Doug, How we got east of Beatty: We followed the group down Farm road, cut over to Mojave road and followed it along the West side of the Big Dune all the way to Hwy 95. We went about 1.5 miles north on 95, then turned right (east) onto the first main dirt road we came to. Mapquest shows it well. We then wound around the back side of a small range, passed by an old gold mine (go figure), headed up a a narrow wash and up and over the range near a microwave installation. We ended up dropping down and back onto Hwy 95 less than a mile south of Beatty. Strangely enough, the guy's GPS we were following showed this as the quickest route to Beatty from Big Dune. Technology, gotta love it.
The carb mystery persists. Feels like an electrical miss under heavy load at about 2/3 max rpm. If I hold it wide open, i can gradually ride out of the missfire rpm range and it pulls hard to as fast as I wnated to go (about 90mph) in the rain on Saturday afternoon. Plug looks good, seated tight, Air cleaner ok, valves adjusted ok, not sure what else to check before diving into the carb and checking the wiring.