Palapa Chair

[knybanjo]

Originally Posted by katbeanz

The dry lake looks like a blast!

I got a sneak peek of those videos "backstage" a few weeks ago.

Liked 'em so much I took a few screenshots and tried to fix 'em up a little. It's probably not too bad of a hijack if I post pics of the bajatards themselves, is it?

mommer


"Bonneville" Bonnie Abzug


....who also seems to enjoy a need for speed on any surface.


...and in an effort to keep from getting banned for this hijack here's one of duke slidin' that ninefiddy.

Originally Posted by Hayduke

-more tomorrow-

[Blakebird]

"Bonneville Bonnie".....I like it

[v4rider]

[terry.mc]

Originally Posted by mommer

it is amazing riding like that!! things are soo slow till i would get close on the 8's and see duke and i on a dirrect path.. kinda like catching a pop fly baseball..

I love dry lakebed hooning.

So much fun stuff to play with, slides, wheelies, proximity to other bikes...

Thanks!

[Hannda]

How's this ever going to get finished if it languishes on page 3?

[jjustj]

making it last untill... we all are able to ride again and the snow melts

[Hayduke]

I've suddenly gotten really busy at work, and that's been taking a ton of my time. Stoopit work.

Also, this next segment isn't all that easy to write about, so I'm trying to figure out how to do it.

I'll get to it as soon as I have some time to sit down and think...

[IBGONE]

Originally Posted by Hayduke

I've suddenly gotten really busy at work, and that's been taking a ton of my time. Stoopit work.

Also, this next segment isn't all that easy to write about, so I'm trying to figure out how to do it.

I'll get to it as soon as I have some time to sit down and think...

Duke, Life happens and it's not always pleasant or as we wish it to be. Don't overthink it . . . you will say exactly what you need to say and it will be properly received.


Floyd

[Attico]

Hi is a great guy. He taught me a few things about my digital camera. He has the same model. I gave him a memory card/usb memroy card reader. He is a little further from radio shack than I am...

Awesome ride report. It's unusual for me to read a RR from top to bottom, but I did this one. Cheers.

Originally Posted by Hayduke

I can't tell you how impressed I was with this kid- just a super nice 19 y.o., completely at peace with his place in the world...



-more-

[Hayduke]

....So....

After ripping around the dry lake bed for awhile, we all re-grouped and decided we should get moving. We'd surely burned up a ton of fuel out there, but no worries, we weren't far from Gonzaga Bay and the Pemex. We needed to get lunch for mommer, too, and we were looking good to be in San Felipe before dark.

Then I pressed the start button on my bike. crankcrankCLACK! crankcrankCLACKCCLACK!!! stop. Ruhroh. She finally did start, but that was not sounding good! On top of that, Tami's bike was now clattering and backfiring on decell... I figured I'd do a valve adjustment in San Felipe, but it was I wasn't going to do it here...

We rolled on out, and spent the next several miles straining to see the embedded rocks on that rough road to Gonzaga. I missed most of them.

We rolled on past Coco's with just a wave. I felt really bad for not stopping but I didn't want to shut my bike off again, and Mommer needed to get some food, soon. Being diabetic has its disadvantages.

Tami hit reserve about 8 miles before Gonzaga, but we sooned rolled into the Pemex. "Hay no gasolina" the attendant said.

Hmmm. Well, let's go get some lunch and think about this....

We thought about just staying here, but that would make for a long day tomorrow to get to the border. We needed to be on the road for Colorado by the next day. We decided to try and find barrel gas. The lady at the Rancho Grande store said they had some!

These guys weren't quite the professionals we'd had dispensing barrel gas at other places. They dropped the hose in the sand a couple of times, then gave up on that and just went to a funnel... made from a bottle that they picked up out of the sand. After they filled mommer's tank, he called me over to look; there was sand sticking to the wall all down the inside of the tank. "I guess that's why I have a fuel filter, huh?"



-more-

[Hayduke]

This next part is something I've been struggling with. I wasn't sure how to post it.

The day we crossed back into the US, we posted in another thread that really only a few of us read, but I don't think I can really do any better than we did that night, when the thoughts and emotions were fresh. I'm just going to drop the story in here, from Tami (Bonnie Abbzug and me)...


This is what we wrote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

.

Okay, as much as I hate to screw up the timeline for the ride report, I will tell you all a sad, and long story.

So, there we were, completely naked!












Just kidding .




Okay, for real. We woke up in Bay of LA on Saturday morning. It was cool and cloudy, but still better than snow . We took off down the highway until Duke found a little two track that led us to Chapala dry lake bed. The boys were having one hell of a blast hauling ass at about 100mph and making big wide figure 8's and big dust fences that I got caught in, it was fun for sure! Then we hit the road that goes past Coco's and on to Gonzaga Bay, stopped at Rancho Grande for some lunch and barrel gas, the Pemex was out of gas, and took off on down the road for San Felipe.

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

We made it through the military check point without too much hassle and took off at full speed. I was leading, Mommer was right behind me and Duke a little ways back from Mommer. I got about 5 miles from the check point and there was a wash out with sunken concrete, with a square edged curb like thing. I saw the edge and thought I could make it over it, I just said to myself to get the front end light and I'll make it over. I was doing about 50 with Mommer pretty much right on my tail. I did manage to get the front end up and over it, but the back tire hit it with a ton of force, it popped up and smacked me in the ass then landed back down, with me still upright, but I knew right away that I had a flat tire. I skidded to a stop about 80 yards later, Mommer went skidding by and stopped about 15 yards past me.

