A Visit to HalfPro Motocross and Off-Road Riding Vacations in Southern California!
By Jim Gianatsis
Southern California is without a doubt the premier motocross and off-road riding location in the world. It’s the birthplace and home to Supercross, all the top American based motocross teams and product manufacturers, legendary motocross tracks and off-road riding areas, and it offers nearly perfect year-road riding weather. In turn, this has spawned an entire support industry of motocross riding schools, motocross bike rental agencies, and more recently, full-on off-road dirt bike riding vacation destination venues. These exciting MX Vacations in Southern California have become particularly popular with Europeans and East Coast Americans who get snowed, rained and mudded-in for nearly 6 months each winter. Because here in Southern California you can enjoy these off-road riding and racing activites all year-around as well.
We wanted to visit one of the biggest and most popular of these new off-road vacation companies called HalfPro Motocross and Off-Road Vacations, located in warm and sunny Perris, California, just southeast of Los Angeles. HalfPro is based out of a newer ranch style mansion and garage facility run by two German partners Kolja Koch and founder manager Jens-Uwe Jung who runs the operation. Kola is usually back in German running the Sexy Devil HalfPro Race team which competes in European Supercross and FIA Motocross, other business ventures, and also assists in booking HalfPro’s European vacationers.
A nice resort mansion for your travels.
What HalfPro does is custom design the Southern California Motocross and Off Road Riding Vacation of your dreams. You stay in their beautiful Resort Mansion with all the amenities (including a home cooked breakfast to start the day off right, TV, hot tub, pool table, exercise room, backyard BBQ) and your choice of the newest Motocross Bikes from the all top brands: Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM in both 250cc and Open Class. Included is Bike Transportation and your Personal HalfPro House and Tour Guide to all the top Motocross Tracks and Off-Road Ringing Areas in Southern California.
You will ride the legendary motocross tracks you’ve heard about and seen on TV including the factory rider training tracks like Perris Raceway, Star West, Pala Raceway, Cahuilla Creek, and of course the legendary Glen Helen Grand Prix and National Championship Motocross Track. And nearby are some of the world’s finest off road riding areas with open deserts and challenging mountain trails leading to breathtaking panoramic views. Incredible off-road areas you can ride and explore new locations all week and never have to come back to the truck except when its time to gas up again and grab a snack, or head back home each evening to the HalfPro House for Barbecue and a your favorite Cold Beverage.
HalfPro German women’s group. Larissa Papenmeir is in the center.
During our visit to HalfPro for this story we got to meet a wonderful group of German women motocross riders staying at the mansion, and spend the day with them at Cahuilla Creek raceway located about an hour away. Cahuilla is huge off-road facility with 2 large MX tracks kept perfectly groomed and watered all day long with a bulldozer and water truck. Lap times on each track hovered around 2 minutes just to let you now long each track is. And while we were there the factory R&D teams from Yamaha and KTM were there testing and setting up their next year’s new model bikes with their test riders and suspension engineers.
The HalfPro German women’s group was organized by 26-year old Pro motocrosser Larissa Papenmeir from Bunde, Germany. Larissa has been racing in the Women’s World MX Championship for 10 years since tuning 16, and is currently racing an RM250 sponsorship by Suzuki of Germany and HalfPro, with her highest season finish being 2nd in the world in 2009. Among the women joining Larissa on this trip to get in a good week of riding and training while it’s still snowed-in back in Germany were Ariane Schmidt a 21-years old from Tuttlinger who races a Honda CRF250 in the Swiss Amateur Masters Class. Ariana told us that she races primarily in Switzerland just because the motocross tracks in Germany are not very good, one of the main reasons so many German riders and their families come to HalfPro in SoCal.
The vacationers are happy to ride at Perris Mx.
The oldest German girl in the group was Oda Hänsch who is good friends with Larissa, and is at all the races with her for support because Oda’s husband is Bogo Hänsch, Larissa’s factory mechanic in Women’s World MX. Oda actually grew up racing motocross in Southern California, and is always happy to come back to Southern California to ride. The other women in the group were novice riders, using their half pro vacation to home their riding skills. You’ll notice in the group one of the women is without hair on her head, having just completed chemotherapy to beat cancer, and was using the vacation to train and get back into shape. Congratulations!
Available Extras with any HalfPro Vacation can include a weekend trip to a West Coast Monster Supercross or AMA Outdoor National, a day of trail riding, personal watercraft riding in a nearby lake or a visit to top tourist destinations like Disneyland and Hollywood Boulevard. And how about a private or group school lessons with a legendary 3-time National Motocross Champion like Marty Smith, 2-time World Champion Sébastien Tortelli, or Supercross and National Outdoor World and National MX Champion Grant Langston!
Action out at Cahuilla Creek.
A HalfPro 7-day vacation can start for well under $2,000 including your bike, mansion lodging in a shared or private room, and transportation to the tracks and off-road riding areas. For complete information and pricing for a custom designed Dream Motocross or Off-Road Vacation for you, your family and friends contact: HalfPro Motocross & Off-Road Motorcycle Vacations, phone USA (951) 238-1799, or go to www.HalfPro.com.