A n00b goes Rallye Racing

I'm prepping for the Rallye Dos Sertões this August. Read about the bike, and my South American adventures in preparation for this event.

If you want to skip the build and learning curve, click HERE to jump to the final prep and the racing (Page 24)



Ive now set this thread with links in each of my posts up so you can click on the links to skip comments and read the meat. You can also jump to parts of interest using this index below (Click on the links or go to the relevant page):

INDEX
Introduction......................Page 1
A bit of background............Page 1
The Bike & Rallye Build........Page 1
A hard practice.................Page 2
Enduro Peru.....................Page 2
More on the Build..............Page 2
Pics of the Build................Page 3
Build & Riding gear.............Page 3
Pics of Bike after build........Page 4
Rally school coments & pics.Page 5
Rally School Report ...........Page 6-12
Decision Time...................Page 12
Painting & Design..............Page 13
Dos Sertões 85 days to go..Page 15
Training Fail......................Page 16
Final preparations and Dos Sertões Rally



A n00b goes Rallye Racing
Literally.

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.

The obvious answer is to start rally racing. Not enduros or MX, but long days and big distances of hard, technical, off piste riding.

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.
I wasnt going to do a thread like this (you guys intimidate the heck out of me), but Eatpasta conned me into starting a similar thread to his one: "A N00b goes Racing". Eatpasta mate, Ive got a lot to learn from you, your thread is awesome!


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 you may have. Ive already read a lot, spoken to a number of inmates who have done things like Dakar and other rallye raid compo´s and its daunting to say the least!

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 South African 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 In the meantime Ive started a basic fitness improvement program.

Some more background:

I started motorbiking only in 2004 thanks to D, my wife, it was always one of her dreams to go dirt biking. We both got 1985 Honda XR250´s and charged around on dirt all over Potgietersrust/Mokopane (Northern South Africa). I had a couple of mates who showed me the ropes. I quickly maxed out on the 250 chasing Theun´s WR 450 and came off badly on the railway line road to Polokwane one day. I was in his dust and simply never saw the turn at all. It was a miracle I never hit a rail stuck in the ground. I think I wouldnt be here today had I taken it out. I nevertheless had a month long (mild) concussion, some broken ribs, holes in my legs, it wasnt pretty. But I became less windgat after that. Not for long though. I jumped the bike through a barbed wire fence at 90km/hr in a township on the way to the mine one morning and survived somehow. I enjoyed that bike, but it was too small for me. We did a couple of holidays with them on a trailer, hitting dirt roads all over Limpopo, Mpumalanga & Swaziland. Those were good days, with some riding off piste too. I thought I got quite good at riding after a while.


When we went to Ghana I found an old 650 Dakar and rode some awesome jungle roads with it. So when we came to Peru, we decided to gift ourselves with a new 800GS and for D a 650GS, just like Puddles bike. It took about a year before we finally bought the bikes in South Africa (I got one of the 1st 800´s), and so after no riding for more than a year we arranged to fly in pick up the bikes do them up and then go and do the Country Trax course. We ran them in for 600km on tar, serviced them, blinged them with freaking expensive stuff from a guy called Ray (what a fool I was!), and setoff for the Country trax course. It was excellent, but we had forgotten how to ride and we were unused to the new bikes. Anyway after a good but tough course on the new bikes we setout on a tour of Swaziland by dirt which turned out to be a bit of an epic.


Later on our holiday we returned to Serala in the Limpopo Drakensburg on our bikes, one of our old 250 routes. Happy the bikes were running fine, we then we shipped the bikes to Peru, and scince then we have done only about 20,000km on them, 6,000km on tar the rest on dirt. I service the bikes myself as there is no BMW dealer in Peru. The roads here are tight and windy, its mostly steep mountains here so we don´t have too much pen dirt highways like you get in SA. However in the desert you can get off-piste easily and really rocket along if you want. You just have to be careful because there are hidden holes and crests and things which can take you out big time.

Last year in July (I think?) we got a new Katoom 450EXC for D to practice on, and the idea was I would get one too, but in the meantime I would just use my 800. So Im very confident on my 800, and I have no problem taking it into technical riding. Im not brave enough to do dunes on it yet, I think I might if D came with, but she hates sand after two bad falls in the sand at the Country Trax course. The KTM really helped with D´s confidence though. I started doing solo trips out on the KTM in October, and it reminded me of the XR250 days back in SA.