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

Duke came rolling up, I got off the bike and said I think I have a flat tire, he said to get the tools out and move the bike out of the road. Mommer made a comment up the road that he put one hell of a dent in his front rim, which made me look at my front rim and I saw that I had a nice little taco going on up there, then I looked back at my rear rim and saw a spoke going the wrong way, then I saw a piece of my hub hanging from a few other spokes and I said, oh shit, that don't look so good . Duke and Mommer both came over and looked at the wheel and pretty much said, yur fucked .

The hub was in about 4 pieces and the spokes had gone through the tire. The bike wasn't gonna go anywhere anytime soon. We were all kind of in shock and really unsure of what the hell to do now, but really, really happy that I didn't pile it up and end up breaking me in four pieces instead .

-more-

[Hayduke]

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

So, we all have a seat and start discussing what to do next. We could leave the bike in the desert, stip it off all cool parts that were recently added (except the $200 battery) and take off. We could take the 2 gallons of fuel I just put it in and light the sucker on fire and have a little memorial for it, then take off, or we could sit there on the side of the road for a while longer and hope that someone will come along and help make the decision for us. Oh, and Mommer offered to ride back to Yuma, get the truck and come get it. We opted for the sitting on the side of the road for a while longer option....

Tami was sad. Tears were shed- she figured this was the last she'd see of her bike....



The lip on this thing is much higher than it looks...especially when you're rolling at about 50mph...



-more-

[Hayduke]

After awhile...

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

...a really nice guy named Brian rolled up on a DR 650. We showed him the carnage and he said right away, no problem, my Dad has a truck in Gonzaga and we'll just go get it and come back and get your bike. A few minutes later a friend of Brian's, named Mike and Brian's Dad, Dick, and Dick's brother (who's name I've forgotten at the moment) rolled up. Dick instantly offered to go and get the truck and come back and pick me up. Mommer said he'd ride back with them and Duke said he'd stay with me and the bike.

Dick on the red quad:

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

Duke and I hang out by the side of the road for about an hour, then finally we see Mommer coming back. He rolls up and proclaims that the plans have changed. Dick (who was riding a four wheeler), had a little crash and broke his leg right before the military check point . Holy Crap! So, now I'm really thinking, screw it, that's just awful, my bike can be replaced, but this sweet man just hurt himself. Mommer said they were gonna go get their truck and come and get my bike and go ahead and take it up to the border and take Dick to the hospital up there. But we needed to unload everything off of it and be ready to just throw it in the truck when they get there, because Dick was in a lot of pain. We decided to offload everything and drain the fuel, but if they showed up and Dick was really hurting we'd tell them to just go on, we'll deal with the bike later!

Unloading/draining Tami's bike, and loading everything onto the 950's...

Originally Posted by Hayduke

What Tami hasn't mentioned is how quickly she was riding. Her skills took a huge jump on this trip, and she was riding smooth, quick, and smart. I had stopped worrying about her when I didn't see her, and just hung back as she led... she was just having a blast on these roads. Maybe she got overconfident, but I think a huge factor was that the light was completely flat that day- high clouds made it hard to judge what was just a little rock and what was a huge rim-buster. The poor little XT was on it's last legs anyway- she rode the piss out of it this trip and it was tired.

Stay tuned though.... this story just gets more and more fucked up....

[Hayduke]

I'm crying again here as I read through this again.... one of the worst days ever.

Originally Posted by Bonnie Abbzug

So, we unload the bike and figure out a way to get everything loaded up onto Duke and Mommer's bikes. Mommer looked like a KLR rider . A couple, hours go by and we start to get a little worried that maybe the plans have changed again, but we had a little day light left, so we'd wait a bit longer and if they still didn't show up, we'd push the XT off the side of the road and come back in the morning and deal with it. About 30 minutes later and truck headed for Gonzaga comes rolling up. They ask if we need some help and we tell them our story. They instantly hop out and say load her up, we have a house in Gonzaga, we can take ya back down there . We managed to get the bike in the back of their truck and they tell me to climb in too and off we all go back to Gonazaga Bay. Duke and Mommer were in the lead and made it to Rancho Grande before we did. As soon as we pulled in Duke came running over to the truck, he took a deep breath and said "the guy died" .

[Hayduke]

Originally Posted by Hayduke

As Mommer and I rolled into the Pemex in Gonzaga, we knew we'd be waiting a bit, but we were planning to meet Tami (in Doug and his wife's truck) at Alphonsinas. We sat there a few minutes and saw Brian riding from Alphonsinas toward the Rancho Grande store. He saw us, smiled, and waved, and crossed over to the store. Mommer and I turned and saw that the truck that was going to take Dick to the hospital was over at the store and thought, "oh, lets go over there and see what's up." As I rode up behind the truck, I saw Brian standing at the side of the truck at an open door, then I saw him fall to his knees on the ground at the rear tire. I didn't know what was happening, but as I got off the bike, I realized I had just witnessed a man lose his father right then and there. Words can't describe the thoughts that went through my head.

Mike ( a friend of the family ) came over to confirm... "he passed on" he said. Oh my god... I paced back and forth for several minutes not knowing what to say or do. I looked up as Doug was pulling up with Tami and her bike, and I ran to the window of the truck to tell Tami "the guy died" as quickly as I could before she got out and jumped into this situation without knowing.

fuck.