HadesOmega
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
- Location
- San Jose
- Moto(s)
- Empulse TT (RIP),
ZR7 (Sold), DR650, KLR650, 750 Turbo, Light Bee MX, KLX140L
Super Cub
Redshift SM
- Name
- Merlin
Introduction
This year I didn't enter any dual sport events at all, I planned to ride LA Barstow to Vegas this year to check it off my bucket list. If you don't know what LAB2V is, it's like one of the largest dual sport events in the world, riders from all over come flocking to the deserts of California and Nevada to ride this thing. It is no joke the staff is huge, the rider count is huge, and the course is HUGE! The event is held by AMA District 37 and this is the 33rd event. It's a LONG ride with over 400 miles of dirt, sand, sand washes, gravel, rocks, boulders, hill climbs, hill descents, pavement, EARTH! This is the hardest dual sport event I have ever entered. I've done Yosemite Dual Sport twice and Sheetiron 300. The sheer amount of miles is just nuts. Also if you are a desert riding noob this is not the event for you, it's like almost all desert and SAND. I have experience riding in Death Valley and Baja and it was still tough for me. When the rollchart says for Intermediate to Advanced riders its not joking! It's not one of those events where you can just willy nilly take your sweet time and smell the roses and you know me I love to take pictures. You need to keep moving if you want to clear the course before it gets dark. Since it's so late in the year there is less daylight as well. Since it's late in the year its FREAKIN cold, it gets cold in the desert like freezing cold. So you need to bring sniffle gear. I can't remember how many times I had to turn those heated grips on.
The bike
So I trailered the Cactus Puncher DR650 to LAB2V to the town of Palmdale, which is north of LA. I hadn't had ridden the DR650 in any kind of major event since BARF Baja 2016. For this event you would do best on as light a machine as you can bring and well you know me and the Cactus Puncher I try to bring all sorts of junk on it. I tried to make it as light as I could. There was no Mr. Snail shell duffel bag because they haul your luggage. I carried my backpack with me on the tailrack. I had a rotopax, tank panniers, and my mechanic bag pannier and I think that was too much. There are some tough hillclimbs and descents and having a heavy bike is not good for those. There were sections where I would see large adventure bikes like a R1200GSA riding the opposite direction from the route. I was wondering why well it's because there was an obstacle that would be very tough to clear on a big bike coming up. Never had I felt in a dual sport event that man I wish I had a lighter bike so much then at this event. So unless you want a really tough challenge you'd best bring a light, medium, or a heavy dual sport bike that you can pick up. Now there were all sorts of bikes at the event. Vintage Triumphs, CB750 scrambler, Ural sidecars, and some other crazy contraptions like a honda trike. I felt the DR was a little too heavy for LAB2V it would need to go on a diet to do better, it just saps your endurance. But here's the kicker. You need a bike that can pound out some pavement miles as well. I've never done a dual sport event where you had to ride down the freeway like 10 miles to get to the next dirt section. These were long straight stretches of road. At least other events when I hit slab it was fun twisty stuff. If you do a bailout also your gonna ride long stretches of pavement. So you need something that can ride at least 55mph for a good distance. So I feel the adventure bike dudes kinda get shafted at this event because if they can't clear the beginner errr intermediate all routes they have to go back and take a whole lotta slab to go around it. So that's another reason I don't recommend a large bike. But if your awesome go for it!
artyarty
Logistics
LAB2V has like the worst logistics of all dual sports events I've gone to. You need to somehow make it to Palmdale and I chose to trailer the bike because I didn't want to destroy my knobbies riding there. So there's that but then when you get to Palmdale you ride to Barstow for Day 1 then Day 2 your ride to Las Vegas. Then THE END what now? My trailer is 400+ miles away, you need to find someway to get back. So a lotta people had chase trucks, get rides from other people, or in my case ride back.
Also it's not cheap it's the most expensive dual sport event I've entered and for good reason, its a HUGE event. The amount of staff, sweeps, check points, and events are just mind boggling. It's a huge event did I mention that already? They even had a fuel truck waiting for us to fill our bikes at one of the check points so you can make it through the next section because there's no where else to get fuel. So yeah it cost about $200 to enter AND you MUST be an AMA member. So I had to get an AMA membership so I'm an AMA member now. That adds to the cost. Then there's hotels and stuff if you so choose. So yeah it's a tough event to do solo. Plus they make you ride with other people if your alone, supposedly but I still rode alone and I just follow people as I went along.
Navigation
Navigation is Roll chart so dust off that old roll chart holder. It was fairly easy to follow. But here's the awesome part they have GPS tracks available also. So you have 2 forms of navigation I guess 3 if you can count google maps. They say the rollchart is what you should use primarily but I did it the other way around. I used the GPS tracks first then double check with the roll chart second. It works out pretty well because you can double check that way and the rollchart has numbers to verify stuff. However there was one error that in the route notes says was wrong with the roll chart and had I not had a GPS I would be lost in the well.. desert. So make sure you have a GPS and know how to use it or at least have a buddy with one. Also many times I would blow past turns and have to turn around because I wouldn't look at the GPS or rollchart. For the most part you can follow people also, just look for that dust cloud haha. But I found on some occasions I was all alone so you gotta NAVIGATE! LANDNAV!
This year I didn't enter any dual sport events at all, I planned to ride LA Barstow to Vegas this year to check it off my bucket list. If you don't know what LAB2V is, it's like one of the largest dual sport events in the world, riders from all over come flocking to the deserts of California and Nevada to ride this thing. It is no joke the staff is huge, the rider count is huge, and the course is HUGE! The event is held by AMA District 37 and this is the 33rd event. It's a LONG ride with over 400 miles of dirt, sand, sand washes, gravel, rocks, boulders, hill climbs, hill descents, pavement, EARTH! This is the hardest dual sport event I have ever entered. I've done Yosemite Dual Sport twice and Sheetiron 300. The sheer amount of miles is just nuts. Also if you are a desert riding noob this is not the event for you, it's like almost all desert and SAND. I have experience riding in Death Valley and Baja and it was still tough for me. When the rollchart says for Intermediate to Advanced riders its not joking! It's not one of those events where you can just willy nilly take your sweet time and smell the roses and you know me I love to take pictures. You need to keep moving if you want to clear the course before it gets dark. Since it's so late in the year there is less daylight as well. Since it's late in the year its FREAKIN cold, it gets cold in the desert like freezing cold. So you need to bring sniffle gear. I can't remember how many times I had to turn those heated grips on.
The bike
So I trailered the Cactus Puncher DR650 to LAB2V to the town of Palmdale, which is north of LA. I hadn't had ridden the DR650 in any kind of major event since BARF Baja 2016. For this event you would do best on as light a machine as you can bring and well you know me and the Cactus Puncher I try to bring all sorts of junk on it. I tried to make it as light as I could. There was no Mr. Snail shell duffel bag because they haul your luggage. I carried my backpack with me on the tailrack. I had a rotopax, tank panniers, and my mechanic bag pannier and I think that was too much. There are some tough hillclimbs and descents and having a heavy bike is not good for those. There were sections where I would see large adventure bikes like a R1200GSA riding the opposite direction from the route. I was wondering why well it's because there was an obstacle that would be very tough to clear on a big bike coming up. Never had I felt in a dual sport event that man I wish I had a lighter bike so much then at this event. So unless you want a really tough challenge you'd best bring a light, medium, or a heavy dual sport bike that you can pick up. Now there were all sorts of bikes at the event. Vintage Triumphs, CB750 scrambler, Ural sidecars, and some other crazy contraptions like a honda trike. I felt the DR was a little too heavy for LAB2V it would need to go on a diet to do better, it just saps your endurance. But here's the kicker. You need a bike that can pound out some pavement miles as well. I've never done a dual sport event where you had to ride down the freeway like 10 miles to get to the next dirt section. These were long straight stretches of road. At least other events when I hit slab it was fun twisty stuff. If you do a bailout also your gonna ride long stretches of pavement. So you need something that can ride at least 55mph for a good distance. So I feel the adventure bike dudes kinda get shafted at this event because if they can't clear the beginner errr intermediate all routes they have to go back and take a whole lotta slab to go around it. So that's another reason I don't recommend a large bike. But if your awesome go for it!
artyartyLogistics
LAB2V has like the worst logistics of all dual sports events I've gone to. You need to somehow make it to Palmdale and I chose to trailer the bike because I didn't want to destroy my knobbies riding there. So there's that but then when you get to Palmdale you ride to Barstow for Day 1 then Day 2 your ride to Las Vegas. Then THE END what now? My trailer is 400+ miles away, you need to find someway to get back. So a lotta people had chase trucks, get rides from other people, or in my case ride back.
Also it's not cheap it's the most expensive dual sport event I've entered and for good reason, its a HUGE event. The amount of staff, sweeps, check points, and events are just mind boggling. It's a huge event did I mention that already? They even had a fuel truck waiting for us to fill our bikes at one of the check points so you can make it through the next section because there's no where else to get fuel. So yeah it cost about $200 to enter AND you MUST be an AMA member. So I had to get an AMA membership so I'm an AMA member now. That adds to the cost. Then there's hotels and stuff if you so choose. So yeah it's a tough event to do solo. Plus they make you ride with other people if your alone, supposedly but I still rode alone and I just follow people as I went along.
Navigation
Navigation is Roll chart so dust off that old roll chart holder. It was fairly easy to follow. But here's the awesome part they have GPS tracks available also. So you have 2 forms of navigation I guess 3 if you can count google maps. They say the rollchart is what you should use primarily but I did it the other way around. I used the GPS tracks first then double check with the roll chart second. It works out pretty well because you can double check that way and the rollchart has numbers to verify stuff. However there was one error that in the route notes says was wrong with the roll chart and had I not had a GPS I would be lost in the well.. desert. So make sure you have a GPS and know how to use it or at least have a buddy with one. Also many times I would blow past turns and have to turn around because I wouldn't look at the GPS or rollchart. For the most part you can follow people also, just look for that dust cloud haha. But I found on some occasions I was all alone so you gotta NAVIGATE! LANDNAV!
