So I have made a full on assault on trying to get to the greatest race in the world. The Dakar Rallye. as most bike razy individuals I have been watching and following the event closely and intensely for years. South Africa has never had great broadcasting of the event and until Alfie Cox and Wicus van Deventer entered and finished the event in good positions. I will be running under my Anvil Racing. This comes from a racing friend who once remarked after I DNF'ed 5 races in a row " dutchman you are like an anvil you can break anything but you never break". It stuck and I kind of liked it. I changed my riding style and mindset so much and strted getting top 10 finishes in our national championship. Unfortunately I live in the South of RSA near Cape Town and most of our BIG events in SA is up north. The traveling and costs of getting to events became too much and I stopped doing them and started doing Western Province championships and won the 2009 season. Last year I broke my back and injured myself badly during a "practice race" in namibie so I have only strted riding plastics again 2 weeks ago. I have(had) a HP2 that I did plenty of riding with whilst I wasn't allowed to ride.... My website is up from today www.anvilracing.co.za I must say I have been warned about the possibility of not getting an entry so that is my biggest worry at the moment. I have never done a Raid event, but I have done some 1000km races that takes 3-2 days in SA and Botswana. The pace at these events is aimed at enduro or MX bikes. I will start racing from May and do a 1000 km race in Botswana in June over 2 days. So I hope to inform you of my plans and progress as I go along.
Good on ya for starting a thread on your challenge. I'll be watching closely to see how you deal with things as you go and your preparation. Very courageous to go from a severe injury to a Dakar attempt! Best wishes JayBo
We'll be following this closely. Best of luck in making it to the starting line in B.A. - and to the finish, wherever it may be in '12.
The finish will be in Lima, Peru. Start in BA as usual. (My prediction for 2013 is start in Lima and finish in BA. That way I can stay with BlueBull in the lead-up - just he doesn't know it yet).
I hope that is the case Bluebull has posted some monster dune pics out in Peru. Thx guys. I will start posting as soon as I have some new pics.
So some pics so that when I stand next to the road at Dakar that you okes will stop and help... My first race bike 1992 training on our farm 1994 National mx 1997 My first enduro at 16 -1999 on a KLX 300....that thing never started weight a ton and brokedown constantly Some eduro's in 1999
My crash 1 Jul 2010 Day hospital I woke up around here they transported me oon the back of that bakkie 10 km. I woke up as trhge ventilator wasn't working and was blowing warm air at me i tried to explain to them, but they said no it is shock I must leave it on.......
42 weeks to go and my F5 finger is twitching already, jeebuz, how am I going to cope. Good luck TA, will be watching closely.
So with my Raffle going well at the moment I have been upgraded to a fulll JVO kit . Hopefully I will be making payment today asgetting payment out of Sa isn't easy when dealing with foreign banks using swift codes. So it is almost official and I will be building a rallybike in South Africa with no rallye bike experience.....I will be frequenting here often asking those who have build Rallye bikes questions. I worked at a bikeshop as a student in return they paid for my tyres and oils etc. So I am not a total pleb, but I am rusty as work hasn't allowed me to get down and dirty on my own motor work the last 3 years. I run a workshop that service a good number of trucks and trailers so I have all the tools and qualified mechanics who can help when my knowledge runs out. My dad is very capable mechanic and even thou he is the boss he still get his hands dirty and is very good with bikes as he still rides and used to race in the late 70's. The electronics with Nav gear and ERTF sentinal is what is freaking me out at the moment. Hopefully I can get it all right with some help from the right people(yes you lot...)
Congrats on making the decision to go for it! Really looking forward to reading your experience with the bike build and all the ASO stuff. Just remember to ship your bike in Oct. (dakar '05) And dont listen to french female race officials (dakar '07) Hope to see you in B.A. Go Anvil Racing
Hi inmates thx for the support. I still haven't decided or should I say have enough info on where I must ship my bike to. From SA - Europe-South America or SA - South America. I will hopefully get in contact with some shipping agents this week as last week was the sorting out payment of JVO kit and other stuff week. I still need to work so that takes up some time. When will we know for sure where the race will start??? and finish? If I ship my bike to BA then I will probably let ASO take it back to Europe. Anyway hold thumbs my local African Bank have succesfully doen a forex transfer so that my JVO kit gets shipped before OKT.
Start is Mar de Plata. Just outside Buenos Aires on the Plata river. Official route announced in May usually. Finish is Lima. But yeah officially we have to wait a few weeks. For all us non-euro types there is of course scrutineering in B.A. You will be assigned a day and a time. Its a 3 day check in. Takes hours. Main thing they check is your electrical system. Make sure you have a main fuse at the cockpit, and unfused power for the emergency system. I had to re-do mine at scrutineering with basic tools, a bit un-nerving...and of course your survival stuff (compass, blanket, etc.). The last part of scrutineering is when they put the numbers on your jacket. Its a great moment! Do you have a website yet?
Hi MikeKay Thx for the info. www.anvilracing.co.za It isn't very fancy, and needs some correction, but it is there... I have some good info from the racing section on here and then Charlie from RMS is helping and Tony S is also very good as we have seen with his own trips and Caps he made. I have still not decided if I will do a trail tech upgrade on my light, I am still not sure that they don't drain the battery's. Well ant help from inmates is appreciated. Do you run one line from the Battery to the cockpit and then drain power from there to all the Nav gear??
So I realise I havn't got a entry yet so maybe I don't even C the start, but who else o here is planning on getting to Dakar 2012? I will start the list: 1. Tau Anvil
