Los Angeles to Barstow to Las Vegas Dual Sport

Smallest displacement bike.

Me and My Tohatsu

When I was seven years old my father purchased my brother and I

motorcycles. My brother got a YG1 Yamaha 80. Mine was a Tohatsu 50 Trail

Master because it was the only bike, of the time, small enough for me to

ride. I loved that bike and rode it all over the Antelope Valley. My

lifetime love of all things motorcycle began with that small bike. About

seven years ago the first batch of grandkids got big enough to ride

motorcycles. I thought it would be really cool for them to learn on the

same bike that I had so I started looking for a Tohatsu to restore.

Though the Tohatsu company still manufactures outboard motors and small

engines they have not made motorcycles since 1964 when they closed their

Motorcycle division and sold their interest to Bridgestone.

Locating parts for a forty-four year old bike had me searching ebay

every day and, where necessary, driving as far as 1,900 miles round trip

to pick up parts and spare bikes. Every part on the Tohatsu was produced

by Tohatsu and there is no interchange with other maker’s parts. During

the restoration I met some great people and now have a community of

Tohatsu collectors as friends. After about a year I had the bike running

pretty good and I remembered a ride my Dad had made.

In 1964 my father and 2 buddies rode Yamaha YG1 80cc bikes from Palmdale

to Baker and followed the old Railroad out of Baker as far as they

could. They had no support vehicle and used backpacks for gear. I grew

up hearing adventures from that ride.

I figured riding the LA b to V Dual sport on my 50cc Tohatsu would be

pretty close to what they had accomplished so I entered in part to

commemorate the ride my Father organized in 1964. Another motivation was

that I wanted to show that Tohatsu put some pretty good engineering into

their bikes and that one of their bikes, even old and undersized, could

make the cut. My friends say I also wanted to show that I am nuts but

there are easier ways to prove that!

The Ride Starts

We got started from Chaparral at about 7am after a long line at signup

and loading the roll chart on the chase bike. Frank Brewer from the

Checkers MC offered to ride with me and carry extra parts and tools. I

gave my roll chart to my son, Geoffrey, who was driving a 4X4 with the

balance of the spare parts. For the trip I took along a spare engine,

spare front and rear wheels, brake hubs, shocks, swinging arm, chain,

ignition coil, points, fuel tank and a collection of other small parts.

And, though I didn’t know it at the time, I apparently loaded lots of Luck.

The first challenge was the climb up a fire road from San Bernardino.

For the Tohatsu most of the climb was low gear with some pushing with my

feet. The rocks that are taken in stride by my XR650 were like boulders.

Each time I hit a rock I would bottom the suspension (all 2.5” of

travel). In addition the dust was a challenge as big bikes were flying

past. Riders were supportive and would slow to look at the Tohatsu as

they passed however once passed they would resume speed and I could not

see the rocks through the dust. Several times in the dust trying not to

loose speed I hit large rocks and had an unexpected jump.

We met my son Geoffrey on highway 138 just above Lake Silverwood and

fueled the bike. The Tohatsu has a .7 gal fuel tank so my range is only

about 60 miles. In addition oil must be mixed with the fuel as Tohatsu

did not install oil injection on their bikes.

The downhill side of the mountain was a lot of fun. I could almost keep

up with the big guys and stay clear of dust for the most part. I hit a

large washout and all of a sudden the bike started making excessive

noise. The Pipe had come out of the head and moved some to the side.

After a quick inspection I determined the spring holding the pipe was

not strong enough. I added wire along with the spring to hold the pipe

in. We fueled again just before the scheduled Gas stop in Hesperia. Then

we started the long climb up the mountain again; winding up power line

and forest roads. Every hill was a mountain for the little 50 and I

regretted not lowering the gearing when we last fueled. Low gear was not

low enough for about 50% of the hills so I used the clutch a lot. I was

concerned about the long term effect of this but at the moment this was

the only way I was going to make it up the steep hills. After what

seemed like hours the road started down then turned into pavement. Soon

I saw Big Bear Lake and once again I had conquered the mountain.

