Miles of Nevada

This was my first complete bike build, and the first time riding in the desert.

On the way back home from a local race I spied in the back of Cycle News an ad for the first 'Vegas to Reno' race. They claimed it to be 'The longest off-road race in the United States', 500 miles, and I wanted to do it solo.
I took a 84 XR500 and applied YZ 250 forks, motor rebuild (major), electrics (for the million trillion candle watt Baja headlight), custom made Ohlins (for the mono swing arm), wheel lacing,
nickle plated frame, custom seat, Titanium bars, triple clamps, and many many other do dads...it was also street legal..

Around this time I was driving Chad Pedersons box van around the east coast for the Arena Cross Series..So when it came time for the race he let me use his rig.
It was crazy not knowing what the fuck I was doing, but having a factory painted Honda Race Truck racing me from gas stop to gas stop was ace...Well, it was fun until around the halfway point..At about 275 miles the alternator went out of the box van, and they were not at the check point with gas...

While I was waiting and wondering where they were, I could hear people in the pits talking about how the Rails and Trucks were getting close...
About the same time the van got there, a race truck went by doing a 100mph or so..
After watching that truck go by...I was done...There was no fucking way I wanted to be in front of those things..

That March was dusty, I wrecked several times, chipped a tooth, went to jail, spent insane amounts of money, DNF'ed (your never supposed to DNF), and many other mini storys...but, it was a weekend I will never forget and never do again....Well, I would like to do the Baja 1000 someday.