Accepted!! BC61 headed to Dakar Argentina - Chile - Peru 2012

[Brodovitch]

Originally Posted by BC61

The Husqvarna worked great and will probably be the platform I'll use again if I can get back to the Dakar. I was actually very impressed with the bike and particularly the motor considering what I put it through on day 2. The bike ran 90 kilometers in extremely deep sand with no water and a gaping hole in the side cover spewing oil faster than I could fill it not to mention who knows what kind of oil I was bumming from the locals. I do know I dumped a quart of tranny fluid in it. If it weren't for the dunes and deep sand I think it would have made the distance to the liaison.

If I remember correctly, was it the bash plate that poked a hole in your motor?

[Stagehand]

Originally Posted by Brodovitch

If I remember correctly, was it the bash plate that poked a hole in your motor?

engine mounted bash plate yoinked a hole in the case if I understand it correctly. No frame or anything else under there to mount to. I'm sure there are mental prototypes already under massive development in the last three weeks

Maybe some rounder, vibration friendly curves on the gas tank, too. Only time and money, there <-






EDIT: for whatever dumbass reason I thought the 2011 wasnt a cradle frame. I was wrong. I though the bolts ripped out of the case, which they didnt. I see what happened now. oh

[Some Dude]

Originally Posted by darrendeep6

Whew, decision is made then. The rally expert has spoken, oh wait, he's a computer, cubicle-keyboard commando type, never mind.

If Husky is going to provide support again it's a no brainier. If funds provide I'd seek out SpeedBrain for rally parts as their kit for the TE are showing on their site. Finish the development you started. As you said, all the bikes experienced issues. I'm in for support for 2013.

Except the Speedbrain "TE" really means hybrid G450X/TE449 and all of their parts are based on their revised G450X chassis with 2nd generation G450X/TE449 6 speed engine. They re-inforced teh G450X base frame and re-engineered it to accept a linkage suspension to better tune/manipulate leverage ratios for type of event/rider preference. The "TE449R" also utilizes a different rear tank assembly then that of the G450RR of last years Dakar. Otherwise exhaust, skid pan and rally fairing are all G450X based and Bill is on a TE449 framed bike. I think lengthening the swing arm, making a front frame brace/mount for a revised skid pan will allow Bill to have a more stable and crash worthy TE449, but then again Dakar and rally is just fairly hard to plan for all the "what if's"

[neduro]

$0.02 to add...

After what happened, happened, no one could have done more than Bill did trying to salvage a finish. I can't see a single card left to play to get that bike to the finish of the stage.

I saw a lot of non-finishers come in with more or less working motorcycles and bodies- Bill was never going to be among that list. I mean that as a heartfelt compliment.

The outcome is not what anyone wanted, but Bill's determination is beyond question and at some level, determination and persistence what this thing is all about.

[BC61]

I need to say thanks and give a strong recommendation to Alien Motion Batteries. I had heard good things about the batteries before I approached them for sponsorship. I knew these had been used with great success in road racing but something like the Dakar was new to them. They were happy to jump on board and looking forward to testing/inspecting the battery after the race. I was given a couple batteries to use. I started testing the first battery in the practice bike, it was working so well I carried it over to the race bike. The battery exceeded my expectations not only in cranking capability but also in packaging, terminal connections and weight. The battery is extremely light, has a strong thick plastic casing and solid terminals, nothing flimsy or cheap anywhere.

I more than abused this battery the final day trying to start a dying engine. This battery repeatedly cranked the engine over for long 30-45 second pulls trying to breathe life into it. A stock battery would have given up just after a few of these attempts. I even had the battery cranking the engine as it was firing but not fully starting. I can't count the number of long pulls the battery endured and never showed any signs of being anything less than full strength.

If you are looking for a light weight, durable and strong battery check out Alien Motion Batteries.

www.alienmotion.com

[BC61]

Originally Posted by Mr. Magoo

You home?

Just pulled up to the gate in Charlotte.

[Blur]

Originally Posted by neduro

After what happened, happened, no one could have done more than Bill did trying to salvage a finish.

Anyone ever heard the story about the motorcycle mechanic and the heart surgeon? The motorcycle mechanic was repairing the heart surgeon's motorcycle and said "Ya' know... you and I basically do the same thing, we both fix powerplants. It's just that I work on engines mounted in motorcycles and you work on engines mounted in people. How come you get paid so much more than me?" The heart surgeon replies "You ever tried to work on an engine while it's still running?"

Bill repaired a freaking HOLE IN THE ENGINE CASE WITH ZIP TIES, ROCKS, CARDBOARD AND EPOXY fer cryin' out loud.... Still blows my mind.

