Tuareg Rallye 2013 - The Next Adventure

Any more updates ?

Calm down, clam down
Finished those damn exams last week, got to work a little more on my bike this weekend. Have to have it done by the 27th, when I have to drop it off for transportation to Tunisia. Luckily it's just a 300km drive to the drop off point, not 1000km!

My order of tires arrived for myself and Ed:


Mounted and ready to go:




Little problem with the low front CF fender. The Yammie doesn't have the "standard" mounting positions for the fork guards, so I will have to make an adapter somehow, or just use the normal high fender:


Footpegs now nicely fit. Also a new shift lever:


Cockpit shaping up nicely. The fairing is just held there by a piece of wire to test the position.








Small light switch:


Extra thick padded seat (not so much monkey-butt) with suede cover and big rallye pouch for the time card:




Acerbis 13L front tank:


Rear right side alu tank from the Yamaha rallye kit:


Nice shape and build quality:


Upgraded the fragile plastic lids to a billet one, cable tied to the tank:


Bolts on to the stock location of the exhaust:






Perfect fit to the subframe and plastic:


New exhaust header that runs under the frame:






Fixes to the bottom of the frame nicely:

Loving that new exhaust routing Tony!

Jx

Great to see a steel-framed WR still cutting the mustard. Nice development page. Good luck in Tunisia!

Thanks This will, however, most likely the WRs last outing with me. Post Tuareg I plan on upgrading

You're the best Tony!!!! Can't wait to follow you during Tuareg Your bike looks great i still remember when i saw it at the Baja 300 it looked awesome!

Hey Tony, hope you dont mind me asking but whats tuareg going to cost you v's comming back and doing the aus safari with their free shipping?

Bike looks great by the way, interested to see how your going to secure the fairing at the sides.

Topo the big problem with the yanks ,brits & euros doing Aus safari is they lose there bikes for 16+ weeks so they end up missing rally's over there ,

Unless they have spare bikes or hire a bike set up down here ,
So although the free shipping is good there is the 8 weeks each way for shipping

Once I finish my 690rally , ill start building the 500EXC rally lite , which I might hire out or the 690
Depending on which one I like bestv

Just to let you all know that I shall also be attending the Tuareg Rally myself next month in a press & PR capacity, and will be supporting Tony with a Personal Media Service - including daily updates direct from the bivouac on his progress (and results), photos and even audio interviews!

I have started a dedicated Event Coverage and Media thread for the Tuareg Rally here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=865985 and will be updating there daily with all the news, together with Tony's personal press releases which I shall also copy here of course!

Please subscribe to the Media thread for the very latest info, direct from the bivouac!

Jx

Quick update. Got the bike done Wednesday, when we also dropped it off for transportation to Tunisia.

One we go! Since I'm running both front and rear tanks, I obviously need a fuel tap to switch between the two sources. This little unit it standard on quite a few Yamahas and costs used under 40€ (not like the KTM model for a few hundred €'s).


I then fabricated this little bracket...




To be able to mount the little bugger on the 2 screws that hold the lid of the electric starter gear:


Meanwhile, Ed was updstairs in the living room completing his ride with the help of my brother, Tim:




Flexy bars for him:


10L rear Safari tank plus 13L up ront, let's hope it's enough for the 2-stroke


Back to my bike. The left rear tank was still unmounted. It mount to the stock location of the radiator catch tank on top:


and a bracket that goes through the chain roller:


The top side of the tank has a bracket fitted that is fixed in place by rubber grommets:


The bottom side has threads welded inside:


Neat fix:


View of both tanks:


To help get the fuel to the carb, I needed a fuel pump. Only good solution is a vacuum type from a Yamaha XT. Yet again, I fabricated the necessary bracket on the left:


Fixes nicely to the stock location of the reg/rec:


Since I was in a rush after all these parts there aren't many pics unfortunately, but here is the end result:


I couldn't finish the side part of the fairing in time, so it's just the front face on there. We'll think of it as saving weight


And finally the box is all sorted. I stuffed my boots in there to save some weight in my luggage when flying down:


See you in a few then guys, Jenny will keep you guys posted and I may chime in given the chance

OT:

You'll lose your bike indeed for about 11 weeks, round trip. So having a 2nd bike would be handy.

I did the Oz Safari Adv Tour and Tuareg Rallye and budgets including tickets etc end up being about the same for me. That includes tickets to Perth from Amsterdam etc.

