A conversation with one of my students at lunch today:
Lyndon demonstrating, 'it's hard'
"What are you watching?" "Footage from today’s stage of the Dakar race." "What's that?" "The hardest race in the world." "Why is it so hard?" "It's thousands of kilometres of dangerous off road racing with cars, bikes & trucks with little sleep over weeks at a time. Many people who start it don’t finish. People die on it almost every year."
This very smart grade 9 student was confused. Finally she asked, "Why would anyone do that?” “Because it’s difficult,” I replied.
She ruminated on that a moment then asked, “why is it so dangerous?” “Because people race it in cars, trucks, quads and bikes, all at the same time over deserts, mountains and jungles. If you’re on a smaller vehicle it becomes even more dangerous than it already is.” “Why on earth would anyone do that on a motorcycle?!?” “Because it’s even more difficult…”
Is attempting the dangerous and difficult with ample chance of failure a bad idea, or the point of it all? Risk nothing and you lose everything.
If you haven't been keeping up with the race this year, it's still all to play for. If you want the official feed you can find it on the Dakar YouTube channel.
If you're into documentary film making using the latest in state of the art video and on the fly editing, Lyndon Posskitt's Youtube Channel will take you through the race one gruelling stage at a time. If you've got some time, watch Lyndon's Malle Moto - The Forgotten Dakar Story about last year's race. It'll set you up for this year's harrowing adventure.
The legendary Austin Vince put out the video below about this year's orienteering trail rides in the Pyrenees in northern Spain:
Come map reading and trail-riding with me this summer. Watch this film with the sound up and note that the early bird offer ends in a week. This one is for Tim Kent and Del!
Posted by Austin Vince on Friday, January 12, 2018
If there was ever an excuse to load up a shipping container with old enduro bikes and send it to Europe, this is it. The Twinshock Trailfinder is a two day event that focuses on older bikes (with twin rear shocks). I'd dig up four old XT500s, clean them up and have them ready to go, in team colours. Some soft luggage would make them as touring ready as they are going to get while keeping everything as light as possible. The Trailfinder event starts on June 6th in Tremp, Catalunya, Spain and runs until June 8th. An option is to container the bikes over to Antwerp, Belgium. It's a two thousand kilometre ride if you go the pretty way around through the Alps down to Spain. Two thousand kilometers on thirty-five year old enduro bikes is pretty hard core, but that would kind of be the point. If the container got into Antwerp mid-May, we could get them sorted out and on the road by May 21st. We could then wind down through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and France before reaching Spain. At 300kms a day that's a seven day trip. With a couple of days off in there to explore, we could roll into Barcelona at the beginning of June and get the bikes sorted at the Yamaha Motor Centre before heading up to Tremp the next week.
Rather than get all GPSy with the ride down, we could do it all with survey maps like the ones used in the Twinshock Trailride. By the time we found our way to Spain we'd be very familiar with how European survey maps work and would be able to find our way around without looking like lost North Americans. After three days of trail riding with THE VINCE in the mountains, we could then spend an extra week getting better at it now that we've had a pro show us the ropes, maybe with some Jo Sinnott style wild camping in there. When we're all done we could find some storage for the bikes and park them up, waiting for the next time someone needs to go trail riding in Spain. Digging up old, twin shock enduro bikes is tricky, especially in the icy wastes of Canada where old machinery quietly rusts away under the snow and salt. Ten years in Canada is like thirty anywhere else. Looking country wide, the only XT500 I could find was in Victoria BC, over four thousand kilometres away. Expanding the search into The States means I might be able to find non-rust belt bikes that have had easier lives. Unrestored but road worthy bikes look to be about two grand. Restored bikes go for over three thousand. There is one in North Carolina, and one in Mesa, Arizona. With some some searching and a US broker I think I could collect together four road worthy or thereabouts XT500s for under ten grand, and then spend some more prepping them. If I started now I could probably have the bikes at hand by the end of February and then spend March sorting them out. April could be spent breaking them in and shaking them down for any last minute issues. They'd be shipped the end of April to show up in Antwerp when we needed them. I'd be dangerous if I had money and time on my hands...
