KiwiSafariTeam - Australasian Safari 2011

Hi All,

It's that time of year again.

A slightly smaller kiwi contingent than in 09 with just Javahead on his KTM 530exc and the world famous Jaybo1 on the super trick KTM 450rr.

I/we will be taking photos and hopefully vid's before, during and after the event. With a bit of luck 'crazyfrog' will update this thread with each days pics/vids if all goes to plan.


Javaheads bike reay for shipping a few weeks ago.

Good Luck! Go hard !

Javahead'll be looking forward to the endurocross sections then...

Having said that, it's only a smaller contingent of "riders" because the third member of KST in '09 is now being service crew this year, so we're all still here. I'm looking forward to the reunion! See you guys on Sunday - errr like tomorrow!
Cheers
JayBo

I'm in.

Go hard fellas.

Good luck fellas.
Will be watching & cheering.

Thanks for the encouragement - this time's going to be very interesting. I think we're ready. I hope we're ready because we'll be there later today. The bike's cleared customs and quarantine and the crate is sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting for us.

Monday's jobs are to collect the Crafter van, find the crate, then put the bike back together, fix or replace whatever got lost or broken in transit, then finish the few little things we ran out of time to do a few weeks back before it left NZ.
Tuesday's job is to finish Monday's jobs. And probably collect the number and sponsor stickers.
Wednesday morning documentation and scrutineering.
Thursday from lunchtime onwards it's rider's briefings, public viewing of all the vehicles, and a ceremonial start.
Then a drive up to Geraldton for the Prologue on Friday afternoon. Finally!

Photos to come.

The boys have landed and now had a bowl of my wife's lovely pumpkin soup. (Or my lovely wife's pumpkin soup, depending on whether you like pumpkin soup or not).

Good luck fellas from the Dubai KiwiSafari Team member. Will be following with interest before I head to Egypt real soon for the Pharaons Rally.

Steve Collie

I'm in too

i didn't realise that Javahead was based on Wellington, would be nice to see a rally bike in person ...

Good luck team, will be cheering you on!

It was a huge relief to see the crates emerge from the depot with everything intact, and no sign of the dreaded steam cleaning. We got back to base, pulled the crates apart and bolted the bikes back together at a leisurely pace. The list of things to do got halved. Plenty of time to finish things tomorrow.


Will try out a borrowed Renazco seat this time. Wider, even taller again, better foam, better cover. Should be so much more comfortable.
Also not so easy to see is a much simpler and lighter nav tower bracket that we've been working on over the past few months. The MecaSystem one is super-strong, but quite heavy for the reduced amount of equipment needed in the Safari. We've kept the frame-EXC mounted clamp but replaced almost everything else. Not evident in this pic but we'll have the standard EXC headlight and number board, with a 690 flyscreen - again to save weight and simplify wiring. Seems to be still quite effective at reducing wind load, and makes the bike seem a tiny bit smaller and lighter to ride. A halogen bulb might even survive long enough to get back if something goes wrong and I have to ride at night.

Last time we had a very wide MecaSystem bashplate with tools and water tank out each side. The Force one on the bike this time saves 2.2 kg and won't get hung up on immovable objects. Means I'll carry tools in a backpack, but am much less likely to find myself over the bars because the bashplate got caught on something unexpected.

You're welcome to check it out any time once its back

Tell the truth AJ, your bike was bent out of the crate


Nothing a few whacks with the BIG hammer won't fix.
No fellas, don't fret, the bike's not bent, just clever camera trickery, good work there Ben, very good mate!

The bikes are assembling well out of the crate with no major hassles, Andrew's well chuffed to have a Renazco seat for his 530 this year to make life a little more comfortable.



Joining the Kiwi contingent this year will be Seth Strait (USA) riding his KTM 690E




Nope, not much to do here.............

And the coup de grace, who pinched Cyril Despre's front guard???


Good work boys, glad everything is going well. Enjoy some rest before the funs begins on Thursday!

Good luck, ride hard

Cool, keep it coming and go hard.

Documentation and scrutineering tomorrow, so we had an incentive to get the bikes finished and gear ready.
Don't expect to need a headlight, but if we do its good to know it's at least aimed somewhere remotely useful. Stock EXC reflector with a halogen bulb is good for maybe 70km/h. Maybe.

You kiwi team guys may be able to congregate around your adopted (septic) team mate Seth's "cape cod lighthouse"... if there are any early morning or after dark transports to be tackled...???

That's some candle power he has up front on his 690R...

Go Bro Go! Good luck guys, & keep us posted!

Cheers
Clint

so how does the front end look like? is it going to be naked?


Good luck, go hard but be careful you still need to show me the bike

Scrutineering today. Glad they checked the little things like the contents of the first aid kit because they're what takes time to get right. Everything was fine. We all managed to forgot our enviromats so have to re-present with those before starting on Friday.

Back after scrutineering. Until 30 min before this it was bucketing down for much of the day. It's rained every day since we got here.

Not really naked, more skimpily clad. Seems quite a few bikes are mounting the nav gear on the bars to keep things light and simple. This doesn't look as compact as the bar-mounted nav gear, but we suspect it doesn't weigh a whole lot more. It seems to work OK but we'll know much better in a few days time.

And no, the forks don't really taper like that - it's just Ben trying out the fish-eye effect on his camera.


No big stuff done today. Ben helped out Seth to make the flyscreen fairing for the 690. We went off to get supplies. Snacks, water, cheap inflatable mattresses, foam for when the cheap mattresses fail, more snacks, powerade, and some snacks. Jackets and backpacks are stocked with tools, spares, snacks, gear. We're done.