Kings of the West: Riding and Camping Event

[notmybikemodelname]

Here was my basic plan that I came up with on Dec 19th, 2009 while imbibing some pre-holiday cheer. Also known as what I do every day:

Get a bunch of crazy FF"S together and have our own mini Dakar-style rally right here in the U.S.

The general idea was to start "somewhere in California, sometime in late 2010" and ride to somewhere else and cover 1500 miles in four days.

This was not supposed to be your typical dual sport rally with no particular time to be in any particular place. This was afterall, a Riding And Camping Event, a modern day dirt version of Cannonball Run.

It took no time at all to get people interested. We allowed 35 people to sign up and had a waiting list of over 10 at one point. In the end, we had 25 starters on Sept 29th 2010.

Riders:

1. Trailtrick (Javier) KTM 552................................................... .............
2. Razr (Charles) KTM 525............................................... ....................
3. Punkenduro (Pat) Kawi KLX250............................................ ................DNS
4. Herrhelmet (Jim) BMW Dakar WP'd.............................................. ... ..DNS (Support)
5. Me (Rob) BMW Yamakar........................................... .......................DNS (Support)
6. FORE! (Scott) KTM 950 SE-R............................... New Mexico.............
7. Johnny_5 (Megan) KTM 690................................Arizona...................
8. BouncingBilly (Billy) ??????............................................ .......... ........DNS
9. Hilslamer (Tim).KTM 990 A.............................Arizona.....................
10. Brent347 (?Brent?) KTM 660 Rallye............................................ ........
11. Traveltoad (Aaron) KTM 950 SE.................................................. ........DNS
12. Dunerat (Noel) KTM 950 SE ???............................................... ..........DNS
13. Mattomoto (Matt) BMW Yamakar .......................COLORADO!!!...........DNS
14. Toast KTM 690R, possibly a 950SE............................................. . .
15. Baja Joe (Joe) Honda XR650R............................................ ...............
16. XRJohnny (John) XR650 R............................................NorCal ........
17. Sandrat KTM 690R...........................................New Mexico!!............
18. Dirty Duane (Duane) Either an XR400R ..............................................
19. Broken Spoke (Gary) KTM 530............................................... ..........
20. WallyWhirled Husky TE610............................................. .................
21. Crawdaddy (Chris) Yamaha WR250R............................................ .....
22. Cpt. Ron (Ron)XR650 R.............................................. ....................
23. Never.Ride KTM 450.................................COLORADO !!!....................DNS
24. Strega (Roger) KTM 620 Adv............................................... ............DNS
25. Trick17 ??? KTM 950A.............................................. ......................
26. Rruugger (John) KTM 640A.............................................. ...........
27. SITO (Lewis) KTM 690............................................... .....................DNS
28. CA Stu (Stu) KLR 650............................................... ......................
29. Yzlvr (Eric) KTM 525............................................... ......................
30. Sandrat Dad KTM 950 SE-R............................New Mexico!!!..............DNS
31. Cross-Country (Tony) KTM 950SE-R..................NEW MEXICO!!! ..........
32. Rev Kiecker, (Mark) BMW X-Challenge......................................... .......
33. Foul Plug, (Chris) BMW F800.............................................. ..........
34. Unaweep, (Jim) KTM 950SE.......................COLORADO! .................
35. Henrikbuus, (Henrik) XR650R............................................ ...........

UPDATE: Here are all of the final results.













[/quote]
For the full story from beginning to end, you can go here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535024

I and the riders will post up some images, stories and videos here. One thing that no one ON THIS EPIC ride will dispute: THIS WAS THE GREATEST AND LONGEST NON-RACE TO EVER NOT TAKE PLACE IN THE U.S.

Sept 29th, Day 1 Start somehwere in the mountians above Mojave, CA



Sept 30th, Day 2 about three miles off the start somwhere in Nevada.



After a full day of rest. Here's some great Day 3 C-1 video taken somewhere in Utah.

Originally Posted by Cpt. Ron

The night before the start. Real men grill on a truck rack:





Not a lot of time to stop for pics.





Warm Springs Mine, after refreshing myself at the spring. My wife says I look like shit. She should have seen me before....