When I see a self-funded privateer like Lyndon Poskitt rolling in, maintaining his own bike, sorting himself out with a good night of sleep (in a tent on the ground) and then going at it again the next day, I have to think that maybe the speed-wonky professional racers with their team prepared vehicles and motor-home accommodations have missed the point entirely. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the genius of the fast riders, but when they start moping about how a stage wasn't simple enough that reflexes and speed wasn't all it took to win it, I get annoyed. Why do professional athletes always want to try and boil complex things down into something simple that they can more easily dominate? Is that really what win at all cost competition has done to them? It isn't very flattering. The less funded a competitor, the more in keeping with the spirit of the Dakar they seem to be. The professionals of motor-sport with their ungodly reflexes and singular focus on speed struggle with the Dakar, and that's exactly why I like it. They complain about difficult navigation and the challenges of driving on fech-fech because they want every race to play to their strengths and run like an off road rally on carefully prepared stages. They've failed to comprehend that the Dakar is a long distance, cross country race. If they want to run rally stages, go run rally stages, but don't whine about the Dakar for being what it is. What the Dakar is confounds people, but rather than hearing millionaire pro-drivers whining, I'd rather see real people battling the thing without excuses. That many privateers and small teams have struggled mightily to get the funds just for the opportunity to face this monster of a race only makes their struggle more poignant. I wish advertisers would enable more privateers into doing the Dakar and media would spend more time showing their battles. Your brand gets a chance to show support for some real heroism and the media would have human stories to develop instead of focusing on the monotonous drone of competition. *** Charles Cuypers has navigated the rally in a car and ridden motorcycles previously. He knows what he's up against and yet once again he dares to try and finish the thing. Watching this fifty year old fail to finish yet again was truly heroic. It wasn't very dignified, but it was the most honest, heart wrenching thing I've seen in ages.
He filmed his crash in the desert and eventual rescue by helicopter. Through the whole thing he was chanting to himself that he would never give up. The moment when he realizes it's over and bursts into tears on the helicopter is genuine, unspoiled and a beautifully sad thing to watch. Will this aging man try again, or has the monster finally beaten him? I don't care, I'm already a fan. He had the courage to face the monster in the first place, and isn't that what matters?
"When I think of the Dakar, I have an image engraved in my head: that of Stéphane Peterhansel, a biker flying over the dunes. It was in the 90s. I was a co-driver and since that day I never stopped dreaming of riding the Dakar on a motorcycle. Being at the start is already a victory. This human adventure shows us what life can be beyond the day to day. I want to live this passion: live life and live the adventure!"
Damned right, Charles, c'est magnifique! Keep fighting that Dakar monster, that's what heroes do. Notes:
If you're new to the Dakar Rally and you love motorbikes, I've got a way in for you. Lyndon Poskitt has raced in the rally a couple of times now but this year he has raised the degree of inside media coverage to a new level. If you follow his site you should get daily inside looks into what it's like to ride in the toughest class (Malle Moto is only the rider with no support crew doing everything from maintenance to navigation to riding over thousands of kilometres for almost two weeks, alone). Riding a motorcycle in Dakar is the hardest thing you can do. Some bike riders retire onto four wheels as they get older, but the bikers are the hardest of the hard core. Lyndon's media crew made an hour long documentary that reviews his race from last year. It introduces you to both the sheer physical exertion, luck and talent, both technical and riding, that is needed to get through the race as a malle moto rider. After watching this it'll seem nearly impossible, but Lyndon's back at it again this year.
You get a bit of background on Lyndon from the video. This isn't a rich guy playing at racing. Lyndon's magic power is being a mechanical engineer. His mechanical sympathy and technical talent allow him to prepare his bike as well as any mechanic would. For the past couple of years, since a near death experience, he has been riding around the world participating in races and rallies as he goes. He has sourced all his own support for this. The Dakar is the mother of long distance rallies. It used to run from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal in Northern Africa back in the Twentieth Century. The BBC made a great documentary about it called Madness in the Desert, if you're interested in a detailed look at how the Dakar started. Political instability in Saharan Africa moved the rally to South America in 2009 after decades of running from Europe through the desert to Dakar. The move didn't make things any easier.
