If you don’t already know, you’re probably wondering: What is a VOX? It’s tough to describe in words; in reality it can only be experienced. In fact it will be second in fun and excitement only to the experience of picking up your new upfitted van from Vandoit! VOX stands for Vandoit Owners Experience. It is a group of Vandoit owners (and employees) getting together for a fun-filled multi-day outdoor experience.

So far there have been eight officially organized VOX events. When I say organized, I use the term loosely. While there are definitely some organized components, each VOX is flexible and unique. Each one takes on its own personality. These events are held at various geographic locations across the United States to provide the opportunity for all van owners to consider attending. When a VOX is organized, invitations to attend are posted on the Vandoit Owners and Future Owners Facebook group.  

Each Fall, One Of The Year’s VOX Events Is Held In Moab, UT

This past October for example, a group of Vandoit owners met in Moab and experienced a variety of fun events, including mountain biking, hiking (including hikes at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks), rock climbing, exploring the town of Moab and the surrounding area, flying drones, sharing a meal, and just relaxing. Aside from providing a bit of swag, Vandoit corporate had a meal catered into the remote campsite for the event. The meal was deliciously prepared onsite and was a tremendous experience for all those present.

Each evening most of the owners gathered around a van or group of vans and experienced a bonfire while sharing many laughs and adventures. Vandoit gatherings are also very educational. We learn from each other about various Vandoit components in the vans. Maybe you have a question about how something works or a question about that component you’ve been thinking about upgrading. Most likely you will not only get your questions answered at a VOX but will probably get to see the latest Vandoit components and gadgets first hand and up close. 

The Mother Of All VOX Experiences

The “mother of all VOX experiences” was the spring of 2022 which was held in Bentonville, AR. It was close enough to Blue Springs, MO that a majority of Vandoit employees were able to attend alongside many Vandoit owners from across the United States. The mixture of people and fun events definitely reminded me that all owners are part of the Vandoit family. It was a great experience to see some of the earliest vans and a couple that were just off the build-line.

Seeing the progress that Vandoit has made the past few years in their upbuilding was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Vandoit corporate provided several meals, entertainment, portable showers, restrooms, swag and a fun brewery experience to name a few things. We will be experiencing another VOX this coming spring, again in Bentonville. From what I’ve heard, it promises to be even better than the one last year. 

If you think that purchasing a Vandoit is simply owning a great van, you need to take the next step and experience one or more VOX events. You will have great outdoors fun, see all the latest in Vandoit technology, and make life-long friends. You will also learn just how much Vandoit values its owner-based customers and considers all of us as part of the larger Vandoit family.

See you at the next VOX! – Lana & Dennis McLaughlin

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!

[insert link: https://vandoit.com/contact-us/]

In early June, the fifth Van Owners’ Experience (VOX#5) was held in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

Vandoit Owner’s Experience (VOX) events are a gathering of Vandoit van owners, organized through the Vandoit Owners and Future Owners group on Facebook.  The sole purpose of VOX is for Vandoit owners to share the love of their vans and the adventure lifestyle that comes along with them.  Over 40 vans (and a couple of tents) from as far away as Washington state gathered to camp together for 5 days at the Applegate Property, adjacent to the Applegate Trail.  Vandoit owners Kurt Schuler and Stephanie Kelly planned VOX#5.  Vandoit and Visit Bentonville were privileged to help host this event. Staff from both organizations got to join in on the fun!  

Because Bentonville is about a 4-hour drive away from the Vandoit headquarters in Blue Springs, Missouri, this VOX kicked off differently from past owner gatherings: With a factory tour and lunch at Vandoit!  On the morning of Wednesday, June 1, a number of owners and their families got to see the van build process from start to finish. They also took a peek at some newly released components and even picked up some Vandoit swag.  Owners from around the country chatted over lunch. Shortly after they departed in a caravan from Blue Springs south to Bentonville.

The Vandoit Owners Began Their Caravan To Bentonville

Vans began arriving at the Applegate Property on Wednesday afternoon, followed by the caravan from Vandoit. Upon arrival, owners began setting up awnings, chairs, cooking implements, and other van setups. Following setup, a group set out for a group ride at the Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, just a short ride away from the campsite.  The following morning, Vandoit provided coffee at the campsite before everyone took off to explore Bentonville for the day.  Shortly after, owners ventured out to the hiking and biking trails. Others visited museums and took part in other outdoor activities like kayaking and sightseeing. Later that evening, Local [moh-tiv] pulled their food truck up to the campsite. They served delicious pork tacos and beer braised brats. It was the perfect meal to end a perfect day.

