I have been a lurker in this post for a wile, and I have seen kmt, yamaha, honda and other bike but kawasaki, but did kawasaki not participate in dakar at any year of the races or is not fit-et for this type race??
Hey Vic! I think the problem is Kawasaki have never really made a bike suitable for the Dakar, or rally raid in general... they have always done reasonably well in Motocross (and to a lesser extent shorter course desert racing), but these bikes are not the ideal basis for a rally bike - and nothing they produce now (with the exception of the current KLX450R perhaps) would be suitable either? J x
didn't Kawasaki have a v twin in their line up, something like the Africa Twin, I swear i saw one on the web on some site
http://www.google.com/search?q=kawasaki+dakar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a
TeamGreenDakar used modified KLR650's in the 2007 edition. They did not finish the 3rd stage in time. http://www.teamgreendakar.nl/home/index.asp http://www.teamgreendakar.nl/extra/080107etappe03/index.html
Tengai and KLE 500 did reasonably well in those years http://www.nightwings.org/Marathon/Marathon-rivali.htm
I believe the first pics of a Husky dakar bike, belongs to Claudio Rodriguez #161 from Chile and finished 43rd. Obligatory wheelie (testing - no number board?) The last 2 I'm guessing are from early on with the high front fender. Heres a link to his flickr page where there's a bunch more photos, mostly build and testing pics but still cool. And notice how the Acerbis 5ltr aux tank is for the pros too
I love that bike, and I love that first short particularly Tome - thanks for posting it in hi res! J xx
Now THAT'S some bike porn!!! Oh, and btw...I heard Husky is going to make that bike and bring it to the states. "We realize there's a huge market for light bikes with wind protection and big tanks in the states, so we'll be bringing the bike to market in 2010 with a $7k price point." I always wanted to start a rumor...so pass this on, plz!
Anyone know where there are (mainly bikes) entry and or result lists for newer (1986 onwards) rallyes...older ones (1979 - 1985) are available on www.dakardantan.com. I am especially interested in the bikes ridden so a list that states the make and model would be first prize if the rider's race number is listed that would be a bonus. Thanks in advance for any links.
Have a look at my old website http://www.cbvracing.com/index.html Scroll to the bottom, under PREVIOUS NEWS, you will see a 165 pages document with 29 years of Dakar History from 1979 - 2006. You will see the brands in the results section, the models are talked about in the text. Happy reading!
Yeah I like the Husky too, hence the effort I made trying to find some pics of one. I know there was one previously ridden by Johan van der Laan but couldn't find many pics. Husky 630 should be out at the end of March which I can't wait to ride but I think they should adventurise one as well, KTM haven't they would be jumping right in!
Thanks, I've got that but it doesn't give detail beyond make - no model info nor race numbers (race numbers are useful to ID rider /bike if yo have a pic).
I love the wheelie-promo shots of the Husky. They have the fairing on it with the husky crown cut-outs on top. Just love that, obviously they scrapped it for the race but I really appreciate details like that.
Hi Pat Are you coming up for the Soiree this time? Hey Arthduro, how's the graphic life coming along? I'm sitting in the TO airport waiting on a plane.
It was nice to see that photo of Deacon. A hero from my active era. The big beemer twin was in Dubai one year I wobbled around. I am pretty sure Deeks was on it. It sounded like a light plane on take off climb out. Super fast and he was very brave on it. A pure joy to watch. I raced slowly round a few British Enduros in the early 90s where Deacon would show well on the big white and purple KTM620 Enduro bike. He was kind of the UK version of Scott the US Honda XR600 man. Mainly I tried not to impede him although one time he sort of road over me! I was a mobile chicane on my 610. He was a helluva nice guy and very fast. At Rhyader they had a huge double on the special test which he used to clear mightily with a downhill run up one way and up hill the other. Awesome to watch him wrestle that LC4 around. I would have loved to have done some rides from his shop around Devon etc when he was running tours off road for KTM. All those Dakar super pilots were a little crazy-Meoni, Sainct, Deeks...