I love it and have written a report can be found HERE describing the type of riding I had been doing with it. That was actually my first serious attempt at riding the dunes of the northern Atacama. Since then Ive come a long way, and ride dunes with much more confidence. I still have a lot to learn, but more Time In The Saddle (TITS) will hopefully address it.


I really like fast tracks and off piste riding. For me its about covering distance, and I have done some pretty hard 12-14 hour dirt only trips on my BMW. Ive only done up to 150km trips on the Katoom.

So thats about the sum of my experience. Not much at all really, perhaps in total 25-30,000km in dirt, no more. Hopefully with some hard training over the next couple of months I will be able to tackle a rally and prove that anyone can do it if they put their minds to it.

The Short term Plan:


Im lined up to go to Rally PanAm´s rally school next month. I can´t wait, but suspect Im going to see my ass among the 15 or so super-experienced guys going as well. Hopefully I´ll learn a lot from them and come back in one piece.

About three weeks ago I spent an obscene amount of money towards getting a new rally-ready WR450F


Actually its not rally ready yet. Its just a normal, brand new, blue Yamaha dirt bike, 2009 model, California plates. It needs plates because I will be testing it in the US and the government is anal about stuff like this (apparently). This bike is very lucky, because it´s going to be transformed into something every dirt bike wants to be.

Its the farkles used to make the bike race ready which is what really hurt my bank balance. Theyre made on very limited production lines run by a couple of small companies (mostly in Europe), which is why rally parts are so expensive: The market is simply not big enough to support mass production. I went for a JVO light kit as apposed to a full Dakar rally kit. There are few differences, apart from the USD 5,800 difference in price!

I won´t have the two rear fuel tanks (total of 10l), nor will I have a lifted air box and re-molded seat. I´ll only be running off a narrow, front mounted tank, which should give me a max range of around 230-240km if there is not too much sand. You only need the long range tanks (total of at least 30l) for the Heroes and Dakar rallies. All I need for the Dos Sertoes is a max range of around 220km. Perhaps, if things go well I can upgrade the bike later.

The kit will include a full racing fairing, with built-in instruments. This is important, because it means the roadbook and ICO (odo) are higher up than it would be if they were mounted off the handlebars. It means I dont have to look down as far from the road when scanning the roadbook navigating while I ride. It doesnt seem like much but it is a huge safety feature, and could mean the difference between a bad crash and perhaps no crash.

Its all a little surreal, the reality has not sunk in yet because I have not even seen my new beast in the flesh yet. Here is a photo of her:




Im going for the kit done by mostly the same manufacturer (JVO), so it makes ordering the bulk of what I need a piece of cake. You can check the kit & prices out HERE in more detail (Spanish).

Basically it has the following:

1.- Plastic fuel tanks (2 front)Fuel capacity 20 liters total
2.- Vacuum-operated fuel pump
3.- Fuel filter
4.- Fuel petcock –
5.- Quick tank connectors
6.- Bracket for “ICO” odometer
7.- Bracket for Trip repeater
8.- Brackets for “GPS” “IRI-TRACK” and “CAP REPEATER”
9.- Electric fans – Manual and automatic switch
10.- Road book MD bracket
11.- Road Book and Ico control bracket
12.- Carbon/Kevlar front fenders (two levels)
13.- Carbon/Kevlar fairing
14.- Carbon/Kevlar engine guard with water tanks
15.- Carburettor kit
16.- Handlebar raisers – stand driving
17.- Front subframe (attached to the bike’s frame)
18.- Two part independent wiring harness kit (frame/top, with eight element fuse box, with fuse and navigation system connection)

Then on top of it (so far) I will be looking at

- Wider footpegs
- Remoulded seat
- HID Light (perhaps later)
- Scotts steering damper
- Redo the suspension (Trail Tricks in Calif.)
- Michelin desert tyres (with mousse)
- MD Road book (this is the best and most reliable in the market)
- ICO VRL Rally computer
- Foam rally grips
- Rear chain guide
- Engine case saver
- 15T front sprocket
- Air filter dust cover
- Exhaust muffler insert


-
This is what it is going to look like (apart from the final color and stickers probably):

Hey Tony,

Are you ready for your race? You must be feeling the butterflies right now! I´ll be shouting for you and watching your progress with great interest!

Thanks for all your support!

