2012 Merzouga Rally

[too old]

Originally Posted by tehdutchie

+1

Ha Ha, understood guys - as the quickest rider in the rally then why f*** about

[tehdutchie]

Patrick Trahan will use 'the force' on his Dart Vader bike and come in first, no matter what :)

[Deadly99]

WTF is that

more pics?

[tehdutchie]

Have foudn it yet, triples and forks look like a Prilia. Listed on the start list as a Tacita of some sort...

[Deadly99]

Originally Posted by tehdutchie

Have foudn it yet, triples and forks look like a Prilia. Listed on the start list as a Tacita of some sort...

Does it have panniers on it or is that just the photo making it look like thaty

[Brodovitch]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Does it have panniers on it or is that just the photo making it look like thaty

I think those are the fuel tanks... wtf

[Deadly99]

Very odd. I watched Patrick do a presentation a couple of months ago. He is a very funny guy to listen to. At age 29 he decided to race the Dakar, bought a klr as it was the only bike that looked "rallish" at the local store and went and raced in a fim event in Africa. He finished in last after the entire bike fell apart inlcuding the starter. At one point he used a rope and a camel to bump start it in soft sand. He had never ridden a bike on the street or gone around a corner...only back and forth on a dirt road

He moved on and gained a bunch of experience and after a few failed attempts he finished the Dakar in 2011 (? I think).

Last year he spruced up an xr650l and attempted a record speed for circumnavigating Africa. He had a bad, bad crash.

I'm stoked to see he is back competing again...but what the heck is riding

[tehdutchie]

Electric?

[12Bong13]

Yep, that's what it is, an electric rally bike,

[Deadly99]

So those would be batteries strapped to it...esthetically it leaves a little something to be desired but I do like the concept....

[troy safari carpente]

Dear Merzouga Rally... all the flashy design websites and facebook links under the sun ain't worth a clump of camel grass people; if no one updates them (there is still no prologue, SS1 results or reports of any form on the official website and it's DAY TWO tomorrow). So much for "live" coverage/results.

At least there is someone linking photo's of the score sheet results on the facebook page... I guess... maybe some leg 1 results by the morning...?

[tehdutchie]

Originally Posted by troy safari carpente

Dear Merzouga Rally... all the flashy design websites and facebook links under the sun ain't worth a clump of camel grass people; if no one updates them (there is still no prologue, SS1 results or reports of any form on the official website and it's DAY TWO tomorrow). So much for "live" coverage/results.

At least there is someone linking photo's of the score sheet results on the facebook page... I guess... maybe some leg 1 results by the morning...?

Tempi non ufficiali - top 10
Moto
Giovanni Sala
Jaceck Chkzor – Orlen Team
Arturo Casanova
Pedro Bianchi Prata
Ben Grabham
Maurizio Micheluz
Andrea Fesani
Angelo Pedemonte

Ps. Troy, you're spoiled :)

[dashmoto]

Not going terribly smoothly for the Brits (cross-posted from rallymoto.co.uk)

We are now three days into the rally and it has been tough. Moly's bike failed to start before the rally began. We stripped both bikes down and did fault finding for a whole day - it was a blocked fuel injector. After searching the paddock and making many new friends we could not source anything.

Pat Green did a great job finding a guy in Casablanca and Colin at FreeStyle scoured the country but there was nothing available in the UK.

So Moly's bike was dead and he was out !

Next morning Team Husqvarna from Portugal offered us a hire bike - it was Consalvess' ex-works bike a 450 SpeedBrain Rally bike - so we took it. We then spent the whole day removing all the nav gear, secondary rear lights from Moly's bike and set about making the 450 meet the rally specs. In the evening the organisers came to see us and said "How was it going?" We said it was finished and ready to roll - they could not believe we had taken a bare bike and made it into a rally bike with operational nav gear, GPS mounts, Water storage, additional rear lights and tracking systems in a day - it was a great team effort (Phil, Loll, Burt and Moly) in 30 degree heat.

Guess what?

Moly's bike passed scrutineering - he was in.

The next day was a warm up and a prologue. The warm up was through the Erg Chebbi dunes and invloved a full road book and GPS nav test - I got lost ;-) and the dunes were hard on the 630 with the tall nav tower.

Moly sat out of the Warm up as it was optional - so he headed to the Prologue - he flew round and easily navigated it being, 17th on the day.

I however, was chasing Phil on his 450 - hit a rock step and went over the bars at 50mph !! A big one.

The next buggy hit the emergency beacon and medics were with me in 3 minutes on a KTM. I had ripped my shirt and my body armour had also ripped open so I went down the hard piste on my left hand side - great gravel rash boys.

I rode off the piste and back into the bivouac - the medics held me in there for about half an hour before saying I was OK.

But believe it or not I was not last on the stage ;-)

Today has been a rest day for me and we will try and get some video for you guys later tonight.

Cheers Burt and Moly - your boys in Morocco

[Gian]

Nice to see Sala up there

I think Grabham had some hard times in navigating in front of all, and as I expected
Micheluz is very fast too, and he's a real rookie, rally-raid speaking

And Troy is right, a real shame about no tracking and results so far... :(

[too old]

http://www.merzougarally.com/?page_id=5941&lang=en

seems like they are getting there with the results

With a 22 min penalty is looks like Ben had a few nav issues, let's see how he manages when chasing a few