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LAB2V with the Ducati Desert X - Easy Ways

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LAB2V on the Ducati Desert X

The Los Angeles to Baker to Las Vegas, also known as LAB2V is a 2-day dual sport ride that starts Northeast of LA, arrives in Barstow at the end of the first day, then reaches Las Vegas on day 2. It is around 400 miles of mostly desert off-road terrain.

I learned about it early in 2022 and immediately became enamored with it. As I started devouring videos online about past years, I realized that most bikes doing this ride were dual sport dirt bikes. The KTM 500 EXC is the prototypical bike in this category and was found in troves during the LAB2V.

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So, the question: why on a big adventure bike? Well, because I could, or I thought I could. There’s something I can’t explain about coercing those 500+ pounds of metal on going through rough terrain that gives me a lot of satisfaction. It wouldn’t be impossible because other people had already done it, even on big BMW “the whale” GS1250’s.

I knew this would be a lot of sand. A LOT OF SAND. Having just finished a 5-day trip to Baja on stock tires (Pirelli STR Rally), I knew I would struggle, so I’ve installed a set of MotoZ RallZ. From past year’s videos, I saw that some riders would finish the ride in the dark, so I installed a set of Baja Designs Squadron Pros on the crash bar. Oh yes, crash bars. Ducati still has crash bars back-ordered, so I bought a set of aftermarket crash bars from a company in Poland called Heed. They look sturdy enough if I couldn’t keep the rubber side down. The last modification was heated grips. The forecast was 30’s and low 40’s for the mornings. Installing the heated grips was not that difficult, but I still had to take the Desert X to the dealer since both heated grips and fog lights require the dealer to enable those features. Yes, that’s Ducati in a nutshell.

Knowing how much sand I would face during the ride, I also decided to ramp up my sand riding skills. First, I took a couple of adventure off-road classes with Sedlak Off-road School (SOS) and West 38 moto. They helped me to brush up on the fundamental techniques and body position. I also took a desert enduro class with Edgar Cota from SOS in the desert east of San Diego. That class helped me improve my body position for endurance and reading the desert terrain at higher speeds, which proved fundamental on the LAB2V course. All that preparation boosted my confidence riding in the sand, going from the typical “I hate sand!” to “I love sand! (not really, but at least I’m comfortable in it)”.

The “competition” traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving, early in the morning, so after spending Thanksgiving “brunch” with my family, I loaded my Ducati Desert X on the truck and started driving to Palmdale, where I would spend the night before the event.

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Early morning on the day after Thanksgiving, I unloaded my bike at the Embassy Suites hotel in Palmdale – the starting point for the event. Every step was well organized, starting from all information sent to riders before the event, so assuming a rider read the info, everything was organized as it was supposed to be. After registration, GPS loading, and roll chart collection, it was time to hit the road. I had the company of 3 friends for this ride: Roque, Jeremy and Robert. Roque and Jeremy were the organizers and leaders for the Baja 5-day adventure from a couple of months ago. Both Jeremy and Roque were on KTM 790 Adventure R’s. Robert had the most aggressive ride with a KTM 450 dual sport. All of them were very skilled dirt riders.

After a short asphalt segment, it was time for dirt. Just a few miles in, the terrain transitioned to what was to come for the rest of the trip – sand, lots of sand. The immense cloud of dust from the rider in front of you caused an inevitable separation from your group, so we planned on meeting on odometer reset points (mostly for the ones using roll charts), which happened about every 15 miles. As the old saying goes – “every plan is a good one – until the first shot is fired” this became very true within the first 10 miles of dirt when a racer came to my side and screamed through his helmet that I had lost my jacket at the beginning of the dirt trail. That was a brand-new limited-edition Desert X jacket. I couldn’t abandon it and decided to backtrack my steps. Easier said than done. I had to go back 10 miles outside of the main track, outside the main track. Needless to say, I didn’t find the jacket and decided to forget about it and proceed with the ride. As a tremendous coincidence, 80 miles into the ride, on one of those odometer reset spots, I was complaining and ranting about the jacket to a group of riders when one of their friends arrived with my jacket strapped to his backpack! He found it! I continued the ride in much better humor after that point.

