Attending the festival wasn't in the diary for us this year, but after speaking with Neil Hawker he told us that we should be there to drum up support and sponsorship. So we put a shout out on social media to see if anyone would be up for having the rally bike on their stand. Thinking we could be there with bike as well, to meet people with interest in the project. Jason Markos (@hp2mav) got in touch pretty much straight away and said he could have a chat with the Mosko Moto crew to see if they'd be up for it. Within the hour, they came back to him and were more than up for it.
We decided to get some custom made graphics done for the bike, as it was going to be on stand at the show. We went to Ricky and his team at Monsters of Dirt who design custom graphics for pretty much any bike, as well as all sorts of other printing services. The brief was; We want to show potential sponsors what the bike would look like stickered up, with some "advertise here" type styling. We also wanted out Linktree QR code on it. They got the design bang on, literally the first draft was printed and put on the bike.
So with the bike looking good and with the camper loaded up, we rolled out to Ragley Hall where the festival is held.
Jason introduced us to Roel and his Mosko Moto team when we pulled up. They are brilliant bunch of people, very welcoming and a really good laugh. The vibe on the stand was relaxed and chilled all weekend. For anyone that hasn't seen the Mosko products, head over to their website and check it out www.moskomoto.eu - They do riding gear, soft luggage and the accessories that are needed for adventure riding. We mounted up their Reckless 10L system on the back of the rally bike. It's a simple, quick luggage system that just clips on and looks really cool. The feel and look of all their products is top quality, it's clearly designed and tested by riders that need this kit to work and look good.
Within the Mosko Moto crew was Edd, he forms Motohansa UK and had his tools on show with Mosko. If you don't already know this company, they make nice compact tool rolls as well as individual tools needed for adventure bikes such as BMW & KTMs. We hadn't put two and two together, these are also the same tool rolls we use at Off Road Skills! Such a neat set up, especially for us using the BMW 1250 specific tool rolls. We pulled the carbon tool box out of the rally bike and removed the tool bag that KTM supply from the factory, between us and Edd we've come up with a specific tool list for the rally bike which we're going to put together and test in Rallye Du Maroc.
Whilst stood on the stand, we had loads of interest in the rally bike. This also sparked up conversations about the Dakar 2025 project along with potential sponosorship. It was also really cool to meet new people and to see the people that we've already met through riding and the motorcycle industry.
We did have a walk around the show, looking at the shiny bikes and the not so shiny bikes that had been out playing in the mud. The BMW team were there along with the Off Road Skills team as well. They had the fleet of bikes showing people around the route set up for ABR Festival. It was good to see the usual crew that we see at all the big events.
Another very positive outcome from the show was meeting Peter and Lee from Helite UK. They have an FIM approved airbag vest, these are manditory for Rallye Du Marroc and Dakar. We won't say too much at this point because we're planning on doing a seperate Blog about this subject very soon!
Thanks to everyone that came to speak to us and showing your support. Also to everyone that bought merch from us, Henry aka @adv_compressed did a great job of selling the hats for us!
So that's pretty much it, the ABR Festival cherry has been popped! We had a great time, met some awesome people and will be going back next year for sure!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers
Carl & Craig
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