Took a daytrip on some BMW's to El Mirage for landspeed racing

[Wheelbilly]

This first post is a teaser, my card reader is at work so all I have a few pics off my phone at the moment. A friend and I rode some rental bikes from Orange County up to the high desert to catch the last race of the season at El Mirage. I rode the GS, the plan was to switch on the way back but I enjoyed it so much I couldn't give it up! I have limited riding experience, a cafe 74 Yamaha TX500, then a KLR, and now an 05 Bonnie, but hot dang, the GS is one helluva nice bike.

We made a pitstop at the Mavericks minor league baseball stadium in Victorville, or Adelanto, one of those... caught the tail end of practice

Made it to the dirt and caught some good runs. One ridiculously fast Mitsubishi spun out passing through the timing lights at 207 mph!

The trusty steeds.

I have a bum back at the tender age of 28, and have had problems with most bikes. I got rid of the KLR because it was just too, simple I guess is the word. The BMW's are nicer then most of the cars I've owned. 230 some miles and my back felt great. I understand now why people become so passionate about them. No matter how much money I dumped into the KLR to improve it, I wouldn't have been as happy with it as I would be with the stock GS. I love my Bonnie and I'm definitely a multiple bike kind of guy, so I can see the GS fitting into the stable at some point very easily.

Huge thanks to Jupiter's NYC for making this trip happen. Much more fun then just driving out to the races, though now I'm spoiled! Fortunately, "my" bike is just a phone call and a credit card away I'm glad to come back to my Bonnie, but will certainly miss the GS.

 

[Sal Paradise]

wow! very unusual ride report. How much $$ was it for the bike rental?

 

[AceT100]

Those GS models are awesome for distance work

 

[Wheelbilly]

$180 a day on the weekends. A little cheaper during the week. It's Jupiters "NYC" but there's a west coast operation just opening up. They rent to Europeans that want to do coast to coast rides, so the west coast inventory usually has a decent selection I guess.

The GS was so nice, I can't blather on enough about it.

I'll post the good pictures tonight.

 

[Wheelbilly]

Day late but here goes
Here's teh GS I rode just before we took off

and the big RT with heated seat, motorized windshield, the works. what a bike! Bummed I missed out on riding it, but I enjoyed the time on the GS so much I'm not too disappointed

We made a quick stop for gas and aired up the tires and we were off! First thing I noticed was how smooth it was at speed, I started out following and my riding partner quickly was up to 90, at which point he decided it would be best if I led, as I'm a little more scared of the man and keep the reins in. For those from So Cal, we started on the 405, to the 55, 91, and then up the 15 to just past the top of El Cajon pass, exiting at Bear Valley Road. The ride went quickly. I enjoyed the grip warmers to no end, not having experienced such luxury before, and kept myself busy with the ESA, electonic suspension adjustment. There are 3 levels on the GS, Comfort, Normal and Sport. At first, I thought sport smoothed things out more then comfort, but after hitting some rough pavement I quickly realized that Comfort really meant "Caddy". What a smooth ride! Keeping it in 6th gear made for smooth cruising up the hill, easily keeping with the flow of traffic on the way up.

So yeah, we got a bit of a late start but neither of us had taken time for breakfast in the morning, so once we reached our exit (about 90 or so miles into the ride) we stopped at Farmer Boy's for a hardy breakfast and some hot chocolate and coffee. I couldn't stop blabbering about how nice the ride up was, and we were both a bit frosty from the change in elevation so we hustled inside for hot goods.

Perhaps the only picture of your semi-adventurous author

A short ride from the restaurant brought us past the Maverick's Minor League baseball stadium in Adelanto or Victorville or something. It's all the same to me. We caught juuuust the tail end of practice but still took a few pictures from outside of left field. Looks like it would be a fun place to catch a game, nice and small. As long as it's not scorching hot, or freezing cold, like the area is known to be.

Next up, paydirt!

 

[Wheelbilly]

Another half hour or so of nice little two lane roads brought us to our destination, El Mirage dry lake bed, home of SCTA time trials for....a long time. It's west of the 15 freeway, on the east side of the 15 is where i used to go rock crawling (Johnson Valley) and is a great destination for some dirt riding, just stay away from the camp sites!!

First up was a late model Corvette. I missed most of the speeds the cars ran, we spent most of our time on the side opposite the announcers booth and with the cars, bikes and wind, the pitiful PA speaker just couldn't carry far enough. I've seen this car run before and it is a brute. Nasty little thing

This couch just flat hauled ass

This old sprint car had a flathead with an Ardun overhead conversion on it, again, didn't catch the speed, but wish I had (I'm running a standard flathead in my 26 model t sedan hot rod project)

This was the first trip down the track for this car. Had been built over the course of many years, and was about to get put to use, exciting moment

 

[Wheelbilly]

One of the cool things about Landspeed racing is it's structured differently then say, the NHRA. All cars run at all times. You get a number, you get in line, everybody runs. There were 4 lanes to stage in, one for rookies, I think one for 200+mph I think, and two for everyone else, which made for great variation that kept things interesting.

Bikes of all sorts run, not just cars. Street bikes, stretched 'busas, old Indians, stretched and laid out Harley's, custom jobs, "side cars"...the selection is awesome.

 

[Wheelbilly]

and don't forget the 100cc 2 stroke streamliners

This is Miriam from Hondata, she busted another record, this time running nitrous on a K series motor in a JDM crx, new record is 167 and change. She told us how the aero package starts kicking in at 150, but up until then it can be a little hairy. Soon as she crosses that number, it sucks down and is super smooth. Her husband, Doug, was in line for his second run of the day, and I missed how he did his first attempt. He drives an RSX. Both cars, to my knowledge, have been over the 200mph mark.

 

[Wheelbilly]

This little bugger spun out through the lights at 207mph!!

This is one of the Ferguson's cars, that family has been in the game for generations, and I don't think they'll be stopping anytime soon. Members of the Rod Riders, as well as Miriam and Doug from Hondata

This is the race surface

 

[Wheelbilly]

couldn't resist some glamour shots of the rental bikes
This little bugger spun out through the lights at 207mph!!
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_i3YY0VpLRxw/SwLG21JfDSI/AAAAAAAAFZo/uBdmVP8W3Eo/s800/DSC_0227.JPG

This is one of the Ferguson's cars, that family has been in the game for generations, and I don't think they'll be stopping anytime soon. Members of the Rod Riders, as well as Miriam and Doug from Hondata

This is the race surface

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[Wheelbilly]

Again, huge thanks to Jupiter's Motorcycle Rental for helping me open my eyes to just how incredible the R1200GS is and letting me enjoy this trip to the desert that much more. I can't wait to ride it again Keep them in mind next time you want to ride coast to coast, or just locally like I did, on a bike you don't own quite yet.

I fooled around on some of the woops and in a little sand as well, first time doing that. No pics, but my friend caught a little video of it, I'll have to see if it's even worth posting, but I gotta say, that was fun! Fastest we hit on the lakebed was right about 60, but it's creepy because you're watching for holes and ruts, AND other cars and bikes. Great times!

 

[Wheelbilly]

This is what I'll be bringing out there next year

Just with a lot more layers on the first part of the ride, and hopefully some more dirt fun

actually, both the T and the Bonnie