Not Dakar, but getting there.

**Chucaro** · 22nd July 2013, 10:27 PM

You will have no problem with english in Buenos Aires, there a many people that speak english well.
When I come to think about it the Buenos Aires Herald news paper is older than many Australian news papers.
In BA I will look into for accommodation in La Recoleta, Barrio Norte or Palermo. Any of those suburbs are very good.
DO NOT LEAVE THE BIKE UNATTENDED
Rosario is a big city and for sure you will be ok there.
If I can help you in any way let me know by sending me a pm
Cheers
Arthur

**Datt** · 23rd July 2013, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by JayBoRover

I'm off to the Dakar Rally 2014 in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile!

That's freaking awsome.

I hope you keep the thread (or new one) updated so we can follow your progress.

Obviously you go through more rear tyres in a rally then fronts. Do you put on a fresh set for every stage?

Matt.

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 23rd July 2013, 02:12 PM

Thats great news

Legend has it--
that in the early 70's Mitsubishi sent two guys to run a big Australian rally. From the time they picked up the car at the airport till boarding the return flight the whole trip was done in race notes/tulips.

**LandyAndy** · 23rd July 2013, 06:40 PM

Great news John.
ENJOY
Andrew

**Cobber** · 23rd July 2013, 07:51 PM

Well Done Sir! Good luck

**JayBoRover** · 23rd July 2013, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by Datt

That's freaking awsome.

I hope you keep the thread (or new one) updated so we can follow your progress.

Obviously you go through more rear tyres in a rally then fronts. Do you put on a fresh set for every stage?

Matt.

If the interest is here, I'll keep this up to date with progress as I prepare. Not sure how much I'll be able to do during the event, but I'm sure the odd land Rover friendly titbit will get here

. Then a bit of a report afterwards.

A fresh pair of tyres for every day except the first day and a marathon day, so I have 12 rears and 9 fronts. The first day tends to be a long road liaison to the first bivouac and then the first stage tends to be lots of dirt roads and rocks to get out of civilisation, so the same tyres will do for that. Then there's a "marathon stage" where the riders are on their own from one morning to the following night. No service at the end of the first of the marathon day with only the rider able to work on his bike and using only the tools and spares he's carried with him. This happens immediately after the rest day when the bikes depart from the car/truck route and head into Bolivia. The bivouac in Bolivia will be in your riding gear with a blanket and a pair of slippers the organiser issue to you. Tough stuff

!! Then rejoin with the rest of the circus in Chile at the end of the second marathon day.

Seems silly, but it's this marathon day I'm looking forward to

. To me it's two days with zero risk of being run over by a flying car or truck

.

Cheers

**weeds** · 24th July 2013, 07:35 AM

keen to follow your updates......

**JayBoRover** · 8th August 2013, 09:22 PM

Plans are rapidly being set in place for my Dakar. I've come to an arrangement with a Chilean company that provides service and support and also hire out rally bikes for the Dakar. I looked into taking the Deefer over as my service truck, but it was waaay too expensive. I will still have my trusty mechanic from NZ coming over to look after me and "my" bike, but he'll ride with the Chilean service crew and "my" bike will actually be "theirs".

This has a huge benefit for me in that I can use my identical rally bike here to compete in the Australasian Safari in September. The very best type of training you can do is "bike time" and doing it in a competition virtually the same as the Dakar is better yet. I can then take my own seat, nav gear and suspension with me to the Dakar and swap it onto the hired bike. Perfect. I can also enter the "Dakar Challenge" and try and win a free entry to the Dakar, worth 14.800 Euro!

Part of the deal I have worked out, is the Chilean manager, an accomplished Rally rider himself, will come to Australia and ride my old Safari bike (an enduro bike converted to a rally bike a few years ago) with service and logistics support from my manager and Perth based company CPW Safari. A bit of a complicated deal but saves me a bit of money, with virtually no negative points.

So my shed looks looks a bit chaotic at the moment with two bikes being stripped and rebuilt to prepare for the Safari that starts on September 20th. I'll post a photo of the chaotic shed in the weekend when there's enough light to see everything!

Ciao for now.
John B

**flagg** · 9th August 2013, 10:52 AM

Fantastic!!! Hope everything works out well for you and you cross the finish line in one peice

**JayBoRover** · 19th August 2013, 10:50 PM

My entry went in for the Australasian Safari today, so that's all go

.
The bike has progressed from this:

... and this:

.... to this:

... in the last couple of weeks. Still a fair bit to do, but I'm waiting for the new (and by "new" I mean latest technology / electro-trickery to market being tested in anger by me for the European manufacturer - "Aurora Rally Equipment") navigation gear (scrolling roadbook holder) and my custom finished seat that is winging it's way back to me from California thanks to "Renazco Racing". Two amazing sponsors I have that I am deeply grateful to.

My Chilean mate has unfortunately pulled out of coming over for the Safari, due to work commitments in Europe he can't get out of

. Which is kind of good because it takes a bit of pressure off me and means I can continue to prepare the 450RFR to perfection instead of trying to prepare 2 bikes and being conscious that I will be hiring his bike at the Dakar - imagine if he had a major problem on mine over here??

. The down side is that I can't justify bringing my mechanic across from NZ just for me, so I'll be doing all my own servicing and tyre changing through the Safari. Only 5 weeks to race start! Bring it on!

The pace will be picking up over the next few weeks so I'll try and keep progress reports coming. If you're really keen to follow the story, check out my thread on ADVRider:
HERE

Cheers for now.
John B

Thread: Not Dakar, but getting there.

Thread Tools

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions