Vegas to Reno - heading out

[MX813]

Well, 3 of us from Sick Fast Slow Guys team are heading out to Las Vegas today to partake in the desert fun, Vegas to Reno desert race that starts on Friday and ends 24 hrs later.

http://www.bitd.com/main/

We're going to take our time getting to Las Vegas, arriving sometime Wednesday AM/early afternoon driving towards Boise then veering S on Hwy 93 to see some of the course (or least the pit areas.)

There are a lot of big names in this race for both truck and mx. Honda race team will be there so that'll be exciting to meet some hard core factory desert racers such as Childress, Blais, Bell, Norman, Hengeveld. Campbell is our contact person for Honda Pits so that will be neat to meet him. We are using Honda Pit Support contingency should anything happen to our lone bike (knocking on wood!) This is cool because we do not have to worry about gas as they provide that at 13 different pit locations.

We are the lone entrants to the 30 Am class #531 so our goal for the race is have fun and finish the race. I plan on taking a lot of pics and updating this as things progress. (anyone avail. to host some pics?)

If there are any other TTer's heading down, shoot me a PM as we'll have a laptop to update and check in and we can hook up.

This will be our warm-up race for our true WA race, The 25hr Race!

Later,

Mike - mx813

[Terrain Rider 4z]

You must start school a week later than we do. Have a blast and best of luck to you guys. What are you riding? CRF450X or XR650R?

[mdm_rides]

Good luck, ride smart, and kick some B. Seriously jealous here however. Let us know how you did.

[Pincushion]

Good luck! I've spent lots of time in NV this time of year and it gets HOT! Stay hydrated, be safe and make us proud.

[leakypipe23]

You must start school a week later than we do. Have a blast and best of luck to you guys. What are you riding? CRF450X or XR650R?

They will be on a XR650.

Good luck Mike!

[E-WA]

Have a blast and stay safe ?

[Red_Barney]

That is correct they are riding a XR650 #531. Racing in the 30 Am class and are the last motorcycle starting 30 seconds a head of the first Pro Quad. I believe they are the only team signed up in their class at this time, that will probably change for them. I was on the team until I broke my foot.

Good luck Sick fast Slow Guys!

WHOOP!

Paul

[MX813]

Well....we are in Las Vegas now after 2 long days of driving. Stopped in Twin Falls last night and just arrived in Vegas. And it is absolutely hot, 110 degrees right now at 8pm. Glad the race starts at 5:45AM.

We were able to see some of the course. Wide open road between pit 1 and 2. Should be a blast. Red Barney is right, Riders are 1 min. apart with the pro quads right behind us. So first 20 miles, we'll be eating dust but then hopefully it'll clear out. Was fairly windy in the area that the course went through so that should help clear out some dust.

Well, off to visit Fremont down on the strip, check it out, have a few brews!

mike

[Red_Barney]

Mike,

Glad to hear you guys made it down safely. Start drinking water and get ready to kick some butt on Friday. The wind will be good to get the dust out of the area. HAVE SOME FUN! Say hi to Roster and JC, I wish I was there.

Good luck boys!

WHOOP!

Paul

[Red_Barney]

I talked to JC of the sick fast slow guys and they finished. The boys are a little banged up and the 650 needs some serious TLC, but they finished around midnight. GREAT JOB!

We want stories.

NICE JOB SICK FAST SLOW GUYS!

WHOOP!

Paul

[MX813]

WOW...where to start.

I'll begin with tech inspection on Thursday, 8/24. Pushed bike into line for prelim. inspection to insure proper numbers, safety staff (reflective tape/markers) and inspect helmets for DOT stickers. Passed with no problem. While waiting in line, we were interviewed by Outdoor Channel which will be airing all of Best In the Desert races, 26 total with bikes broken out from trucks/buggies. That was pretty cool. We then proceeded to Honda pit to check in as we paid for pit support. Met Childress (cool guy, Hengeveld, cool guy and Campbell, pompous a$$) Childress recommended some jetting changes for the race, going to a 168 main and gave us one. Headed back to the hotel to do some last minute work on bike, installing new main and a 15T front sprocket.

Back to race hotel around 6 for the riders/racer meeting. Kinda boring and long as us bike guys had to leave around 3am to get to the staging area on time.

Hit the sack and got zero sleep as I was wound up and my dad snores loudly!

Friday, 8/25

RACE DAY...Arrived at staging area around 4am and I got ready as I was running 1st leg. Staging area was 2 miles in, a longish ride with a small flashlight taped to the helmet as I didn't want to install the dual 5" lights as dawn was coming shortly. Luckily a car was behind me so I rode those lights to primary staging area. Got the green flag at 7am exactly and off I go. Caught the guy in front of me quickly and stayed behind him as there was a second start line (weird) 9 miles in. This had to do with fire danger and the desert tortoise habitat (greenies at work even down here.) Got the final official start from Casey Folks, very nice guy, wished me well, shook my hands and said go...and off I was.

