Dakar budget

[Seth S]

Originally Posted by frog

Dakar budgets are definitely out of my reach but if you compare it to other races the cost per mile is reasonable.

I spent about $10k on the baja 1000 last year to race a bike. That was a one day, well almost two full days for me , race. Take what I spent and multiply it by how many days Dakar is and its right on the money.

Off to buy some lotto tickets. :)

I did The Safari in Australia in 2011. It cost me about $25,000 to prep and get there and race. That event is 7 days long and now they are offering free shipping which will save you a good $4000. If you do a simple bike build and get a deal on airfare you could do the event for $10,000 to $15,000 from the USA. Huge portion of my cost ended up being shipping...airfreighting the bike overnight to Australia proved to be rather costly :)

[roadracer]

In my experience, three groups of people participate in motorsports:

A) those that are good enough to get others to pay for it (who usually came from one of the two groups below). <1%
B) those with nothing to lose because they can easily afford it. ~70%
C) those with nothing to lose because they can't afford it at all. ~29%

All of us in the middle who could maaaaaybe afford it end up doing something else more financially reasonable.

The dakar seems to be even more of a sport of leisure men than other forms of racing. I suspect a lot of the big endurance off road events are like this. There isnt enough tv coverage to support sponsorship for enough of the teams.

Even Robbie Gordon's effort is sponsored by his own energy drink company. And what about that guy Chicherit? He's a former pro skier who took up off-road racing? He's obviously very talented, but I wouldn't be surprised if he falls into category B above.

I think its great to hear the straight talk from Moto Benny. We can all dream and in the mean time, there are tons of other ways for us to race motorcycles on all kinds of budgets.

Im really curious about these other rallys mentioned and what the differences are, etc. Im surprised they are so affordable compared to the baja 1k, etc.

[Seth S]

Also, Dakar is the event that gets the most press and is most easily recognizable. The reality is that there are 10 or 20? other events that are just as difficult though shorter and less expensive to compete in. My thought on doing the Dakar and no other is kind of like saying...I have never climbed a mountain before but I want to do Mt Everest first.

[PackMule]

Originally Posted by Moto Benny in MTL

The bikers are the true heroes of the dakar.

(the true assholes are the Kamaz trucks)

good luck!

So awesome that a thread like this can happen here.

[PackMule]

Originally Posted by Moto Benny in MTL

If you have the riding skill, the fitness and the absolute confidence that you'll keep a level head and not get killed, do it on a bike! Current attrition stats are 1/200 riders - scary. 0.5% chance of being killed. Not injured - killed.

If you have 3 kids, are a good but not great rider, are in good but not great shape, and can afford it, do it in a car. It's 80% as much fun and 80% less painful! (but 100% more expensive...) that was my math and you only live once so f*ck it.

This thread is full of gems. Thanks, Benny!