From a School Bus to a Brand: The Whiskey Throttle Story

Our journey began in 2013 when four best friends, decided to buy a 40-foot school bus to haul our dirt bikes. Before we found the bus, we'd sit out on the deck of our makeshift tent trailer toy hauler, dreaming about the places we'd go and what we'd need to build to make those trips happen. Somewhere in those conversations, we started joking about what we'd put on the side of the bus in place of the school district name. "Whiskey Throttle School District" stuck immediately, it felt like the perfect description of our

riding

skills at the time.

When we finally got the bus, we kept things simple. We took a fully functioning school bus, stripped out all the seats, threw in some bunk beds from Smith & Edwards, a couch and a recliner. No frills, no overthinking, just a cheap, functional way to get ourselves and our bikes to the dunes.

Our first trip was to Little Sahara's White Sands Campground, and it didn't take long for things to get interesting. As soon as we pulled into our campsite, we buried the bus in the sand. Out came the shovel, followed by our firewood, which we lined up in front of the tires in an attempt to gain traction. After several failed tries, we remembered the heavy-duty steel dirt bike ramp Clint built the night before. We laid it down in front of the tires, hammered down, and somehow managed to pull ourselves out without bending it. That ramp became more than just a loading tool, it was our first real recovery gear.

In those early days, you could usually find us at either Little Sahara Sand Dunes or St. Anthony Sand Dunes. One trip to St Anthony ended with a blown tire that sent us veering into the left lane, thankfully in the middle of the night with no one else around. Another adventure took us all the way to Winchester Sand Dunes in Oregon, with more than a few wrong turns along the way. Somewhere along the road, the bus earned her name, Sandy Bus, thanks to the first unforgettable moment stuck in the sand. As more people got to know us and the bus, we started getting a question we hadn't expected; "Do you guys have any Whiskey Throttle merch?" That question came up often enough that it turned into something bigger. What started as a joke became a name people connected with, and eventually, a brand.