Caught the same guy again and passed on mile 16. The dust was thick here because of all the 30 second starts. Hit a rock section and quickly passed about 5 more riders as there was no dust. After rock section, things opened up and things got fast. Running a 15/47 on the XR650R, I quickly had 5th geared pinned and wishing for 6th gear. A lot of the road (gravel) sections were long, like 15 miles straight. Running at top speed which we guess around 85-90 mph, the miles were gobbled up fast! Hit a mtn area with lots of high speed sweepers. Not having the opportunity to pre-run and wanting to finish only, I was fairly cautious here. Hit pit 1 about 45 minutes later, 40 miles in and the fun started again. Pit 1 was before a long dry lake bed. Talk about fast, fast, fast!!!

Dumped it in a silt bed. As I got back on the bike, I heard another guy laughing and he yelled at me "I crashed exactly where you did!" He looked like a ghost as the silt was white so I imagine I looked the same. Took off and proceeded to pit 2 for 1st rider exchange with Rob aka TT robr54. Our third teammate looked at me and new I had a blast as I was babbling a 100mph and couldn't wipe that sh!t eating grin off my face ?

The day continued like this, utilizing Honda for support on gas and air filter changes every 80 miles (dust was bad!!!) Got on again at pit 6 and off again. Lost my bite valve when it hooked on the bars and pulled off. Water felt good though on the pants. Luckily Honda at pit 9 gave me water. I almost beat the team to pit 10 as I was riding fast and hard. Earlier, we thought there was another 30 Am team #550 so I tried to put more distance between us. It turns out they DNF'd. Hit a 10 mile stretch of silt road so I hopped onto the side and rode the sage brush wide open. Guess riding at Mattawa paid off after all!

At pit 8, we swapped the main jet back to 165 as the other 2 riders said it was running rough. It was but I kept running the RPM's up so didn't really notice it. Robr54 took off and 5 minutes later, 1st place truck came by at full speed. No pit speed here. Justin got on at 10and I got the bike back at 12. Before he came in, all of pit row witnessed a horrific crash, a quad rider endo'd over the bars and was run over by his own quad. His teammate intercepted the quad and took off. The down rider amazingly got up and walked away Turns out, he kept on racing.

I got on 12 and took off for my last and shortest leg, 25 miles of rough rock. Around mile 18, on a smooth road, I was cruising about 50 and proceeded over a hill. As I crested, front wheel off the ground, my rear wheel connected with a rock and kicked me forward. Trying to recover, I swapped out 3/4 times and went down harder than I ever have before. Knowing trucks where coming, got up, moved the bike off the road. Sure enough, 2 minutes later, a Pro Truck came by, catching air where I crashed. I took stock of myself. Sprained right thumb, pointer and middle finger. Left rib side hurt like hell and I was shooken up. Managed to get the bike started and I noticed the exhaust was bent at a 30 degree angle inwards. Screw it...Honda has another and I made it to my final hand-off. This was when I realized the there was no Honda pit at this location (they skipped 3 pits.) Justin, being a Macgyver he is, got the exhaust straightened and Robr54 took off. I checked at my left side. Bruises everywhere and guessed 2-3 broken ribs. Oh well...I was done for the day.

Justin, I and my dad proceeded to pit 15 for final exchange. Not anticipating Robr54 for another 30 minutes, we failed to notice that he arrived, exhaust loud as heck and 1 headlight not working (it got dark in his section.) It turns out the muffler end cap and packing was now awol. I noticed that Robr54 was not looking too good and sure enough, he went down too! Five miles to go, he went down in the silt ruts and broke his right collar bone. How he started the bike and made it to pit 15 was beyound me. But Sick Fast Slow Guys didn't drive here to DNF, so he made it. Unbelievable. With Justin gone and knowing he was taking it easy the final 74 miles in the dark, Robr54 was checked out by medics to confirm collarbone. We slowly made our way to the finish line to wait for Justin.

August 26th - 12:26 AM.... WE FINISHED!!!!

I saw Justin come in like a ragdoll so I ran over to him. He was whooping and hollering in celebration that we finished. He also turned 34 years of age at midnight going through rock and dust hell 5 miles back. What a birthday present. Outdoor Channel was there and filming him as he tried to get off the bike. I caught the bike as he fell off and lay there laughing. Fabtech truck team was there laughing as well. Good times!!!

August 26th 5pm - Awards celebration. This was held at John Harrahs estate/ranch...yes the owner of Harrahs casino. Talk about bling there and lots of eye candy. Good times there, lots of bench racing. Everyone, quads, truck and bike guys were cool (reminds me of 25 hr race!!!) and willing to talk.

Home - took us 14 1/2 hrs to get home. Lots of traffic but we managed!

So to recap....

Total driving 2700 miles.

Race 586 miles in 17:26 hrs

I have lots of pictures and would love to add them to the thread (displayed, not linked) so if you have a website and wouldn't mind hosting a few pics, let me know.

See ya later...

mx813 - Mike

[KevinMcGrath]

Good ride Mike! Sounds like you guys had a blast! I could do without the drive though.

[robr54]

The drive each way was long, but riding with Justin and Mike made it not too bad, as we were yapping most of the way down. Justin and I made fun of Mike when he was in the back seat watching DVD's and could not hear us, that kept us entertained! LOL!

It's good to be home.

[drz103]

sounds like you guys had a great time. and great job on finishing