Schwim, the owner and founder of Husaberg.org has written an outstanding journal of the events of Moab, Force ride 2007. Here is a link to the write up. While Jason (schwim) may not be a racer or even a regular rider for that matter, what he did for the small ragtag fleet of Husaberg enthusiasts is outstanding, as FryGuy (the NA distributor rep) stated, "if it was not for Husaberg.org, who knows where the brand would be in North America" Read the write up, it will make you laugh.

Long story short, I had a great ride, even with the berg bashing that took place. If ever there was a testament to the toughness of the Husaberg Brand, this was it. After a number of loop-outs and falls that would have shortened the life of a lesser bike, the berg decided to put me out of my misery by sacrificing itself.

On this particular ledge, and much to my brother-in-laws surprise, I had actually made it up on top. Sadly however, I stalled the berg, lost my balance and dumped the bike, fearing an airbox full of oil (not the first time that day) and the loss of even more precious fuel, I hurried to pick up the bike.

Viking, being the noble swede that he is, was rushing as fast as he could to help. I suspect that he knew what was to happen. As I was lifting the bike, my foot slipped on the rock and the bike became 250 pounds of tumbling metal and plastic.
when the smoke cleared, there was a sheet of oil, giving credence to the name "slick rock" , running down the rock face...

As a Samurai would perform harakari to save itself from further disgrace, the berg had inserted it's shift lever into it's clutch cover and spilled it's life's blood.

I will admit that at that moment my helmet came off and was "dropped" a bit harder than it should have been, but then I decided that the ride would be ruined for everybody if i let this get me down. The group still had a ways to go to get out and if we dinked around to much I would not be getting out till way after dark, if at all that night...

Dan (motoxotica), who had been an impressively patient ride companion that day, and viking helped me push the bike to it's hiding spot for the night.

A little bit of time was spent searching for the rest of the ride group, and I started walking...

we met up with the rest of the guys a few minutes later, I had about a two mile walk in front of me to the main dirt road. They guys made sure, that i had some water, a way to make a fire, and assured me that they would not leave me out all night. They would ride out, get a truck and drive back in as far as they could, I would keep walking along the dotted trail markers and meet up with them eventually.

They were off... I was alone. I was walking and enjoying the scenery and thinking, dang i should have splurged on some really nice riding boots that would have afforded some comfort while walking...

Then I heard a bike, Kurt from Bike Barn had come back and insisted that I ride double as much as I could, I would have to hump it on the technical stuff, but he would not take "NO" for an answer. This is no small feat. the terrain was difficult enough with one person, add another 300 lbs to the back of your new 07 husaberg, and you are risking serious injury to you and your bike.

after a few minutes a jeep came into view, The offered a ride, and this is where the real fun began.

This particular jeep was headed back in to meet up with his friends whom he had to leave earlier that morning because he had broken something and could not go in any further until it was fixed. We backtracked for a ways and meet up with his friends, unfortunately,one of their friends land cruiser had meet an unfortunate fate when its bell housing had kissed a rock a bit to hard. now it was being towed by a fore-runner over some pretty hairy terrain. we spent the next 4 hours throwing rocks and building up ledges and pushing and pulling and walking most of the way anyway.

finally around 7:30 p.m. we were out. they had a total of 5 vehicles go in and only two came out.

when I got back to slickrock camp ground, I was preparing to have to pay a jeep rental place to hump myself or someone else back in to get the bike.

before I could even open my mouth, I was told not worry about it, that the issue was solved. Rick Bozarth, Viking, and (I am sorry the names escape me at the moment) a couple of Ricks buddies had already decided that they were going to ride double, hike, what ever, get the bike, fix it and ride it out. Dan and Rick both had the parts I needed so that was not an issue.

This was amazing to me, I have bought one thing from Rick, and aside from this site, he and the other guys do not know me at all, yet these guys stepped up without being asked, sacrificed a whole day of their personal time to rescue a guy who was in over his head.

I slept well that night, and by mid-afternoon the next day my bike was sitting in front of the cabins, none the worse for the wear.
If you want to see a few more pics.. click here