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Taste of Dakar 2017


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20 minutes ago, Eric Hall said:

Wow!  So great to see those big bikes in the dunes.

Thanks.  Hopefully have some more videos processed for our group in the next few days.  

Here are a bunch of photos from the group.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1077266362377665.1043220533&type=3

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Sean MacDonald's TOD17 write up for Cycle World:

http://www.cycleworld.com/altriders-taste-dakar-where-ive-been-riding#page-5

Sounds like Sean should have followed us on our attempt at the advanced, and later the deep sand and gravel of the intermediate pm route....

Photo Credit: Scott Toepfer

sgtoepfer-dsc03728.jpg

 

 

Edited by greedyg
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40 minutes ago, greedyg said:

Sean MacDonald's TOD17 write up for Cycle World:

http://www.cycleworld.com/altriders-taste-dakar-where-ive-been-riding#page-5

Sounds like Sean should have followed us on our attempt at the advanced, and later the deep sand and gravel of the intermediate pm route....

 

 

Well as editor of XLADV and the one who scouted the tracks, I love the controversy this has generated.  I think it could have been avoided as well as become a better story had he simply asked, but I left the following response to his story:

What were you told when you asked about the routes?  Because if you had asked me (I'm the one who scouted them), I would have told you that there was a GREAT deal of "real scouting."  I've led hundreds of group rides and scouted many routes before including last year's TOD, NVBDR & my own events.  (If you want some really good challenging tracks, try our XLADV High Sierra even Aug 31-Sep 3) The biggest problem this year was the insane amount of snow the region got.  Don't forget Gold Point is already at 5400' in elevation and that provided quite a bit of challenges this year.  Even the start of the intermediate course was under 18" of snow just three weeks earlier and had us very worried, so we had to keep the course below the snow line as much as possible (not possible for the advanced route which I did not plan).  Luckily mother nature stepped in and kept it dry for a few weeks and melted much of the snow and that added quite a bit of loose sand to increase the challenge, but we also improvised our tracks here and there as it looks like you did as well.  You are correct the scenic and intermediate routes were constrained by the lunch location but that's how AltRider's done it every year.  I would have preferred sack lunches and let people go on better routes but it wasn't my call.  I scouted this route in advance and had over 1100 miles of track to explore.  Three of us ended up riding 1400 miles in total so I can assure you we scouted it for "real."  My recommendations for next year are to move it back a few weeks to ensure it's snow-free and we have access to more challenging routes as well as drop the centralized lunch spot.  If you could update your piece to reflect this new information, I'm sure AltRider would appreciate that.  Thanks.

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50 minutes ago, Eric Hall said:

Well as editor of XLADV and the one who scouted the tracks, I love the controversy this has generated.  I think it could have been avoided as well as become a better story had he simply asked, but I left the following response to his story:

What were you told when you asked about the routes?  Because if you had asked me (I'm the one who scouted them), I would have told you that there was a GREAT deal of "real scouting."  I've led hundreds of group rides and scouted many routes before including last year's TOD, NVBDR & my own events.  (If you want some really good challenging tracks, try our XLADV High Sierra even Aug 31-Sep 3) The biggest problem this year was the insane amount of snow the region got.  Don't forget Gold Point is already at 5400' in elevation and that provided quite a bit of challenges this year.  Even the start of the intermediate course was under 18" of snow just three weeks earlier and had us very worried, so we had to keep the course below the snow line as much as possible (not possible for the advanced route which I did not plan).  Luckily mother nature stepped in and kept it dry for a few weeks and melted much of the snow and that added quite a bit of loose sand to increase the challenge, but we also improvised our tracks here and there as it looks like you did as well.  You are correct the scenic and intermediate routes were constrained by the lunch location but that's how AltRider 's done it every year.  I would have preferred sack lunches and let people go on better routes but it wasn't my call.  I scouted this route in advance and had over 1100 miles of track to explore.  Three of us ended up riding 1400 miles in total so I can assure you we scouted it for "real."  My recommendations for next year are to move it back a few weeks to ensure it's snow-free and we have access to more challenging routes as well as drop the centralized lunch spot.  If you could update your piece to reflect this new information, I'm sure AltRider would appreciate that.  Thanks.

All good points, but someone should have checked snow on the adv route a day or two before.  Not sure if there could have been any alternate but then riders could have planned accordingly.  I know we would have volunteered to do it the day before.

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We didn't really need to check it as we knew the snow level was at 7k' two weeks earlier and likely 8k' the day of the event.  We knew the route went to 10.1k' and that was enough to know it wasn't passable.  I made the recommendation to scuttle it but was overruled.

