I thought I would post up on how my preparations are going for the Tuareg as I thought some of you may find it useful. It also opens up the discussion on things I may have missed as well. My new years resolution was to stop drinking and increase my fitness levels so my next drink planned is after I complete the Tuareg. In terms of fitness training I have been doing a load of cycling, weights and running. I am not going to Tuareg for the first time and expecting to win it, I just want to give myself every opportunity to enjoy it and simply finish it. I just really love being on my Rally bike and hope the weather will be nice and warm. Ok so basically 2013 has been all about getting the bike rebuilt and ready for Tuareg and getting some time on it. So being my fussy self its time to strip the girl down and give her a going over... Sent off the suspension to On-Track Racing to get it all sorted for my weight I cleaned all of the fuel tanks and stripped and rebuilt the carburettor and adjusted the valve clearances. I made sure I kept a note of what mileage the bike had done and what shims were used for future reference. Time for the bearings now, using marine grease with a high content of Teflon I re-packed the pro-link lever, swing arm and head stem bearings. There is a known problem with the starter one-way bearing on the Rally bikes, mine was sticking every once in a while so I replaced the one-way bearing, torque converter and clutch. Whist I had this side of the engine open I thought I would check the oil pumps as well and make sure they were in spec. Once the bike was back together it was time for some navigation training. I had two days of training with Donna at Torque Racing which was included as part of my service package for Tuareg. The first day we went though setting up the GPS (Garmin 60), ICO's and road book usage and marking. Second day consisted of sticking the road book together, marking it all up and loading it into the road book. We did around 150kms of cracking lanes through Essex and Hartfordshire. The road book was excellent it gave you a flavour of Compass Headings, dangers and the various tulips you could expect to see in a Rally. Another big thank you to Burt from the Big Bike Rally Challenge who also took me on a navigation training exercise day in Gloucestershire. We did around 100kms and again the lanes were excellent and the road book was excellent with a good mix of exercises and dangers. Mental note when a danger is marked up in the road book and you see a little ford and think I can gas it through that....maybe not the best approach. Very slippy underneath and I fell in at 10am in the morning...haha. The bike didn't drown so it was a lucky mistake but something I should remember.... A couple of weekends ago I did around 250kms of training in North Wales and I am starting to feel comfortable with the bike. For the Tuareg Rally I will be maintaining a daily log of the event and create a thread with all the juicy details when I return. Cheers to all....
Thinking of you thrashing in the desert. Hope you have a good one and Im looking forward to your log. Cheers Neil