On the latter half of day 1, I spent a lot of time alone.





50-ish miles from the end of day 1, and the Tubliss inner bladder failed. Haven't figured out why yet.





Yes, it's a dualsport ride. Amazingly, after a few miles of asphalt, I start begging for more sand and rocks to get my ass out of the seat. I can only stand so long at 65-mph...




The views at the end of day 2 were well worth the effort to get here.




This has been quite an adventure for all involved. Stories of woe and victory, pleasure and pain. I'll never forget this one. Time to go change tires and wheels.

Originally Posted by notmybikemodelname

Yzlvr riding #2 off the start at the 14/Dove Springs crossing.

Razr riding strong about 20 miles into the event


Sircrashalot (Ruugger) on the gas at the 14 and Dove Springs crossing


Toast on Ruuggers ass and not letting the dust get to him.


Johnny5 (Megan) showing her smooth style that kept her in the top 8 the first two days.

Dirty Duane on the gas.

Lots of dust hanging over the 14 at 7:00am on Wednesday


XRJohnny entering the fog

Ben, the proprietor of the Muddy River Bar and Grill in Moapa. Great guy.

Don Grady, the man who put us up for th night in Moapa. This guy is great and would welcome a vist from any ADV'r. He's got a great bar in his house.

Don, Me and Ben at the Muddy River.

No explanation needed

The feeding frenzy getting a start.

Margy's and beers with Mexican food, what else?

Don Grady's front yard/rider slum/super comfy sleeping area.

Don's driveway full of rider bikes.

CaStu taking his pack over to the motel that he opted for after 380 miles of riding.



Checkpoint 1 just outside of Mesquite on day 2. Lots of late riders thru here due the THE HILL CLIMB that I served up to everyone.

Baja Joe, one of the ealry one's thru C-1.

Keith and Justin manning C-1, and Baja Joe making sure no one was coimng thru the pass behind him.


Cpt Ron on Leg 2

Typical Nevada terrain

Brents347 showing his style coming into C-1


Keith (Airborndad) diligently at his post. THis guy was indispensible throughout the planning and the ride.


Exiting Pinto Rd outside Enterprise, UT.

We caught up to Broken Spoke (Gary) on the pavement transit into Cedar City.

Keith (Airborndad) manning C-4 in style under his mister-equipped EZ Up.

Brian Head colors

Looking down into Brian Head from the finish of Leg 2

Looking up at Brian Head peak, the place of our Sundown Pizza/beer bash on Friday night.

Cross-Country (Tony) coming into the Leg 2 finish.

17 year old Sandrat (Garret) right on Cross-Country's ass. This kid is a strong fluid rider.

Javi, crusing into the LEg2 finish after 3 flats and a trip into Mesquite ot pick up some Bib Mousse.

Crawdaddy (Chris) was in the top 3 almost all day of Leg 2, until he couldn't resist the Brian Head beauty and stopped for pictures.

The man of Leg 1, HenrikBuus was over 35 minutes in front of the next person at C-1 on Leg 2. He started in second to last position. He later lost his first position when he blew his knobbies off his rear tire and went into Mesquite to have a new skin shoe'd on.

Cedar Break's Ldge parking lot as riders are arriving.

Cocktail hour begins.

Shit talking.

More shit talking.

A pretty impressive lie up of machines.


Hovering around one of the beer filled ice chests.

Laughing about trail shit.

Wow! those are some nice jerseys.


The Dane, HenrikBuus and Rev Kiecker. Two very strong riders.

Broken Spoke giving the covert ADV salute.


The inside of KotW mobile command. Sat phone, GPS, Spot and checkpoinnt records.

Report this

[notmybikemodelname]

Report this

tbarstow

View Public Profile

Send a private message to tbarstow

Send email to tbarstow

Find More Posts by tbarstow

Add tbarstow to Your Buddy List

tbarstow
Two-wheelin' Fool



Joined: Jul 2007
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain, So Cal
Oddometer: 1,151

[NSFW]

this is a good one....


epic and collosal undertaking....great job rob....

[Baja Ho]

Great opening video and pics more please.

