Oregon is an absolutely underrated state for awesome motorcycling. Outside of Portland you have canyon carving, an FIM road racing circuit, trail riding, and Instagrammable beach routes about an hour each way.
Also, it has an absolutely weird and sketchy motorcycle culture. Hidden within the ad creative cafe racer scene, you’ll find a contingent of hardcore fast dudes. Andy DiBrino is one such dude.
He’s an up-and-coming road racing local cutting his teeth in OMMRA and MotoAmerica, and he just turned 21. Someone greenlit putting Andy on his converted Honda dirtbike on some public roads, and then they got down up in the gnarness.
The supermoto is the Miata of the moto world. It shuns top speed conversations and big race tracks, but shines on public roads and smaller, more accessible tracks. Also, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as keeping up with one of those big, fast machines on your little Mia...I mean supermoto.
I was out on those same roads last weekend. I was not backing it in on the Sportster. This is a shame.
Trigger warning, this video will make you browse Craigslist for used Suzuki DR-Z400SMs.
Joseph Gustafson is a brand new contributor to Lanesplitter. His mouth is much faster than his riding acumen. He enjoys taking long rides on the road, short rides on the dirt, and finding new ways to use the term “voracious” in a sentence. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter as he butchers welding and words in the pursuit for hashtag glory.