Get ready for some bike — and garage — envy when you meet REV’IT! Women’s Adventure Team rider Jenna West in the latest episode of the gear maker’s #weADV series. For much of the video we see her blasting around a colorful fall landscape aboard her main ride, a 2019 KTM 1090 Adventure R, but just around the midpoint, we get a peek inside her and partner Dwayne’s workshop, one of two garages on their property in Southern Indiana.

It’s dark outside when we find Jenna in the glow of the heated, pole barn-style workshop wrenching one of her vintage Hondas, a 1968 CB450 K1 it took her years to find. The search was inspired by a photo gifted by her grandmother, which captured Jenna’s late grandfather and her mother as a child astride an identical CB450. The bike was only produced for one year with that particular tank style, she says, making it a bit of a unicorn that was very difficult to find. 

Spending time in the warm, well-stocked workshop (her partner is a mechanic) was one of the ways Jenna coped with the chaos of 2020, but even more effectively, she had her KTM 1090 ADV R to rip around on when she wasn’t working at her job at a logistics company. Like most of us, her first rides during the pandemic were close to home, but later she and Dwayne felt comfortable enough to safely road trip to some prime ADV riding areas — bucket list spots like Tellico Plains, Tennessee and Ouray, Colorado. 

Jenna joined the now 5-member REV’IT! Women’s Adventure Team after competing for a spot in 2018. She’d already been wearing the company’s riding gear for a few years, and especially loved the idea of encouraging more women to ride adventure bikes. “I was — and am — so excited to be a part of a group of such incredible women and to have a platform to encourage other women to get into off-road riding,” she says, adding how she couldn’t be more thankful for the way REV’IT! values female riders.

Jenna fell for the KTM 1090 ADV R after riding one through British Columbia on a Mountain View Motorcycle Adventures tour with her teammates in 2019. Upon returning home she promptly traded in her previously-beloved Triumph Tiger 800 XRt for the KTM, which is now outfitted with Stage 3 Rottweiler Performance Intake System, Wings slip-on exhaust, Cyclops LED headlamp kit, AltRider skid plate and crash bars and Barkbuster hand guards. 

In addition, Jenna recently replaced what she refers to as her “little bike” — a Yamaha WR250R used for the rides and trips that involve more challenging, technical terrain —  with KTM’s 350 EXC-F.  Dwayne is currently on a Yamaha T7 with a Suzuki DRZ400S as his “little bike” sidekick.  

Sounds like a darn good setup, right? Jenna is all about gratitude for her situation, especially about her move from street bikes to adventure riding in 2016. Not only does she find the ADV community uniquely inclusive and supportive, she finds adventure riding opens doors to a new world of experiences she’d never have otherwise, “because on an adventure bike, when it turns to gravel, or turns to dirt, you just keep going.”

About Indiana, where Jenna has lived her whole life, she jokes that “the most challenging thing about riding is finding challenging places to ride.” But in her video (each episode was filmed by a local production company where the team member lives) the riding looks pretty awesome. The plentifully water crossings in the area are her favorite element, so much so she created #watercrossingwednesday to document her forays (plus, she jokes, she “sucks” at the wheelies necessary for #wheeliewednesday).

Every time she gets to take the KTM off-road is a rush for the self-professed adrenaline junky. “I love scaring myself and getting my heart rate up by pushing my boundaries,” she says, adding that being a woman riding over challenging terrain on a 100-plus horsepower bike that is nearly 3.5 times her body weight is a massive thrill. “I love proving to myself and others that I’m capable of doing it.”

If inspiring women to get on adventure bikes and push their limits was the intention, REV’IT! seems to have picked an ideal group of women for its Adventure Team. In previous weeks, we’ve showcased members Amelia Nunn, Katelyn Barnecut and Kris Fant, all of whom share Jenna’s hunger for challenge and commitment to supporting newcomers to the ADV community. In a grand finale next week, we’ll introduce you to one of the founding members, Erika Tango Bean, who’s been on the REV’IT! Women’s Team since 2017. 

To follow Jenna West on her wild and far-wandering adventures find her @jensmotoadventures on Instagram.

REV’IT! Women’s Adventure Team Video Series

Below find the complete schedule of episodes in the #weADV series:

• Episode 1: Amelia Nunn, produced by Niki Murphy, available now
• Episode 2: Katelyn Barnecut, produced by Kasen Schamuan, available now
• Episode 3: Kris Fant, produced by Flewid Films, available now 
• Episode 4: Jenna West, Bayonet Media, available now
• Episode 5: Erika Tango Bean, produced by Roberto Serrini, coming 3/30

If you have a story to share about how access to adventure riding helped you survive during these socially restrictive times, please share by tagging @revit_adventure and using #WeADV in your instagram post. For more information about REV’IT!’s gear and programs, visit www.revitsport.com. 

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.