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May 29, 2023 Bishop to Benton (reversed), 36 miles FIN! Section 8 is a short one. So short that we decided to take it in reverse on our way home day towards LA and San Diego. It's only 36 miles and it would be super fast, if not for an unexpected road closure due to the recent heavy rains. The Chidago Canyons were a pleasant and beautiful ride, and it was also nice to stop and check the ancient petroglyphs on the way to Bishop. After section 8 was finished, concluding our beautiful BDR trip, we stopped in Bishop for some great BBQ. Of course, to finish the trip with the full spirit of adventure, we had our first and only flat tire from all sections.

There's a "Ride Baja" facebook" group that will be able to answer that

The 2024 SoCal Roadbook Rally just finished, and it was a great first rally for me. As I will explain here, it's perfect for rally newbies. There were all kind of rally bikes, ranging from as simple as putting a tablet on a KTM 500 EXC to full rally spec monsters. There were quite a few Koves as well. It's gaining tremendous popularity with the rally crowd. From what I hear, the rally pro model is really ready to race in all aspects. From about 80 participants, only 2 "big bikes", mine and a T7. I arrived at the bivouac on Wednesday, just a few miles outside the 395, about 20 miles north of Kramer Junction. After unloading everything from the truck and setting up my tent, I went out to ride the "calibration" loop. A short 50 Km (yeah, rally is all in metric and French) loop designed to give you an intro for the days to come and make sure your equipment is working fine. The really nice thing about the SoCal Roadbook Rally is its non competitive nature, so the organizers provide you not only with the roadbook, but also with a GPX file of the course. I mounted a rugged Android tablet to the DesertX, so by just clicking a button, I could switch between TerraPirata, the roadbook navigation software, and DMD2, my favorite mapping application. From the 50 km in the calibration loop, I was lost almost half of the time and had to "cheat" and follow the GPX track... The next day I left the bivouac pretty early to take the South West loop, also called the Edwards AFB loop, going all the way to California City and totaling about 220 KM. I didn't get lost as often and had to cheat 5 or 6 times. The desert after all these rains and with spring fast approaching is absolutely stunning! The next day I took the Helendale loop, another 200 KM loop, and I was a lot more comfortable with reading the roadbook and navigation controls. I really started understanding the meaning of "chasing waypoints". For every "tulip" (one row in the nav book), you get a jolt of dopamine - "I got this one!". During navigation, you are under constant self-doubt, and when a road, intersection, or landmark appears at the right (or near) odometer reading, it's a great feeling. I've also made great friends at the bivouac. Our community is great no matter what modality you're participating. "Allegedly", Mason Klein (Dakar stage winner, champion of Rally dos Sertoes, Honda factory rider) wanted to try my DDX and in exchange let me ride on his rally honda. Those machines are real beasts! All in all, this was a perfect introduction to navigation rally. It's a completely new dimension lay on top of off-road riding. I noticed I looked and appreciated the environment a lot more than if I was just following a blue track on my GPS. I'm definitely hooked on it now. I'm energized to create a San Diego Rally Club. I think anybody who tries this will get hooked as I am. It's so freaking cool!

Just came back from McCain. Perfect conditions. Traction like velcro.

Gorgeous, like this!

I'm so stoked for this! Next week me and a group of about 80 navigation rally enthusiasts will meet in the Mojave desert for 5 days of navigation rally. We will ride around 200 miles per day. I spent the last months preparing my KTM 500 EXC for this and last week I rode it into a puddle (more like a pond) and hydrolocked the engine... will need a rebuild now. Not a biggie - I'll take the Desert X. Here's a bit of one of the roadbooks: Here's a picture of the trail one of the roadbook makers took while recording the trail. The desert is in primo conditions!

I couldn't go for my desert ride yesterday, so instead I took the DesertX for a ride on my "backyard" at Otay. Full video to come, but this is me mucking around with the drone.

That's why nav rally is so cool!

I love McCain!

I was going to say LAB2V. I've done the last one with the roll chart before they went all digital.

