DAKAR RALLY with K.T.M ???

News about sidecars competing in the Dakar Rally and other enduro related items

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John Wolverson
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DAKAR RALLY with K.T.M ???

Post by John Wolverson »

Hi, Firstly I would like to compliment you Scott on the wonderful report you did of the four stages of the Dakar Rally. Your first hand account of this brilliant adventure should make a best seller, when finally "I hope" you write a book about it. The preparation, and the modifications that you and your team had to do in the build up to this event in itself was so very interesting. How you portrayed your own thoughts and fears, when you were trying to find that place to weld the gearbox sprocket was so vivid, it was just like we were there! All the photographs portrayed things just as they were. Although I can understand you wishing to use an American Harley Davidson engine, and also the Swiss guy (Ruedy Lanaro) with the big Aprilia, this was just like we were doing back in the early 70s, (using modified road engines) with all of the problems that brings. Having built over thirty motocross sidecar outfits, I wondered, after seeing what a great bike the V twin 950 cc K.T.M Adventure is, or even one of the smaller K.T.M engines that so many of the sidecar motocross outfits use nowadays, i'm sure they would do the job? These engines come complete "ready to use off road" and are about half the weight of the Harley, with all of the advantages that brings. You could try K.T.M direct, or a local U.S.A dealer, or both, for some help!!!!! The other side to it is, you would have far more spares and technical support around, both before, and on the rally itself, with so many of the other riders using K.T.M's.

This is not a criticism of your adventure, because as you already know, I have made it clear in the past, just what a brilliant job you and your team did.

Good luck in 2007........Best regards.........John Wolverson.
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Scott
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Post by Scott »

Thanks John for your kind words. I'll report on our first two successful days of Dakar, plus our exit from Morocco, as soon as I find the time.

Regarding the various KTM motor options, I agree with much of what you wrote. The KTM 950 looks like a very nice motor, and is far lighter than our V-Rod. My only concern would be that it is TOO light weight. As I found with the Suzuki TL1000R motor, thin cases are not always a good thing. But if installing a different motor would bring us a big sponsor, I would do it today.

At this moment our focus is on returning to Dakar in 2007, however we can. The sidecar is pretty much ready to go today, though it's sitting in France someplace, I think! The only thing that will stop us from returning to Dakar is money. But of course, that's a HUGE problem. To return to Dakar with the proper amount of support, I believe we need around 100,000 euros. We went this year with far less than ideal support, and we paid a harsh price for that. We'll be doing everything we can to find a big sponsor. If we find one, and they want us to change the motor, I’ll do it. But I suspect our best chance of finding a big sponsor is by sticking with what we have. The Harley is a media magnet, and that’s what most sponsors are looking for. We clearly got most of our media attention because of our motor. And it’s been bullet proof so far!

I read LOTS of stuff written about us all across the Internet, in all sorts of languages. There are all kinds of opinions about our sprocket problems, our motor choice, and even our choice to enter with a sidecar. Many of their thoughts seem like a good idea on the surface. And many ideas are in fact good ideas, as are your thoughts. But there is one thing that’s missing from most of the advice we are given. That is the REALITY of our situation. We have limited time, very limited budget, and hundreds of things that COULD be done to improve our chances in Dakar. We have to carefully look at each issue and decide what priority to give it. At this point, the ONLY issue I can see is MONEY. Everything else is peanuts compared to that problem!

I’d rather go to Dakar with the exact sidecar we have today, than to NOT GO, with a sidecar with some of these suggested features:
Two wheel drive, lighter motor, spare wheel onboard, stronger chain, two parallel chains, belt drive, steel rear sprocket, spare sprockets on sidecar, bigger tires, smaller tires, one less wheel, one more wheel, 3WD, “professionallyâ€
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