Posted: 10/19/11
The Off-Road EXPO is held each year at the Pomona Fairplex located in sunny Southern California and has been the def-facto event for the off-road community for twelve years now. The "desert season" as we call it is upon us and everyone is getting restless and ready to enjoy the wide open desert! The Expo was started by Dirt Sports Magazine and recently acquired by Family Events, with this years show contining to deliver with yet another successful gathering, even in the "bubba-scrubb" of a "turn-down" economy. Even with the temperament of economy, aspirations and dreams are what fuel the off-road industry guided along with history and tradition. Maybe it's just the reality of us wanting to escape into the far corners of the desert.. but before we do, people want to mingle and talk shop and shops want us talking shop and so do the manufactures! So, we talk shop and then we hit the deserts and mountains with the Halloween weekend being the first "big" weekend for the south-western portion of the United States.
I too have my dreams and for the last couple of years I personally have had my eyes out for anything relating to the “overland adventure” scene. Some say this is an emerging scene, and while I am a big campaigner for it, I just say I’m just getting old enough for it to be on my radar. I have been labeled a Chameleon as I have gone from Ivan Stewart fan with a Toyota desert pre-runner with wide front end and fenders, to rally cars, to adventure bikes and now overland style with a 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser. Again, age... yes, I have actually seen Ivan Stewart race both in the stadium and in the desert for age identification.
What dreams are made of:
Camburg builds awesome rigs and putting it on display in this stripped to the bones fashion was super cool!
The opposite of baller is BUDGET and all of my projects have had a heavy emphasis on .99 cents and under portion of the budget spectrum! “What can we get for sixty three cents!?” So I fit right in there with the nominal mainstream of budget of most fender lizards, but we all have a dream! The EXPO is a great place to “dream” for a day or two about your next project while studying in detail the big guns. The off-road scene or industry, how ever you look at it, is unique. The people will dream for a day... then go home and start cutting, notching, bending, shaping and welding dreams together into what reality is... far from what was just seen at the show. BUT, its a learning process that everyone has to go through! Well, not everyone, just those on budgetary confinement. I did my learning process! Everyone has that first truck and passing tech inspection usually requires tow-straps and flat bed trucks with a few trips back and forth to the garage for a bit of re-sketching exercise on the cardboard, napkin, notepad, wall or just get after it and cut and jig some new drawn over mandrel.
CCB's - Credit Card Ballers just buy it and wad it up within two miles as they have never driven thirty-two inches of travel at 21% interest rate.
This year with the rising interest of overlanding, Off-Road Expo hosted the guys from Overland Journal and friends to come out and display. So, RTT’s - Roof Top Tents abound and I was in heaven! Yes, I have dreams of preparing my 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser into an overland adventure machine, not a rock crawler and not a desert race support rig shod with 37" leftover Projects. Yes, overlanding has a whole "other" set of principles.
On another “adventure front,” we posted on our Axial FaceBook page for our fans attending OffRoad EXPO to track the official Axial rigs on display in various booths. [see original post - link] We had specific placement and we knew others would have rigs as well, but we wanted to see if someone would list the correct companies. These chosen companies came about as a buddy of ours put some time together to make some custom graphics for Axial Wraiths and SCX10. Our buddy Cody Waggoner of Laser Cutting IPE made these cools stands for as well, so check these out!
Wilwood Brakes
Raceline Wheels
Area-BFE
Walker Evans Racing
AOE: American Overland Expedition
ICON Vehicle Dynamics
And last but not least - OVERLAND JOURNAL!
While we only got five examples done, there are a few more to come with another notable show around the corner.
Winner of the FaceBook Expo Adventure: Daniel T. Noda
We sent him a nice little package for his time and efforts and just for having a little fun with us!
I also got to meet John Herrick, editor/publisher of CRAWL Magazine as well!
Also on the highlights list was meeting Del Albright of the BlueRibbon Coalition.
Del is on the right and left is Chris Collard of Overland Journal.
Everyday Del is out there spreading the word about land use and this is a major topic for those of us - ANYONE who enjoys the great outdoors of off-roading! I am not going to preach to you nor ask you to join a cult or political party. BUT, what I will ask you to do is - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and form your OWN OPINION about what is really going on!
What you need to know about Del Albright is that while he is of wise nature "age," he has gone to great lengths to communicate at the speed youth, to the younger folks with 1:1 steering wheels in hands. Albright has made a full adoption of the digital & social medium's of communication. While the age-old ink on paper is still a staple, Del has also adopted the use of electronic blogging and FaceBook connectivity to spread the message about "Land Use, Access, Rubicon Trail and Volunteer Training!" So please visit his site www.delalbright.com and also like him on his FaceBook page too.
If all you do for now is "like" stay in touch with Del on his Facebook page and just start thinking...
All of the images from 2011 Off-Road EXPO Viewed in a SLIDESHOW::
The previous Off-Road Expo's I have attended:
2010 EXPO
2009 EXPO
2007 Impact EXPO - Vegas
2006 EXPO
While your out there in cyberspace; stay in tune with us via our FB page. https://www.facebook.com/axialinc