If you enjoy motorsport and watching people pushed to the limits of endurance and skill there is little that approaches it. While there are many factory riders and teams on their fully funded rides, the Dakar always has a healthy bunch of privateers racing, so it doesn't seem like the millionaire's club that a lot of motorsports do. There is something very genuine about the Dakar. If you're interested in other forms of motor racing beyond bikes there is everything from quads to cars to massive trucks. None of it is easy and all of it challenges competitors with thousands of miles of racing through every conceivable ecosystem, from jungles to Altiplano to desert dunes. This year it's running from January 6th to 20th. LINKS Follow the Dakar on Twitter. On Facebook. On YouTube. Carlton Kirby on Twitter (my favourite announcer on the race if you can find him on Eurosport) Countdown to Dakar. Dream Racer: another great documentary on privateering in the Dakar. Last year's Dakar: A Dakar with teeth! Ever wanted to get old knowing you did something exceptional while you still could? Dakar Dreams... n00b's guide to Dakar.
The 2018 wish list... Some things to get deeper into motorcycling in the next year: Ford Transit Van: $53,472 + some more in accessories. A means of moving bikes south in the winter to ride year round as well as a way to take off road or race ready bikes to interesting locations where I can exercise them. The bonus would be to get all Guy Martin with it. Become an off-road ninja: Step 1: Get the kit: A KTM 690 Enduro, the best all round off-roader that can also get you there. $11,999 + some soft panniers for travel. Step 2: Get good at off-roading with lessons at SMART Adventures! $329 Step 3: Do some rallies like Rally Crush, Rally Connex, the Corduroy Enduro, the KTM Adventure Rally (in BC!) Set up the KTM as an all year ride:
A Mototrax snow bike kit would let me turn the KTM into a year round steamroller. Back country riding in the cold months would make for some good exercise and training so I wouldn't be back on two wheels in the spring feeling rusty. $6000US Become a road racing ninja: Step 1: Build a race bike... ...but why be boring? Instead of something new take on a race bike rebuild! There is a '93 Yamaha FZR600 for sale nearby in need of some attention. They're only asking $700 for a fairingless bike, but that means I can go looking for race fairing! It turns out 90s FZR fairings are remarkably easy to source. Since this is going to be a race bike, I can go with a lightless race ready fairing. The other fairing parts are also available and not crazy expensive. Getting them all as unfinished moulds means I can start from scratch with a custom race paint theme. I'd be spoiled for choice with classic race designs, but I think I'd do my own with a 90s style influence. With a double bubble screen and some customization of rearsets I could make a Fazer that fits me.
Step 2: (finally) take road race training:
Spend the weekend of May 11-13th next year at Racer5's introductory course at Grand Bend. Three days of track training on a rented bike. Later in the summer I could then follow up with the advanced courses on my own bike (the Yamaha would be ready by then). That'd be about two grand in race training over one summer. By the end of it all I'd have my race license and have a clear idea of how to proceed with a campaign, perhaps with the VRRA who also run a school. With the 90's FZR and the training I think I'd be ready to run in amateur classes.
Use next level tech to ride better:
I'm not even sure if Cruden's motorcycle simulator is available to the public. I do a lot with VR at work and I'm curious to see just how effective this might be at capturing the complexities of riding a motorcycle. Even if I couldn't get it privately, getting one for a month in our classroom would be a cool way of examining state of the art virtual simulation in a very complex process (riding a motorcycle). It'd also be a nice way to ride when it's -25 degrees outside, like it is today.
*** With those tools I'd be able to bike in ways I currently cannot. I'd have what I need to pursue both off road and more focused tarmac riding which would greatly enhance my on-road riding skills. If motorcycling is a life long learning experience, these things would be like going to motorbike university.
$5267 out and $6510 back = $11,777, but hey, I could actually sleep on the flights!
Fly into Auckland via Vancouver with lay down seats so I might actually sleep on the plane. Pick up the bike (they have Tigers!) at bikeroundnz.com and ride from Auckland to Wellington on the south island over a couple of weeks.
Google 'biker' and you get a lot of pictures of old white guys. Good luck selling them bikes in 20 years.
