Oz Safari Team ADV - "The Racing of the cahns"

Dave and I went on a shopping spree. He bought a shitty old KLR250 4stroke for a bargain price. I bought the XR later in the day. Dave's already talking about racing the KLR...after we bolt a milk crate to the back of it, to collect the bits that fall off both old shakers.
Lots of fun bike prepping ahead of us.

My first aid cert is still current Dave. Apparently with CPR it doesn't matter so much if you hear ribs crack when you're doing chest compressions. You cool with that ????

Michael, make sure you let me know if any of the lads are using your beautiful creations so I can take some shots of them for you to flick up on your website.

I'm cool with the ribs cracking, but adding tongue is out...! :eek1

Will do

At this stage it looks like there'll a few roadbook backing plates at least.

Oh I'm coming along for the ride as well, someone has to document the madness ..... keep an eye out for these new Tulips !!!



Sundowner (sorry Dusty - no decent action shots)




NRY




Sequent



Matt



Geoz (HG - Condo 2013)




Kasuyaho [Possible] (Condo 2013 - No action pic)

Link to Condo pics here. Click on the big pic

My holiday request is confirmed. Time to book that flight into Perth!

Excellent news, Antal.
Can you drive a truck? Am trying to find a pantech (box) truck to hire, about 3 to 6 tonnes, as the team gear vehicle, for bivouac to bivouac duties. Hopefully Bert will have a truck licence. I must PM him as well, to let him know that he's in the team. Be a bit of a surprise otherwise.
I'll probably put you in my Daihatsu Delta van along with someone else, for refuelling and service points, seeing as you know what the show's all about.

That's excellent news. You're now our official Media Liason Officer. You can spend all evening (after the foods cooked, bikes serviced and riders tucked into bed) uploading the days GoPro footage and feeding the hungry F5er's updates, photos and general gossip. We'll let you sleep during the day, between bivouac and service points.
Are you any good at hunting down sponsorship? With a team of 9 riders currently, that's a big slice of media attention. For the guys chasing down sponsor deals, keep that fact in mind. Often potential sponsors won't want to fork out for individual riders but will see the value in having multiple rider team recognition. It's a worthwhile angle to address in any sponsorship hunt.

I'll pre-warn immigration !!!

My license is only upto 3500kg... So a serious boxvan should work. Proper box truck not :huh

Ill drive anything, with a working airco that is

Piece of cake ... could do it with my eyes closed ....... in fact I probably will end up doing it with my eyes closed =8-O.

"hunting down sponsorship" .... that's more Matt's area of expertise. I've sent him a link to this thread and told him he needs to become an inmate.

Hi Fellas, looks like there is quite a crew growing for Safari on ADV. Don't all get excited i'm not a sponsorship machine but work in advertising so I do have some connections. I'd be interested in hearing more on this team approach.

What I need to know/understand is who are the riders and what are your profiles like online and off?
Basically sponsors are advertisers in my world, they want Advertising for their spend.
How serious is this team thing? M

G'day Scoutin, thanks for your interest. So far there are 9 confirmed riders, all of whom have some level of rally racing experience, ranging from Condo750 participants through to Safari class winners. For the better part of it, we're all very experienced riders and will show a strong presence throughout the various classes we're entering. As a team, out on the Special Selectives or inside the bivouac, I expect us to gain a huge amount of rally and media interest.
I'm hopeful as this thread progresses and the event approaches, the various team members will have produced an attractive and informative profile on themselves and their individual training plus machine development activities.
I can assure any prospective sponsor a high rate of return for their advertising investment.
This will be a strong team in every respect, if you ignore the fact that most of these jackasses are yet to post up anything here. :ddog
If they're like me, they should be head down, bum up into preparing their machines or developing regular training routines that probably take away some leisure time to carry on too much here.
Professionals, every one of them.
Hope this clarifies a bit of the mystery factor here.

More like an anarcho syndicalist collective at this stage but as Sundowner has most eruditely stated we are all bums down and heads up working earnestly towards the finish line of Aus Safari 2014.

Seem's as though your original "Malle's moto mantra" has flown well and truly out the window Sundowner...?

It has Troy, because the Safari isn't running a Malle Moto class this year - confirmed it meself before I did venture henceforth into this folly. No class, no point in doing it the hard way. I would have prefered to contest that format as well. I know half the team or more are of the same inclination. Justin doesn't have the staff available to police it. I even suggested that some form of self-policing of the Malle Moto competitors would work. It just isn't a goer for this year due to never being contested previous years. I cry into my beer everytime I think of what could have been.

Bit of an update on some of the training routine and happenings from my side of the country....
For some strange reason, I haven't got a photo of the new bike that gets me to and from work every day lately - a 29" Scott 24 speed mountain bike - she's a real beauty and I'm starting to love the excercise the trip gives. But otherwise, here's some recent training photo's, just for the fun of it...

The kayak is a regular upper body workout, daylight pending. Two to three hours paddling seems about right without overdoing it.

Regular team meetings are also important...




This old beast (photo courtesy of Ross Briggs) ...


Has now been replaced by this old beast....


Collected it last Saturday...a 1994 XR600R with minor mods that all suit the Moto 1.3 Class rules - stock frame, suspension (although the springs seem to have been done front and rear), brakes, engine, body parts and bolt-ons. The fuel tank, suspension mods and exhaust muffler (Staintune) are allowable and will work really well. Just needs new rims, spokes, brake discs (stock) and a few minor bits and pieces. It also came with a 200watt stator and switchgear to suit. Engine is strong and gearbox feels sweet. It's really tiny compared the the big old Tenere. It's also a very capable machine.
Here she is on the ride home....

Yes, it really was that steep. I love the fact you can park it up against a rock (in gear) and it's light enough not to plough forwards and fall over. This could come in handy during Safari.
The best bit of this was that I found a new training area for Dave and I to practice in...

It gets considerably steeper just in front of the bike. It's one on those "drop the clutch and ride it the whole way back out" gullys, steep, loose, sharp rock, ripped to pieces by water errosion. Just perfect for building confidence in steep downhills and uphills.
From the other side, heading back out again (it was a dead end track)...

About 12 feet in front of the bike is a 6ft vertical rock face drop. Good fun going up it, a real heart in the mouth moment as you drop the clutch and fall off it, onto the 45 degree slope going into the creek bed. :huh Coming up the other side was just as much fun - the bike thumping slowly up the last few metres to the top. With practice, we should be able to ride this without hessitation. Every second Monday has been dedicated to on-bike training sessions, along with any free weekend.
Other than that, Wednesday night is bike building night each week as possible.

Look's like the perfect specimen, for a "Hedge" replica Sundowner...?