October 2022

NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) is a community of mountain bikers. They create epic riding experiences, preserve open space, and guide the future of mountain biking in New England.

Thirty-one chapters comprise NEMBA throughout New England. There are over 7,000 members. Its mission is to promote the best mountain biking offers, steward the trail system, and recreate and preserve open space.  

NEMBA began in the late 80s when political groups wanted to ban mounting biking in Middlesex Fells Reservation and Blue Hills. As a result, there would not be any space for mountain biking in the region without these two locations.

A public meeting was held, which would decide the fate of these areas.  At that event, NEMBA could trace its roots due to the actions of Heidi Davis. Heidi and her friends attended the meeting, where she got up to speak, representing the New England Mountain Bike Association (which didn’t yet exist).  

After she spoke, several people wanted to join, and NEMBA was born. Davis’s one courageous action made a lasting difference.

NEMBAfest 2022

NEMBAfest took place in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, on August 5-7, 2022. NEMBAfest is NEMBA’s largest annual fundraiser for all ages. It’s a giant 3-day party with lots of riding, clinics, music, movies, food, and beer.

It’s only fitting that this year’s NEMBAfest held the first ever Women’s Summit. The summit’s purpose is to encourage women to ride and provide a community of support and skill instruction.  

The Summit featured guest speaker Kristin Motely, an endurance racer for Bicycle Express Racing. You can find her on Instagram and at https://www.rootedvermont.com.

NEMBAfest offered everything a mountain biker could hope for. It included guided rides, skills clinics, entertainment each evening, and plenty of vendors, food, and beer to enjoy.  

This year’s NEMBAfest hosted the premier of Esperanto, which celebrated the universal language mountain biking has created across so many cultures.  

2022 was the first year back for NEMBAfest after the COVID pandemic began and its first year at a new location. They held the event near Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort and drew over 1,300 participants.  

Overnight campers set up camp here and had the option to ride a couple of miles down the road to the event or take advantage of the shuttle service. On-site amenities included several restaurants, a golf course, an anti-gravity complex, and also live music Friday and Saturday nights.

The skills clinics and group rides were the event’s big draws. These sold out well before the event, much to the disappointment of many.  

Luckily, Vandoit was fortunate to be located at the ride and clinic site.  

It was awe-inspiring to watch the jumping clinic, for instance, and witness the progression of riders’ jump heights in such a short time. Volunteers subsequently ran these clinics, and their professionalism and enthusiasm were very impressive.  

Vandoit Sponsors NEMBAfest

Vandoit was a vendor sponsor, so we provided a financial donation and items for the gift bags.  

We loved that several current owners and soon-to-be-owners stopped by the van to say hello. Although, Vandoit was not known to everyone and many were intrigued. They just had to stop by when they saw the sticker in the gift bag.

The most common response to seeing a Vandoit for the first time was, “this is wicked!”  

We were the only van company at this event, showcasing a 2021 high roof LIV model with numerous features, including Backwoods Bumpers, QLift, KO2 tires, Mastervolt Lithium Ion batteries, and DC powered air conditioner, to name a few. 

Sponsors for NEMBAfest included LL Bean, Pedros (thank you for the bike wash station!), REI Coop, Spot Insurance, Acorn Engineering and Carrabassett Coffee Company (great cold brew!). Vendor sponsor donations came from Vandoit, Bull Moose, Kuat, Wicked Girl Adaptive Sports Partners, and many more.

Vendor sponsors were also very generous with donations for the raffle items. As a result, many people won raffles. Proceeds are funding NEMBA’s Signature Trail Grant program to forward its mission of Trail Advocacy & Community.  

Come see my Vandoit and me at another upcoming bike race or trade show!

The 2022 Oshkosh EAA AirVenture Air Show is “the largest annual gathering of aircraft and aviation enthusiasts” and has new Vandoit fans, too!  

What is AirVenture?

During the week of July 23-31, 2022, fans got to enjoy aircraft “neighborhoods”, The neighborhoods on the airfield showcased everything from homebuilt aircraft to seaplanes, twice-daily aerobatic air shows, a nightly fly-in theater, and flights in a MASH helicopter or World War II-era bomber.  

The nighttime air shows included fireworks, and there was a space to watch remote control aircraft or fly your own drone!  Daily workshops helped attendees grow their aircraft-building skills. The KidVenture area gave the littlest aviation enthusiasts the chance to build their own wooden planes. 

The AirVenture Air Show undertook what they call the One-Week Wonder. This is the building of a single aircraft by a team of volunteers throughout the week of the show.  More than 650,000 guests from 92 different countries and a record number of aircraft were in attendance – along with one remarkable campervan.

Vandoit at AirVenture

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Air Show has been running for over 30 years. This was only the second year Vandoit was among 839 vendors at the world’s largest air show, and Vandoit was the only campervan brand in the exhibition.  

