Del Bondio doesn't get to go on
many of his company's trips that
often anymore, but he was our
guide through Death Valley.
out: You can spin the m around like a top and po int them
back down t he hill to get them unstuck.
After making my first pass to the top of t he tallest dune,
I was blown away. I couldn't believe it. Sure the big, heavy
GS was a handful that requires the thrott le to be pinned
the enti re time to prevent it from auguring into the deep
sand, but it made it no pro blem. The 80 mph descent, full
throttle with the head shaking, was a t rue blast. Christoph
and I made about 10 passes for the photographer, and that
was more than enou gh to impress me .
After leaving Dumo nt Dunes in the rearview mirrors,
we had to suffer t he long trek down 1- 15 toward L.A. My
GS's transmission had been giving me trouble allweekend
and finally stuck itself in third gear. lowe Tom a huge
thank-you for swappi ng bikes with me and riding my bike
back into LA at much re duced speed , w hile I blasted off
into the distance on his bike.
We made one more detour onto highway 138, for a
quick blast in the tw isties to Crestline, and down
Waterman Canyon, a site of Californ ia's terri ble wildfires
last fall .
When all was said and done, I came away impressed
wit h the route t hat Del Bondio Adventu re Travel planned.
There were a few details t hat need to be wo rked out, but
the tour was packed with excellent riding, and to be fair,
the point of our trip was to uncover the bugs t hat the
company will later work out fo r its customers. And after
10 years of running tours around the world, I'm positive
that the Death Valley, or any other of its exciting tours for
that matter, are we ll worth the price of admissio n. eN
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CYCLE NEWS . JULY 21, 2004
41
