After playing a supporting role for the Stan’s No-tubes women elite team at the “24 Hours in the Old Pueblo,” del Fuego and his water carrier headed to the Hot well dunes for a bit of hot sandy motorbike action. The journey though Arizona was smooth, other than frequent stops by the police to check if the pit vehicle was carrying meth amphetamines, illegal aliens, and/or (my favorite) large sums of money. These concerns were alleviated by the water carrier trying to sell the cop some fine Swedish chewing tobacco.
At the dunes, JDF and the water carrier spent the first day getting used to the not-so-soft sand then opened it up, practiced going over the whoops with a way-too-soft rear shock. Lots of wrecks made them glad that they were on sand, and never going over 5 mph. The camp was guarded by a pit bull named Pork Chop, who has lethal licking capability, and that’s about it.
The water carrier was having endless problems with oil in the carb, probably due to over filling the bike with oil. A quick spray of carb cleaner in the air box fixed it right up. Then his battery died. JDF then started doing “sympathy kick-starts” to make him feel better.
Techniques they were practicing:
• leaning back in the sand
• getting started in the sand (still haven’t figured it out)
• resting (not a technique, but they were doing it a lot anyways)
• running into barbed wire fences
• running into yucca
• looking up, instead of at the front fender or sand ruts that the bike was heading for
• trying to make a sand flag look sexy (impossible. Don’t even try)
The area looked like it had a lot more riding outside of the dunes, but time didn’t allow for further exploration. Another trip to this area will happen in the future.