Friday was another full day of exploring the Bentonville area–and beyond!  Some Vandoit owners visited historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and the Buffalo National River.  In the afternoon, everyone gathered back in town at Bentonville Brewing Company for a van owners’ happy hour.  The brewery’s one-of-a-kind beers and cocktails–along with a dog park, kid-friendly outdoor area, and unique local food trucks–made for the perfect social atmosphere.

Saturday morning kicked off with more coffee served by Vandoit. Owners took part in adventures like the Women of Oz Ride and beginner’s mountain biking clinic.  In the evening, Whole Hog Cafe Barbecue catered a mouth-watering dinner at the Applegate Property, followed by the Van Owners’ Talent Show.  The show featured everything from singer-songwriter Charlotte Morris’ original music, to phenomenal piano pieces performed by some talented Vandoit kids, to hula-hooping, to a little stand-up comedy and a magic show, finished off with a whole lot of karaoke.  The talent show had everyone laughing, smiling, and singing along!

At the end of the night, Vandoit gave out awards for various van achievements:

VOX5 was a memorable opportunity for van owners to make new friendships and renew existing ones. There was plenty of sharing of creative ideas on outfitting and decorating vans.  Some owners even collaborated with one another to install an awning, set up ground fold-out solar panels, and shared ideas on getting the most out of the Mastervolt lithium battery system.
Make plans to join the next VOX6, Return to Moab, in October 2022!

When you think of gravel cycling, do you think of inclusivity for athletes of all races, genders, and backgrounds?

The creators of the Ned Gravel Race do–and have made it their aim to be the world’s most inclusive bike race. On July 9, 2022, Vandoit was proud to be one of an elite group of sponsors for the second annual Ned Gravel Race in Nederland, Colorado. Nederland is one of the most beautiful venues Vandoit has ever visited.  “We believe everyone should feel welcomed to participate, regardless of experience, gender, race or sexual identity/orientation,” race organizers share on the event’s website.  To that end, the race offers equal prize money for women and men, women-led and women-only biking clinics, and coaching and gear for select athletes of color. 

In an interview with Denver Life Magazine, race creator Gavin Coombs expressed the race’s vision: “Cycling has traditionally not been a welcoming and inclusive space. We believe that gravel riding is for everyone and that the more people on bikes, the better. So, we set out, in our small way, to start to move the needle in terms of creating a space where everyone, and we mean EVERYONE, feels welcome.” 

Ned Gravel Race Supports Many Great Charitable Causes

Ned Gravel is put on by Peak to Peak Endurance, a one-stop shop for cycling coaching, retreats, and races. The event benefits three charities close to Ned’s heart. These charities are the Ride for Racial Justice, a nonprofit that ensures BIPOC cyclists have access to resources, education, and community; The Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease; and the Nederland Area Trail Organization, an all-volunteer crew of trail builders and advocates.

The Ned Gravel race is set up on 4 courses: The Silver Course (20 miles), the Gold Course (39 miles), the Tungsten Course (60 miles), and the Ultra (107 miles).  Due to its popularity, the Ultra course even requires a lottery system to select participants! There are race categories for women, men, and non-binary participants.  The majority of the race is above 8,000 feet. Riders had to be acclimated to the altitude and be prepared for the area’s unpredictable weather conditions.  These videos from the 2021 race give you a great idea of what this one-of-a-kind race experience is like:

Racers’ friends and families had plenty to do while riders were out on the courses. During the race and expo event featured music, food, and games. The expo also included local artists and creators.  Everyone got a taste of the all-are-welcome hippie vibe that Nederland and the Ned Gravel offer.  

A Vandoit Is The Ultimate Cycling Van

At the race expo, Vandoit Trade Show Rep Andy Brown showcased a LIV model van equipped for all of a cyclist’s needs. Vandoit featured Bike fork mounts, a bike repair arm, and tool box. These items were all mounted to the van’s gear slide for easy storage and access to all cycling equipment.  The gear slide also featured custom storage drawers for additional biking accessories. This makes bike maintenance and repair even easier. Hooks below the hydraulic bed are the perfect spot to hang helmets after a hard day’s riding. 

This adventure van is built on the Ford Transit T350 high-roof with ecoboost motor and all-wheel drive. It is also complete with Quigley Motor Company’s new lift kit. The Quigley lift kit is designed for 2020 & newer Ford Transits. The Quigley lift provides a 2-inch specialty lift that maintains factory angles on the Transit’s driveline.  Watch Vandoit’s Lead Engineer, Nick Eisenbarth, walk through some of these lift and suspension upgrades in this video: