L.A.-Barstow to Vegas LAB2V 2012 ***RIDE REPORT***

L.A.-Barstow to Vegas LAB2V 2012


post up your RIDE REPORTS here.

even if it's just your experience and not a fully detailed ride report, post up.

pics and videos encouraged. i saw a GoPro on every other helmet this year, we all wanna see some riding footage!


check the thread in the West Regional if you are unfamiliar with this ride. it is, by far, the best dual sport ride all year!
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=825222

also check District 37 message board.

http://www.district37ama.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5

Official Website.

http://www.labarstowvegas.com/

This ride was a first for me. I have ridden in the desert and much of the area that the LAB2V ride covered, but have never done an organized ride like this, or linked all of the riding together in one day. No pictures or vids this year, hope to change that in the next few months with a GoPro. Here is what I posted on the LAB2V page that RAZR started leading up to the ride:

First time LAB2V for me. Could only ride day 1 due to family commitments on Saturday. Thanks to RAZR for starting and maintaining this thread. And District 37 for a great event.

I only came off once in the sandy whoops the morning of the first day near the wind farms in Mojave. Tweaked my knee really bad. Kept riding wanting to finish and get to Barstow. That didn't happen. Had three rear flats throughout the rest of the day! They sucked a lot of time. Only made it to Ridgecrest. First flat was a nail that I picked up. Second flat was tearing the valve stem, must have spun the tire, 16 psi proved too low without rim locks. Third was a pinch flat on 18 psi, just a few miles from Ridgecrest on that raised gravel section that looked like an old rail bed. Unlucky. Pulled the pin in Ridgecrest as the sweep had already gone through. Called for our truck and hung out in the Subway for a few hours.

Knee was stiff and hard to put weight on. Was going to wait and see how I did before going to the ER. Around 1am the pain and swelling was too much. Worried I had dislocated it I went to the ER. Good news was no fractures or dislocation. Bad news is torn meniscus and MCL. Splint, crutches, pain meds, and follow up with Orthopedic on Monday. Still made it to the family event on Saturday, on crutches.

Started preparing for for LAB2V 2013; ordered rim locks yesterday. Hope everyone made it home safe.

Lessons learned: be prepared for mechanicals. My buddy that I road with said that I should not worry about flats, he has only had one flat on the trail in many years. I opted to change my tires myself when I put new tread on getting ready for the ride so IF I got a flat I would be somewhat familiar with what to do; paid off in spades, three times was just plain unlucky and I almost didn't throw my patch kit in my bag. I used glueless patches from my mt bike kit and they were awesome.

Appreciated everyone that stopped or slowed down to see if I was okay when I was fixing the flats. and I talked to many riders who offered help with the number of flats that I had. bottom line is be prepared and I can not recommend the Motion Pro tire spoons enough. With all of the time I spent with them they have the best cost-to-use ratio of anything in my kit $30 for the set is money well spent.

Great event. Planning for both days next year. Had a blast and learned a lot.

Headed out to Bullhead City, AZ. with friends/family for the holidays.......

Friday morning we headed over to Oatman for Breakfast........you find the strangest things in the desert.......anyone interested in a speedboat "project" (needs a bit of TLC - HA!)



Took Kathy's cousin Ron to a favorite wash/canyon on the way back to the house......



Sat morning I drove up to Vegas, checked in/unloaded at the Orleans, then rode over to meet the LAB2V gang in Sandy Valley........stopped a short ways out of Blue Diamond and snapped my one and only LAB2V phone pic (Vegas in the distant background)



Sat around in Sandy Valley from 12-1pm........no Gil so I moved on.......rode back to Vegas solo via Mountain Springs/Red Rock.....always a fun stretch of trails/scenery.....saw Gil later at the LAB2V banquet and found out he arrived about 5 minutes after I left.......oh well. that's been our imperfect system for years......."See you between 12-1pm in Sandy Valley.....if not, move on".....

Dinner with Ted, Ben, Kris and Roger Sat night followed by the LAB2V Banquet......Saw some of the ADV gang scarfing down some chow/brews at the banquet....

I was up and out of there early yesterday morning......needed to get back to Bullhead City to clean up/pack up.......

Chasing B2V on little bikes! HHH and I had a blast on the little bikes he rode a CRF100 and I was on a TTR125...Full ride report here-

http://my2wheels.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9472

Packing up and leaving Vegas



first in line to Tech Day 1



Catching some air-



sand...sand and more sand...



Trying to control all the HP after gasing up...the bike just wants to go...



Finishing Day 1! Yellowjacket gives us the you made it smile!



take the high or low road?



Ergonomics issues on this bike...."You are too big to ride a TTR125" yellowjacketD37




Redrock the hard way! And you thought it was hard on the KTM's



The finish....Until next year, thanks again D37

Looks like you guys had as much fun this year as I did last year! Good to everyone getting dirty!

I'll be back in the states in a few years to do it again!

Join us on a little bike, Chris M & his dad will be doing it the little way next year also.

Travel safe and catch you back on the west side!

Did not make this one, family commitments. But on the way back from Nevada, stoped in Baker and talked to a few B to V riders. Got all charged up and wished I was riding, maybe next year.

It depends when I get back into the states. I was thinking of just showing up at the start on my 690 that has been around the world.

next year is the 30th year. it will be extra special.

Even better.....if you need a place to stay before or during let me know!

So 30 year old bikes it is....what was the most popular bike run for the first event? I have a year to get one and get it ready.

probably a Honda.

Well.. a Trail 70 was my first moto..

If that's Silvercreek that boat got a lot of love from my 12g!!!

30th year. I want a shirt so ill do it.

Year 2 of riding LAB2V on the big GS Adventure. Last year 3 of us rode our GS's together and 2 of us made it the whole route. All the talk was this year was going to be nothing like last year, it would be long days with lots and lots of sand. This news prompted me to go about prepping a little different; bike set up (take less shit, upgraded suspension, new 21" Woody's wheel) and lots of practice days riding in sand. Wow, I got more than I bargained for in the 2012 version.

The plan started with 4 riders, 2 GSA's, 990 KTM, and one 690 KTM. That plan aborted and now it was just me and Jnyrav and his 690.

The morning started out great, nice and warm, eveyone loading up roll charts



Johny Rav and I headed out hit the dirt and were hauling ass, light sand and some small whoops but nothing real bad. We made great time and pulled into the first checkpoint ahead of our schedule. Headed back out to the route and the sand and whoops got a little more testing and I pushed a lttle too hard ... got crossed up in a whoop and down goes the GSA. Windscreen toast and torsion strut bent to the tire





No less than 4 ADV FF's pulled up for a laugh as I had the real wheel pulled off and banging on the strut with a rock. CA Stu put out a "somebody help with a part?" message and John rode off chasing down the ADV crew with me limping it back to Cal City. Spent an hour in Cal City trying to convice the local tire shop guy to let me borrow a hammer and block. Finally banged the torsion strut off the tire and took the dirt super highway to Joberg and got back on track at Trona Rd. Pretty much rode by myself the rest of the way into Barstow, passed a few riders and got passed by several more but seemed pretty lonesome out there. Had no idea where my ride partner was and started getting real tired (should have stopped to eat more). Just about the time I was done with riding any more sand wash, poof, the course right turned into a 80' wide dirt freeway and was on easy street. Found my ridng buddy in Barstow, turned out he got turned around on the route around Jawbone and slabbed to Barstow.

The torsion strut fix in Cal CIty didn't hold, couldn't find a replacement anywhere so a nice young guy at the TA Truck Service center in Barstow applied a 5' slide hammer to it ... 3 solid shots and it was almost staight again.

