DamTour 2009 : The best "dam" motorcycle event in the Northwest    

Welcome to some 2008 DamTour Stats . . .

Looking through the 2008 season, we find a few interesting stats and land marks . . .

This was our first year taking registrations on-line and we had a total "106" registered riders. This new feature has really changed the dynamics of where are registered riders come from. Last year we had a fairly even mix of Oregon and Washington riders, but this year, 2008, it all changed and opened up a huge arena. This year we registered "45" riders from Oregon ( one less than 2007), "56" riders from Washington, "3" from Canada and "2" riders from Nevada. While "thirty" riders did not send in any ride reports, I do know some did ride and even went to a few dams, they just didn't send them in. Saying that, we did have "72" of our riders on the charts with at least one dam. In 2006 we only had "59" riders total, which grew to a record breaking(for then) of 94 in 2007. This year it went to a total of "106" rider which isn't a lot more, but the spread has really changed from just the basic Portland/Vancouver area. I suspect it will grow even more over time as the word is spread.

Of the 106 bikes listed, or signed up with, in this years DamTour (yes, many have the "MBS" problem) there were "32" Yamaha's, "23" Honda's, "14" Kawasaki's, "13" BMW's, "12" Harley's, "8" Suzuki's, "3" Ducati and "1" Buell. Which makes Yamaha the top runner for bikes listed for 5 years straight. We received a total of "953" ride reports and many more than that photos. And ... of those 953 ride reports, "56" were from Canada riders, "384" from Oregon riders, and a whopping big "513" from Washington riders. So the finishers are split this way: "15" of the forty Washington riders, finished; "13" of the twenty nine Oregon riders, finished; and "2" of the three Canadian riders, finished. So... what happened to Nevada? :-)

Here are some categories level . Where did you fit in?

As you can see from the table at the right, distance may have something to do with the number of visits to some of these dams. John Day tied with Powerdale Dam for the most visits at "61", while the least visited at "34" was a tie between Rye Patch and Kerr, two of our bonus dams.

Our "Awards Get-together " was held on Oct. 18th this year, and we had "30" riders of the 106 on the rankings table, that finished and earned the much sot after crystal trophy. We held the gathering in Gresham this year at Action Motor Sports Honda store. They kindly opened up the parking lot so we could put up the cover and hang all the stats and photo boards from the year. And this year we actually remember to take a group shot of all the present finishers thanks to Ken Hattan. I always want to do that and each year I forget...LOL All in all it was a nice finish to the year and a good chance to meet and visit with riders that we only know on-line.

Road/Mileage Report . . .

As the years go by, it is evident that the mileage is going to increase to astronomical proportions and will really go beyond the simple little stats I started with. We don't have a simple base departure any more of just the PDX area. Hard to believe how many miles we travel while doing the DamTour. For this years dams, if a single rider starts for each dam from PDX and returns getting just that dam, to do all twenty dams would be "11,032 miles." That is one rider, riding to all twenty dams in "single dam" trips. This is not making side trips, or snagging multiple dams on a single trip, which is easy to do, and can either reduce or add many miles.

Now we will see how many miles our factious riders all leaving PDX, and heading out for a single dams by multiplying the round trip miles to each dam by the number of riders that visited that dam. Seventy-two riders managed a total of "953" visits to our 2008 dams. So, if our "72" riders did "single dam" trips from PDX, that would mean that the "possible total miles", the DamTour Riders rode this year, could be "483,250 miles". That's 102,620 miles more than last year. Our Thirty finishers alone, would make up "330,960" of those miles. As a look back, we almost doubled our registered riders from the "59" of 2006, and more than doubled our number of dam visits from the "434" of 2006.

Here are some "First's" for 2008 Season. . . ( a monster thing that I created being "first...LOL)

While officially the first day of DamTour season is March 1st, we have some that get "ants in their pants" or an "itch in the throttle hand"... well, that isn't so much the problem, but when that person is one of the organizers(who shall remain nameless), well, it keeps changing to a week earlier. So for this year again it was in February.

First Dams of the season were John Day, Powerdale and Walterville. Visited by four riders that were out on an jump the gun ride to these dams. Steve Folkestad (8001), Dan Stombaugh (8003), Billie-Jean Williams (8008), and Keith Spicer (8011) visited them on February 23rd. John Hart Dam was the First Bonus Dam of the season visited by Heather and Rob Newcomer (8012 & 8013) on March 3rd. First to Finish all twenty dams this year this year was Dan Stombaugh (8003).

Another highlight for the year were two of our riders from Canada. Randy Ohno and Pav Virk of B.C, swept the dams in their 8 day and 10 hour, 3550 mile ride. Impressive getting all twenty dams, but also doing a lot of sight seeing and photo and video taking along the way. And they did all this this riding a Honda 599 and a Kawasaki 2X 6R Ninja, respectivley. So you see, DamTour is all kinds of bikes and riders.

New this year ... we tried to get a group ride/meet for Philipsburg, Montana over the July 4th weekend. We made the ride and picked up Kerr Dam in the process. While the group was small, it was a blast. Philipsburg is a restored mining town in the beautiful Flint Valley area. Five riders met up in Polson , Montana snagged Kerr Dam, then headed to P-burg on the 4th of July. It was a great ride, and we had a fabulous stay in the fantastic "Broadway Hotel". Riders were Al & Kathy Lund, from Alberta, and Jim & Cheryll Malisch, Steve Folkestad and Dan Stombaugh, from Oregon. We plan to do it again next year. Hope you can be there. Check out our P-burg album on the albums page. And.... now... our ......dam firsts below.

Dam Firsts

Dam Name	Antelope	Cascade	Cle Elum	Cold Springs	Cougar	Gorge	Horn Rapids	Ice Harbor	John Day	John Hart
Date	April 12	April 13	Mar 7	Mar 6	Mar 7	Mar 8	Mar 9	Mar 6	Feb 23	Mar 3
Riders	A. Jackson	A. Jackson	A. Jackson	D. York	S. Mustoe	A.Jackson	D. Stombaugh	D. York	S. Folkestad	Rob Newcomer
	C. Funk	C. Funk					F. Rios		D. Stombaugh	H. Newcomer
		Stombaugh							B.J. Williams	T. Watkins

Dam Firsts

Dam Name	Kerr	McNary	Nine Mile	Powerdale	Rocky Reach	Round Butte	Rye Patch	Tumwater	Upper Pony	Walterville
Date	May 189	Mar 6	Mar 30	Feb 23	Mar 7	Mar 16	Mar 23	Mar 7	Mar 2	Feb 23
Riders	D. Stombaugh	D. York	D. Stombaugh	S. Folkestad	A. Jackson	D. Stombaugh	A. Jackson	A. Jackson	Dennis York	D. Stombaugh
				D. Stombaugh					S. Folkestad	B.J. Williams
				B.J. Williams					D. Stombaugh	Keith Spicer

Cheers and happy trails... DT Rider - "C"

 

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