Viva Las Vegas

[Crawdaddy 96]

In Vegas on business.....came over Sat to stay/ride with Randy's friend (and my new friend), Alfred, who's lucky enough to live ~5 miles from Red Rock Canyon.......can't download/upload photos with current set up.......we rode ~190 miles over through Sandy Valley to Tecopa where we ate lunch......."whoop free", high speed, "adventure bike " terrain out in BFE.......lot's of fun.....more later in the week once I return to San Diego and have the ability to download photos........taking care of a bit of work today.....then I'l probably head out for an afternoon solo ride......may head over to Lake Mead

Snapped a pic with the cell phone once we returned to Alfred's place last night....(speedo read 102mph at one point and I pulled up so I wouldn't run over Alfred...... but the GPS doesn't lie.....top speed of 99.5......damn-it! )

[Joliet 0]

Within 3 mph at 100 is the most accurate dirt bike speedo I have ever heard of. Just the tire wearing will probably throw it off more than 3%. Glad to hear you are having fun (working). Ken

[bikeslut 1]

viva las vegas, indeed! Never let work get in the way of living

[Crawdaddy 96]

viva las vegas, indeed! Never let work get in the way of living

Classic Vegas gaudiness captured with my cell phone ......check out the Airstream I'm staying in at the KOA behind Circus Circus (they have several resident at the KOA - it's actually brand new, very clean inside, 2 TV's, DVD, WiFi........and cheap...........thought it might be fun to try something new/different/nostalgic.....and I like being able to park the 620 right outside the door ........the Flamingos, lawn chairs, BBQ, etc. are all part of the package.......with view of Stratosphere in background......

This view was spectacular - Hopefully the photo I took with my camera will come out much better than this pic taken with my phone.....

Rode ~150 miles today.......found some fun dirt out north of Lake Mead

More info/photos when I return to San Diego

[Strega 0]

Sucks I missed this trip! Looked like a damn good time. Nice Flamingo's.

[RogerTOWM 0]

I’m pretty sure I hate you!

Man that sure looks like some nice riding.

[Zenosan 2]

In Vegas on business.....came over Sat to stay/ride with Randy's friend (and my new friend), Alfred, who's lucky enough to live ~5 miles from Red Rock Canyon.......can't download/upload photos with current set up.......we rode ~190 miles over through Sandy Valley to Tecopa where we ate lunch......."whoop free", high speed, "adventure bike " terrain out in BFE.......lot's of fun.....more later in the week once I return to San Diego and have the ability to download photos........taking care of a bit of work today.....then I'l probably head out for an afternoon solo ride......may head over to Lake Mead

Snapped a pic with the cell phone once we returned to Alfred's place last night....(speedo read 102mph at one point and I pulled up so I wouldn't run over Alfred...... but the GPS doesn't lie.....top speed of 99.5......damn-it! )

:You might like to try my 79 Husky 390 WR sometime. We once clocked it at 117 mph and it didn't take very long to get there. I doubt if I would ever do it again at my age however. Glad to see you are having fun Chris.

Don

Don

[Crawdaddy 96]

You might like to try my 79 Husky 390 WR sometime. We once clocked it at 117 mph and it didn't take very long to get there. I doubt if I would ever do it again at my age however.

Yesterday's top speed wasn't "dirty speed".....it was out in BFE on pavement around 4:15......I wanted to get over to Valley of Fire so I could ride through the area before it got dark......I'm really NOT about speed.....I'm about the sites along the way.....but sometimes it is fun (if not intelligent) to open it up to make up some ground/time on easy terrain......

Spent a fair amount of time yesterday at 0 mph.......I sat around and soaked up the sun/scenery at the end of 8 Mile Road (a dirt road) that terminates at the edge of Lake Mead - literally - see camera phone pic below:

Then I explored some more dirt, rode through Valley of Fire (paved ) and made my way over towards the 15 on more dirt.......and when I say, "made my way over towards the 15" I don't mean to an on-ramp......I mean underneath it so I could get over to the dirt road that parallels the railroad tracks north/west of the 15fwy!!!........had to deal with a lot of whoops in that particular stretch and then ride south along the fence that borders the 15fwy on the south/east side until I found a way to get to the other side by riding UNDERNEATH the freeway.......then cross through a few boulders on either side of the north/south lanes of the 15......but that's Ok, NO INTEREST in riding on the 15fwy.......

The dirt road along the rail road tracks eventually swung me over to another paved/abandoned road that parallels the 15fwy and runs down into Apex (OHV area).......didn't screw around in Apex because by that time it was dark/cold and Fat Daddy was getting hungry....

(GPS geek note: I'm really glad I have the old Roads and Recs maps loaded in my 60CSx in addition to City Navigator......I turned City Nav off when out in BFE and located some dirt roads that I wouldn't have known about had I relied on City Navigator alone.....another reason to toss the 128mg card that comes stock with your 60CSx and buy a 2 gig card for ~$20 so you can load/use multiple map sets when out in BFE)

Just back from today's seminar :lazy: ......loading up the bike tonight so I can bail out of Vegas after tomorrow's seminar around 4pm.....glad I was able to meet Alfred and get in a couple of fun days of riding........more pics yesterday since I was riding solo........well worth the trip/drive...... ......I'll post up some better resolution photos once I get back to town..... (Ken - thanks for the use of the Spot Tracker - glad I never needed it!!!)

That's it for now......time to explore the local night life......

[Crawdaddy 96]

A highwire act? .....I must be in Vegas......

[dirt dame 559]

CD, you get to have all the fun.

[Crawdaddy 96]

Ok, back from Lost wages.......here's a brief synopsis and some pics......

