HadesOmega Rides LA Barstow to Vegas 2016 Ride Report

[HadesOmega]

So like I mentioned in the last post the next section was a repetition of hillclimbs and descent with occasional patches of gravelly sand. Eventually we emerge onto another powerline road. Then the second sand wash attack!

Back on the powerline roads

The hill I just went up and down

Kinda cool riding alongside the powerlines

Then enter the next sand wash section

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG Day 2 Part 3 - Up Down and Around
[youtube]as7j3rkxFJE[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

The next section was the second sand wash. It was much like the last one but it seemed longer, had narrower sections, and had some tight turns that you'd have to slow to a crawl to stay on track. It was very difficult on the Cactus Puncher in some section. Also there was more traffic. If I'm in some sandy stuff I don't want to stop and there were people stopped everywhere and I was passing people. I dropped the bike a few times trying to get around people or slowing down. I'm not confident enough riding in this stuff to pass people also so it was TOUGH. That sand was nasty too, the front tires dig in like a hot knife through butter. This is the test if you can sink or swim through this stuff. I give myself a C maybe C+ through this stuff.

At the end of the ordeal was a rollchart reset and a I took a little break and hung out with the riders.

This guy asked if I wanted to get some picture taken with my camera he snapped a bunch.

The dude with the R1200GSA had this little guy riding with him. Notice all the event stickers he's got on that thing also impressive he's definitely getting his money's worth out of that machine.

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG DAY2 Part 4 - Sand Wash Attack II
[youtube]VnNnDbFwb9k[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

If you watched the previous video at the end I see a DR650 pull up next to me. I got to talking to the rider who I learned his name was Sal from Alameda later on and I actually rode with him the rest of the day also. Sal's DR650SE has the full Cogent Dynamics suspension setup. The Mojave Pro rear shock and DDCs with heavier springs in the front. This is probably the best you can get for the DR650 suspension without doing custom suspension swaps from other bikes. It just cost HELLA $$$$. Sal said he paid $1400 for the whole suspension. I only paid like $1200 when I bought my busted up DR650. When I think about it, it's probably money well spent because of all my headaches trying to tune the suspension myself with all the poorman mods. Till this day I am not happy with my DR650's suspension.

Anyway Sal was generous enough to let me take his bike for a spin so I can see what the difference between my bike and his is. It seriously felt as good as a XR650L suspension but a lighter bike. Kind of like between the XR650 and XR400. I bet this bike would do great on the window rock trail! This VLOG is the conversation we had about the suspension and my quick little test ride on his DR.

HadesOmega LAB2V VLOG Day 2 BONUS - Sal's Cogent Dynamics Tuned DR650SE
[youtube]01MO1HTj34I[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

Next section! The next section I actually missed some of it on camera but I was following this group of riders who were going the WRONG way. We get to this monster hillclimb and I'm like what the hell I gotta go up that? I can see people had already tried and were having trouble. Fortunately I look down at my GPS and I'm off track. So I turn around and get back on track. You can see that here. I actually go off track twice too =P

I finally find out my camera is not recording anymore so I swap out camera #2. The next section is a highspeed gravel section. It's like the dude on the XR650 mentioned it very wide and you'll be tempted to go fast but then a wash will come up. Fortunately it's wide I was able to pass quite a few people. You'll be riding along on a nice graded road then suddenly a dip will come out of nowhere and you'll have to clear it. Then suddenly a deep gravel wash patch will come up and get you all bent outta shape.

The end of that straight gravelly patch section. Then we ride up Troy Road. I found it strange how they have street signed out in the middle of the desert. Also I passed a sign that said Johnson Valley OHV on it.

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG DAY 2 Part 5 - Highspeed Sand Patches
[youtube]04GUwVQd9nc[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

Next section I ride through Troy Road that goes between this valley or canyon. It's full of rocks and pebbles. It's like a pebble wash. Myself and the DR650 actually do very well on this section. It definitely was a workout getting the pig through it. It was kinda narrow though you had to kind of surf around slow riders. There were a lot of people having trouble in this section, maybe they were out of shape or couldn't hang on this stuff. I actually thought this section was fun.

Rocks and more rocks

I took this picture at the last section of this pebble wash. I'm not sure if this is the dude but I remember some guy just goes blazing through this section and you can hear the engine going brap brap braaap and he just be dancing through this stuff like nothing.

Notice that guy dumped his bike back there.

DR650 Rock Hopper!

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG DAY 2 Part 6 - Riding on Marbles
[youtube]7biqPsZ2gR8[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

The next section is a series of VERY tall rolling hills then more sorta sandy valley action. Then a long straight section follows. The hills were super tall but I actually got through them alright why the DRs mighty torque.

Sal the dude on the DR650 passed me on the downhill and I followed him out of the canyon. The DR did pretty good in this section. I stopped and chatted with Sal at the end of the canyon and it turns out he's riding with a group of friends. One of them is riding an XR and he cracked his ribs so he's trying to bailout. So they're trying to get him out. He said I should just ride with them when they catch up. So that's what I planned to do.