Tony is using the Tuareg Org to ship his bike and crate form bivvy to bivvy so I guess that would run about 600 euro cheaper then what I did (part of EAO team).

Add about 2 to 4000 euros to the budget is you do the OZ Safari rally with your own bike though.

Hey Tony,

Bike is looking great! With the dual rear fuel tanks and the vacuum pump, where are you locating the otherwise stock parts those rally parts now occupy?

Can you get by with not having the coolant overflow bottle? I know where I ride in the summer it is really hot and that coolant overflow usually get's a good workout. Having said that, I really need to get a new left side rad as I put a stick through it so it doesn't cool quite as well as it should!

.. and we finally loaded up all ready for Tuareg after a 4 day bike building marathon!

Thanks! The right hand side area only occupies the exhaust which has been fitted below the tank (will get a pic in Tunisia for you). The left actually only holds the catch tank which I have removed completely. I have never had issues with the bike pissing coolant out, appart from having it idle stationary for 15min+.

:eek1 more pics of that 300 please!

Awesome. Crossing the fingers for you and have much fun.

Tony, we will meet after your journy. I will call you. :)

Have a blast Ed!

Thanks Angelo! Hopefully we'll catch up in person later in the year

I caught up with the guys this morning in the paddock - Tony was fitting some new nav gear he'd brought with him:



And Ed was similarly busy prepping the smoker!



Scrutineering tomorrow, the the rally starts on Saturday morning, straight in at the deep end with a double loop stage through the surrounding dunes... made even more fun/chaotic with a GP style mass-start!

Jx

Sorry for the very late write up, I had almost completely forgotten about my thread post Tuareg, or better said I was in a bad mood to write about it as I had nothing but bad luck

Day 1 went well, it was hard as nails through the fesh-fesh. Once I got back to camp, I snoozed away for a few hours, then got to work on prepping for the following day.
The second day started very badly. Before setting off for the liaison, the bike heistated to start, I figured it was "cold" in the morning and it needed a while to start. Whatever, it got gong and I set off on the road for a few km's. At the pre-start, I stoppped the bike and waited for my start time. Once it was time, it wouldn't start at all
I checked if I had fuel issues with the tap in the middle to select between the front and rear tanks, looked good. Time was running out, so I pushed to the start, 3,2,1, go, I pushed over the start line and watched my 3 start compeitors ride off whilst I pushed back to the pre start. I had drained the battery from many start attempts, had to kick for a while. I was lucky to find a Tunisian with a 4x4 and a tow rope who kindly helped me bump start. Luckily, it got going, yeah! Almost 30mins had passed, so I raced behind all the bikes, now last in the pack I rode like a mad man
I caught down 2 riders already and was on a roll on the nice hard packed tracks. Suddenly, the roadbook indicated a sharp right coming up, so I ease off the throttle, then the ride dies on me. On the side of the piste I check all the usual stuff. After about 10 mins, it got started again, got going, maybe for 2kms until it happened again. I check and the spark was there, fuel was coming, so the only issue I could come up with was some sort of tight valve clearance (or in fact none at all). Before deciding to continue and possibly damaging anything major, I decided to wait for the sweep truck. A lot of guys I had passed and from the second amature group stopped and asked if all was good, I had to wave them off and let me go, still very kind of them!

Eventually after about 2 hours of waiting and chewing on muslibars, the sweep truck comes by and we load my bike. I sit next to a Brit, Phil, and we enjoy each others company, each telling the other the issues we had on our machines. We spent a good 10 hours in the back of that thing, dozing off here and there I didn't really mind the bumpy ride.
This was unfortunately the day of Wesley's death. We stopped at one of the checkpoints and saw his bike next the marshalls, questioning his whereabouts. Later we were informed by the medic on site of his passing, we were in shock, especially Phil who was in the same team as Wesley. My bad day had gotten worse... R.I.P Wesley.

Later that night after a miserable day and bad atmosphere in the camp I check the valve clearance and all seemed fine, which left to the question of what caused the bike to stall upon getting warm. Only option left was lack of compression in the cylinder. I asked around for some opinions and many agreed. I was lucky enough to have packed a spare cylinder and piston and gasket set into my metal box (didn't have it on my packing list even!). I spent the night until about 4-5am ripping the engine apart and installing a new cylinder, piston and gasket kit. I got about 2 hours of sleep until it was wakeup time. Due to the tragedies of the previous day, day 3 was cancelled and I decided to load my bike onto another sweeper truck and take my time to check everything again at the next camp.