HotRod82

I know we had a thread about this in the past but I wanted to share my new hook up for getting rid of tires. Ramos Tire at 210 Cypress in El Cajon. $1.00 each (car tires are $2). Super friendly and eager to help, although they do prefer exact change.

Death Valley 2014

Favorite shot from this year - YumaAdam near Hidden Shores

Dang it , I'd like to jump in on this with the weather cooperating like it is but Sunday is booked. Sometimes I hate being a responsible adult.

Dang it! Just saw this I would have gone for sure. I really need to check this page more often.

Lurking.....

Me and YumaAdam (board member from Canada) ran into that same mudhole a few months ago. I was leading and stopped to survey the situation, Adam said something like "we don't stop for mud in Canada" and went straight into the seat-deep water. Somehow his bike stayed running and he made it through, of course I had no choice but to follow. Good times. I hope you washed your bike off quickly because that mud is full of salt and really tough on bikes.

completely jealous.

Our usual group of misfits had been planning a run to the abandoned AF base for some time, finally, we found ourselves in Barstow preparing for a weekend of adventure. We decided to leave the RV's at home and stay at the Hampton Inn on outlet center drive. This ride would be a little different in that we had some youngsters with us on non-plated bikes. I can tell you it adds a whole different element to routes and logistics as the slab is always our "bail out". Anytime we couldn't connect a trail or needed fuel, we would just jump on the road and use the tarmac to make it all work. This trip, not having that option made it interesting to say the least. We headed out of San Diego early Saturday morning and were on our bikes by 1100 hours. We headed South and pulled a nice long 80 mile loop through the open OHV area in and around Stoddard Wells. I hadn't been in this area for some time, lots of great trails with fun hill climbs everywhere. We looped around to the East heading for Slash X Cafe for an early dinner. Approaching Slash X, I thought my bike was sounding a little off and within 10 minutes of first suspecting something was wrong I had developed a noticable rod knock. I pressed on to Slash X and was glad to see the place was crowded. We enjoyed our dinner while recapping the days ride....lots of fun had by all but we all noticed the high volume of SxS traffic. An alarming amount of that traffic on the wrong side of the road. My bike made it back to the hotel but was obviously done for the weekend. Sunday morning I relegated myself to chase truck duties, hauling fuel and luggage for everyone. The largely unplanned route would take the guys who still had running bikes west out of Barstow through the single track routes into Kramer Junction. I met up with the gang at Kramer Jct where we grabbed a sandwich and fueled bikes. Getting the non-plated guys across Hwy 58 was a challenge, I found a trail at one of the few legal places to cross and led everyone to the trail to Boron. I had some fun in my big Dodge, locking in the hubs and plowing through the mudholes. I was pretty light on the picture taking but I did snap a few. There are still lots of open routes up there, I hope it stays that way. We now have really good all dirt routes all the way from Big Bear to Bartsow to Cal City and Death Valley. Fueling bikes at Kramer's Radar dome at Boron Buck at one of the abandoned hangars Dominic on his very new DR. He did well keeping up except in the sand which he wisely bypassed. The scum of Barstow tried to steal his DR Sunday night. He came out to his truck to find his bike untied and leaned over. They either didn't see the cable throgh the frame or got spooked off. I hate thieves. Larry, Moe, and Curly The gang. Big props to Cody for more than keeping up on his little KX80. All in all, a great weekend even though my 525 expired. After 12,000 hard miles (one top end) I'm retiring the old girl...I already picked up my new 2016 500 EXC.

I'm joining up with Adam (our Canadian boardmember) along with two others on Tuesday 2/2 and running up to Parker. After way too much food and several cocktails we'll stay at the Best Western and return home on Wed 2/3. Adam and I have expanded this route after several trips and now have several options so it's not a simple up and back on the same track. We have also whittled the slab down to just a few miles, where previously we had been running about 30 miles of tarmac each way. Should anyone be interested, I have room in my truck for the drive out to Yuma. We have a spare room already reserved which will run you $100ish for the night. Mileage for each day is about 180, the pace is intermediate, nothing crazy. You just need to be able to keep moving and be in good enough shape for two full days on the bike. Fun, low key, zero stress group, join us!

I'm probably in but I'll be on 4 wheels instead of 2. My bike is down with a broken rear hub so I'll take the prerunner instead. If anyone needs anything hauled out there give me a shout. I'd be glad to haul a full size cooler. We can have a fire in the park but we need a metal container correct?

I'd be there if I didn't have a holiday party the same day. Thx for posting though.

Definite maybe.

Whoever drew the new closure map was out to get the duners, IMO pissed off about Glamis being re-opened. As soon as I heard of the new closures I took my buggy down to have a look, the signs are so confusing it's nearly impossible to stay out of the closed areas. You would think they would draw a straight line and sign it off but the signs are everywhere pointing in different directions. To top it off, the big hills and bowls are closed while the valleys (where the vegetation grows) are wide open. I honestly believe the boundaries were drawn this way intentionally so riders would "violate" them triggering more closures.