So I rolled up to Alfred’s house around 7:30 Saturday evening and received a warm welcome……turns out Alfred is quite the moto head and he was anxious to get my 620 up on the sweet bike lift in his garage so he could check it in comparison with his 97 model……(Alfred's garage is stuffed with three Ducati Elephants and a Moto Guzzi Quota in addition to his KTM 620)

Then we put Alfred’s 620 up on the lift to get it ready for Sunday’s ride…..his was still pretty soiled from riding through Afton Canyon on Sat of this year's LA-B-V ride....apparently he's been spending most of his time on the Quota since then.....

We started out around 8:30 Sat morning and headed towards Red Rock Canyon which is only about ~5 miles from Alfred’s house

Here’s a couple of pics of Alfred’s bike with Red Rock in the background……

We rode past Red Rock and stopped at Bonny Springs for breakfast……we were the only bikes there when we headed in but we were surrounded when we came back outside…..

We headed off, gassed up the Exxon Valdez bikes, and got into the dirt…….we headed over some pass (Cottonwood?) that took us up and over to Sandy Valley, then up and over again on the other side of the Valley to and old/abandoned paved road (Excelsior Mine Rd.) where we stopped for a breather/photo op with both bikes…..

Then we plunged down into yet another valley past some abandoned mines……this picture doesn’t do justice to the view…..

Alfred heading down the road……

We eventually made our way over to a little Bistro in Tecopa for lunch after ~100 miles of fast pavement/dirt roads

Then Alfred wanted to check out a different route back…..fine with me……fast/whoop free riding…..here’s a shot of Alfred getting ready to roll…..

We switched bikes a couple of times and Alfred made some recommendations on things to look at/change up…..

It was a really fun day with a new friend…..Alfred was a great host…..still blows my mind that only 5 of these bikes were imported in 97 and 22 were imported in 98…….and two of’em rode together this weekend!!!

More on the Monday afternoon solo ride to follow……

[Crawdaddy 96]

I left Alfred’s early on Monday morning and headed over to the KOA campground behind Circus Circus where I’d reserved one of the new Airstream campers they have resident in the campground ……I worked in their business center until mid morning and luckily they were able to check me in around 10am……the Airstream was actually pretty nice/clean and came with patio furniture, fire pit, BBQ, easy chairs…..and flamingos

I plugged away on work stuff until about noon then headed off in the general vicinity of Lake Mead…….figured I’d swing north on hwys 147/167 towards Valley of Fire and see what dirt I could find along the way…..

First stop – some dirt road that heads out to Gypsum Point……nice view

Then I headed down 8 Mile Road…….another dirt road that terminates at the waters edge…..literally…..(can you guess how long it is?)……I stayed here for a while and soaked in the sun/view

Next I came across the South end wash which a rode for a few miles until it dead ended……no pics…..deep sand…..whatever…….back to the hwy…. a bit further down the road I came across the West End Wash……..by this time I’d switched over to Roads and Recs on my GPS so I could see this road would dove tail into another and swing by a mine before returning to hwy 167….cool…..let’s check it out…..

Then I headed further along hwy 167 and I could see there was another dirt cut-off/connector calling my name……..so I jumped on it…..

Favorite view on Monday afternoon……panoramic from the top of this hill moving clockwise (there was no trail to the top of this hill.....looked like a good vantage point so I dropped into a dry creekbed from the dirt road and then made my way up to the top of the hill once I found an opening.....beautiful/wide open area....)

Cruised along for a while in this wash then I popped back out on 167 again near Echo Bay…….I opted not to head over to Echo Bay since it was already 4pm and I wanted to get through Valley of Fire (hwy 169) before it got dark……

Then I headed over towards the 15fwy on some whooped out dirt road, rode underneath the fwy to a dirt access road along the rail road tracks, and made my way back to my Desi and Lucy camper in the darkness…….think I got back around 6pm……fun afternoon……

Ken found my truck behind the Flamingo yesterday afternoon and “customized” my ride

[dirt dame 559]

Great shots from a great adventure.

[christi20 0]

Wow. I had no idea there is so much riding in the area.

Someday I will have to check it out.

[Joliet 0]

Nice "work" trip, thanks for sharing. What are the differences between the bikes? Because not many were made, does that make getting parts difficult? I want to see some action shots of you riding the rocks under the freeway. Ken

[Crawdaddy 96]

Nice "work" trip, thanks for sharing. What are the differences between the bikes? Because not many were made, does that make getting parts difficult? I want to see some action shots of you riding the rocks under the freeway. Ken

Alfred's bike has a slightly larger bore and he has a different subframe (no passenger pegs).....also, his bike came stock with one down pipe stock whereas mine came with two down pipes stock......he made his own dual exhaust with some White Brothers cans to get the exhaust up from the ground for clearance and also allow the bike to breath a bit better......one of the the previous owners of my bike crafted the sweeping/single exhaust on my bike......we switched bikes a couple of times......Alfred's bike definitely pulled a bit harder between 7K and 8.5K (redline).....especially in 5th gear......may be the bore, breathability of the exhaust, or jetting/carb......he has a Dellorto carb and I have a FCR39MXII Keihin carb w JD jet kit, R&D mixture screw, Honda diaphram. (my bike came stock with a an Edlebrock carb).....the front forks seemed a bit different too.....I think my springs may be a bit "tired"......too much static sag.....

[PastaPilot 17]

hey Crawfish, are you still in Los Begas? I'm flew in late last night for work and looks like I'll be here one more day.

Jon

[Crawdaddy 96]

hey Crawfish, are you still in Los Begas? I'm flew in late last night for work and looks like I'll be here one more day.

Jon

Drove back to Sun Diego last night

[Spaugh 1]

great write up cdiddy.