On The Pegs September 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 9 | Page 115

On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 9 - September 2019
115
TO have a dealership or reliable mechanic go through it with a fine-tooth comb.
The bike will undergo incredible stress during the course of the event and receive
minimal maintenance at best.
If you really don’t want to buy or send one of your own bikes, you do have the
option of renting a bike for the event. The benefits of renting a bike are that you
have slightly less to worry about from a logistical standpoint, you get to trash
someone else’s new machine, and don’t have to come up with all the money
needed to buy a motorcycle yourself. Additionally, the companies renting bikes
usually have some parts support there, so you don’t have to worry about bringing
every spare part that you could possibly need. The major disadvantage is that the
price of a rental machine is really high – I seem to remember it being one-third to
one-half the cost of buying a new bike! You’re also limited in what you can rent –
mostly just the European brands like KTM, Husky, GasGas and Beta, and those can
change year-to-year as well. Unless you ride your bikes bone-stock, you’ll still have
to bring your suspension and any other goodies or aftermarket parts you’ll need
to be comfortable.
Shipping your crate
If you are shipping a bike, you get a space for a full-size crate. If you rent, you get
space for a half-size crate. Either way, you build or buy the crate yourself (and if it
isn’t to spec, God help you) and have to have it sitting in Whitehouse, Ohio by a
specified date. You are responsible for the costs associated with getting the crate
to Ohio. Whether you buy or build, remember this is going to have to hold up to
international travel, will probably have other crates sitting on top of it, and needs
to be able to protect your bike and have some kind of interior design to keep ev-
erything from bouncing around and getting banged up. When your crate arrives
in Whitehouse, it sits with the other crates until loading day. The Mastin Family,
Dave Chamberlain, Paul Bucher and usually Jeff Fredette will spend at least a day
and sometimes longer, wedging everything into the AMA’s 40-ft shipping contain-
er like a giant horizontal game of Tetris. Since I live relatively close by, I would usu-
ally drive my crate over and help with Container Day. It’s truly a massive undertak-
ing, and the first thing you should do when you get to the event is to thank them
for all of their hard work. Although many riders complain about the container fee
charged by the AMA, we all get a better deal by shipping collectively, and it would
be a logistical nightmare trying to make the shipping arrangements on your own.