[Crawdaddy]

I was the oldest rider on the smallest displacement bike and the only Yamaha........and I had a blast

Rob – Outstanding job pulling this thing together…….I didn’t have a true appreciation for all of the logistical B.S. until I showed up to the event……..

Javier/Jim – thanks for opening your properties to us…….just two examples of the great folks who pitched in to make this Riding And Camping Event such a blast…..

Volunteers/Support – WOW, you folks worked your butts off and really took care of us…..thanks so much…….

A true tale of the Tortoise and the Hare(s)……..no spills, flats, or bike maintenance issues allowed me to get ahead of the bigger/faster bikes (AKA, everyone else ) in a few places…….I can’t out run’em, but the little bike can chug along at a sustained ~60-70mph all day (top speed was 82mph) and slip right past some of’em in the deep washes, whoops, technical areas…..or when they were changing tubes




I obviously didn’t show up with the fastest bike………my strategy was all about pacing myself and picking off the bigger bikes when the opportunities presented themselves ……..the best moment of the ride (for me) came on Day 2 leaving Moapa…….there was a steep/slippery climb early in the ride that was giving some of the big/pig bikes fits…….many started looking for alternative paths around the hill because they couldn’t make the climb……..it was no sweat on the WR250R with trials tires……..I felt like I was cheating ………I went right up and never looked back which allowed me to get out in front of most of the riders……..I was running in 2^nd place for most of the day but then stopped a bit too long in Enterprise, UT. to gas/snack and got passed up by a few riders that had monster tanks and didn’t need gas………I also stopped a few times to snap pics up near Brianhead rather than focusing……..if I had kept myself in “Riding And Camping Event” mode (a different/new mindset for this old trail rider) I might’ve placed higher on leg 2 because the leader wound up getting a front flat………oh well, whatever, my primary goal was to finish this dumb-ass event……and I did just that……..we only had 16(?) riders at the start line yesterday……..lot’s of attrition due to bike/physical difficulties…….

On the rest day, a lot of riders were changing tires, repairing their bikes/bodies, etc…………I cleaned my air filter and had a beer



My biggest “bike issue” had nothing to do with the bike………..I started the ride with too much weight in my tail bag………..I launched it through whoops a couple of times on day 1 and once on day 2……….on the first day I didn’t know it was gone until Unaweep told me……….then I had to backtrack 7 miles through deep/sandy whoops in Teagle Wash by Trona to recover it (since my truck keys were in it!)…….so riding 21 miles of sandy/wash whoops versus the 7 that everyone else rode really set me back on leg 1)

Pretty big mileage days………no sweat on the WR250R......already sent in a deposit for "The Remix" - let's ride!

[notmybikemodelname]

Originally Posted by Baja Ho

Great opening video and pics more please.

For the whole thing from conception to finish go here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535024

There are more stories, pics and vids being uploaded many times daily.

[Ben99r1]

Some said it could not be done. Good job everyone. Glad to hear reports that everyone is going to heal up. Ben

[BiggieFalls]

I think it was Brent who said that as his mind and bike were wandering through the desert, they went down these side roads

[notmybikemodelname]

Originally Posted by BiggieFalls

I think it was Brent who said that as his mind and bike were wandering through the desert, they went down these side roads

No Shit, Huh?

That's how I felt leaving Utah

Here we are entering an unnamed town in an unnamed state

[mattomoto]

The pics and video are awesome!

Subscribed!

Matto

[herrhelmet]

Matt lets meet up in Utah... do some riding... your TE would love it, especially since it's probably jetted for High Alt.

By how much time everyones wasting, obviously hard to plant back into reality...

[herrhelmet]

After the dust literally settles plan on using the official KOTW site which will be new and improved with better forums to allow emoticons and photo/video embedding plus all the info. Still top secret stuff password protected and information on a need to know basis.

Thats how we should roll. So if you have some stories to tell, or already told them in the Regional forums or want to cover both please keep 'em coming.

[GB]

Wow, that's quite the gathering...

[notmybikemodelname]

Originally Posted by Gadget Boy

Wow, that's quite the gathering...

Yes it was! A lot of talent out there.

[reBARman]

Epic!!!!