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The ride was a mix of single trails with every depth of sand imaginable, whoops, fire roads, asphalt, and rocky terrain. The organizers give you a choice of hard or easy ways, from the perspective of dual sport bikes, so the “Easy Ways” is not easy for big adventure bikes. The morning segment had about 90 miles, from which about 60 were in the dirt. The lunch checkpoint was in Helendale, with a pause for gas and some carne asada tacos.

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At Helendale, I reunited with my group and rode to Barstow in the afternoon. As you can guess, it was more desert riding. The segment approaching the city was particularly challenging, going through several dried river washes with deep soft sand. In Barstow, after stopping by the checkpoint, we collected our luggage from the organization, stored the bikes in the event parking lot, and checked in at the hotel for a well-deserved shower and dinner.

On Saturday morning, the day started early and cold, sub 40 degrees. We picked up our bikes from the parking lot. They stayed overnight under the watchful eyes of the Barstow scouts. We knew it would be a long day, even more than the day before. We also learned the segment to Baker was going to be a long stretch boring stretch of dust that combined with the sun rising on the East, would provide very unpleasant riding conditions, with close to zero visibility. We decided to bail out and take the asphalt to Baker.

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That was the right decision. The leg from Baker to Vegas was the highlight of the trip, with all types of terrain. We also had a really lovely stop for lunch at the Sandy Valley Firefighter’s Station, including a refueling and washing pit stop. The cherry on top was going over the mountain range west of Las Vegas, where we even found some patches of snow. Arriving at “The Orleans Hotel and Casino” after so many hours on the dirt was surreal. We stopped by the checkpoint and had our traditional arrival picture taken with Santa Claus and the Las Vegas showgirls.

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After checking in at the hotel, we had some time for drinks at the casino while waiting for the District 37 banquet. It was nice to see 300+ riders in one room. The organization of the event provided dinner, and after a round of speeches and curious facts, the night ended with a series of raffles.

The next day was dedicated to coming back home. I was painfully aware of the traffic situation that is typical coming out of Las Vegas, so I woke up with no alarm clock, ordered room service breakfast, and slowly started to pack, in dire contrast to the past 2 days. I absolutely had to stroll through the Vegas strip with the Desert X. As I hit the I-15, just out of Vegas, the freeway is a parking lot. I timidly lane split because Nevada is one state that doesn’t yet allow lane splitting. As I crossed the state line, traffic is much better, with a few stops here or there, but then I could reap the full benefits of being on a motorcycle and lane split with no fear. I arrived in Palmdale, where I left my truck, loaded the bike, and drove the rest of the way down to San Diego in a very uneventful way.

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All in all, racing the LAB2V was a dream come true. It made me step out of my comfort zone and ride much faster in sand, as I’ve never done before. It gave me a lot of confidence in all depths of sand, and allowed me to be among hundreds of riders that share the same passion as I do. I will definitely return, hopefully next year, and this time I’ll take my chances with the Desert X on the hard ways.

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Great write up Padu. 
Hopefully you’ve already had a poster made of this shot for your garage!! It’s a great hero shot. 
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Good stuff Padu. I bet those new tires helped . Thankyou for posting the adventure so I had something to read with my coffee this morning. 

I can tell by your riding how confident you seem.  That makes all the difference.  Great job. 

I really enjoy the 6th picture down, it displays your focus and the terrain you had to endure. 

The new camera positioning is spot on in the video.  

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On 1/1/2023 at 8:45 AM, Zubb said:

Great write up Padu. 
Hopefully you’ve already had a poster made of this shot for your garage!! It’s a great hero shot. 
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Of course!

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On 1/1/2023 at 3:43 PM, 350thumper said:

Good stuff Padu. I bet those new tires helped . Thankyou for posting the adventure so I had something to read with my coffee this morning. 

I can tell by your riding how confident you seem.  That makes all the difference.  Great job. 

I really enjoy the 6th picture down, it displays your focus and the terrain you had to endure. 

The new camera positioning is spot on in the video.  

Thanks!

Emphasis on focus. When you're doing 40-50 mph on the desert, obstacles come pretty fast at you...

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