Best Dakar shot ever?

How can you not love the Coma press shot? I also saw photos of Despres and Coma jumping each other in the dunes of same press kit. Awesome stuff.

However, there is the quintessential shot of Fabrizio Meoni launching off a huge dune during '03 Dakar (?) on his KTM victory blue 950 that says it all to me... I believe he won that year, on that bike... a sub 450lb. beast. Racing that bike in the dunes must have been total and absolute riding technique.

That photo sold a lot of early 950 Adventures. Not to mention Fabrizio was not only a superb Rally champion, but he was involved heavily in the design of the bike.

One of my happiest moments was seeing the first production year 950 S in Meoni's victory blue... accidentally shipped to a dealer a couple miles from my house in late 2004. This is in the West Coast of California known for custom cruisers... And where there are very few of us into adventure twins like the Africa Twin and Transalp, early Super Tenere and GSPD.

Granted, if I was 25 years younger and hoping to ride in a Dakar today 'd love a 450.

But for all around adventure touring, like my 3 week tour to the KTM rally last Sept. I wouldn't have wanted anything different then my 950 S.

Thanks Fabrizio!!!

Well, I cant recall whether it was a video or a picture, nor can I seem to find what I am looking for....

Maybe somebody knows what I am talking about?
I am 100% positive that it happened on the Dakar.

The pic and/or video shows a rider trying to extinguish his burning bike by throwing sand at it, IIRC there are also other riders passing at that time.

+1 forks and clamp from customer bike. Extremes have a wrap around clamping arrangement on axle, outers are different colour. No neck brace. 690RR.

Does the Ktm 690rr have linkage?

No.

ah, yes it does. all of the 690's do.

here is a pic of coma on his. if you look you can plainly see the linkage

laters,

laramie

wow very nices pic's and man i love the first one in the thread

I've seen an uncropped version of the first pic.

It's not a genuine 'rally' pic because you can see the tyre marks (cropped out in this version) where repeated passes have been made for the camera.

Plus see the comments about lighting above.

I suspect it's a pre-event carefully posed and composed shot given away as part of a KTM press pack or goodie bag.

It's certainly not representative of typical rally raid riding.

Some years ago I worked with an ex-pro MX racer turned tester for a magazine.

He'd do riding in two styles: one to find out what the bikes were actually like, and how fast they could go, and another for photography with lots of wheelies and exploding berms. The second style looked very fast in still photography but wasn't in terms of lap times.

To shoot something like this, the crew will setup in a spot and have the rider go through over and over. If it were me, I'd tell him to expect 40 or 50 times to get what I want.

I obviously don't know about this shot- might just be a lucky grab- but I doubt it.

FakeName & kellymac530

Hey guys, love the technical analysis & commentary: I really enjoy an 'inside' view.

On the other hand I do think set-up shots are less impressive than "true" action photography. That said, I don't discount the photographer or the rider's skills and talent, it's just more impressive (to me) when it's organic.

No contest:



or possibly:

Those are both still press shots...way too clean of bikes, riders, tires even still have tire shine on them.

I would definately agree, a real race shot is ideally the best.
I guess I did not neccesarily mean that my photo was "the best ever"...I just thought it was bitchen. I am sure there were LOTS of run throughs and many high speed clicks to get that one just so, But that also means Coma just kept rippin that berm time after time...I would love to see that entire sequence or even video of that shoot.

That one shot Laramie posted of Coma on the Repsol 690 from the 2009 Dakar looks like it is a real race photo taken during the race. Alot of dust everwhere and gray/blueish tires mean there has been so good sand time on them...

All great shots of ANY Dakar bike in action for me....big bores, 690s, 450s...I just love the long distance rally and the adventure that is still in that race. Running it in SA is better than not running it at all. Africa was the better though for me. That spirit of danger really added to it. NOT that I LIKED seeing anyone get serously hurt or even die...I hate that, breaks my heart to loose anyone bold enough to race there, but that danger did make it exciting and intriguing.

+1

for those of you who don't know, the holy grail of ktm images can be found here.....www.ktmimages.com

pics from all the way back to 2003 for all event, models, anything they did.

your welcome,
laramie

Or possibly this one.Although, again, not a race shot.

What an amazing resource! What a great database! Obviously built by people who love what they do and are proud of their work.

[tQUOTE=laramie LC4;20350216]for those of you who don't know, the holy grail of ktm images can be found here.....www.ktmimages.com

pics from all the way back to 2003 for all event, models, anything they did.

your welcome,
laramie [/QUOTE]

Not me.

It's different. I look at the difference between picture TAKING and picture MAKING. Both can be great, but I'm a picture MAKER. I'd be bored to tears going out ot a race and trying to "get good pictures" in conditions that are not under my control. I can do it- I'm good at what I do. But I can't "speak as loudly" as I can when I choose my lighting and my composition.

The image in question was clearly "made". And I certainly take your point that it's not "organic". But it really grabs the viewer- I had a silent self-laugh when it was posted, as I'd analyzed it earlier and wondered if anyone noticed it's unnatural look.

Not, in any way, deriding the abilities of race shooters- they're good. But I loved the combination of styles in that shot.