Long time water wetter user here, I use it in all my high performance stuff. Never had an issue. One thing I have learned from a little research is a 50/50 glycol and water mix is the worst at dissipating heat, much worse than straight water. Glycol raises the boiling point but lessens the heat absorption capabilities of water. That said, it's only an issue if you have a bike that tends to overheat.....

I'm hoping to make this one...

I need a handyman or contractor to do some small jobs around my house. Some tile work, painting, etc. Any recommendations? I'm in east county. Feel free to PM....thx!

9/12/15 - Finally somewhere new to ride! Chris, Buck, and I have been talking about Utah for quite sometime now and finally the stars, along with our schedules, aligned. We loaded up Saturday AM and headed for Beaver Utah. We made the mistake of stopping at Chapparrell in Riverside, as most of you know this place is one of the few remaining shops with a huge inventory of bikes and gear. An hour and many hundreds of dollars later, we were back on the road. Somehow, we timed it perfectly and had no traffic in the IE or Vegas, which meant we got to Beaver nice and early to find out just how little there is to do there. Tiny, Tiny, little town with friendly people and unlimited riding opportunities. Grabbed some Mexican food for dinner - insert inappropriate joke here. Yes, really. Early Sunday AM we geared up and hit the trail. Our intentions were to seek out the Paiute ATV trail and head north about 150 miles and stay in Salina for the night. Early AM headed East. We reached the secondary trailhead which would lead us to the main trail, a good start so we were off and running. This is a dedicated 50" trail that immediately became technical and was slow going, about a 15mph average. 50" trails can be challenging, they are a miniature two track with a hump in the middle which forces you to one side of the trail or the other. We did some tricky moves getting through and around the trees and rocks. Lots of climbing, rocks, water, and steep switchbacks for over 40 miles. The day was going by quick and we were over 100 miles from our hotel. We sniffed out a service road which got us into the town of Junction. The gas station here has a really cool self serve hamburger broiler with fresh condiments, a tasty surprise. We fuel up and hit the trail again, thankfully it opened up a bit and we were able to click off some miles. The weather was perfect, about 70, although we did get dumped on a couple times. With the heat wave at home and nothing but desert riding lately, we were loving it. With scenery like this, what's not to love? We decended back down out of the hills into the town of Koosharem looking for some fuel only to find the single station in town was closed. We looked at the very dark, threatening sky and decided to slab it the 25 miles or so into Salina. We scored some good food, pushed our bikes into our rooms and turned in. We were looking at a bigger day Monday with about 175 miles back to the truck. Up early, off and running again. We decided to shortcut the ATV trail as we did not think we could make it through the long black diamond areas in time, based on what we rode the day before. The navigation is tough through Salina and working south toward Richfield, the little cow symbol identifying the Piaute trail can be hard to spot on the signs and fenceposts. We freelanced it and met back up with the trail a little further South. We then started climbing, and climbing, and CLIMBING. We climbed a total of 19,000 feet total with a max elevation of over 11,000 feet. My 525 felt like a moped up there. Up at the treeline, a brisk 40 degrees. Back down into Beaver, lots of deer through this area, you had to be on your toes! Toward the end of the ride I managed to lose the handle on a big rocky downhill and faceplanted it pretty good. I'm not sure exactly what happened, cruising one minute then pushing my bike off me the next. Nothing broken on me or the bike, sometimes it's just your day I guess. Buck made me feel better by falling over in a water crossing, sorry no pics of that. We got back to the truck early enough to load up and head south a couple hours to vegas for the night, rather than staying in the graveyard that is Beaver. We landed at Monte Carlo, then proceeded to eat all the prime rib and lobster they had onsite......not a bad way to finish another great ride. Truly a great place to ride with more trails than you could cover in a month, I highly recommend it. cheers.

If you have a couple days, hit Death Valley. My wife loves it there. Great camping in the center of the park at elevation, or stay at Stovepipe and enjoy the bar / pool. Plenty of places along the way (Barstow, Rasor Rd.) to play with the motorcycle.

I bought the National Geographic paper map off Amazon, it's excellent.

Your 50" razor will have little trouble, 90% of the trails we were on were pretty mild. In fact, we are planning to head back in the spring with the wives and rent some razors. Yes, Kug it is closer than Mammoth which I never really noticed before. As long as you time the traffic correctly, it's an easy drive.

Whatever you do stay away from the 6.0 Ford for sure. Do you really need a diesel? IMO, if you don't need to haul / tow serious weight, get a gasser. ANY diesel under $10K you are rolling the dice. A diesel repair can be thousands of dollars, most of the transmissions pre 2005 are delicate and need to be cared for. You can get a really nice 4x4 gas 1/2 or 3/4 ton for 10K. That said, I currently have a 2005 Dodge / Cummins 4x4 with 125K on it and it has been flawless. My previous 2001 Dodge went 250K with no issues other than normal maintenance. Last point to consider, my 2001 was 2wd and the Cummins motor is sooo heavy it would not go offroad at all. I got stuck on Fiesta Island with one of my front wheels still on the pavement!

Not going to make this one.

Sounds fun....I'm a maybe. Will you be parking close to S-2 near the restrooms or further off the road?

Nice. If you think of it, give me a shout next time you do an early run and I'll head out and join you guys. The vid looked like it was a little drier than last time we were there!