G310GS in Death Valley California

I just got back from the Death Valley Noobs Rally in California. I attended because I needed to learn and practice riding on serious broken rocks and sand. There were about 200 riders, with all but a handful riding 2-300 lbs street legal dirt bikes. The handful were riding 500 lbs adventure bikes. My ~400 lbs 310GS was the oddball in the middle. I was told about 20% of the riders were noobs (new to dirt riding).

I ran MotoZ Desert H/Ts on my VMX wheels. My tires/wheels were much wider than the wheels/tires on the dirt bikes, especially my 4.25" rear. Several riders said my tires/wheels were the widest they had ever seen on a 300 cc bike. Side-by-side with the dirt bikes, my tires/wheels looked huge. It's the first time I thought Rally Raid had the right idea offering spoked wheels that were the same size as the GS' OEM wheels (2.5" & 3.5").

My first organized ride was an Intro to Death Valley ride with a mix of road types and washout crossings, but no serious rock or sand. We started at ~2000', went down to almost 300' below sea level, and then climbed up to Aguereberry Point at 6,433ft elevation on the west side of Death Valley in the Panamint Mountain Range. Thanks to some lingering snow and some rain the night before, there was some mud and my GS and I got properly dirty, more so than most since I had removed my front fender and installed a Tail Tidy on my rear. The dirt bikes had their usual high fenders that minimized thrown mud and dirt.

My second organized ride was with an experienced group of dirt bike riders on the Old Toll Road between Panamint Valley and Darwin. I was doing well on the seriously rock strewn road until I had a minor crash just before a series of 1-2 foot tall steps/ledges. I couldn't see a viable line through the ledges; didn't have any momentum at that point; and didn't want to hold up the rest of the group, so I told the sweep rider I was bailing out of the ride and made my way back down the rock strewn road with no problem.

At the bottom, the whole group caught up to me and changed their plan so they could work with me. I was the only noob in the group and the whole point of the rally was to help noobs. They wanted to keep me as their token noob. We slabbed it to Darwin and came down the Old Toll Road with several up hill climbs to visit old mines. By the time we were done, according to them, I was tackling road sections that were worse than the one I originally balked at. I only crashed once more when I caught some deep sand amongst the rocks, but I was now comfortable riding on rocky roads covered with loose broken rock.

Side note: This type of riding would have been impossible/very dangerous if I had not disabled my rear ABS. Using my rear brake to drag my rear wheel was essential to avoid going over the edge. Originally, I used to disable my rear ABS by removing the bolt holding the ABS sensor, flipping it, and reinstalling the bolt. Just before this rally, I installed a handlebar mounted cut-off switch for the rear ABS sensor. By similar logic, having full time front ABS helped avoid loss of directional control.

My third organized ride was with another bunch of experienced dirt bike riders, including two racers, going to Olancha Dunes to play in the sand. The leader took us on a round about route getting there that was mostly deep sand filled river beds. This was my first attempt riding in sand and it was kicking my a**. As I was following the group, who was way ahead of me, I was wallowing all over the place in the group's tracks, crashing a few times and nearly crashing dozens of times. I've never been so exhausted. I kept trying every technique I knew and/or that they suggested seemingly to no avail.

About two-thirds along the route, it started to click and I got to the point where the ride leader made me slow down to make sure l wasn't using speed to hide poor technique, but I was nailing it even at the slower speeds, finally keeping up with the group. At the dunes themselves, I had a blast all over the place. The key for me was just enough speed to get the front tire on top of the sand along with using my foot pegs to do nearly all the steering.

Intro to DV ride...
(kilns used to make coke used for mining)


Aguereberry Point at 6,433 ft...


Paused in Darwin...
(my GS 2nd from end amongst the dirt bikes)


Visiting mines off the Old Toll Road...
(yes, he's rolling an old tire down the hill)


During a pause with the sand riding group...
(I'm in front only because they paused to wait for me and, due to my exhaustion, I picked a easy spot beyond them to dismount)