Let's Go To Vegas The Dumbest Possible Way

It's pretty clear you need to do LAB2V next year on the Grom.

"It looks like we're giving thumbs up, but our hands are just stuck that way" is the truest statement I've ever heard about long-distance motorcycle riding.

Well you know the dumber the trip is the funnier it will be

I appreciate the engineering integrity it took to plan a trip with equal time dedicated to each fun type.

That wasn't a scrambler, it was a trencher.

Funny how over time, the Brain can block out the trauma. We fondly look back at something we willingly did, that was undoubtedly miserable. Yet in the rearview mirror, as the aches and pains fade away, the thrills, chills, and comraderies end up being closer than they appeared, and hold endearments like our firstborn child. But as soon as we try it again, we remember why we said we're only having one child.

Mad props to the person who made it that far on a PWC.

After decades of riding motorcycles, I've noticed that the memorable rides are the ones where nothing went right. Like the one where you forgot your phone on the seat and it yeeted itself into the curb, or the brief rain shorted your buddy's ignition system. The frost on my visor from riding through the fog at 33 degrees at 11000 feet was fun too.

I hate sand. It’s rough, it’s coarse, and it gets everywhere.

offroad motorcycles are actually the best and most fun vehicle you can pilot like ever. Also the man who decided a scrambler is the bike for the job is clinically insane I love it!

A beautifully nuanced explanation of the motorcyclist mindset. Interesting event, too.

Matt - what a great storyteller you are!

8:03 this whooole section sounds exactly like snowboarding. Especially previously with the floating on clouds and terrain looking the same having different behaviours. Front digging in, having to squat for days, hills being the most fun, getting tired and lazy and making mistakes. But doing this atop a heavy machine..crazy Muscles you didn't know you had is so true though. Boarding you need to do a lot of lifting at the toes, which uses your biggest muscle (/s); your shin

Scariest ride I ever did was on a 600cc BMW R69-S, from Eugene, Oregon to Portland, 111 miles on Interstate 5. How hard could that be, you ask? It wasn't just black ice all the way; it was black ice with water standing on it. At least once every half mile there was a car or truck in the ditch. Even so I was the fastest vehicle on the road, sometimes riding at an improbably reckless velocity of nearly 40 miles per hour. I passed a state trooper who had enough problems of his own that he pointedly ignored me. I stopped at a rest area to catch my breath, and the moment those two big gyroscopes stopped turning, the bike just slid out from under me, leaving me standing there. I couldn't get enough traction with my boots to lift it back up, they just slid backwards and the bike slid forwards as soon as I tried to lift. A friendly bystander helped, we slid the bike on its side until the wheels stopped against a curb and then the two of us were able to lift it upright. Once I got going above five miles per hour, it stabilized enough to continue the ride. Now that was a memorable ride that I remember well 60 years later.

I've ridden bikes all my life and have always done the 'stand up over the rough stuff' thing. I never understood the physics of why that worked until your 'decouples the mass from the bike' statement and explanation. Thank you for that.

Great video. Having lived in Las Vegas before and rode those same roads and areas on a 701 enduro.. your lamentations on sand hells and especially the bit about type 1/2/3 fun really spoke to me. Perfect summary of what it’s like and why, despite that, you end up doing it again.

Great video - as always. Love your sense of humor. Didn't know about the fancy tyre in a tyre.

As someone who has well over 300k miles on motorcycles, i can wholeheartedly affirm that "type 3 fun" is definitely a thing, and definitely not fun. For about 6 years, while I did own a truck, I could not afford to drive said truck- so my primary mode of transportation (year round) was my 2012 Sportster. I loved every single ride I ever took on that bike- even the ones to work- but especially the miserable ones. I took a sort of pride in riding in conditions that had the DPS troopers questioning my sanity, Snow- yep. Thunderstorms-yep, Tornadoes- yep, Hail (ouch) yep, Sub zero temps- yep, Ice torms- yep, freezing rain-yep. I learned really quick that you could complain and be miserable, or "embrace the suck" and ride on (whilst still being miserable). God I miss riding, but an unfortunate incident with a scared dog and some inattention on my part has left me with a left index finger that is largely ceremonial and zero strength in my left hand. I tried like hell to modify it to where I felt safe riding it in traffic, but no matter how light the clutch was, I just couldn't pull it consistently (safely). So I ended up selling her. O always said that if I ever got to the point that I was a hazard to myself, or I had to question my ability, I'd hang up my helmet- and I regrettably had to do so. My other bikes? yeah it hurt to watch them go, but I am not too proud to say I cried as I watched my Sportster get loaded up on the truck to go to her new home.

In the lat 90s I was stationed at Ft Irwin right outside Barstow,where we spent 2 weeks a month, 11 months a year driving around that desert in tanks. Lots of type 2 and 3 fun there. We would frequent Vegas on our time off, and cutting through the military reservation in 4x4s and hitting I15 outside of Baker shaved an hour off the drive. I hated that desert for many years, but watching this makes me miss it just a little.

"It looks like we're giving thumbs up here but that's because our hands are stuck in that position." MATT. KUDOS. My thighs and muscles I didn't know I had, empathize with your experience. I ride a 2002 KLR and I've taken it on some rough trails. Exhausting is an understatement. Thanks for pushing through and then further reliving the experience in order to edit and share it with us. INSANE.