Would love to have a beer with you (though Im not supposed to ). Im flying in and out of LAX transferring flights to and from Vegas on the 15th and 20th April. I only have 3 hours between transfers and I heard LAX is big so probably won´t be able to make it this time.

But if you can get your ass onto a plane and come to Lima, I´ll put you up for a few nights, take you desert riding on the spare bike and get you a pint

Yeppers, I got those; that Leatt neck brace is a life saver! One question though: I see these rally type riders all toting these fancy looking riding suits with built in camelbacks etc etc. Where to they get them and what do they wear underneath?

I think you have it spot on. I try to ride three times per week, all in dunes and rocky desert with one ride being at least 6-12 hours. Its awesome having desert only 25 minutes from home!



Its also hairy because I have to do most of my riding solo except on Saturdays. Not many riding types out here want to get out during the week.

I find this helps my arms the most. What I have found helps is to take a 15 lbs weight and in the sitting position rest my lower arm along the length of my thigh with wrist overhanging my knee, palm facing upwards. Lift the weight vertically up using only your wrist. You can turn your wrist around and do it the other way. The trick is to keep your elbow down on your thigh at all times. Also practice on a climbing wall will really help your forearms.

I dont have any ideas on the quads, Ive been taking it easy because I popped a exterior knee ligament about two weeks ago trying to do a hillclimb. I have to slowly start again from scratch.

Thanks, will do.

No news on the bike build yet, theres sure to be something in the next week or so...At least I hope so.

Last night we went out to a dinner birthday party. What a disaster. Put it this way:



As a result, no gym this morning! So Im blogging it so I can´t go back on my word: No more booze until after the Sertões!

Tomorrow Im going to "work from home" which means I can do a 5 hour ride in the morning : Im going to focus on dunes and fesh-fesh. Maybe I´ll take my camera so you can share the ride.

Well I just got back from my ride. Awesome stuff! I forgot my camera, sorry! I focus on rocky desert and dunes today. It was fanstastic finally having raisers on my KTM bars, powersliding is so much easier if youre not bent down double. I was also able to ride much faster.

Now I had a new problem, my arms so so much more tired. I found myself having to sit a lot more. Im going to try and tilt them up and forward a little more MX style, that might be the problem. Hopefully its not the speed that made me tired. I need to find that spot where you can ride effortlessly again.

The rocky desert was hard, it consisted of rocks too close together not to ride over some, intersperesed with a lot of dips filled with fine fesh-fesh dust. I was cutting my own trail through most of it. It was really pumpy, I found it hard to adjust to the sudden deceleration you get when you it the fine stuff, you have to really concentrate on not going over the bars.

Then I found some dunes and practiced crossing them from all angles. What a mission. I thought I knew how to ride in dunes, maybe I lost my touch! I think my tyres were a little too hard again. Going over the crest is the hardest. Its so counter intuitive having to open up at you hit that crest. Its really hard to judge your momentum toogoing to the top of the big steep ones, because you dont want to burst through and become airborne with 10-15m of nothing beneath you!

I managed to break all my dune crests today without stopping short but stalled about 4 times on the leeward sides in the ultra fine sand. What a bitch. The one time I ended up in a hole. I managed to get out riding around the side, but the sand is so fine in those holes! Eventually I learnt that with most dunes you can actually aviod the really bad bits. Once you know which direction they are (i.e. where the steep sides are) you can aim for the areas less likely to give you grief. Watching replays of the Dakar you can see the lead guys cruising through the dunes, while the rest of the field all thrash up and down the biggest dunes imaginable. Great eye candy, but not the best way to tackle a dune if you want to save energy. I guess its a function of good navigation. But what do I know anyway?

I total I came off about 7-8 times in the fine sand, all of them really stupid, low velocity crashes. But I was riding the dunes the rest of the time, and it was really rewarding.

As I sit here and type this I think i may need to go and have a nap! Im a little horrified by this, I only rode about 180km, and on other much longer days in similar conditions I felt a lot better.

Perhaps its just because I rode harder. I guess in time I will find out.

Wow Lukas, where did you get your info from? I would love to get in touch with those guys! My bike is in Cali though, its too bloody expensive to import bikes and that stuff here. I will ship it to various rallies from there and probably keep it in storage in the US in between. Not ideal but the better option I think considering what a pain in the ass it is importing and exporting stuff here.

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