Dakar 2013 - Official Event Coverage - thank you ALL TeamF5, lurkers and posters!

[ICERIDER]

Originally Posted by Drif10

I just saw something that said the ceremony isn't until tomorrow?

Talk about anti-climactic.

Anyone confirm?

It better not be because I don't get into Santiago until 2230 tonight

[Frougby]

Also, have any of you thought about what will serve as your Dakardone once this is over and there will be no more mainlining??

The basement just isn't going to do it.

[Drif10]

Originally Posted by Flood

Bike start has been delayed again to 09:00 local, that's 5 minutes from now.

So Troy was wrong.

Again.


Meteorologists.

[BabyBeemer]

Originally Posted by 8340SU

Farres blog entry, on an unexpected visit: Mr Yamazaki, himself.
hummmm........

Hummmm indeed. Perhaps they've been using Google to translate Mr Yamazaki's instructions and that's why everything has gone pear shaped

[Sylvia]

Originally Posted by Frougby

Also, have any of you thought about what will serve as your Dakardone once this is over and there will be no more mainlining??

The basement just isn't going to do it.

Sleep, recover etc.

[Clancy]

Originally Posted by Sylvia

Sleep, recover etc.

Bed at 11pm instead of 5am

[Drif10]

Originally Posted by Frougby

Also, have any of you thought about what will serve as your Dakardone once this is over and there will be no more mainlining??

The basement just isn't going to do it.

I've been putting off my major winter bike maintenance until winter got serious. Bunch of forecasts with -20 in them says that it's here, so I'm gonna spin wrenches and watch re-run France4 vid clips in the garage.

[Tesla314]

Originally Posted by Frougby

Also, have any of you thought about what will serve as your Dakardone once this is over and there will be no more mainlining??

Same thing that's keeping me sane right now at 4am, live kitten streaming: http://new.livestream.com/FosterKitt...RipleysKittens

[JMo (& piglet)]

Originally Posted by troy safari carpente

But I believe they have a little road section tomorrow from the Parc ferme to the ceremonial fish podium in Plaza de Cuidad, in central Santiago.

The perfect opportunity for Pyndon to hoist a few more mingers/pull a mono or two I'm sure!

Go Pyn!

Jx

[garfey]

Originally Posted by 8340SU

Farres blog entry, on an unexpected visit: Mr Yamazaki, himself.

19 jan.
... Katsumi Yamazaki, the Japanese who developed the project of HRC team. He began to look at the bike. Aluminum tank?, Asked, in a very funny english very difficult for us to understand. We said yes, we wore an aluminum deposit. And explain the problems we have been having with our Honda since the rally began, problems he already knew. The guy started to look the bike again and again and started to say no. Shook his head and said: "No, no, no. No ". And he began to tell us that the fuel lines were too thin, we should have made them wider.

...




hummmm........

Hmmmmm, indeed.
If the fuel inlet to a centrifugal pump is not supplying enough "head," the pump will cavitate and so, essentially, there'd be "vapor lock" within the pump and output would drop to zip. And since "head" will drop as level in the tank drops, maybe Mr. Y hit the nail on the head.

Also, if a centrifugal pump is cavitating it's not being cooled by fresh fuel and Voila ... burnout.

[drgunther]

Originally Posted by kwh

But engine changes factor into time penalties, so in theory if somebody won despite taking four engine changes because his bike was twice as fast as everybody elses' then that would still be the better bike to be on.

My point about needing to drill down into the stats was hinting at what you mention above. Larger sample sizes tend to smooth out differences in rider talent across the brands - Despres may be better than Fred Bloggs on a Yamaha, but the average KTM rider is unlikely to be better than the average Yamaha rider, right?

Perhaps when you look at it, it is as simple as Huskies going pop twice as often as KTMs, or some simple mechanical achilles heel that ends several Husky rider's dreams... but they've been doing it a while now, as have Yamaha, so you'd hope they'd have the bugs ironed out by now. In fact it's a pretty big indictment of Yamaha that they are no more reliable than the Hondas in their first year back at Dakar en-masse.

Perhaps KTMs simply crash better?

But perhaps it's not about mechanical reliability or robustness at all? Perhaps the things that make the KTM faster also makes it easier to ride, less fatiguing, less likely to chuck the rider off, tire him out, etc - so KTM riders crash less, make better decisions and arrive in the Bivouac in better condition than they would if they had been riding another brand?

Or maybe it's some combination of all of the above...

Well said - it's always a combination of man and machine. The same thing we claim makes the Dakar the ultimate achievement in motorsports. =)

[Flood]

New start time is 09:15. Fire in the hole, gentlemen.

[8340SU]

The first motorcycle started at 9:15 am after a short, 15-minute delay to the previous time was necessary to ensure that the morning fog had lifted enough to allow for the deployment of safety operations for today's special.

dakar com

[knybanjo]

Originally Posted by Flood

New start time is 09:15. Fire in the hole, gentlemen.

• 13:09 : The motorcycles start the special at 9:15 local time
  
  The first motorcycle started at 9:15 am after a short, 15-minute delay to the previous time was necessary to ensure that the morning fog had lifted enough to allow for the deployment of safety operations for today's special.

[too old]

Any news guys, Chaleco's engine change not showing up on today's overall, anyone else also?