Glamis

Dunes look boring... Hahaha no way! I have done every type of riding and the dunes are the only place I can ride all day without getting bored!

Every rider should experience the dunes but be careful because it's a whole new world out there your first time and extremley dangerous.

 

Very true. If you've never been, definitely go with people who have experience. Dune faces are always changing.

 

Where do you usually camp by Chris?

 

Nice, next time I'm out there i will keep a look out for Tiki Torches. So you camp off of Gecko?

 

Right on! Keep me in the loop. I think my friend Emily is already planning one. Probably won't be till after October. I'll let you know.

 

all right dude calm down its not a big deal

but i have to say that looked soooo fun
i love the desert... like with a passion

mmm i love the dry heat

 

i understand the dropoffs, and all but how technical can it be? unless its avoiding other people. all ive seen is hill climbs, jumping lips and roosting the top of the hills. dont get me wrong, not trying to start an arguement and I would love to try it but its a haul from out here, Alabama.

just for reference to show im not some noob, ive raced Flattrack, TT, MX and XC for over 1/2 my life and was racing nationals at 12.

 

its not technical

you just drive as fast as you want and just charge it...
especially if you have the right suspension ie longtravel you go for how fun the ride is/race

 

The sand dunes are awesome and fun as well as challenging. Ive riden all types of terrain from rock,trails,track,and snow. The dunes is a whole different game. They can be decieving in different light of the day. and like some have said the razor backs are the best and the worst. Also the difference in the sand texture and how the wind has blown. There can be soft pockets that can suck you front end down when going thru them. Close to the ocean the sand is harder from the moisture and further away it softens up.
Horse power is the key. Sand robs it quickly and you half to stay on the power band of the bike. The proper tires are a plus as well.
The dunes is like a smooth ride on a roller coaster thats endless, but the sand is fatiguing as it puts more drag on the front end during steering. But it is all good.
I spend about 4 weeks at the Oregon dunes from Brookings to Florence and like them the best as for the different terrain in the trees and the scenery. HAve not been to glamis but have made it to Sand Mtn,Nevada,Christmas Valley near Bend ,Oregon, Samoa Dunes by Eureka,Ca. So Glamis is in the Future but a long haul, but Ive heard it is well worth it especially at New Years Day.
There is idiots everywhere u ride but most of these areas are big enough that you dont half to ride next to them. Glamis is one of the LArgest areas next to The dunes in Saudi Arabia.
You half to be there to get the whole idea of it. So enjoy and ride.

 

Being a seasoned X-country and desert rider the first time I went to the dunes 11 years ago I was scared shitless out there.It can be very,very dangerous.When your side hilling a huge bowl and not up to speed and the sand gives way underneath you,you will shit your pants if your a novice.A witches eye can kill you........almost did my buddy.3 weeks in a San Diego hospital and 6 months of therapy taught him.Hit a razorback head on with an 80 foot drop on the other side will most likely kill you.You can ride close to camp all day and get familiar with the terrain............but if it's windy all night that terrain will be nothing like it was the day before.Oh.........the rangers out there are dicks too!

 

Hill climbs are for people who like to race ie 'hillshooters' that is not duning. Jumping lips a few times when you find a good jump is not duning, a lot of people on dirt bikes will jump all day long, still that is not duning. Roosting the top of a hill is just showing off, not duning.

This video here shows some of the technical riding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3iHkyavBqQ
But until you have done it its very hard to see it from the view of the rider, videos don't do it justice.
If you ever get the chance to visit some dunes you should try it out .

How is it not technical?? Ride as fast as you want and fly off the top of a dune at 40-50mph to find out the other side is straight down and now you are falling 200ft....or go off the top of the same dune and not know how to make the transition and you are rolling 200ft straight down the dune.
Or you are cruising along 5th gear pinned and all of a sudden you are in a witches eye that you couldn't see and slam into a wall of sand.
Ride all day one day and think you know the dunes only to find out they moved and changed during the night and what was a roller one day is now a sharp razor. Dunes are not like a track where you can see what is coming up in front of you and riding the same thing over and over again. Or like following a trail, if you stay on the trail it obviously leads somewhere and not into a tree or off a cliff..in the dunes just because you follow some tracks does not mean you have the skill of that rider to be able to make the same transition he/she did. Sand robs your power, if you get scared and slow down too much you will not make it up the hill or through the transition, hit the brakes or let off the throttle at the wrong moment and you will lose traction and crash.
Not many quads out in the dunes actually have long travel. All our quads are stock suspension and we get around just fine. We just got a long travel sandrail, but had a midtravel before that.

Come out for a ride with me and see if you can keep up with a girl . What do you ride??

Well said .
Some friends of mine and I were out at Coral Pink Dunes in Utah, we all rode sand so it wasn't new to us... 5 of us were heading back to camp, it was around noon and the sun was straight up, gets rid of all the shadows and the sand appears flat, you can't see the drop offs and at Coral pink they are steep. So 1 guy split from the group to get back faster, 2 more took off faster than me and 1 other guy cared to ride..me and that guy came to the edge of a drop off and luckily slammed on the brakes before we landed on top of our 2 friends who had left us...1 had gone off the edge and slammed into the facing hill side...the guy following him hit the brakes to avoid landing on top of the guy and ending up rolling down the hill with the bike landing on top of him..he suffered 5 broken ribs, a broken collar bone and a punctured lung, we got him to the hospital about 45 mins away and they flew him to the hospital where we live, the other guy had internal bruising and a concussion, he was in and out of consciousness the entire times and he spent the night in the hospital.
It was not nice seeing my friends laying at the bottom of a hill with the bikes upside down and mangled.
There are too many stories where the people didn't survive. You never ride in the dunes alone, if you crash it could be hours or even days before someone finds you.