Vandoit Trade Show Rep Andy Brown brought a Vandoit DO model with a roofnest tent mounted on top. It drew lots of visitors looking for earthbound adventures, including Major Michelle “MACE” Curran, the second female lead solo Thunderbird Pilot.  Curran shared that she would like to make a Vandoit her next vehicle purchase. 

Other visitors commented on the van’s great use of space and how open the interior felt.  “I love the way you can move things around,” one van enthusiast said about the new galley and storage modules.  “Look at that electrical panel. I would show it off, too!” exclaimed another.

Why You Should Come To Oshkosh Next Summer 

Brown described the AirVenture atmosphere this way:  “It is truly impossible to convey the magnitude of the event. Thousands of private aircraft are spread out camper-style on the tarmac, most with tents under their wings. The airfield was surrounded for miles by tens of thousands of tents and campers of all types.

The event is pretty much non-stop airshows in the afternoon. Including everything from bi-planes to the Air Force Thunderbirds and massive cargo planes doing flyovers. There are even mock bombing runs and dog fights. 

Everyone in the aircraft industry has an exhibit, from Boeing, Garmin, Beechcraft, Cessna, Piper, and anyone else who builds aircraft. Did you know that one of the Walton family member (the founders of Wal-Mart) builds carbon fiber planes in Bentonville (Wal-Mart headquarters)? It’s like the LA auto show, only bigger and for aircraft! 

Vendors show up to sell salvage aircraft parts and anything related to flying. There is constant activity and noise. I met people from a dozen different countries, including lots of Australians and South Africans. The air show has a really positive vibe. Families and kids were excited about the air show, getting to tour a massive cargo plane, and watching a presentation on building a plane.”

Recap video: https://fb.watch/eJalKHrdCW/

Event photo gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eaaairventureoshkosh/albums/72177720300686785

At first glance, showing a campervan at AirVenture might seem a little out of place, but Vandoit has found that the air show community shares our sense of adventure, just in a vehicle that happens to be airborne.  Vandoit is privileged to be part of an event that brings together so many people of diverse backgrounds with a shared sense of adventure.

See a Vandoit at one of our next events!

When you think of multi-day cycling races, what comes to mind?  Yellow jerseys, winding Alpine switchbacks, and the French countryside? Or cornfields, nightly concerts, and roadside dunk tanks?

RAGBRAI can be similar to races like the Tour de France…but distinct differences exist.

The 49th annual RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) took place July 23-30, 2022.  Over seven days, a total of 40,000 cyclists (and a few inline skaters) traveled from Sergeant Bluff to Lansing, Iowa. This number of participants matched pre-covid editions.

Presented by Tipico Sportsbook, this iconic cycling event gives bikers from across the country the chance to experience Iowa from a unique perspective.  “There’s no better way to see a land and its people than on foot or bike,” said bike mechanic and RAGBRAI XLIX participant Brent Borgmeister of Chicago.  

The ride winds west to east across Iowa’s cornfields and soybean crops, stopping in a small town each night to experience genuine Iowa hospitality.  The organizers dedicated this year’s ride to John Karras, co-founder of RAGBRAI, who passed away in November 2021.

RAGBRAI is far more than your typical organized bike ride.

Like the Tour de France, cyclists complete the ride in daily stages. Unlike the famous French race, cyclists frequently stop for beer, homemade pies, and digging for fossils. RAGBRAI is less of a bike race and more of a carnival-meets-happy-hour.

Here’s a glimpse of the rural roadside atmosphere: One Iowa farmer offered lunch to riders in hopes of collecting donations for his church.  The trailside attraction expanded as he invited a local school district to hold a dunk tank fundraiser for its athletic programs. 

Soon a lemonade stand, a petting zoo, and a giant bull added to the fun, and an ask-a-farmer booth helped satisfy riders’ curiosity about the verdant landscape through which they’d spent the day pedaling.

At the end of the 454.1-mile ride, many participants dip their bikes in the Mississippi River for the perfect end-of-race photo op: 

Video: https://fb.watch/eDPIvkL0Cf/

Ok, so it’s nothing like the Tour de France.

The RAGBRAI vendor expo takes place the afternoon and evening before the ride begins in Sergeant Bluff. 

Vandoit was one of more than 80 vendors at this gathering that included a lineup of live music and the Tipico Sportsbook Fun Zone, where visitors could test their skills in baseball, football, basketball, and boxing challenges.  

Vandoit Co-Founder Brent Kline and his family showcased a DO model Vandoit van at the expo that featured every storage solution imaginable. 

Visitors adored the bungee cords stretched across ceiling sections and the cargo net under the bed platform. Baskets hung on the wall framing, and MOLLE panels (that also served as cabinet doors) created numerous attachment points for bike gear and gadgets.

Vandoit displayed a set of new galley storage modules in the van. They provided organization for the water system and drawer storage. They also served as a durable work surface, accommodating a twin-sized bed when not in use. This modular storage had campervan fans talking nonstop about the storage-oriented setup.

Ready to design your storage-to-the-gills camper van?  Reach out to a Van Guru today!

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