[Stagehand]

Originally Posted by Blur

Anyone ever heard the story about the motorcycle mechanic and the heart surgeon? The motorcycle mechanic was repairing the heart surgeon's motorcycle and said "Ya' know... you and I basically do the same thing, we both fix powerplants. It's just that I work on engines mounted in motorcycles and you work on engines mounted in people. How come you get paid so much more than me?" The heart surgeon replies "You ever tried to work on an engine while it's still running?"

Bill repaired a freaking HOLE IN THE ENGINE CASE WITH ZIP TIES, ROCKS, CARDBOARD AND EPOXY fer cryin' out loud.... Still blows my mind.

Yeah, made 60 miles on it <--

[hilslamer]

Originally Posted by Blur

Bill repaired a freaking HOLE IN THE ENGINE CASE WITH ZIP TIES, ROCKS, CARDBOARD AND EPOXY fer cryin' out loud.... Still blows my mind.

Not to stir the pot here(been lurking in here a while...), but wasn't it a crash that caused the damage?

[Blur]

Originally Posted by hilslamer

Not to stir the pot here(been lurking in here a while...), but wasn't it a crash that caused the damage?

A crash caused the bash plate to come off which damaged the water pump and caused a hole in the engine.

Now put yourself in that situation, at that moment and tell us what you would've done....

[BC61]

Originally Posted by hilslamer

Not to stir the pot here(been lurking in here a while...), but wasn't it a crash that caused the damage?

Yes, it was a crash. A minor fall that resulted in a ridiculous amount of damage. The leverage of the wide skid plate ripped the front mounts off. Different mounting points may have prevented this, maybe not. Unfortunately an expensive R&D lesson.

[dentvet]

hey bc, it seemed like you had as much pace as any of the ammy americans on stage two, at least that is my recollection of following the f5 thread in real time. Were you pushing at all? Were you happy with your timings relative to the expected competition?

Do you still have the original bike and all the spares? At least the original chassis has low hours, right? you don't have to start from nothing to get back to dakar, or am i missing something?

Sorry the race ended early for you and i hope you can find your way back there to finish your dakar business

[darrendeep6]

Originally Posted by Some Dude

Except the Speedbrain "TE" really means hybrid G450X/TE449 and all of their parts are based on their revised G450X chassis with 2nd generation G450X/TE449 6 speed engine. They re-inforced teh G450X base frame and re-engineered it to accept a linkage suspension to better tune/manipulate leverage ratios for type of event/rider preference. The "TE449R" also utilizes a different rear tank assembly then that of the G450RR of last years Dakar. Otherwise exhaust, skid pan and rally fairing are all G450X based and Bill is on a TE449 framed bike. I think lengthening the swing arm, making a front frame brace/mount for a revised skid pan will allow Bill to have a more stable and crash worthy TE449, but then again Dakar and rally is just fairly hard to plan for all the "what if's"

Thanks for the info, I ASSumed the SpeedBrain kit was production based. I should of known it wasn't going to be as easy as plug and play.

[Brodovitch]

What was the container on the skid plate holding on the right hand side (next to the water pump)?

Assuming you could hold all necessary fuel in the rear of the bike (+ the container behind the cylinder head)
would you reconsider moving the 3 litres of water to somewhere behind the handlebars (where you had the Safari tank IIRC)...

Tools could then go on the rear fender, and you would only need a (slightly beefed up) enduro-type skid plate to protect the engine.

I think Manuel Lucchese did something like that on his Husaberg, (that is, no compartments welded onto the skid plate,
he just ran a minimal skid plate. Too minimal for my taste, but hey):



Not sure where he stashed the water supply.

The 449's placement of the water pump down there warrants some different thinking... here is the Bianchi Prata version,
but I'm not sure they have factored in the 3 litre water container:



As you can see they have the plastic guard on, but a similar design in thick aluminium, with slightly better side coverage could do the trick just fine... I know hindsight is 20/20 and not trying to preach here, just very interested in how someone could make the new Husky platform work for rallies (that, and the 2010 511 I mentioned is still for sale at a new lower price )

[Seth S]

The nice thing about the bergs is that there are two frame rails running under the engine that do a good job of protecting the engine...allowing for a fairly minimal skidplate wouthout consequence.


on a side note for fuel injected bikes. After running into fuel pump clogging on the 690 due to dirty fuel in Australia I started thinking about better pump setups for racing. Had I been able to install a new pump I could have carried a spare...this is a topic capable of its own thread. A spare injector is easy to carry and a little trickier to replace but doable in the desert. For Dakar events it might be worth designing a throttle body capable of running 2 injectors with 2 feed lines. If one gets plugged you flip a petcock and a switch and run the other.