The time has come... Neduro DID Dakar!

[BLINKER 152]

love this thread! best of luck ned. will be signing up today for tshirt and stickers. looking forward to the best two weeks of winter

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Region Riley

Neduro and c.vestal are off testing/training/playing in the desert this weekend.

Yep, Ned and a bunch of other rally nuts are out there sharpening their navigation skills.

Today they're doing the 300 mile "Primmo" route. It took Jonah, Chris Blais, and Andy Grider about 9 hours to do this one a few years ago. I expect half the guys won't make it back to the bivouac until after dark tonight. Ned should be in well before dark.

I think tomorrow is the 170 mile "Afton Loop" route. Quinn Cody and Johnny Campbell just rode that one earlier this week, so there might be a pair of zippy tire tracks to follow! They'll get to see this along the way:

[Region Riley]

Originally Posted by HogWild

Today they're doing the 300 mile "Primmo" route. It took Jonah, Chris Blais, and Andy Grider about 9 hours to do this one a few years ago. I expect half the guys won't make it back to the bivouac until after dark tonight. Ned should be in well before dark.

I think tomorrow is the 170 mile "Afton Loop" route. Quinn Cody and Johnny Campbell just rode that one earlier this week, so there might be a pair of zippy tire tracks to follow! They'll get to see this along the way:

Cool! I knew today was a big day for them, but I didn't realize how big.

Chris has his spot on today. link

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Region Riley

Chris has his spot on today. link

Oh no, my F5 key wasn't ready for this yet!

Ned should be to the first gas stop in about an hour. Ned rode his 950 out there ~2006. He tried this route, and ended up bailing out pretty early due to some sort of water pump and cooling issue. He should be fine this time!

This route has the famous nasty barking dog at the bottom of the hill at the old mine site. The first guys through should be fine, but the more bikes that pass by, the meaner the dog gets. The slow guys may have a bite out of their boot when they get back to the bivouac!

[HogWild]

Well, it looks like someone cheated and shortcutted 100 miles off the day, "passing" a bunch of others. Cheater is now about an hour ahead of others, and now only about an hour from finishing the day. I don't have any SPOT tracking on Ned, so no idea where he is.

[HogWild]

At this moment the gang is on the Afton Loop route. They'll be coming down this monster sandy downhill !

[slogger]

You said Cody and Johnny were out there last week? I think it was way over 100 degrees! Seems like I remember seeing a forecast of 110 in Baker.
Those guys are studs!

[hilslamer]

Originally Posted by slogger

You said Cody and Johnny were out there last week? I think it was way over 100 degrees! Seems like I remember seeing a forecast of 110 in Baker.
Those guys are studs!

At least you know you can go really fast without worrying about head-ons, etc.

[c.vestal]

Ned asked me to add a post here with the details of the rally frame support. Thank you very much my friend! And thank you Kelly for the preview posts.

A bit of history how this came about first. I have been designing and manufacturing "weekender" rally supports close to 2 years. The early design revisions were fueled by coffee and the urgency to finish a new design a couple days before some roadbook ride. First design (spring of 2010) was mounted on the triple to hold a Baja Designs 8" halogen, F2R roadbook & ICO. Design was minimal, however after a few miles of tight stuff, you noticed the weight slowing down the steering.



Next version (spring of 2011) focused on mounting to the frame. I wanted to design something that was completely bolt on so I can quickly get my bike back into it's primary function as a trail bike. No permanent modifications to the bike! You can see in the linked picture it was all "function over fashion". Naked and some said looked like the robot in Short Circuit due to the exposed look and round lights.



This is the design that caught Ned's eye while he was seriously considering Dakar. He asked me if I would design the support for his race bike if he were to enter the race. I stupidly accepted.

His decision is made, accepted by the ASO. Oh shit, I am designing a real Dakar roadbook support! He will need this to help get him to the finish line. Time to get serious!!

Design Goals:
- Simple
- Adjustable
- Serviceable
- Flat plates- easy to fix, easy for spares, easy to pack & ship
- No drilling/ welding frame
- Light weight
- Did I mention simple? :)


First prototypes were cut form some alum sheet I had in the shop using Ganshert's plasma cutter. Thanks Scot!!!




Huge eureka moment struck just after the open house at Wolfman Luggage. While holding up the Rigid lights in front of the frame designing a light bracket, I noticed the lights could be directly mounted to the frame with a slight modification to the width. SIMPLE!! We are now eliminating a bracket, some hardware and some weight. Couple more tweaks to the CAD, send to Precision Waterjet and we have the supports we are currently testing.


Now enter our partner in crime Ganshert with the SGmoto Awesomeness. You all have seen the earlier pics of the faring progress.
Here are a couple recent pics on the set I am testing. Ganshert is now in his hidden shop in the Colorado Front range making new improvements to the faring and testing new materials.


The next day.


As Ganshert has been creating the first 2 sets he has designed in some great features.
- No need to remove faring to take off tank.
- Straps will still work after a bunch of entropy where dzus or other will become fussy.
- Rubber cushion will prevent wear between tank and fairing.

ALL of the above ingredients allowed us to form a new company Rally Moto Kit !!! We will be selling kits as soon as we get everything square with Ned's race bike. So look out for a website and vendor thread this fall.

( I will let Ned post about the recent testing )

[Seth S]

I am currently running 1 of the 2x2 Rigid industries LED spot lights for a woods light on my FE450 and it is one heck of a bright light. I have not done any night riding with it but it makes you very visible to whoever is in front of you. I think a flood aimed down for low beam with a spot aimed out a bit in that 2x3 should be a good amount of light.

[Flood]

Originally Posted by c.vestal

Looks great, C.!
How are you mounting the plates to the frame? Are you drilling or clamping?

[c.vestal]

Originally Posted by Flood

Looks great, C.!
How are you mounting the plates to the frame? Are you drilling or clamping?

- No permanent mods to the bike.(no drilling, no welding) Just bolt on.
- Clamping to the frame making a rock solid mount.

Here is a little preview of the lower mount.

[theantipaul]

Hey Chris, very nice! I like the old school calipers too. It's really looking finished.

Does that limit the steering at all?

Originally Posted by c.vestal

- No permanent mods to the bike.(no drilling, no welding) Just bolt on.
- Clamping to the frame making a rock solid mount.

Here is a little preview of the lower mount.

[nobrakes]

Originally Posted by c.vestal

- No permanent mods to the bike.(no drilling, no welding) Just bolt on.
- Clamping to the frame making a rock solid mount.

Here is a little preview of the lower mount.

Genius!

[helienduro]

What a great thread! Looking forward for the fairing kit to come out and finish up my 530 adventure bike with one. Are you guys building a new wiring harness or using the OEM and adding to it? I feel mine is too complicated and therefore susceptible to failure and would love a custom, "ruggedized", simple harness but have not been able to locate any and I have no electrical knowledge to do one myself.

Maybe with a good diagram someone here in Costa Rica could build one for me, but I feel that probably it would be better to get a finished and ready-to-install complete harness.

Does anybody know if someone sells this kind of custom harnesses for dirt bikes? I have a TT HO stator kit, fan, hot grips, HID Eclipse light (wish I had waited for LED's), key switch, fan on-off switch, GPS, Vapor computer with warning lights and the usual street-legal stuff (horn, led turn signals, high-low-light-kill switch combo).

Sorry for the highjack and congratulations on a super effort to get to Dakar! Wish you the best.