_{TLDR: KTM 500 EXC-F review | Tom Gosselin and the BMW MOA | Blind Monkey Racing}

Hey riders,

I found Samantha (featured in this issue) by random, she liked one of my stories online and I noticed her racing rig in the profile picture and a story was born. There was no executive review, long conversation, or application - I saw her story and was curious.

Thats literally the point of this whole endeavor, I want to tell the cool stories out there on the road that deserve the attention. If you know someone, as small as their story might be, I would love to hear them. Lets make this the living legacy of the motorcycle culture we know and love.

Happy reading!

-Zach

Publisher of American Moto Co.

Tom mentions a garage full of projects further down this issue, which got me thinking about the bikes we all talk ourselves into. The 500 EXC-F is the one that keeps coming up. It is not really a dual sport, it is an enduro race bike with the legal minimum bolted to it, and at 255 pounds that is exactly the point. Before you go shopping, know that the odometer means nothing and the hours mean everything…Read more

Twenty years in the bicycle industry before he ever threw a leg over a motorcycle. Then a hardtail Sportster built in thirty days on fifteen hundred bucks, a resurrected KLR ridden 2,500 miles three weeks after he finished it, and somehow a job helping the BMW MOA put on the custom show at Barber. He still tells me he has imposter syndrome…Read more

Samantha was born legally blind. She spends her weekends thrown across a sidecar platform at ninety miles an hour, running on memorized brake points and the feel of her husband sliding his weight over to warn her a corner is coming. There is no prize money in any of it. As she puts it, they literally just race for a piece of plastic…Read more

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– The American Moto Co. Team