I go round a corner and up a hill and it's onto that straight fairly flat section of desert road that goes on forever. I was riding along some dude in a KTM 680 Enduro R and I saw his tailbag/duffel bag come off and go under his fender! I tell him about it real quick and continue on. Then about a mile down I start hearing a noise of some sort. So I stop and find out my crossbar for my side panniers has come off one side. The bolt and nut holding it in are gone. So now I'm in trouble because I forgot to bring any extra nuts and bolts '

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. A sweep comes by and I know I've wasted too much time. Besides that he didn't have any extra bolts on him. His suggestion was to ziptie it. It was about 10 miles till we hit the pavement. I had thought about doing that but only as a last resort. So he moves on and I break out the zip ties. I zip tie it on as best as I can and Sal pulls up next to me. Luckily he has some bolts and nuts with him. We find something that works, it's a little smaller than it should be but it does the trick. I bolt it up and I'm on my way!

Desert Road for miles! Look at the duststorm we're making

I kind of put it back on this picture but the left bolt has come loose

Getting more and more behind.

Nice pose, this is actually one of Sal's riding buddies and I ride with him later.

Here's my first attempt at fixing the problem ZIPTIES! I had actually thought about taking the cross bar out all together but that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Who knows how long this would have held but luckily Sal came by and hooked my up with a bolt.

Stuck out in the desert might as well take a picture.

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG Day 2 Part 7 - Highspeed Rolling Hills
[youtube]Z8DJ6b4S6s0[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

So Sal has come to the rescue and had a bolt I could use to mend my rack. I hop back on the Cactus Puncher and blast down the rest of this straight road. Sal no far ahead we make a right turn and head down a kinda sandy and whooopy section. Then not far from there is a kind of twisty powerline section. It was highspeed and fun but high dust as well. I was now riding with Sal and his buddies and we were kicking up a lotta dust. Strange the are around the powerlines whats full of black rocks and stuff. Like the earth had been scorched or something. Then we finally made it to the slab on 40.

Strangely enough the guy I met earlier on the R1200GSA was there before us.

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG DAY2 Part 8 - To the Slab!
[youtube]RRBlC95QfgI[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

So we made it back to the slab. Sal's other 2 buddies were going to bail. One of them had broken ribs and the other one didn't want to slab it because of something with his bike, maybe it was because he had a new engine or something. So the plan was to head back to Barstow and then head to Baker. Now I'm realizing that there was another bailout. We could have gone the other way and taken Kellbaker road through Mojave Preserve and I think it mentions that on the rollchart. On the rollchart it literally tells you if you have an adventure bike the next section had LOTS OF DEEP SAND and to take the bailout route. Maybe Sal didn't know that but his buddies needed to head back to Barstow anyway.

I was also chatting with Sal's buddy on the KTM and he mentioned they went on a long ride in Canada one time where they rode on this kinda abandoned railroad where they took all the tracks out. They rode on it and camped along the way. That sounds like it would be a fun ride I'll have to look in to it.

So you can see here what I'm talking about. If you see where the dirt ends on the map here. If we headed to the right instead of the left on the map there is a road called Kellbaker Road (I know because when I did my Yosemite Death Valley Trip I rode it) and it would take us to Baker through Mojave Preserve.

At anyrate we went back to Barstow taking the 40 here.

In Barstow we refueled and prepped for the long slab ride to Baker. It was about 80 miles!

Sal lent me his backup poncho as I had left my wind liner at home and it worked, it kept the wind from getting through the jacket and making me freeze. Then after a while we eventually made it to Baker. I would also like to mention we saw many other LAB2V riders along the way so we were not the only ones having problems. I guess it's all part of the adventure right?

At the world largest thermometer Sal's wife (at least I think she was his wife) was there waiting for us. She had a BIG pickup truck too. So with Sal intent on riding Red Rock Canyon we loaded the bikes up in the truck and she took us to Sandy Valley Elementary the next check point. We drove into Nevada to about Prim and headed to Sandy Valley from there. We ran into a lotta traffic at Prim because of Thanksgiving travellers. It felt like we were cheating but at least I got a take a break and eat some snacks along the way. We also saw many LAB2V riders on the hwy15 and they were going superslow. Dem little dualsports can really only go like 50mph or so, so they were creating traffic.

At the Circle K getting snacks and fuel before heading out to Baker.

 

[HadesOmega]

Here we are at Sandy Valley Elementary school. When we got here they gave us 1 gallon of gasoline because there was no fill up point in Sandy Valley I guess. That 1 gallon would be enough to take riders to the final checkpoint at the Orleans in Las Vegas. We didn't really need it since we just took the slab to Baker and trucked it but I took it anyway FREE GAS! That's how organized this event was they arrange to have a fuel truck give us gas to finish the route. Another thing we needed to do when we got there was to have our bikes washed. They just kinda sprayed the wheels and the bottom of the bikes. This way you wouldn't bring anything from one part of the desert to another and cross contaminate stuff. This was also the lunchstop but we were pretty late and we had snacks along the way. They had lunch sandwiches for us =) but we just took off.

This is the room where they were giving out the lunches

Ok me and Sal head out to ride Red Rock Canyon. Unfortunately the HARD route was closed because we ran out of time. They closed it so people wouldn't get stuck there in the dark. That's what the checkpoint told us. Now we were kinda confused where to go. We should have checked the map before we left and had a better plan. But what we wound up doing is take the bailout road to the entrance of the red rock canyon hard route and was told we couldn't enter because like they said it was closed There was a dude there and he told us our bikes were too big for it also. He said he was a pro rider and he said he would have difficultly riding there. So I guess it was best that I didn't go. They said stuff about boulders, silt, and singletrack. They said a lot of people were having trouble also. If those are your ideas of fun you should do it. For Sal that was his game but it was too late. So we hit the slab to vegas. Also the bailout road from Sandy Valley to the freeway was a very wide gravel road. We rode down that thing at speeds of up to 70 MPH. It was very easy though and kinda boring.

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega's LAB2V VLOG DAY2 Part 9 - Bail Out Time!
[youtube]_z59MBW9VnU[/youtube]

 

[HadesOmega]

We are now heading to the Orleans in Las Vegas now after having been rejected from entering Red Rock canyon hard route. So pretty much our dirt riding for the day was DONE. It was about a 12 mile ride down the freeway into Las Vegas and to the Orleans. I vlog about my LAB2V experiences along the way, I will post that video later. We also pass by where the easy route spits you out. The whole area we were in was red rock canyon I believe. I wish we would have at least rode the easy route out. But we made a navigation error and that was that.

After what seems like forever we reach the Orleans right before it gets totally dark. So I guess we kinda timed it right. It feels kinda strange how we were riding out in the desert not long ago and now we're surrounded by cars on the way to a casino.

The finish was at the parking garage. I passed through the sign for the final checkpoint and the lady told me where to go for the showgirl photos and the banquet info. Sal had to take off to go to a dinner elsewhere so I bid him farewell.

In line for the showgirl photo.

Yeah finished LAB2V, not how I wanted but I did it.

Picture near the finish. Everyone's luggage is to the right. I'd have to pick mine up later because I have to find a way to get home now.

At the banquet later that night. They had quite the raffle goodies. I think I bought $20 worth of tickets and won one item. I was talking to this one lady and her son got injured during LAB2V and I thought back to that guy that had to be ridden to the slab 2up. Makes you think doing this stuff is really dangerous.

After the banquet the Cactus Puncher is loaded up and ready to roll out. So what my plan was now since I didn't have a ride back to Palmdale was to visit a friend in Las Vegas for a day. Supposedly it was gonna rain the next day also. Then I was going to head back on route 66. What an adventure that was! I will create a separate ride report for that and the rides I did after. But for now LAB2V COMPLETE!

Parking lot full of trucks with dual sports all loaded up

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega LAB2V Day 2 Final VLOG
[youtube]wQEnI2a12qk[/youtube]

 

[berth]

Sounds like it was a great trip. Too bad you had so much slab in the end. Considering how much slab you did, and still barely made the finish by dark, did the others get a really early start?

Anyway, sounded like fun.

Thanks for the report!

 

[HadesOmega]

Sounds like it was a great trip. Too bad you had so much slab in the end. Considering how much slab you did, and still barely made the finish by dark, did the others get a really early start?

Anyway, sounded like fun.

Thanks for the report!

You know what I don't know haha. Even on the bailouts we did run into quite a few riders. So we weren't the only ones having trouble. The first day even though I thought I did bad I almost finish it like 75%. The 2nd day however was like maybe 40% of the dirt sections. I got a really good start on the 2nd day (I think the key was eating breakfast also), but remember in the beginning I said like half the bikes were there, so I assume most of the riders took off while it was still dark OR they skipped the first dirty section and just rode straight to Baker. I heard quite a few people talking about bailing out straight to baker in the morning, that's because Red Rock Canyon is a very epic place to ride and if you couldn't ride the rest of the sections you should try your best to ride Red Rock.

Also I'm one of those riders that like to stop and takes pictures and video so that didn't help. Then when I stop and there are riders around I start chatting with them. Then you get held up on sections where there are a bunch of riders stacked up trying to clear a difficult section. So I think if you want to be one of the top finishers you gotta ride fast in front of everyone at a decent pace and not stop often.

I'll have to find the rider packet somewhere but Day 1 was like about 180 miles and day 2 was like 200+ miles like 250 miles. Day 2 was simply insane. Also at the banquet they mentioned that this was the LONGEST LAB2V they've ever had because people wanted it to be harder haha. As if it wasn't hard enough haha!

I have to say though the 2nd day's dirt was a lot of fun especially that marble section in Johnson Valley it was a tough to ride but I had a lot of fun riding that stuff and passing people haha.