I think you are going to want to be out front on this one. The start is pretty cool View: http://vimeo.com/63758003 , but if you fall behind the pack, you may have lots of trouble passing them all later. That is a huge amount of bikes. The Terra has the balls to be right up there in front. Hang on and scream Yippee! You know you want to
Cell coverage not so good. Odessa Office Supply in the past had a hotspot going. You had to camp pretty close to the entrance for good signal though.
I will be out there too, taking photos. I am not man enough for this race, I can admit it. It is way too fast for my taste. I will be on my 125 and my dad will be on my 144, stop and say hi if you see us in the chaos. We will be camped in the giant gerber knives van... Later,
I am still waiting for a decent video of the start after all these years. Several people have come close but people holding the cameras get too excited and do a jerky zig zag motion and it gets ruined. You just need to hold it in place and slowly maybe zig and zag back and forth.
Ignaciob, looked for you, jmeteer I saw the van but no one around when I came by. I have to admit I didn't try too hard, after the poker run I took a nap. After the race I took a nap.
I camped just south of the Touratech tent near the gravel pile and Konflict guys. I think the Gerber van was to the west closer to the road on the other side of the pile. I did run across one other guy (that I don't think is on the forum much) riding a Terra. And I think I saw a Terra ride by when I first got there. Didn't end up riding the race, but ended up doing what I think was the gnarlier part of the Poker Run. The "family" part included several uphill sections that stressed out kids, adults, dual sport riders, and even cracked a rib of a KLR rider in our group. During the whole thing I was thinking, "This is the dual sport loop? OMG, the race tomorrow is going to kick my butt!" After I got back I realized that I ended up on some of the Iron Man course and felt a little better. However, my clutch was also spinning on the ride back via road from Odessa and decided not to race. Weird thing is at got back home my clutch wasn't spinning anymore....not sure what's up.
About two miles after I noticed the clutch was working again.....I TOTALLY felt like a wuss and didn't believe it myself. However, I WILL be returning 2015 to try and finish 1 lap of the Desert 100. It's an unfulfilled Bucket List item now.
Man, it's all about the trip anyway! The only thing that should be on the agenda is fun. No way would I head out into that madness with a mechanical doubt in mind. I don't know why I go out there anyway, it would hurt a whole lot less if I just watched
Following your gut, I think, is extremely important when it comes to racing as an amateur. My buddy kept saying he was not comfortable with the track layout at the last race in our series. I told him he should sit this one out, but he insisted on racing. He wound up with a concussion and several aches and pains. He still doesn't know what happened. When he woke up after the crash, the bike was on top of him with the rear wheel spinning above his face! Firecrackerkid, what bike did you ride and are you happy with your race?
I rode my 84 wr250. I only have one goal, to finish. My brother and I ride together and we think we shaved over an hour off our previous time. So other than I fell down twice I am very satisfied with how we did.
Matt, It was nice talking to you on Friday. Good decision not to do the race if you or the Strada weren't 100% ready. The desert 100 can be brutal. The first casualty on Sunday was only 5 to 10 minutes after the start. The medics worked on the guy for quite awhile before they brought in the helicopter and flew him out - to Spokane I'm guessing. Talking to one of the Stumpjumper MC members he told me they don't just hope there are no injuries, they plan and prepare because they know they will have multiple crashes/injuries so the medics are on duty and the helicopters are ready to role.
