JLR Tours With Johnny Campbell
Cycle News Staff | February 8, 2022
Jimmy Lewis Racing and Johnny Campbell have teamed up for their first two-day desert riding tour of 2022 scheduled for February 14-15.
Ride with JLR Tours and Johnny Campbell in a Valentine’s Day adventure.
You might remember Cycle News attended this same ride experience in 2021 as we real-world tested the Honda CRF450RL dual sport. Well, we can tell you this is a ride you don’t want to miss.
How often will you have the chance to ride with living legends like Campbell and Lewis, in their championship-earning racing, training and proving grounds? During our ride we hit massive stretches of wide-open Nevada desert, fun, rolling two-track links between historic mining boom and bust towns, and we even dipped into some of Lewis’ rally navigation routes he’s used in training top Dakar Rally competitors. The “walking in the footsteps” of Dakar Champion Ricky Brabec or rally racer and MX star Andrew Short factor here is totally worth it.
Speaking of being there and doing that, Johnny Campbell is a fantastic guide with an uncanny ability to tell you exactly which corner of which dirt road he was racing around at a race back in the day. Expect to really ride on this tour, but at an intermediate pace/skill level. There won’t be anything over-the-top technical, but you should be able to appropriately handle a motorcycle in the desert and that means the rocks, angry shrubbery and sandy conditions that come with it. You’re looking at right around 100 miles per day, so come ready to take in some serious scenery and make sure you have the fuel capacity. If you don’t, running out of gas with Johnny Campbell is also pretty fun, too. If you have any doubts in your machinery, you can rent a ride from JLR.
Lodging is old-school Nevada hotel, complete with the decor and charm you should expect and embrace. Meals are a mix of bountiful trailside home-style cooking and the occasional snack stop. You won’t go hungry. Plenty of road-side fuel, snacks and photo-ops will be had, as well.
So, if you don’t have Valentine’s Day plans, or want to change them to riding dirt bikes, this is a good way to go. You can reach out directly to Jimmy Lewis Racing by emailing jimmy@jimmylewisoffroad.com CN