The other day a fellow rider on twitter shared a link to this article on how the motorcycle industry is in real trouble. Among the litany of problems was the hyper conservative nature of the industry and its habitual focus on old white guys. The biker image is a bastion of pre-Twenty First Century prejudices; women (unless they're pillions and dressed like dolls) and non-white riders need not apply. Groups like Bikers for Trump continue to find a comfortable place to operate within these old-school prejudices. I'd suggest that an industry that wants to cling to this dying sense of privilege deserves to be in big trouble. Of a less cut and dried nature (unless you're clinging to colonial, white guy privilege) was the piece about how young people aren't riding motorcycles or even driving cars as much any more. I'd argue this is a larger and more difficult problem to solve. I struggle daily with getting young people to engage with and master real world technical problems (it's my day job). I wasn't at all surprised to see this as a conclusion from the research: "...many millennial consumers were “bubble-wrapped for safety in their youth” or raised by overprotective parents who discouraged risk-taking"
A few years ago I suggested we start a motorcycle club at our school. Some of our students go out and get their licenses and begin to ride and others dirt bike, so there would be interest. We could use the experience and expertise of our teacher-riders to help students more safely and effectively take to two wheels. The skills learned in maintaining and repairing motorcycles in our shop would mean safer vehicles for our students to use and an increase in technical skill. They all sounds like good ideas, right? It was nixed immediately: a hard no. We run rugby teams and downhill ski race teams and go camping in bear country, but riding a motorcycle? Way too dangerous. I suggested that was exactly why we should do it, but still a hard no.
There is, no doubt, a danger halo around motorcycling that is a big part of its mystique, but the operation of a motorcycle isn't dangerous in and of itself. Many riders like to play to this mystique, making it seem more edgy because that's the image they want to convey, but it isn't helping the sport. That focus is also used to hyper masculinize the image of a motorcycle rider and plays to the conservatism that plagues the industry.
Enjoy having your assumptions subverted, it's good for you.
Apart from the prejudices and mythology around motorcycling, we also have a new generation of people who aren't taking up the sport, but then they aren't taking up vehicle operation in general. "For 16- through 44-year-olds, there was a continuous decrease in the percentage of
persons with a driver’s license for the years examined. For example, the
percentages for 20- to 24-year-olds in 1983, 2008, 2011, and 2014 were 91.8%,
82.0%, 79.7%, and 76.7%, respectively."
There are a lot of social reasons for this to be happening. More of us live in cities than ever before and driving in cities is misery. Many jurisdictions don't acknowledge the advantages of riding a bike in an urban environment either, making riding an even dimmer proposition than driving. The independence afforded by vehicle operation that used to define coming of age as a teen has become increasingly expensive even as wealth has been concentrated in a smaller and smaller class of people; fewer rich get richer while more poor get poorer. With money slipping out of the hands of a vanishing middle class, the idea of buying into the independence of operating your own vehicle becomes increasingly impossible for many youngsters, especially with systemic economic discrimination like insurance forcing them off the road.
There is a final piece to this perfect storm diminishing the motorcycle industry that I haven't seen as much about. Last night I watched Kingsmen: The Golden Circle, and like every other film I've seen in the past few years, it's a few moments of acting tied together by ludicrous computer generated imaging. When I was young I stumbled upon a Bruce Lee marathon late one night and got really fired up about it. Watching Bruce do his thing was inspiring. I'd make the argument that a generation brought up on fake, computer generated action wouldn't feel that kind of inspiration to get out in the world and do things like kung fu or ride a motorbike.
Marketing is happy to pick up this idea of showing you cars doing things they can't actually do because you're buying an idea. How the car makes you feel is what makes it valuable, not what you can actually do with it. Whether it's Nissan pretending their cars are in Star Wars or Chevy pretending their cars are skateboards, the marketing and special effects departments are more than happy to sell you on an idea rather than engineering. I won't even get into Kia selling you on a car that will drive for you because you'd rather be daydreaming.
In this digital dream-time we're all immersed in, you can you see why something as unforgiving and physically challenging as motorcycling might be one of the first casualties. It's going to be a long time if ever before we see accident avoidance on something as elemental as a motorbike. For all those young drivers who expect their car to drive for them when they can't be bothered to pay attention, this moves motorcycles even further away from the realm of possibility. Coupled with the danger mythology many riders are guilty of promoting, it's little wonder that motorcycles increasingly seem like something from another time and place.