It now was getting late so we grabbed a snack at a gas station fueled

the bike and started off again. I decided since it was so late to take a

short cut and jump ahead. We followed highway 18 down the backside to

Lucerne, fueled again and rejoined the pack at Highway 274 and Camp rock

road. At about 3 miles down Camp Rock is where the next mistake

occurred. Frank had never used a roll chart and for the most part we

were following the other bikes. By mistake we took the Hard way. So the

next 20 miles were deep sand and steep hills. After about an hour of

fighting up a sand wash we came to a large rocky hill. With some help

from Frank we were able to get the bike over the hill. It took all the

bikes power and ours to make it.

When we came to a pipeline road that would take us back to Highway 247

we bailed back to highway 247 since it was getting dark. About 10 miles

from Barstow on highway 247 the engine on the Tohatsu broke a piston.

This most likely was caused by over-rev on the long down hill. I was

running about 45 MPH when it let go so the engine was toast. I rode the

support bike to Barstow met with Geoffrey and we retrieved the bike. We

had dinner then swapped motors for day #2. I completed the engine swap

at 12 midnight and got to bed at 12:30 in the morning. Just to top off

the day the room smoke detector malfunctioned and went off at 1 am and

woke us again. It quit going off after about 5 minutes and we got to sleep.

5 AM on Saturday we got up and prepared for day 2. The rear shocks had

lost all oil so I exchanged them and we got on the road about 6:30 Am.

It was quite cold and I was worried about the effect of the cold heavy

air on my engine. Just in case, I raised the needle one notch in the

carburetor in order to make up for the cold heavy air.

Just on the edge of town the route started up a deep up-hill sand wash.

About 300 feet into the sand the engine seized. After allowing it to

cool the piston broke free and the engine had compression. It started

easy so we continued. It was pretty plain that I could not make it up

the wash on such a tight engine. Our only option was to take roads but

after over an hour of looking and unable to find a route around the

freeway I decided to chance it and take 3 miles of freeway in order to

get out of Barstow.

All was going fine driving 25 mph along the side of I15. About ¼ mile

before the off ramp a CHP traveling in the other direction spotted us.

As Luck would have it a center divider prevented him from reaching us.

He blasted off southbound to turn around but we were off the freeway and

down a side road before he could get back.

About 6 miles out of Baker the course turned up an uphill sand wash.

Once again the bike was working hard so about every mile I would stop

and let the bike cool down. One time I stopped and, Oh Shit! fuel was

running out in a stream. The sediment bowl had come off and fuel was

running straight to the ground. I turned off the petcock and began the

search. Bikes were passing every few minutes and if one were to run over

the bowl we would be stuck. After about 30 minutes of walking back the

trail, I found the rock colored, grape-sized bowl to the side of the trail.

At the next Hard Easy split we decided to take the easy route and by now

Frank was getting much better with the roll chart. About 10 more miles

and most of them deep sand the bike started making a new noise. A quick

once-over found the fender bolts were missing. The rear fender was

reattached with a piece of heavy iron wire we found laying next to the

trail. Another good Luck. I had wire for repairs but nothing heavy

enough to hold a fender. The balance of the piece of wire was placed in

the parts “just in case”. I ended up repairing the fender 2 more times

with the wire because every time I came down really hard, the wire would

sheer.

We made lunch in Sandy Valley and started on the final leg to Vegas.

About 5 miles after lunch the bike dropped the chain. The master Link

had broken. I installed my spare master link and in a few minutes was

back on the road. The next 40 or so miles were sandy and rocky roads;

however the bike did great. On day 2 I had swapped the rear wheel to one

with a 45 tooth sprocket. I started with a 40 tooth. In addition the new

motor had one less tooth than the original. So now I had a top speed of

30 MPH however I did much better with the hills and sand. At 3:15 in the

afternoon we reached highway 160 and the roll chart indicated after 3 to

take the highway to Las Vegas. A few miles down the highway the bike

started to miss and soon it would not run. After a short maintenance of

the points and replacing the spark plug we were back on the road.

Another 5 miles down the road the engine quit again. This time I ran out

of gas. By Luck again, we were in front of a gas station so I added .5

gal of gas and the proper amount of oil. We pulled into the Hotel

parking lot at about 4:30 just as it was getting dark.

What an adventure! I could never have made it without the help and

support of Frank Brewer and my son Geoffrey. We all had a great time but

I feel no hesitation in applying the “Once in a lifetime” label to this

excellent adventure.