5555
Been trawling around the Dakar Website, looking for as much information as I can get on the various rules and procedures that need to become second nature to me.
As Andy at KTM explained to me (blogs passim), the Dakar is all about navigation. The motorcycles are required, as per regulations, to be fitted with GPS but it does not work. In reality, the GPS system only becomes active when you are within 3km of a checkpoint, upon which it will then show the distance and bearing to that checkpoint. At all other times, it just sits there and shows you your current position.
The GPS can be overridden by punching in a code number, like a pin number. One of these codes is available from Dakar HQ. You contact them using a satellite phone connected to your bike (also required by the rules) and tell them you are lost. They give you the code to punch in to the GPS to activate it and show you the distance and bearing to the next checkpoint. If you resort to this, then you are hit with a 4 hour time penalty - which means that you are regarded as having arrived at the bivouac 4 hours later than you did. When you consider that riders must - again according to the rules - have a minimum of 6 hours rest between race days, then this is actually quite a stiff penalty since it only leaves you 14 hours in the day for everything else needing done: eating, sleeping and the small matter of riding 500km through the desert.
If you invoke this mechanism four times, you are automatically retired from the race.
There is another code that can be typed in to the GPS, and everybody knows it - you do not need to ask Dakar HQ for anything. This code does exactly the same thing - shows the distance and bearing to the next checkpoint, and its number is 5555.
If you enter the number 5555 into your GPS system, then it is your acceptance that you are immediately retired from the race. it is the Dakar equivalent of a white flag. Dakar 1, you 0.
Just imagine for a second. You have spent years training for this. Enduro races. Time in the gym. Weights. Stamina training. Diet. Sand training. You have spent months buikding and tuning your race bike. You have spent something in the region of £50,000 in cash, not to mention the personal and financial sacrifices. You are a year away from being able to attempt it again, even if you were minded and could afford it.
Four numbers entered on a keypad, just the same as if you were at the bank taking cash out. Two seconds worth of effort from your index finger. And that's it - your Dakar is over.
Like most things to do with bikes, this is a great metaphor for life. It only takes a second to destroy something that has taken years to build.
As Andy at KTM explained to me (blogs passim), the Dakar is all about navigation. The motorcycles are required, as per regulations, to be fitted with GPS but it does not work. In reality, the GPS system only becomes active when you are within 3km of a checkpoint, upon which it will then show the distance and bearing to that checkpoint. At all other times, it just sits there and shows you your current position.
The GPS can be overridden by punching in a code number, like a pin number. One of these codes is available from Dakar HQ. You contact them using a satellite phone connected to your bike (also required by the rules) and tell them you are lost. They give you the code to punch in to the GPS to activate it and show you the distance and bearing to the next checkpoint. If you resort to this, then you are hit with a 4 hour time penalty - which means that you are regarded as having arrived at the bivouac 4 hours later than you did. When you consider that riders must - again according to the rules - have a minimum of 6 hours rest between race days, then this is actually quite a stiff penalty since it only leaves you 14 hours in the day for everything else needing done: eating, sleeping and the small matter of riding 500km through the desert.
If you invoke this mechanism four times, you are automatically retired from the race.
There is another code that can be typed in to the GPS, and everybody knows it - you do not need to ask Dakar HQ for anything. This code does exactly the same thing - shows the distance and bearing to the next checkpoint, and its number is 5555.
If you enter the number 5555 into your GPS system, then it is your acceptance that you are immediately retired from the race. it is the Dakar equivalent of a white flag. Dakar 1, you 0.
Just imagine for a second. You have spent years training for this. Enduro races. Time in the gym. Weights. Stamina training. Diet. Sand training. You have spent months buikding and tuning your race bike. You have spent something in the region of £50,000 in cash, not to mention the personal and financial sacrifices. You are a year away from being able to attempt it again, even if you were minded and could afford it.
Four numbers entered on a keypad, just the same as if you were at the bank taking cash out. Two seconds worth of effort from your index finger. And that's it - your Dakar is over.
Like most things to do with bikes, this is a great metaphor for life. It only takes a second to destroy something that has taken years to build.
Download the Manic Mission Information Pack for the full story ...
posted by 2009 Dakar at
Friday, June 22, 2007
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home