Ducati Monster Forum

So I just got back from a six day solo trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Pictures are probably better than words, so here they are!


Many more pictures at http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road.html (http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road.html)
and http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road-part-2.html (http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road-part-2.html)

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Death Valley

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At an abandoned mine.

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The end of the road leading to Groom Lake... aka Area 51.

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On Highway 50, the so-called Loneliest Road in America.

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In the middle of the 10-mile straight on the Bonneville Speedway, and not a soul in sight.

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After the top speed run.

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Yeah, that stuff gets in every imaginable crevice and rusts everything. But it didn't matter at this point.

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Sun rising over my campsite in the Silver Island Mountains overlooking the salt flats.

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All packed up leaving the campsite in the morning.


Yeah... it was quite a trip  ;D

Awesome pics,good job!  [thumbsup]

I know, it's all about the experience and all that, but you gotta tell us how fast.

Nice, I always wanted to take a road trip out there.

F'ing epic!

That is so amazing, I'm very jealous.

What is strung between your pilion handles and the rear pegs?

Welcome to Utah, now GTFO....I keed, I keed.    :P

Glad you had a safe trip and got to try a top speed run.  Inquiring minds want to know "how fast?"

 [thumbsup]

Awesome pics, thank you!   [thumbsup]

Oh, and I like your avatar!

Great post  (on blog) and pics!  Must have felt surreal. 

God i remember going down that highway in a motorhome with my grandparents about 10 years ago.... That particular part of the road felt completely endless!!!

Is that because you just don't care about the bike or... ??? just curious

my guess is because he was already there and midstream in his trip and wasn't prepared to do anything about it until he got home after this epicness....but I am just assuming....

how can you goto bonneville and not try a top speed run? these bikes though great were made for riding, if it gets a little rust along the way so be it., good job.

UHHH.....didja look at the title/caption underneath the 3rd pic?...I helped you out here...look below it now!

140 mph?  ;D











I know its not a Capirex 620.

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the comments and encouragement. Here's my answers to the specific questions:


It's a pair of custom saddlebag supports that Nick @ Valley Desmo made for me. They keep the saddlebags from sagging in and getting ripped up by the rear wheel. I added a ammo pouch to each to make them broader.


Nah, I love that bike like nothing else in the world. It's just that with the sight and feeling and just experience of being there, something like cleaning was the last thing on my mind. I did find a car wash when I got back into town and sprayed the hell out of it. But generally I'm not very big on cleaning the bike while on the road, cuz if it's just gonna get dirty again the next day why bother? And plus, it's kind of like a mark of where it's been.


Ahh... here's the hard question. It's kind of a long story but... two days before I reached Bonneville I took a detour through an unmaintained road through California City. It was riddled with massive potholes and I was going a bit too fast and hit this awful one and... bottomed out my suspension so hard that I knocked my molars (which hurt for days afterward). Well it was only half an hour later that I noticed it also knocked my speedometer needle out of place, so that it was reading almost exactly 15mph too high all the time, even at 0 mph. I'm pretty sure it was off by that constant factor but I can't be 100% sure. So all week I had to mentally subtract 15 from the speedo to get my real speed.

So on the salt flats, flat out I was reading a bit north of 145 mph, meaning it was actually slightly higher than 130 mph. The tach though (which was still accurate) was at almost exactly 8.2k rpm. I know it does 65 mph at 4k rpm, so extrapolating that would get about 135 mph, so that matches. So that's the long answer to the question.


;D


Also, not to disappoint, I finished organizing the rest of the pictures from the trip, and here's a few of them:

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WR0EzCc2M1I/T8HsKd9VypI/AAAAAAAABg4/WJva0AEuRvc/s1600/DSC06448.JPG)
At the abandoned Hard Luck Mine.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D1qprWOhIA4/T8HtawK8yCI/AAAAAAAABh0/u4GtxFarA80/s1600/IMAG3489.jpg)
The end of the road leading to Groom Lake... aka Area 51.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1xTVJessmc/T8HsV41JwFI/AAAAAAAABhc/0yRmtnH48Mo/s1600/DSC06488.JPG)
Death Valley

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YgDhMC2c1VY/T8M6_yaa-dI/AAAAAAAABiU/lMpkQhY3_74/s1600/IMAG3481.jpg)
Ultima GTR in Ely, NV, for the Silver State Classic Challenge. The owner said he had driven it all the way from Pasadena. I was impressed.

As usual the rest can be found at http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road-part-2.html (http://thesunhaswings.blogspot.com/2012/05/loneliest-road-part-2.html)


Cheers to the long weekend!

Very very nice.