We're Not The Only Ones
Got a phone call this morning from David Lambeth (UK contact for the Tuareg Rallye). This year's Tuareg is full, absolutelu choca, and has been for months.
What we're doing though is for me to give him my application now for 2009 - and I'll get a guaranteed place. Thanks David.
He asked me what bike I was planning to use:
"If you're on a KTM Adventure", he tells me, "that's nearly 200kg of bike when all the gear is on it. By the time you've picked it up 20 times, every additional kilo will feel like 10". He's seen guys, halfway through rallies, unbolting parts on their bikes and throwing them away - just to get the weight down.
David also tells me that he has, "lying around", a whole raft of navigation equipment, roadbook holders and the like. Don't go paying retail at Touratech without speaking to him first.
He had some comments about Dakar though. He had some very choice comments about privateers and the way they are viewed by the organisers and professional competitors. He had some thoughts on the long distances and average speeds - whilst a light and small bike would be excellent on most of the stages, particularly sand, it would struggle to keep up the necessary average speeds on the very long ones. Something to think about perhaps but really only something that can be properly tested on a long rally.
When I asked him about 2009 Dakar - and wether there would be a 2009 Dakar - he had to admit that there was no way anybody could know in advance. The Dakar Rally is the worlds most unstoppable race - and nobody is sure if it wil ever run again. That's a major clue.
Could they run the 2009 Dakar, or later events, somewhere else? Well, they've started and finished in other places before but it's always been in Africa and South-West Europe. When you call your race "Paris-Dakar", you're not really leaving yourself a lot of options.
But some excellent feedback on the AJP PR3 260 - and her potential brilliance as a rally bike - from somebody who does desert rallying for a living as it were.
In his own words, "They'll laugh at you on the start line, they'll cry when you skip past them in the sand, and - at the end of the race - everybody will want to know how you managed to build such a brilliant rally bike. You won't win, but you will finish, and you'll be a hero. Or, at least, you'll be my f**king hero".
Came across this brilliant video pn YouTube. It was originally a charity record for Age Concern. It's My Generation by The legendary, legendary, Who. The song My Generation is claimed every 20 yaesr as an athem for the teenager of the day. The irony is that, this time, it's been claimed by people who were in their 20's when it first came out. Very amusing.
Here's your choices. You get old, or you die. Nothing else on offer.
You will notice the notoriously active percussion going on. This was originally Keith Moon. Another manic depressive, and a brilliant drummer. Pete Townshend recorded him at a session and slowed it right down - every beat was in time. Pete mused that "how can anybody play that fast?". The sound engineer mused tht "not even a machine gun can play that fast".
The Mighty Keith Moon. Due to his stick-the-custard-pie-in-the-face-of-the-Hotel-Manager back in the 60's, The Who are still banned from every Holiday Inn worldwide. Or it may have been when he dived into the pool head first - when there was no water in it. We'll never know.
Brilliant drummer. Flawed genius. My hero. "Moonie the Metronome". And, of course, a complete nutter. If he was alive today, he'd ride enduro. But he'd ride it a lot faster than everybody else.
What we're doing though is for me to give him my application now for 2009 - and I'll get a guaranteed place. Thanks David.
He asked me what bike I was planning to use:
- "What bike are you planning on using?"
"Don't laugh ..."
"OK, I won't laugh"
"An AJP 260. Well, an AJP 200 PR3 with a 260cc engine in it"
"Why on earth would I laugh? That is a brilliant idea. It's got to be, what, 100 kilos with all the fuel and stuff?"
"Something like that - 105kg or so with all the nav equipment"
"Mate, my rally bike is a TTR250 - for exactly the same reasons. I sit on the start line of a desert rally, all these guys on their massive bikes, and they laugh. At the end of the rally, they're all wanting to have a look at my bike. I wish more people had the same approach to it - you just don't need 65 horse power in sand"
"If you're on a KTM Adventure", he tells me, "that's nearly 200kg of bike when all the gear is on it. By the time you've picked it up 20 times, every additional kilo will feel like 10". He's seen guys, halfway through rallies, unbolting parts on their bikes and throwing them away - just to get the weight down.
David also tells me that he has, "lying around", a whole raft of navigation equipment, roadbook holders and the like. Don't go paying retail at Touratech without speaking to him first.
He had some comments about Dakar though. He had some very choice comments about privateers and the way they are viewed by the organisers and professional competitors. He had some thoughts on the long distances and average speeds - whilst a light and small bike would be excellent on most of the stages, particularly sand, it would struggle to keep up the necessary average speeds on the very long ones. Something to think about perhaps but really only something that can be properly tested on a long rally.
When I asked him about 2009 Dakar - and wether there would be a 2009 Dakar - he had to admit that there was no way anybody could know in advance. The Dakar Rally is the worlds most unstoppable race - and nobody is sure if it wil ever run again. That's a major clue.
Could they run the 2009 Dakar, or later events, somewhere else? Well, they've started and finished in other places before but it's always been in Africa and South-West Europe. When you call your race "Paris-Dakar", you're not really leaving yourself a lot of options.
But some excellent feedback on the AJP PR3 260 - and her potential brilliance as a rally bike - from somebody who does desert rallying for a living as it were.
In his own words, "They'll laugh at you on the start line, they'll cry when you skip past them in the sand, and - at the end of the race - everybody will want to know how you managed to build such a brilliant rally bike. You won't win, but you will finish, and you'll be a hero. Or, at least, you'll be my f**king hero".
Came across this brilliant video pn YouTube. It was originally a charity record for Age Concern. It's My Generation by The legendary, legendary, Who. The song My Generation is claimed every 20 yaesr as an athem for the teenager of the day. The irony is that, this time, it's been claimed by people who were in their 20's when it first came out. Very amusing.
Here's your choices. You get old, or you die. Nothing else on offer.
You will notice the notoriously active percussion going on. This was originally Keith Moon. Another manic depressive, and a brilliant drummer. Pete Townshend recorded him at a session and slowed it right down - every beat was in time. Pete mused that "how can anybody play that fast?". The sound engineer mused tht "not even a machine gun can play that fast".
The Mighty Keith Moon. Due to his stick-the-custard-pie-in-the-face-of-the-Hotel-Manager back in the 60's, The Who are still banned from every Holiday Inn worldwide. Or it may have been when he dived into the pool head first - when there was no water in it. We'll never know.
Brilliant drummer. Flawed genius. My hero. "Moonie the Metronome". And, of course, a complete nutter. If he was alive today, he'd ride enduro. But he'd ride it a lot faster than everybody else.
Download the Manic Mission Information Pack for the full story ...
posted by 2009 Dakar at
Friday, January 18, 2008
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