I've always been intrigued by the big navigation rallys, like Dakar, Ruta 40, Africa Eco Race and etc. As I started listening to podcasts, watching Dakar and listening to the aspirations of Edgar Cota (he just won Baja 1000 ironman and wants to compete in Dakar in 2025), the interest only grew. It culminated into registering for the SoCal Roadbook Rally in the Mojave Desert in March. It's not competitive, it's just a bunch of guys and girls passionate about nav rally camping together in the desert for roughly a week and riding the desert with roadbooks, not GPX tracks. So, that gave me the idea... why don't we start a mini-club within SDAR for navigation rally rides? Of course, you can spend thousands of dollars buying all the right gear for that. I'm not proposing that - but if you have that money, go ahead. A tablet or even a cell phone mounted on your handlebar is enough to get started. You won't be Mason Klein, but the fun will be there. What I'm proposing is having one person to create a digital (PDF) roadbook for a trail in San Diego, then on the riding day, we all try to follow that trail, hit the waypoints and get to the final location. No timing required, each one rides at their own pace. The roadbook creator can add some notes about the difficulty of the trail, like "easy boring dual sport, intermediate on big bikes", so the rider can chose whatever bike he or she feels comfortable with. I've done it once and it completely changes the way you see trails that you have ridden tens of times before! Also, creating the roadbook is a lot of fun as well! I've used Rally Navigator and I'm attaching a sample of the roadbook I've created. 10_miler v2.pdf

My opinion is that the 350 is capable of everything and more of what a 500 can do. You might want for more on asphalt... just don't take the asphalt 😁

Yep, all the time. That's the reason to schedule the trip in a way to avoid the Alpine area on weekends. It can easily double your time and risk.

The tablet itself I got from the manufacturer https://www.hugerock.cc/products/x70-7in-heavy-motorcycles-rugged-tablets-bright-android-8gb-usb-c-waterproof-military-grade-magnetic-remote-holder $600 The handlebar "tower" I got from Rally Motoshop - everything you need for navigation rally Handlebar clamp: $125 https://www.rallymotoshop.com/collections/nav-parts/products/universal-navigation-clamps Crossbar clamp: $40 https://www.rallymotoshop.com/products/rms-dakar-crossbar-clamp Digital bracket: $42 https://www.rallymotoshop.com/collections/nav-parts/products/electronic-device-bracket The remote controller I got from Thork Racing DMD Remote1: 400 Euros https://www.thorkracing.com/produto/dmd-remote1/ A similar paper setup (with 2 ICOs) would cost about $1500-$2000. The digital setup has the advantage of being shareable between my KTM 500 and the DesertX.

This is a rugged, outdoor visible android tablet. I can run DMD2, google maps, waze, and more importantly, the roadbook viewer softwares (Piste, TerraPirata, Rally Navigator). On the handlebar is a Remote1 by Thork. It connects to the tablet via bluetooth and it's basically a fancy keyboard. You can configure how each application responds to the switches. For example, on a mapping app, the joystick moves the map around, while the thumbstick zooms in and out. On a rally reader, I use the thumbstick to scroll the tulips up and down, and the joystick to adjust odometer. This is great for the rally setup, but when I'm not doing rally, I move the tablet to the desertX and it's SOOOOOOO superior to the old ZumoXT. Even more because I actually installed a cell phone SIM card, so I'm always connected (where there's cell phone coverage) Quick bench video here:

Looks like fun! I had a grade 3 ACJ separation 3 months ago and I was riding 3 weeks after... still dealing with rehab. Are you going surgery route? At the moment I'm thinking not for myself and will deal with that ugly lump on the shoulder.

Then you couldn't do the Colorado Alpine Loop.... straight down 1000ft cliffs... inside line all rutted and rocky...

Not too far!

Longer video

I'm thinking about doing a desert loop tomorrow (Sunday, 2/4/2024) with the DesertX. The idea is to start on I8 and hit Pine Valley, Plaster City, then go up. Maybe Fish Creek, and whatever else up on the way to Borrego Springs. Depending in progress, either lunch in Borrego Springs or in Julian. From what I hear, it's not for total beginners and you must enjoy [ok, at least tolerate it] sand. 😁

Everybody had to bail out today, including me, so will need to do it after the rains!

What is Bee Canyon?

Love it

Cool! What about Motorally?

May 28, 2023 Section 7 is one of the most beautiful sections of the CABDR. Starting with an amazing view of the sunrise bathing the Sierra mountains from the Alabama Hills campground, we took Movie Road, where several movies were filmed, including the first Iron Man (Tony Stark demonstrating his latest missiles scene). Lots of water crossings and sand pockets. Then we arrive at Manzanar - where you will learn about a dark part of our history. For me, the highlight of the entire BDR was riding way into the Reward Mine, followed by the expert section going over the mountains on Hine Road. Absolutely breathtaking. We were initially planning on doing sections 7 and 8 today, but the day ran long and we went the highway to Benton, where we had reservations for a cabin. We had to ride the highway all the way to Benton Hotsprings Inn, so postponed finishing section 8 on our way home the next day, going North to South.