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In the Pacific Northwest, we have access to some incredibly talented motorcycle craftsmen, whether it’s Darryl VanNieuwenhuise’s Cyclops Adventure lights, Alex Marten’s Konflict Suspension or Alex Guth of Alyxmoto. OK, you might ask, who is Alex Guth? Well, Alex is a master motorcycle mechanic who moved here from Germany in the late 90s. He has 25 years of experience working on BMW motorcycles, and for a time was the shop manager of SSBMW. But now he’s in his own shop, and he’s expanding into more of the adventure market like KTM and our Yamaha Super Tenere. I know one BMW GS owner in particular who travels all the way from Alberta Canada just to get his bike worked on by Alex. Alyxmoto is where world travelers like Simon and Lisa Thomas of www.2ridetheworld.com stop to get their bikes worked on. Alex rebuilt Lisa’s older F-650GS from the ground up (after 200+K miles on a single cylinder; it needed it), and when Simon’s 1150GS’s final drive exploded (after 150K miles) on a Seattle freeway at 60MPH, Alex had him back on the road in minimal time, so the couple could get to a presentation in Boise Idaho. Helge Pedersen’s www.globeriders.com tour members’ bikes get tuned up here before getting packed in the container to head out on their globetrotting journeys. The roomy new shop has multiple lifts and tire changing capabilities. The shop was just finished last weekend, so Alex is still moving in and getting everything settled. He can do just about anything, not that our Yamahas need much done to them other than regular servicing I had Alex do a simple tune up of new spark plugs, air filter, wheel bearings, rear brake disk and new tires (Mitas MC-60’s). I only do my own oil changes, because that’s about the limit of my mechanical patience, and a limitation of not having an actual garage at my house. Alex is still working on getting a steady supply of Yamaha parts, so I showed up with all the parts and had him install them. It’s great to have Alex available in the area. I know several of our members have spouses that ride BMWs (mine included: Elsa gets her G-650GS low serviced by Alex), and Alyxmoto can be everyone’s one-stop shop. Alex is the right guy with the know-how to get you set up for a long journey or just your daily commute, so give him a call if you need anything done. He really knows his stuff! Web: www.alyxmoto.com Shop Location: 17829 77th St E, Bonney Lake WA 98391 Phone: 503-270-7088

I think I'm the resident JL cheerleader I first took his class in Nov of 2011 after having bought my GSA about eight months earlier. I had a good time at his class and assumed I learned a lot but honestly, I came away kind of scratching my head whether it was worth the investment. That didn't last long though, as each time I went out after that my riding got better and better and better. People I ride with would tell me "man, your riding has gotten a lot better!" So it was like I was just sort of putting along and then after his class my riding shot up to a new level. Just this past year I started seeing my riding kind of like my golf game. The best round I ever played was an 82 and chances are I was never going to beat that unless I 1: played more golf and 2: took lessons. So I went back this past October for his class (about three years later) and again, learned quite a bit, got rid of some bad habits, learned some new things. Jimmy is truly a master in every sense of that word. It's hard for an outsider to the world of off road motorsports to really grasp just how much this guy has accomplished. And not to put him on some kind of pedestal, because he's also just a regular guy with as many faults as any of us I'm sure, but he clearly knows what he's doing. He understands the fundamentals of riding and motorcycles so deeply that it's astonishing. Motorcycle mfg's will bring him in to talk about bikes and he ends up sometimes being the one to school their own engineers on topics that are typically their area of expertise. He will execute some amazing feat of mastery like riding a whoop section on the rear wheel or go up a steep cliff like a mountain goat and then launch himself off the top and then stop on a dime like a trials rider. Then, he'll break all that down into each component part and teach the rider each of those steps and how they combine to let him do something like that. And don't think he's just a small bike expert. He rides the GSA as well as a KTM 1190 E during class and teaches in ways extremely big-bike specific. His classes are typically 12-15 in size and it's him, his wife Heather and at least two of his seasoned instructors. They do serve lunch and dinner and well and affordable accommodations are available all over Pahrump. It's only a four hour ride for me, so not really all that far. There are a lot of other good places to learn offroad skills like RawHyde, EarthRiders, MSF dirt course, BMW Performance Center, Honda's school, etc... You'll most likely get your money's worth at all of them but I haven't heard as much universal praise for them as I have Jimmy's class. Just getting training is the best farkle you can ever buy. Learning how to ride your bike safely and competently opens up a whole new world. It's very satisfying to look out over a landscape and have confidence that whatever's out there that you can get through it with minimum effort.

I've not done an ADV M/C class, but I did do the Shane Watts DirtWise class when I lived in Colorado. What I learned was that while I've been able to accomplish a lot being self taught, I also had some bad habits that a pro can point out and correct. So, I applaud you getting her into some training. It simply makes off-road riding more enjoyable and safer. It surely is amazing what some of these pros can do with a bike, things that just seem impossible. I know watching Shane ride was so humbling and I've seen pix of JL doing similarly amazing things on BIG bikes. Even if that's not the goal, it does show how capable the bikes are, so I suspect that some limits we see are only in our minds (and current skill set). Have fun where ever you go and report back on how it went.