Buff's road to the 2013 Amageza Rally - ON HOLD !!!

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Buff

Grey Hound
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
7,591
Reaction score
152
Location
Western Cape
Bike
KTM 690 Adventure
I’ve noticed there’s quite an interest in what guys are doing in and around preparation for some of the international Rally’s so I figured, why not do one for my attempt at the Amageza as well?

As things stand, I’m not in a financial state to do the race but I know that lot can change (and normally does) between now and the close of entries, so I’m living in hope that I can get my ducks in a row before then and I’m preparing for it as if I will be racing it.

I’ll be focussing on 3 main aspects in the build up to the event:

• My Sponsors – if I can get any  ;D
• My Bike  - Because everyone digs seeing Rally bikes evolve  :drif:
• Me – My preparation from a fitness and learning perspective  :walk: :read2:

With a year to go, this will obviously be a long term project so please don’t expect everything to happen overnight.

I will endeavour to document every step I make forward (and backwards) with regards to the 3 points above over the course of the next year (or until entries close or are full).

This will hopefully give future inexperienced riders a platform to work from should they wish to tackle this event in the future.

So to move forward, I guess we need to assess where we are currently.
To get the ball rolling, I'll give you a rundown of what I’m working towards.

Sponsorship (Stage 0):

This space is currently blank but only due to me not having targeted prospective sponsors yet. This will change shortly as I set about putting a sponsor’s package together with the help of a close friend in the graphic media industry.
If any Wilddog’s have money burning holes in their pockets, please allow me to dowse the flames and relieve you of your cash  :laughing7:

Update 19th Nov 2012: I'm glad to say that this spot is no longer blank thanks to a few very generous Wilddogs:

1 x Electronic Road Book sponsored by Wayneh  :thumleft:
2 x R1000 cash donations to use for equipment (ICO) compliments of BlueBull2007 and Kenisis

Thank you gents, much appreciated  :thumleft:

The Bike (Stage 0):

I’ll be riding a 2009 WR450F which I purchased 3 months ago. The bike is stock and came with a new set of Mitas rubbers and a new chain & sprockets in a box.

As soon as it arrived in the Cape, it was sent to Droomers Yamaha for a full check-up and given a clean bill of health after a few minor fixes.

The fixes:

The valves got checked and one exhaust valve needed to be shimmed.
The piston & rings still look good.
New clutch lever as the old one was bent.
One of the forks was leaking so it got new fork seals and new oil.
I also spoilt it with a new front mudguard from a 2012 YZ, just to bring it up to date cosmetically.
I also had the bike road worthied so I could ride to the local enduro tracks when necessary. Fortunately it already had a road kit on it and the only thing that needed to change was to have a new bulb added and wired so the bike had a dim & bright setting on the front light.
It also got a full service at the same time.

WTCurrent.jpg


Once I got the bike home, I bought a case of beers, waited for a rainy Sunday and then phoned up 2 of my mates (Adrian & Ian) and we stripped the bike down as far as we could to oil, grease and replaced nuts and bolts where necessary. I need to add that Adrian did the hard graft, Ian the supervision and me the ferrying of beers from the fridge to the garage. We also replaced the chain & sprockets (14 front, 50 rear).
The chances are good that I’ll change the rear to a 47 during the course of next year to run higher speeds on the flat stuff, but for now the 50 works great on the trails around CT. We also added a new set of hand guards as the previous one were looking seriously scuffed.

Ian giving instructions:
WRAdrianIan.jpg


It was a seriously enjoyable day and I learned a ton about the bike. Adrian is a Diesel mackie so he knows his way around mechanical things and is willing to share his knowledge. He also has more cool tools than most of us can only dream of owning.

Strip club:
WRStrip.jpg


During Sept I got picked up an Acerbis long range tank on Gumtree for a good price. The petcock needed some work and tank needed a good cleaning but was a quick fix job.

I tried mock fitting it to the bike and found the only negative so far with the bike. A small aluminium tab that bolts the radiator onto the left shroud and plastic radiator protector was broken off, probably from a fall the previous owner had. I had noticed it previously when we stripped the bike but the shroud is light and the radiator secure so it made no difference but now with the long range tank fitted, that tab is needed to provide extra stability for the tank. It’s something that will need to be fixed moving forward. Hopefully I can get someone to weld a new tab on for me.

