Salt flats Utah

[Sandow]

Hey guys,
Myself and 2 buddies are going on a road trip to vegas from vancouver early next year.
We want to take a bit of a different route down there and stop at the salt flats in Utah.
Has anybody been there before?
Is it possible to go onto the salt flats without any event being that time?

I read that the ground is usually mushy and soft when its not hot enough outside?!Does the ground have to be prepared for riding on it?

I appreciate any input on that. I would love to take the bird on a high speed spin without being scared that I will get arrested lol.

[Mythos]

I'm sure there are some here who can tell you what it is really like but I have been told that riding on salt is something one must get accustomed to. It's not as bad as beach sand but not altogether different according to what I was once told.

[c10]

Salt does terrible things to a bike or metal in general . Since your riding on a trip , and Your Bird is a daily ridden machine I wouldn't recommend it . Cool as it may be to ride on the salt you will cake up the radiator / oil cooler very quickly .
If you have to do it find a wash bay asap , and wash radiators for back to front . Not from front into motor or the headers , and other parts will suffer down the road .

[RedBull]

[Sandow]

Salt does terrible things to a bike or metal in general . Since your riding on a trip , and Your Bird is a daily ridden machine I wouldn't recommend it . Cool as it may be to ride on the salt you will cake up the radiator / oil cooler very quickly .
If you have to do it find a wash bay asap , and wash radiators for back to front . Not from front into motor or the headers , and other parts will suffer down the road .

Thanks Bryan, thats a bummer but somehow I already had parts of that in my head. Thank you for destroying my dreams

[Kiwi Rider]

Thanks Bryan, thats a bummer but somehow I already had parts of that in my head. Thank you for destroying my dreams

Look at it like waking up out of a bad dream . . . Salt is the last thing you want near your beautiful bird.

[fallenarch]

just don't lick the yellow salt....

[pashnit]

Sandow - my first Iron Butt ride, I planned a 1000 mile day on the Hayabusa with the goal being to reach the Bonneville Salt Flats. I've been reading about it since I was a kid reading Hot Rod magazine.
You can see all the pics here:

2012 Iron Butt 1000 Mile Day Motorcycle Ride

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours rides 1000 miles in 1 day to Bonneville Salt Flats

www.flickr.com

The salt flats are on the border of Nevada & Utah right outside Winnemucca, and the freeway goes right across them.

What I didn't know at the time is you can exit off the I-80 freeway and drive right out onto the salt flats. No gate guard, no entrance, no fanfare, barely a sign. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen and far exceeded my expectations with how cool that was.

The paved road (pull up Winnemucca, Nevada on Google Earth) goes right to the edge of the salt flats and just stops and you keep right on riding onto this board flat table top of salt, It's crazy strange. I thought my kickstand would sink in, but nope, it's super hard. When it rains, the salt turns to a consistency of cake batter and yes , it got all over the Busa. But pressure wash bike at the next town to get all the salt off bike.

Truly an epic spiritual experience, you'll love it as much as I did. Picture absolute nothingness. No roads, no landmarks, no people, just perfect nothingness. And it's white. Imagine a world of white where's no color anywhere. So white, it hurts your brain. Which only makes sense once you go there. They were doing some sort of time trials when I was there on a weekend in September - this is a desert - don't go there in July. But there's likely a schedule of events somewhere.

I've been a lot of places, ridden all over the USA, ridden to Alaska and back, and by far, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen in person.

[pashnit]

[Sandow]

Sandow - my first Iron Butt ride, I planned a 1000 mile day on the Hayabusa with the goal being to reach the Bonneville Salt Flats. I've been reading about it since I was a kid reading Hot Rod magazine.
You can see all the pics here:

2012 Iron Butt 1000 Mile Day Motorcycle Ride

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours rides 1000 miles in 1 day to Bonneville Salt Flats

www.flickr.com

The salt flats are on the border of Nevada & Utah right outside Winnemucca, and the freeway goes right across them.

What I didn't know at the time is you can exit off the I-80 freeway and drive right out onto the salt flats. No gate guard, no entrance, no fanfare, barely a sign. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen and far exceeded my expectations with how cool that was.

The paved road (pull up Winnemucca, Nevada on Google Earth) goes right to the edge of the salt flats and just stops and you keep right on riding onto this board flat table top of salt, It's crazy strange. I thought my kickstand would sink in, but nope, it's super hard. When it rains, the salt turns to a consistency of cake batter and yes , it got all over the Busa. But pressure wash bike at the next town to get all the salt off bike.

Truly an epic spiritual experience, you'll love it as much as I did. Picture absolute nothingness. No roads, no landmarks, no people, just perfect nothingness. And it's white. Imagine a world of white where's no color anywhere. So white, it hurts your brain. Which only makes sense once you go there. They were doing some sort of time trials when I was there on a weekend in September - this is a desert - don't go there in July. But there's likely a schedule of events somewhere.

I've been a lot of places, ridden all over the USA, ridden to Alaska and back, and by far, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen in person.

View attachment 1608098

Thanks so much pashnit. Thats how imagined it. I will definitely like it as much as you did. Thanks for the amazing fotos. Did you go fast on the salt?

[mjl3truck]

If you did decide to get out and ride around on the salt flats you may be in for a surprise.
Don't stray too far from existing tire tracks. Also I won't just "let her rip either" the salt has all kinds of nasty grooves and divots in it that event organizers go to great pains to smooth out. Besides that it a Hayabusa were to crash in the middle of a large salt flat off season would anybody notice it until next summer?

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