Watching the Dakar every year always makes me want to get on my bike and ride off-piste until it hurts. :
And when I do it, I get an amazing satisfaction from it: You know, the kind where you find you can hardly move for two days afterwards from being tired and sore. Now I want to do this now more often with other similar minded masochists. :whip2:
The obvious answer is to start rally racing. Not enduros or MX, but long days and big distances of hard, technical, off piste riding. :ricky:
So this will be my n00b´s rally update thread where I will plot my progress as I venture into this rather daunting world of "Camel-man" riders for those of you who want to follow my journey. :komet:
I´ll be including lots of details on the bike, the preparation, the licencing, the problems encoutered etc. so hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes and discoveries!
I would be most grateful for any wise words of advice, encouragement or warningatch: you may have.
My plan is finish at least one rally this year, probably the Dos Sertoes in August, check it out HERE. This rally is 10 days of ±300km technical riding per day. Its pretty daunting for me I must say! But I know if I put my mind to it and prepare properly I can finish. Thats the only target I am setting myself for now. To just finish.
A bit about me:
I´m a budding 25 yr old trapped in a 38yr old body. Its tough, but what can you do - You have to work with what you have. Im reasonably riding fit, can do a long, difficult dirt sessions on my 800GS no problem. But I can only do a few hours of hard, off-piste, enduro style rallying on my wife´s KTM 450 EXC before I am totally shagged. So I´need to build up my fitness. Im not a gym kind of guy, looking gay in tights and flexing my muscles in the mirror is really not my thing. I guess Im going to have to learn to get over my dislike of gyms at some stage in the near future. Well worry about the tights later ;D In the meantime Ive started a couple of basic fitness improvement programs: 100 pushups per day (right now I can only do 20! :eek7 and 200 situps/crunches. I plan to be there in 6 weeks. From there on I guess I´ll have to go to a gym. Im going to start riding enduro style at least 3 times/week as well.
I also need to eat less fat & grease, drink less beer and also less whiskey n coke! :-\ Basically Mr Lardass needs to turn into He-man.
A bit about my ride:
Im in the market for a second hand rally bike, but theyre hard to find, so I looked around at whats ridden out there:
Honda 450
Honda 600
KTM 450/520
KTM 690/650
Husaberg 530
Husqavarna 450?
Sherco 450
Yamaha 450
<edit> o ja, the BMW 450 but maybe not after only 1 of 4 finished the Dakar.. :deal:
I am most likely going to buy one of these:
And then prep it into one of these:
Im still open to advice in choosing the bike, I need to make a decision by the end of next week. Why did I choose a Yammie 450? Its light; I´ll be able to pick it up more times than a 690 before I´m totally pooped. Its easier to ride and control than a bigger bike. The rally kit is narrower between the knees and more balanced than the KTM, or Honda counterparts and the kit is fairly easily availible. Its a reliable machine that is fairly common on the big rally circuits, so spares are not an issue.
Once I have the bike, then I need to have it prepped and ready by mid April, I´ll be attending a rally "training school" in Arizona in Mid April. So there is lots to do.
Thats it for now.
And when I do it, I get an amazing satisfaction from it: You know, the kind where you find you can hardly move for two days afterwards from being tired and sore. Now I want to do this now more often with other similar minded masochists. :whip2: The obvious answer is to start rally racing. Not enduros or MX, but long days and big distances of hard, technical, off piste riding. :ricky:
So this will be my n00b´s rally update thread where I will plot my progress as I venture into this rather daunting world of "Camel-man" riders for those of you who want to follow my journey. :komet:
I´ll be including lots of details on the bike, the preparation, the licencing, the problems encoutered etc. so hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes and discoveries!
I would be most grateful for any wise words of advice, encouragement or warning
atch: you may have.My plan is finish at least one rally this year, probably the Dos Sertoes in August, check it out HERE. This rally is 10 days of ±300km technical riding per day. Its pretty daunting for me I must say! But I know if I put my mind to it and prepare properly I can finish. Thats the only target I am setting myself for now. To just finish.
A bit about me:
I´m a budding 25 yr old trapped in a 38yr old body. Its tough, but what can you do - You have to work with what you have. Im reasonably riding fit, can do a long, difficult dirt sessions on my 800GS no problem. But I can only do a few hours of hard, off-piste, enduro style rallying on my wife´s KTM 450 EXC before I am totally shagged. So I´need to build up my fitness. Im not a gym kind of guy, looking gay in tights and flexing my muscles in the mirror is really not my thing. I guess Im going to have to learn to get over my dislike of gyms at some stage in the near future. Well worry about the tights later ;D In the meantime Ive started a couple of basic fitness improvement programs: 100 pushups per day (right now I can only do 20! :eek7
and 200 situps/crunches. I plan to be there in 6 weeks. From there on I guess I´ll have to go to a gym. Im going to start riding enduro style at least 3 times/week as well.I also need to eat less fat & grease, drink less beer and also less whiskey n coke! :-\ Basically Mr Lardass needs to turn into He-man.
A bit about my ride:
Im in the market for a second hand rally bike, but theyre hard to find, so I looked around at whats ridden out there:
Honda 450
Honda 600
KTM 450/520
KTM 690/650
Husaberg 530
Husqavarna 450?
Sherco 450
Yamaha 450
<edit> o ja, the BMW 450 but maybe not after only 1 of 4 finished the Dakar.. :deal:
I am most likely going to buy one of these:
And then prep it into one of these:
Im still open to advice in choosing the bike, I need to make a decision by the end of next week. Why did I choose a Yammie 450? Its light; I´ll be able to pick it up more times than a 690 before I´m totally pooped. Its easier to ride and control than a bigger bike. The rally kit is narrower between the knees and more balanced than the KTM, or Honda counterparts and the kit is fairly easily availible. Its a reliable machine that is fairly common on the big rally circuits, so spares are not an issue.
Once I have the bike, then I need to have it prepped and ready by mid April, I´ll be attending a rally "training school" in Arizona in Mid April. So there is lots to do.
Thats it for now.
![N[]vA](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/39fc70600d70a0afa40b682c3a695dc0?s=96){kind=avatar}