 

Oh and I'll post up some pics of a $100K sandrail that crashed in a witches eye last season. The driver and passenger survived with minor injuries, we were able to locate their friends and have their car towed out of the dunes and back to town for them. If this would have been a lower quality car or a quad they probably would have died. From witnesses it was surprising they weren't hurt more just due to shear impact force, they said they could hear them screaming in the air.

Doesn't look like a very big drop off, its about 40-50ft, but they didn't see it since it was around noon and the sand looked flat...It nosed dived and flip on its top, those tracks are from a witness driving down to check on them and then going to get help.

This is standing in front of the car looking at where they flew off, it came off somewhere around where the dirt bike is...
This car had major front end damage, but the frame held up very well.

No significant damage to the cage around the occupants, no breaks to the a-b-c pillars, quality car saved the occupants..

The gas pedal was snapped off, they had 4 point harnesses and the drivers knee went into the dash and moved the dash about 4 inches...5 point harnesses probably would have prevented all injuries.


Another time we were sitting in camp around 1am, saw some lights on the back side of the steepest hill, looked strange and as we kept watching it seemed like some people were trying to get to something, but couldn't make it. So a few of us headed over to see what was going on and we find out that someone flew off the top of the dune and landed half way (over 100ft) down the other side which is so steep only quads and high powered sand rails can get up to it. The lights we saw were a few people in rhinos and they couldn't make it, well the medics are transported in a rhino so we knew they couldn't get to him. The guy had been laying in the sand for over an hour with no medical treatment saying he couldn't feel his legs, we were told medical was on the way so we headed to camp to get a sand rail that could transport the medics to him when they arrived. With the rail fully loaded it took him 4 different tries to get to the guy then they had to drag him down the hill on a back board cause he was a large guy and wouldn't fit across the back seats of the rail. The quad he was on was flattened, all tires blew, the frame cracked, handle bars bent and it was brand new, they guys 1st trip to the dunes. We towed the quad down and helped his friend load it into a truck. He survived with some internal injuries and luckily his back was not broken. He could have been laying there all night if someone hadn't seen him. The medics are not always there and do not have the ability to get into the dunes to get you out if you get hurt.

 

Great pics and Great posts!!

 

Like i said if i could ever make a trip, i would just to see what its about. Also ive been outrun by a girl, 2 that i remember, one is the national womens MX champ, Heather Rose, or Byrd, dont know what name she is useing now. right now i have 2 250r's, 2 400ex's a 450r, and a wolverine.

Anyway, back to being dangerous and people allways getting hurt, do you think some of the accidents could/can been avoided if people would not try to ride over their heads, or use caution when going out? Pushing yourself is fun, but IMO most people out there, dunes, woods, anywhere is uauslly riding out of their ability, too much motor, and just dosent have any real reason to be on a bike or atv.

 

I think the biggest cause of accidents in the dunes are people being unfamiliar with the terrain and then being over confident in their abilities.
It seems that people who are new to the dunes, but have ridden in other terrains and are good riders tend to crash more often than people who have been around the dunes and may not be so good of a rider but is cautious.
I think most of the deaths are people who were new to the dunes.
Those who are familiar with the dunes crash when they get too confident with their abilities, I think that is the same on tracks or trails also.
I absolutely think some people put themselves in unnecessary danger by becoming over confident and riding beyond their ability in all types of offroading.
Ref my above stories.. the sandrail crash, they had just bought the car, I heard it was their 1st trip out with it, so overconfidence and unfamiliar with the veh and terrain...the quad crash, they were riding over their ability and for the conditions of the terrain even though they were veteran dune riders.

My first experience on a quad was in the dunes on a 450, bought myself a z400 cause I didn't think I'd ever need to power of a 450 for my style/ability. My z400 got me around just fine in the dunes and on the trails, even keeping up with the guys on the 450's but with a lot of effort on my part. I rode that for 2 years and now I have added an ltr450, I don't ride it any harder than I did my 400, it just takes less effort (constant shifting) on my part to ride with the guys. I'm actually more comfortable on the ltr450 in the dunes because of the wider stance and lower center of gravity, not to mention the stock suspension is much more forgiving. The group I ride with usually cruises the dunes in about 4th gear, 3rd gear rides for when some of the girls join in. Most of us don't enjoy 5th gear pinned runs, to technical to enjoy the ride. We are some of the safest riders out there.
My collection is a z400, ltr450, yfz450, funco sandrail, atc70 .

 

i just want to say i am so jealous of everyone that lives near & gets to go to glamis and any other dunes....

enjoy it!

PA sucks!

 

I'm originally from Pennsylvania and moved out here to Arizona back in 1993.I am so glad I did.Discovered Glamis in 1998.Right now my anticipation for our first trip this season(Halloween)is eating away at me like cancer!I'm addicted to the sand to say the least.