Lorry4655 Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Hi there folks, My name's Lorry Gombos and I'm the founder of Outback Motortek, manufacturer and distributor of adventure motorcycle products. Eric has kindly offered me to introduce my business to the XL ADV forum users and offline lurkers. It's hard to squeeze Outback Motortek's history into a short story but I'll try and tell you guys how I ended up taking on this tough venture in this very saturated market. No need to go too far back in the time when I first began riding and what kind of bikes I've owned etc..Fast forward that and I found myself living in Taiwan with my wife teaching English on the daily basis and riding around the island as much as 40K in 3 years. Not a big deal unless you only own a small 150cc scooter. But it doesn't matter what you ride but rather where and how you ride it. Again, fast forward time to December 2012 and I caught myself staring at an oversized, outdated (communist!) Asia map. By this time we had known that we would leave Taiwan for Canada very soon but before doing so I wanted to visit my family and friends in Hungary. So, I was calculating distances, sizing up deserts, considering road of bones and the Pamir highway and asked my wife " Do you want to ride to Europe instead of flying??". She said "How long would it take?" I couldn't believe my ears as I totally expected a "are you insane?" response...I replied "3 weeks if we ship our bike to Vladivostok, Russia". I know, I kinda lied but it was always my dream to cross the Asian continent way before Charlie and Ewan did. Of course, they re-inspired me! Fast forward the time again, I was deep into organizing what I thought was a simple task: purchase a bike that is reliable, can carry two people and luggage across Asia. Not so simple. Long story short, I ended up giving up riding from Vladivostok and even to ship my bike to Mongolia (logistics reasons made it impossible or too costly). I had to settle for Kyrgyzstan. Not a big loss, on the contrary! I got to spend more time exploring the Pamir Highway and its surroundings. I had to reach out to my family and friends in Hungary to buy me a decent motorcycle due the extremely high Taiwanese foreign vehicle import tax. My final choice - 2004 Suzuki Vstrom 650 - would have cost me $10,000.00 appr. in Taiwan, meanwhile in Europe one could get it for $3500-4500. Here comes the story of Outback Motortek before you think I'm writing a ride report The Vstrom, my best friend ended up buying for me only had a set of Givi bars to make it adventure (?) worthy. Lucky me, my father had owned a metal fabricating company for 30 years and had a great facility, engineers and a handful of skilled workers to tackle any metal related task. Let's just call the company by its name, G&T Manufacturing Inc. which mostly known in the medical devices business in Europe and is a major supplier for a Dutch company. My father's business outfitted my bike with all kinds of farkles, like aluminum panniers, center stand, upper crash bar, tool box etc. We still had no intentions of selling and manufacturing all these. I just wanted to get the job done and do the ride of my life. After finally riding out of the Kyrgyz customs and headed towards the Chinese border and later south towards Tajikistan and Afghanistan, we began meeting other explorers from Europe and Australia going the other direction. We always greeted each other, exchanged information but most conversations were about comparing farkles...Most of them noticed that our gear was well-made and somewhat unique looking and they were wondering what brand was it... Finally after nearly 8 weeks and 14000kms on the road we got to Hungary and I was ready to sell the bike and fly to Canada. We took off all the products my dad's business made and sold it online separate from the bike. In no time! I had to remove the ads later because the phone didn't stop ringing... Just then it hit me that maybe....Why not join this small but constantly growing market?! So, back to the title whether Outback Motortek is just another accessories manufacturer? It perhaps is but hopefully with our passion for adventure riding, a fully equipped facility and a dedicated and experienced team behind us, we will mean business for the major ADV/Dual-Sport motorcycle manufacturers in the near future. www.OutbackMotortek.com 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted July 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 Hey XLADV folks, I've got some more quality content on what we do to our farkles in the great white north. Our motto is simply just: "Till the wheels fall off" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted October 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2015 Sad ending to a great partnership...Glad Kinga survived the crash but her Beemer got totaled in a head on collision. On the good note, the Outback Motortek farkles did their job to protect vital engine components. www.OutbackMotortek.com www.onherbike.com 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted December 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 News Alert! Simon and Lisa from www.2ridetheworld.com take killer straps from Outback Motortek. Veteran adventure riders, Simon and Lisa Thomas has had enough troubles with their old straps that kept breaking on them. These guys needed something really serious to get the job done and they weren't going to risk their precious cargo anymore. Watch the video below to see their new choice for ultimate adventure moto straps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgAKKNhgvxo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motochefarwi Posted January 10, 2016 My Rides (2) Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Yup, love my mondo straps too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Great to hear and so does Brokentooth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Well, this is some pretty exciting news. We're developing protective accessories for the new Honda Africa Twin (CRF1000L). Feel free to read my blog post with tons of specs on these hard parts, expected pricing, availability and perhaps complete a short survey if you want to be involved in the development. https://outbackmotortek.com/the-true-adventure-at-outback-motortek-honda-crf-1000-africa-twin-hard-parts/ And the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/59DHB52 Cheers, Lorry GombosFounder and ownerOutback Motortek 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted April 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2016 So, then on a beautiful spring day, I decided to crash test the Outback Motortek crash bars on my F800GS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaZl38h7OCo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted August 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 It's been a little while, since I last posted here. The past couple of months have been really busy: we began a new project to outfit the latest and greatest Honda Africa Twin 1000. If you feel like catching up on the development of the Africa Twin 1000 skid plate, crash bars and other accessories, then please read the following blog post (and see dozens and dozens of photos from behind the scene). https://outbackmotortek.com/the-true-adventure-at-outback-motortek-honda-crf-1000-africa-twin-hard-parts/ https://outbackmotortek.com/2016-honda-africa-twin-parts-development-sneak-peek/ https://outbackmotortek.com/honda-africa-twin-1000-hard-parts-sneak-peek-part-2/ https://outbackmotortek.com/2016-honda-africa-twin-dct-model-accessories-preview/ https://outbackmotortek.com/the-assembly-has-begun-2016-honda-africa-twin-crash-bars-and-skid-plate/ https://outbackmotortek.com/legend-returns-to-dakar-honda-africa-twin-1000/ Long story short: Outback Motortek has full inventory on Africa Twin 1000 skid plates, crash bars, luggage rack, DCT guard and more accessories to come soon. As of 1st of September, 2016 all order will be shipped from within the U.S. and until then from Pickering (Toronto), Ontario. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorry4655 Posted October 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2016 Only after three months of outfitting Africa Twins around the world, real-life test(imonials) have begun to show up on social media, including YouTube. The link below contains three crashes. Third one is just outrageous and could have ended really badly. https://outbackmotortek.com/africa-twin-1000-crashes-third-one-is-outrageous/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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