Broken tab:
WRTab.jpg


What it needs to look like with the tank mounted:
WRtabbrace.jpg


Here's what she looks like with the tank on.
WRlongrange.jpg


So what else does the bike need for the Amageza:

Besides regular maintenance, the bike’s going to need a few rally components. I’ve identified the following list but it might grow rapidly:

Road book & mounts – preferably auto-scrolling
ICO – to check and reset trip distances to road book
GPS plug point & mounts
Extra Fuel Tanks – The Acerbis tank is 12.6l which will not get me the 250km range that the organiser suggests we need to prepare for. I’ll need to add 2 rear mounted auxiliary tanks.
HID kit for front light – in case I get lost at night
Stator upgrade – to power the extra electrics
Rally fairing – it’s not 100% necessary but useful. I have a screen from my previous 660Z that I’ve already modified to use as a fairing should I not purchase one.

If I can get a setup going like the one below then I’ll be happy.

WRScreen1.jpg


WRScreen2.jpg


Me (Stage 0)

Sjoe, this is going to be difficult as I might need to get personal  :-[

Although a self-professed couch potato for the past few years, I’m no stranger to endurance sport.

Up until 2008 I was actively involved in endurance Mountain bike events and before that, in Adventure racing. In 2008 while preparing for my 2nd Cape Epic, I was involved in road cycling crash that shattered my left collarbone and started a string of health maladies that took 2 years to recover from  :sad4:

Instead of getting back into the sport, I decided to dedicate my attention to obtaining a degree through Unisa (which I’m still busy with) and thus exercise took a back seat for a while.

That was until I bought myself a KDX 200 at the beginning of 2011 and discovered Dirt biking. I was hooked immediately and since then, at least one day of my weekend is taken up in the saddle of either the dirt bike or the adventure bike.
With the help and advice from the Wilddogs, I joined the WPATV club and later that year did my first two Offroad events at Bonnievale and Wellington. It was a baptism of fire and I realised that although the passion was there, the fitness and skill needed some work.

Pic shamelessly borrowed from GoPhoto of a shot snapped of me at the Wellington event. Tau lapped me on the 2nd lap I believe.

KDXWellington.jpg


Unfortunately I was nursing a reoccurring knee injury from playing squash and it was interfering with my biking so in Nov 2011, I went in for surgery to get it sorted out.

That kept me off the bike for the first few months of 2012 so I decided that rather than start racing too early and risk further injury to my knee, I’d focus on improving my skill and fitness on the bike for the remainder of the year. That meant regular trips to Macassar, Atlantis and Zone 7 with the Wilddogs and a few other mates.
It proved a wise decision as the knee is healing up really well and responding well to exercise.

That brings us up to date, November 2012 and the dirt road forward.

Fitness goals:

I’m currently 45 yrs old & weigh in at 93kg’s and it’s not all muscle  :-[. During my mountain biking days I was 72kg’s. I have no intention of getting that thin again (not that I’d be able to) as I don’t believe it’s beneficial to dirt biking anyway but I do have a few kilo’s to shed. I’ll be trying to get my weight down to less than 85kg’s, hopefully closers to 82kg’s by the time Amageza arrives.

To be biking fit requires an all-round fitness level which I don’t believe one particular sport can provide, so I’ll be mixing up sporting disciplines. This will hopefully also assist in injury prevention as well. I'm at that stage in my life where I don’t bounce or heal as well as I used to  ???

My primary focus will be on TITS (when my wife read this she asked “what’s new?”  :laughing7:) – of course I'm referring to Time In The Saddle. Where possible, one morning of the weekend (possibly 2) will be on the dirt bike and one evening in the week.

I’ll also be riding a lot of mountain bike and a bit of road bike. I’ve entered the Argus so I don’t have much choice in the matter  ;D
In addition to that, 3 mornings in a week will be spent in the gym, mostly doing cardio and circuit training. Where time allows I’ll do a few laps in the pool as well.

The 1st of November marked the start of my program with the initial goal of doing some form of exercise every day of the month. This is primarily to get me into a routine and improve my base fitness as once that’s established, it gets way easier from there on out.

So far it’s been going really well and I haven’t skipped a day yet. I’m already starting to feel way better even though my muscles are protesting furiously  :eek: Long may it continue.

I’ll keep a training diary in the form of an Excel spreadsheet and maybe just post a screen dump here at the end of each month so you guys can see what I’ve been up to.

Looking towards the New Year, my main goal besides the Amageza is to race my first full season of Offroad events in the Western Cape (Silver Class) and try stay injury free. I believe this will do a lot to sharpen my skills and help me increase my pace. You definitely push yourself way harder when racing against someone as opposed to simply training.

Then of course there's the not so minor issue of learning how to read a road book while riding technical terrain. Either that or I need to fine tune the art of wheel sucking and find someone to follow for 5 days  :lol:


That’s it for now, I’ll update this thread as things evolve. Thanks for taking the time to read my story so far.
 
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