1st trip to the dunes!

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Went to the dunes this weekend in Eastern Washington near Moses Lake

Ive never been before it proved to be a very memorable trip.

We got there early in the day and I noticed that the sand is not like the sand in the Huevos videos. This sand was wet and firm and pretty rutted with criss cross tracks. There were some impressive whoops at the bottom of every hill.

We unloaded our 3 quads and a YZ 250 and set off.

This is a pic of my wife and her warrior and my dale getting ready to go.

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We goofed around the truck for awhile, their wernt many people out and we essentially had the place to ourselves. We found a smallish dune and were jumping, it was there that the problems started. My bike just up and began back firing on letting off the throttle, like it was WAY too rich. It still ran well but everytime I let off...BANG!

More distraction than issue, then my wife rode up and said her bike was hesitating on full throttle and cutting out...

Good grief, we hadnt been riding 10 minutes. We decided to continue the ride anyway as these were smaller problems.

Everyone was stopped talking and I went and jumpped an adjacent dune doing a quick loop. When I got back they were all gone. I spent the next hour looking for them, it's amazing how quick you can dissapear out in a place like that!

I finally went back to the truck and found them there. First thing out of Kim's mouth "So you lost your flag too huh?" I looked around and saw the broken stub of my flag protruding from the bolt holding it on. Kim's had lasted less than 15 minutes and she was told by the sherriff out there to park the bike.

I dont know when I lsot mine, we were never able to find either one.

My freind onhis polaris sportsman broke his tranny belt and the guy with the YZ250 snapped his kickstarter off, the whole **** shaft broke!

I put the flag from the polaris on my bike as its owner had resigned himself to drinking and went to look for the flags with the yz freind.

We were tooling along and got separated. Again, I looked everywhere but you **** near have to be in the same hole to find anyone and there's no tellin where he got off to.

I went my own way to find my flag and instead found a beautiful dune about 25 feet high, steep! with a gentle back slope. A couple test runs and I was hitting it pinned in fourth and sailing down the back side. An incredible rush and certaintly the highlight of the trip. No pics, I was by myself. I played there for the better part of an hour jumping my heart out, then headed back to the truck.

I found the YZ guy standing on top of a hill. He had killed the bike right after we got separated and couldnt get it started!

I tow started him and we rode hard back to the truck. I was in the lead and had the bike hard in fourth. I came to the top of a dune and did a powerslide to the left. The bike hooked up hard, cathing a rut with the front tires. I dont know how I departed the bike, it happened very quickly, thank God I scrubbed some speed in the slide, I was probably only doing 30mph when I hit the ground on my back instead of 50 or 60.

I didnt bounce, the sand was pretty hard and wet and I just sorta 'stuck' there, cracked a couple ribs and I think I bruised a kidney, **** near lost consciousness but I got woke up by my quad... landing upside down on top of me.

Was able to ride it out of there but am still pretty **** sore.

Only thing that happened to the quad was I busted my pipe.

Dropped the engine when I got home to get it in for valve adjustment and stud update. Found out the back firing was from the head pipe coming loose. 3 of the 4 mounting nuts were loose.

Here's a pick of the busted pipe, I'll be ordering a full HMF tomorrow.

[fyrmedic]

sounds like a typical trip to the dunes for me!!
You need to come to Utah at the Little Sahara dunes some time, Lap!! Big climbing hill, big dunes, little dunes and a lot of room to ride!! Oh, and good sand too!!
I'm going tomorrow!! Yes I finally got my quad done.
I'll have to take some pics and post em sometime.

[fyrmedic]

yeah!! it's a lot of fun there too!!, but Little Sahara is only 1.5hrs away for me

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I loved the ride, but man, that sand is ROUGH! The whoops about kicked my ***, some of em were a hundred yards long or more. Might be the tme of year I went too, the sand was pretty wet.

Anyone race motorcycles on their dales? Had a he!! of a lot of fun racing my buddy on his piped yz250. That thing is pretty impressive. We swapped wins many times, I had more in the very top end, like 5th and up, but very impressive on acceleration.

We were both doing second gear starts.

[fyrmedic]

have you ridden dunes beforelast week, lap??
if not, don't be too disappointed, when the sand gets better, it rocks!! I love duning!!

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Nope, first time, and dont get me wrong, Im not dissapointed at all. Humbled would be a better term Im gonna be ordering a set of paddles for when we got Florence in the summer.

[4punksdad]

sounds like an expensive trip

lots of broken parts...............including body parts!

I have had bruised ribs and it aint fun. You posted this on the 18th, so those ribs ought to be good and tender right about now. I suggest lots of robutussin.........works for me.

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Im doing much better, still sore, pretty deep bruising in my hip too. Nothing debilitating. Im taking some time off from Judo though

I only broke stock stuff on my bike, so that's kinda nice actually

"But honey bear, I HAVE to get a new HMF Full Pipe in anodized red cause my stock pipe is broken"

I could have killed my friend for offering to do a simple weld to fix it, and RIGHT in front of my wife.... Doesnt he know the rules?

[fyrmedic]

sounds like you ought to give your friend a copy of the quad rules, lap!!! He needs to be instructed to say... oh too bad.. too bad you can't fix it.. looks like you need a new one!!