We need to bring back the kind of inclusive advertising that worked for Honda so well over forty years ago.
Forgetting the old white guy thing for a minute (it's going to go away on its own anyway), how can the industry get people back on motorcycles again? The obvious first step is to make your advertising plausible and inclusive. Don't digitally animate anything. Show riders of all types enjoying the elemental freedom of riding. This doesn't need to include jumping canyons or putting knees down; the joy of riding is a simple, accessible pleasure. Show people commuting, going out on a date and otherwise living their lives. Minimize the costuming, especially the pirate thing, emphasize how effective modern safety gear is.
Honda had this figured out decades ago and it prompted a renaissance in riding. There is no reason why we couldn't do it again. Build bikes that appeal to all sorts of riders. Smaller, easier to handle bikes for beginners that push technology to create something so efficient that it makes snooty hybrid car drivers look like diesel pigs. A 100mpg bike is an immediate possibility. A hybrid touring bike that gets mega mileage but can still move two up easily? An all electric bike? Self leveling suspension, anti-lock brakes, fuel injection and the myriad of over things that make modern bikes dependable and safe? These things should be what define modern motorcycling and should be moved on aggressively in marketing them. The safety and dependability of a modern motorcycle is a marvelous thing. When coupled with a campaign to emphasize how efficient bikes can be at moving people around, especially in cities, it would play to the urbanization of our population instead of against it. Motorized bikes are capable of moving people more effectively and efficiently
Governments ignore a lot of research that clearly demonstrates how efficient motorcycling can be, especially in an urban environment.
than just about any other form of transportation, if we let it. Pressuring governments to recognize this and encourage two wheeling instead of vilifying it would be a great step forward. Can you imagine how many people would flock to a motorcycle industry couched in marketing around environmentalism, dependability, modern safety technology and the elemental thrill of riding as an escape from the digital miasma? Escape the Matrix indeed. Ontario offers thousands in incentives for people driving environmentally questionable hybrids. What would happen if you got thousands back in incentives for buying a motorcycle that gets better mileage than a Prius? There are a lot of them - my fourteen year old 955cc Tiger gets better mileage than the Toyota green flag waving hybrid and was way less damaging to manufacture. Can you imagine how many more people would ride these environmentally minimalist machines in cities if they could lane split and move quickly to where they needed to be, reducing traffic and improving the flow for everyone? Why not do one better and apply those incentives to emphasizing the power and importance of the rider? Instead of advertising about how your car will drive for you because you're too much of a drip to do it yourself, maybe motorcycling could emphasize the importance of the rider and include them in any upgrade. How about training being automatically included when you buy a bike? This would immediately result in lower accident rates and better insurance costs. If you're a beginner you get the training as a part of the purchase because you are immediately recognized as a vital part of the riding equation. If you're already experienced then an advanced riding course in the area of your choice (off-road, track, road) is included to continue your advancement in pursuit of mastery. Motorcycle training courses blossom and grow and sales are encouraged. How about industry and government formerly recognize the importance of the rider and collaborating to make riding the life-long learning opportunity that it should be; motorcycles become paradigms of skill, self-discovery and mastery.
Shows like Ride with Norman Reedus are gender and race inclusive and celebratory of motorcycle culture in its many forms. We should be encouraging more shows like it.
De-snootying motorcycle culture, especially where it's at its snootiest (North America) isn't something to wonder about, it's a marketing imperative. Anyone out in the wind, even if they aren't on a cruiser, is a part of the culture. Scooters and three wheelers aren't for losers, they're a part of the sport that needs to be embraced and included. Three wheels mean older riders and those less physically able can still enjoy being out in the wind, how is that a bad thing? Next time someone gives you a wave from a trike, don't be a jerk, wave back. If the current motorcycling industry is unwilling to embrace the Twenty-First Century maybe they should be in real trouble. There are always smaller concerns in the shadows waiting to step in and make changes where the established, conservative powers are not. Business as usual is clearly not working. Hopefully the industry that feeds our hobby will realize that and stop coddling Twentieth Century prejudices. A brave new world of opportunities awaits them if they do.
