Dakar

winger · Post by **winger** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:20 pm

Anyone watching the Dakar?? tough dudes or what,how about the geezer who rode into the check point on his back rim!!!!

andrew s · Post by **andrew s** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:23 pm

I've been watching, pity about the fatality. What about Mr Allan riding at the age of 65 years and still in it.

Andrew

bigblackfalco · Post by **bigblackfalco** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:24 pm

What channel is it on?

andrew s · Post by **andrew s** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:25 pm

British Eurosport

Andrew

bigblackfalco · Post by **bigblackfalco** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:32 pm

I always manage to miss coverage of it.....what un-godly time are eurospurt showing it?

stoney · Post by **stoney** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:41 am

Its on at 9pm. The coverage isn't great but I savour every second.

Its amazing what these guys do! Echo that about the chap riding on his rim

There was a chap from the GS site doing it this year - BUT he didn't start yesterday after suffering TWO broken ankles..

Ouch

HARDCORE BIKING

RoLoo · Post by **RoLoo** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:14 am

winger wrote:..anyone watching the Dakar...

...every evening...
...before I close my eyes ; around 11PM until 11.45PM...

...my favourite : (leading) Dutchman Hans Stacey in his MAN truck...

...we have it on channel : RTL7

BockingBandit · Post by **BockingBandit** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:09 pm

Well guys,.. you've seen the TV,. you've watched the DVD,.. now you can actually do it yourselves. Ok,.. the Dakar will cost you £100K plus to compete, .. but you can now do the 'Classic Paris Dakar'. It started a couple of years ago for Yamaha XT500's only,.. now I think it's open to other more modern bikes. All you need is the Bike and 4x4 support. You can do 'Iron-Man' and cover the milage yourself.. or a team of 3 per bike. I'm seriously interested but unfortunately the web site is down, .. heroeslegend.com, .. I'm also as skint as a church mouse in a very poor community, .. but I can always dream.
Geoff

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:21 pm

BockingBandit wrote:Well guys,.. you've seen the TV,. you've watched the DVD,.. now you can actually do it yourselves. Ok,.. the Dakar will cost you £100K plus to compete, .. but you can now do the 'Classic Paris Dakar'. It started a couple of years ago for Yamaha XT500's only,.. now I think it's open to other more modern bikes. All you need is the Bike and 4x4 support. You can do 'Iron-Man' and cover the milage yourself.. or a team of 3 per bike. I'm seriously interested but unfortunately the web site is down, .. heroeslegend.com, .. I'm also as skint as a church mouse in a very poor community, .. but I can always dream.
Geoff

Cool - I'll get some knobblies for the MZ.

(it'll probably be more reliable/tougher than the XT500 too)

RoLoo · Post by **RoLoo** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:59 pm

BockingBandit wrote:...now I think it's open to other more modern bikes...

...as far as I know ; only for XT500 and (airhead) boxer-G/S...

BockingBandit · Post by **BockingBandit** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 9:28 pm

Ron, I think that the XT500 and early GS's was the idea for year 2, but apparently you can run a whole range of other bikes, I assume they have possbily opened different catergories, which sort of makes sense if they are already laying on the infrastructure. Website's down at the moment so it all seems a little vague though, ... but one day I would still love to do it.
Imagine the response at work, ...... 'Blue 88,.. your late,.. where you been?', .... 'Oh,.. just Dakar'

leasky · Post by **leasky** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:48 am

Yes, they are a tough breed. I was working in Nuakchott, Mauritania, 2 years ago when a few of them came through on the bikes looking for fuel!! We were going to work in the morning from the staff house to the office in a fleet of jeeps, when suddenly all these weird and wonderfull looking bikes started to appear behind us. They flagged us down as we were obviously ex-pats and asked where they could get fuel. There was no fuel in Nuakchott at the time due to a military coup, so we took the guys to our offices and gave them what we could. There were no Beemers, just 4 Jap bikes,being ridden by mad Frenchmen.

They had got lost from the supprt team just south of the town and had come off the beach( the route they normally take up through Mauritania) in an attempt to get more fuel.

Later that day as we were finishing work we came across the Peugot team support vehicles sitting in the middle of a huge roundabout after clattering into a heard of sheep and trying to passify an irrate local tribesman who had just lost his livelyhood!

If memory serves me correct, I think a couple of guys died that year in Mauritania due to accidents. The sand dunes can be a hellish height, with a vertical drop at the top, not to mention the bloody camels, goats, sheep and wild dogs to run into.

The heat is also hellish; it often went over 50 degrees and the sand is a fine texture almost like talc, which gets everywhere. Not an ideal mix for a run on the bike. We had to drink a litre of water an hour, so god knows what those guys on the bikes must have been using.

Having said all that though, it was an incredible, surreal experience to meet those bikes in such a remote location and to appreciate real, hard-core biking.

The roads around Aberdeen suddenly dont seem so bad.

BockingBandit · Post by **BockingBandit** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:16 am

Thanks for the 'Heads-Up' Leaksy, .... and not being born on the 'brave side of the tracks', I think that I might slightly adjust my 'Lottery Dream'.,..what about 'Short Way Round - Long Way Round'?, .. Inspired my Ewan & Charlie, .. but doubling the difficulty by travelling clockwise and anti-clockwise on the M25 and North/South Circulars, .... avoiding Rush-Hours of course. That sounds much more within my Budget and Ability.

www.boxertrix.com

Dakar

Dakar

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