I focussed on the scenic and intermediate routes because on my 990 (or borrowed GS as it turns out) I didn't feel I was qualified to scout an advanced route which is more appropriate for small bikes.  The advanced route was provided by Mark Stickelmaier of Black Swan Moto so I just deferred to his judgment on it; I didn't feel it was my place to insist on it being changed.

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Sean's comments about the routes are kind of out of line though in my opinion.  It would be like publishing a negative review of an item I got for free without first checking with the manufacturer that I had all the proper information and had installed it correctly and was using it as it was intended.

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https://youtu.be/rHoT4BE1DQE

 

Tacked on a few miles from the East Bay over the last week, about 1697miles to be exact. When I get ready for these trips it is usually last minute wrenching and detailing of my trusty daily commuter. This time I sent out my rear shock to be refurbished to Racetech and they turned it around in 9 days. I was determined to get into the rear linkage and swingarm to detail the needle bearings and grease everything up.  Furthermore fresh Kenda Big Blocks and HD tubes were in order.  I was lucky enough to have my partner in crime be my support vehichle as well as carry all the food, beer, tent and camping accessories.  I tend to pack too much all the time.  I met up with Steve Bushong, Ken Weaver, Dennis Hagerty, and Jonathan Thomas in Trona on Thursday before the Taste of Dakar in Gold Point Nevada.  We rode through Death Valley and stopped by the Charcoal Kilns on the way.  The weather and company was epic.  

This year was aweseome.  New location and new tracks.  Last year I scouted the advanced route.  This year with my back in recovery I opt to do the intermediate route.  It was an excellent choice!  No shortage of sand, speed tracks, interesting hill climbs and descents.  I had a great bunch of riding buddies mixed in with a couple of new folks that all helped each other out.  My wife and I stayed camping an extra night as we had some extra time to kick back and relax.  Plus we rode the parts of the scenic route two up which was amazing.  The hospitality of Herb and Walt was excellent.  The food this year was great and Herb was always asking how our experience was and I can definetly say we felt at home, so well done.

I took so much footage this year that I will probably have to put another vid together!  No music in this one as I wanted to keep this one in its raw state.  Plus all the copy right bs on music is getting to be too much.  Enjoy!

  

Edited by motochefarwi
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Sean responded:

"I was told that they had plans to do more scouting for next year to find areas that maybe weren't much harder, but a little more varying, and that the route was planned around being able to find a lunch spot.

Personally, it's hard to recommend people spend a few hundred bucks for a route that isn't super engaging and some BBQ. No knock on your scouting and I'm sure you know the area well, but a cool camp and decent lunch aren't huge reasons to attend something that's sorta far and not particularly epic.

I suggested that they move to the sierras or even possibly further south to find somewhere that the ride can be a little more of a draw, even without particularly special riding abilities."

 

The point he makes about the cost/benefit or value of the event is a valid one but one he didn't make in the article.

And I felt him plugging his Sierra event was in poor taste and out of context given Sierra tracks, while quite good, bear little resemblance to the Dakar the way the Nevada desert does.  Mentioning their event would be fine in another way such as "for those liking this type of event be sure to check out ours this September."  But it came off like "if you want a really challenging event, try ours."

Next years tracks will be much better I'm sure because we'll likely move the event out 2-3 weeks, add a few days to the scouting (4-5 vs 3) and we'll have Kellon along to show us his local knowledge.  I really enjoyed the KTM Rally tracks and they gave no thought to lunch stops; they simply listed a few options and left it up to the riders.  I think dropping a central lunch spot will free up a lot more interesting areas.  Dyer to the northwest and Beatty to the south are two other options.  There's a lot of meat on that bone still ;)

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On a positive note, ADVMoto gave me the opportunity to share some of my photos and do a write up for their publication.  Read the whole thing here and let me know if you think it's better/worse than others' :lol:  Please share the link with your friends.

FullImage.jpg

I was happy to get the opportunity to showcase the hard work put in by Dennis Godwin on the obstacle course as well as see @Jason R get the cover image (at least on the Facebook post).

taste-of-dakar-12.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, greedyg said:

I love how everyone just charged right up the teeter-totter without ever questioning the quality of its structural integrity...   They obviously didn't see who assembled it 🙄

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. 

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So there's this guy who commented on my YouTube video going by the name "Stealth Bobber" who is a helicopter gunner who was flying over I think the dry lake that the Black Swan class was on.  He sounded jealous!  I was the jealous one.  How cool would that be to be a helicopter gunner?

Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 10.10.54 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 10.11.35 AM.png

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