Biltwell's Arctic Expedition
"There and back again"
Words: Libellum Raceday /// Photos: Geoff Kowalchuk
In 2018, Biltwell co-founder and brand manager Bill Bryant and his wife Carrie drove from their home near the company's headquarters in Temecula, CA, to the northernmost reaches of Alaska's treacherous Alcan highway in a well-equipped overlanding rig - the four-wheeled kind. It was during this month-long family vacation that the seeds for Biltwell's most recent Internet-busting adventure were sown.
Even by Biltwell's lofty standards for two-wheeled fun - remember, this is the company that finished the NORRA 1000 Baja desert race on a custom Sportster in 2018 - 'Operation Numbnuts' required considerable time, treasure and manpower just to leave US soil.
'bravo Milwaukee'
Building a support vehicle large and robust enough to chase nearly a dozen riders, drivers and media personnel across Alaska and Canada's Yukon territory was job one on Operation Numbnuts' to-do list. To that end, Biltwell teamed up with an overland Jeep customizer and adventure man, appropriately named Yeti, to source and help customize a decommissioned US military all-terrain transport vehicle.
After nearly two years of building, fine-tuning, road testing and reengineering, 'The Pig' was ready for deployment in the early summer of 2022. To avoid killing their combination cargo truck, bunk house and mobile motorcycle workshop on the miserable drive from SoCal to Puget Sound, Biltwell trucked 'The Pig' to a ferry terminal in Bellingham, WA. By the time they reached Fairbanks, Alaska, after four days at sea, everyone on Team Numbnuts was ready to ride.
'ride motorcycles, have fun'
And oh, what a ride it would prove to be. Five of the riders aboard were bike people who knew the brand and what to expect: crusty but thoroughly well sorted Shovelheads and Panheads. The balance of the group understood the challenge ahead of them and wisely chose to ride a fleet of Pan America ADV bikes on loan from the Motor Company.
The mechanical juxtaposition might have proven comical if the old bikes laid down like most folks predicted, given the treacherous circumstances. The truth is, only one chopper returned in The Pig's cargo box, and not even a broken generator shaft could stop Bill and his trusty Panhead from traversing mud and tundra well inside the Arctic Circle.
'blown motors, bear scat, wolf tracks, skeptical locals, broken generators, dead batteries, short tempers, long days'
The rest of Team Numbnuts, and especially the lone female rider Kalen Thorien, who rode all the way from Florida via Sturgis on her personal Pan Am before joining the group in Washington, enjoyed the trip of a lifetime aboard Harley's supremely capable ADV machine. Bravo, Milwaukee!
'no one in Biltwell's motley band of bike riders spent an evening in jail or hospital'
Aboard that incongruous mix of vintage V-twin and modern Harley iron, Biltwell friends and co-workers finally got to witness the mystery and majesty of the Northern Lights on their last evening inside the Arctic Circle. 'The Pig' valiantly covered the vast majority of Biltwell's 3,500-mile adventure under its own steam, but Yeti had to rely on a Canadian wrecker jockey to drag his defeated monster truck across the US border.
Despite everything - the blown motors, bear scat, wolf tracks, skeptical locals, broken generators, dead batteries, short tempers and long days - no one in Biltwell's motley band of bike riders spent an evening in jail or hospital. If that seems like a low bar for success, you haven't ridden across Alaska on a 65-year-old motorcycle. The Biltwell crew now has - and lived to tell their tale. When your company slogan is "ride motorcycles, have fun," adventures like this are practically mandatory.
For an in-depth story about this epic journey, visit the Biltwell blog at www.biltwellinc.com/blogs/wtf/numbnuts