Day 2 started out great, we rolled out shortly after 6 and were on the dirt while it was still somewhat dark, Up and over the first little hilll climb and missed the left, went off course and no John behind me. Figured he made the turn so did the cut across move back on track, thought I saw him and took off trying to catch him. Didn't see him again until Baker, turns out he got got off at the turn coming down the hill went down and got his bell rung ... slabbed out to Ludlow.

The next 2 hours were pure torture on the GSA, deep sand, dust, sun straight in my eyes. Ended up in the bushes a couple of times. Finally got into some hard pack and got on it again, right until I cut the side wall on my front tire. Again several ADV FF's (different than Friday) pulled up offered help, waved them off and got a tube from the SUPER sweep crew of my buddy Bill Jenkins and his partner Frank. Flat fixed and ride of Beemer hell continued.

By the time I got to section 7, I was happy to take the bail out to Ludlow, gassed up and took the Keliebaker ride to Baker. In Baker got hooked up with John again and the Baker check point said it's 12:30 take the EASY ways for the rest of the ride. Ha-ha, turned right on to the powerline sandwash laugihing ... there is no EASY way this year. We slugged it out for another couple of hours and at almost 3:00 we were hit pavement before the track into Sandy Valley, decided we had had enough and slabbed to Prim and on to the Orleans with a couple of other ADV riders. In the parking lot, and finally done



The great gathering of ADV FF's ... PBR courtesy of John Gil




Had originally planned to ride back with John Gil, but me and my bike were beat. Watching what he did following his spot, probably couldn't have done it anyway. Jnyrav made arrangements to get his truck to Vegas and I as happy to load my bike in and enjoy hte ride home in comfort.

Palmdale start



Vegas finish



This year's LAB2V was a very humbling weekend to say the least. Back to reality for me.

They have a strange way of counting.

I rode the 3rd one in 1969 and that was 43 years ago.

Don

That was the race Don, this a the dual sport ride.
Different event.

I rode both days solo this year most of the way, no mechanical issues except my GPS took a dump before Baker on day 2.

Oh well, the first few years I rode this event GPS wasn't available. So, I went by my roll chart and lo and behold I only missed one turn, and that was when I tried to take a shortcut in Lovell Canyon to hit Red Rock before dark.
Luckily we only missed it by a couple of miles and were able to backtrack, find the right turn and make it over the hill in time.

This year's course was pretty demanding, lots of deep sand and long miles, now that I am at home I can say I loved it, but I wasn't loving it so much at the time. Sand, sand and more sand. And then, some sand.

Weather was perfect, great crew, tip of the hat to the peeps at District 37 for putting together yet another year of the best organized "self-guided dual sport tour" in the world.

Thanks
CA Stu

PS The TE 610 eats this ride. Rocks, sand, hills, even the highway on the way home. Saw 88mph on the speedo coming out of the agricultural inspection station.

PPS #12 in the books for me. 2000-2013, the only year I missed it, the ride was on my 40th birthday, and I was miserable the whole time. Never again!

PPPS Love the before and after shots, Todd. Ever consider a KLR?

1st timer as well. Technically I rode it solo although I never felt solo since I left early and followed the tortoise zone speed limit. Had a flat on the front about 40 miles in on day 1. Fixed that and made it to Barstow with just a small dismount sliding into a deep sand berm to keep things interesting. About 40 miles into day 2 I had a big blowout on my front tire - ended up being an ugly 3/4" gash. Looked like I hit a broken bottle or something. Luckily it was right as we dropped out of the canyon back to the 40 so I managed to shove a bunch of plugs into the gash which let me hold enough air to ride a couple minutes between inflation stops all the way back to Barstow via Route 66. Took forever but I got to Barstow and grabbed a new tire at the Suzuki dealership there. Had it mounted and ready to go about the time that my support crew arrived from OC. Loaded the bike into the truck to try and catch up with the group in Sandy Valley but missed sweep by about 40 minutes. Didn't want to risk being out after dark on an unmarked trail by myself so I just drove the truck into Vegas. Next year the little one will be old enough for me to have my support crew in the area so I'll be prepared with a spare bike or something haha.