, and then HWY 33 to Lockwood Valley. The ride was epic, as usual, though it put us even further behind in our schedule, and that meant even more time in the blistering sun.

The Asphalt & Rubber Bothan spies were hard at work over the weekend. Taking a break from finding ALL of the Easter Eggs in the A&R office, the Bothans did what they do best, and found the entry list to the AMA Mini Moto SX that’s going on next week in Las Vegas.

Sure enough in the paperwork was our favorite Ashland-based motorcycle company, which isn’t surprising since Brammo likes to go racing, but raises some eyebrows since you might recall the Mini Moto event is an off-road supercross-style race. Since a company doesn’t just decide to go racing on a whim, this surely must mean that Brammo has dirt bikes on the brain.

New Year’s Eve may not only be ushering in the year 2009, but also closing the door on two generations of American stunt jumping. Robbie Knievel, son of famed stunter Evel Knievel, says that his upcoming big jump over an artificial volcano is likely to be his last jump in the USA.

The Knievel has been studying the $25 million volcano newly refurbished outside the Mirage in Las Vegas for his next last stunt. Robbie will make the jump as part of a television special on New Year’s Eve.