Racing a 701 Nomad Rally in Morocco |
Photo by Rally Maniacs
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Roger Hawkins recently competed in the Morocco Desert Challenge with a Nomad 701 and wrote a report which gives a fascinating insight into what it's like to ride an 8 day rally with stages of 300-500 km per day. No liaison bits, just full on racing for 8 days straight… With Roger's permission we publish his report.
Morocco Desert Challenge 2018 ride report
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I recently competed in the Morocco Desert Challenge on my Husqvarna 701 with the Nomad-ADV navigation tower. The Nomad-ADV tower is a slim design which gives the rider a good view of the front wheel which really helps when trying to ride in deep sand.
The Equipment To compete in the Morroco Desert Challenge you need quite a lot of additional equipment fitted to your navigation tower and handlebar mount: - A Roadbook which holds the days route on a paper roll - A Trip meter - A GPS unit - An Irritrack unit |
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The trip meter calculates your distance travelled during the day, this is used in association with the Roadbook to determine at what kilometer to take the next junction (instructions in the roadbook), the trip meter has the ability to adjust your total kilometers up or down, a necessity if you take a wrong turn and have to backtrack to your last known correct point in the Roadbook.
The GPS unit has several functions. It displays waypoints, warns other competitors if you are crashed over the other side of a sand dune, and warns you of overtaking rally cars or race trucks. In the race the GPS confirms you are on the correct route, but only once you are within the 300 meter perimeter of a waypoint. There are days when you feel that the last few instructions in the Roadbook do not tally with what you are seeing on the ground, but just as you think you must of taken a wrong turn, there is the feeling of elation when the GPS unit becomes active confirming you are indeed on course! It can really lift your spirits.The skill is to read the printed directions in the roadbook correctly, while riding as fast as you can.
When the GPS unit displays a race truck or car is overtaking, the sentinel fitted to our bike (loud horn) is activated by the navigator in the rapidly approaching race truck or car. This gives the motorbike rider an opportunity to ride off the track, which is the safest option, the cars and trucks can be travelling at 160km an hour across very rough pistes. They are an awesome sight to see.
Finally the Irritrack unit is a robust blue metal box that tracks your location throughout the race and has features like notifying race control should you crash (rapid deceleration). It also gives the rider the ability to call race control or call in medical help or report mechanical failure.
All these items weigh a couple of extra kgs and are attached to the navigation tower along with a lot of additional wiring and ariels for GPS reception.
Ready to race
Now that you have all the equipment attached, you're ready to start the rally! Below is my summary of my race week. I'm pleased to say the Nomad-ADV navigation tower performed as I had hoped, and despite receiving a pretty tough workout during the week it gave me no issues during the rally. What I liked most was the natural stability of the bike during the race, which did not feel compromised by the additional weight of the tower and rally electronics. Very impressed.
One notable day was riding in the sand dunes of Merzouga. In the space of an hour, with the high mid day sun making it almost impossible to see the rises and falls of the dunes, I went over the handlebars twenty times. The navigation tower withstood it all.
The GPS unit has several functions. It displays waypoints, warns other competitors if you are crashed over the other side of a sand dune, and warns you of overtaking rally cars or race trucks. In the race the GPS confirms you are on the correct route, but only once you are within the 300 meter perimeter of a waypoint. There are days when you feel that the last few instructions in the Roadbook do not tally with what you are seeing on the ground, but just as you think you must of taken a wrong turn, there is the feeling of elation when the GPS unit becomes active confirming you are indeed on course! It can really lift your spirits.The skill is to read the printed directions in the roadbook correctly, while riding as fast as you can.
When the GPS unit displays a race truck or car is overtaking, the sentinel fitted to our bike (loud horn) is activated by the navigator in the rapidly approaching race truck or car. This gives the motorbike rider an opportunity to ride off the track, which is the safest option, the cars and trucks can be travelling at 160km an hour across very rough pistes. They are an awesome sight to see.
Finally the Irritrack unit is a robust blue metal box that tracks your location throughout the race and has features like notifying race control should you crash (rapid deceleration). It also gives the rider the ability to call race control or call in medical help or report mechanical failure.
All these items weigh a couple of extra kgs and are attached to the navigation tower along with a lot of additional wiring and ariels for GPS reception.
Ready to race
Now that you have all the equipment attached, you're ready to start the rally! Below is my summary of my race week. I'm pleased to say the Nomad-ADV navigation tower performed as I had hoped, and despite receiving a pretty tough workout during the week it gave me no issues during the rally. What I liked most was the natural stability of the bike during the race, which did not feel compromised by the additional weight of the tower and rally electronics. Very impressed.
One notable day was riding in the sand dunes of Merzouga. In the space of an hour, with the high mid day sun making it almost impossible to see the rises and falls of the dunes, I went over the handlebars twenty times. The navigation tower withstood it all.
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Day 1: Prologue
The prologue was out over stony plains then 28km down a pancake flat beach, except for the last 500 meters which had a ground wave (undulation in surface). Unfortunately this wasn't in the roadbook or mentioned in the riders briefing. The ground wave launched a rally car into the air, which then somersaulted five times and ended up as scrap on a low loader. Two bike riders were also injured. Not a good day. All my team mates, the Desert Rose Riders, thankfully got away with it. It was not a great prologue for me, with the additional weight of the GPS and Irritrack equipment, the mousse inside the front tyre was too soft. That night we fitted a heavier compound mousse to stop the front wheel rim grounding out on the stones along the track. Came in 2nd in class. |
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Day 2: Plage Blanche to Touzounine 470 km
Unspectacular 470 km route with too much dust from other vehicles to ride fast safely. Didn't really enjoy the day which can best be summed up as being too long. Came in 2nd in class. Day 3: Touzounine to Dune Du Juifs 355 km I was smiling and singing a lot as I raced along. "I believe I can fly" which is always a good sign the rally is going to plan. Great tracks and loved the day. Came in 2nd in class. |
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Day 4: Dune du Juif to Fezzou 310 km
Another great day! The route was far more varied and the landscape spectacular. Finished 9th overall and 1st in class! Bike and Nav Tower working perfectly. Highlight of the day was going over a series of whoops, about 900 meters long, skipping across the tops just like that guy on the Yamaha in this year's Dakar video. Thinking this is super cool, a helicopter comes in low and films my spectacular riding. When the film crew later show me the footage I'm gutted to see that it looks like I'm travelling at 20 mph… LOL (we've seen that bit Roger… it was considerably faster than 20 mph! ) Day 5: Fezzou to Merzouga 310 km Was flying early on but took a wrong turn out of a river bed. Too early and missing a waypoint, which I didn't realise until I had rode on a further 10 km. Went back to find the waypoint but got lost and used too much fuel searching. About 2 hours later I ran out of fuel and had to push my rally bike into a village and await the petrol suppliers return from their prayer before I could continue. Later in the day in the dunes of Merzouga, must have gone over the bars 20 times in an hour. Every time I picked the 701 up and remounted, only to go over the bars again at the next crest, which was made invisible by the midday sun. Still 1st in class! 
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Day 6: Merzouga to Boudnib 275 km
Smashed it today, riding like the star that I know I am, in my own mind…
Great day apart from a few hairy moments when a big red race truck storms past at elbow distance, then pulls hard to the right just in front of me, flicks the steering wheel to the left and showers me in stones… Found out later that day other competitors have had similar incidences with the same truck at previous rallies…
Smashed it today, riding like the star that I know I am, in my own mind…
Great day apart from a few hairy moments when a big red race truck storms past at elbow distance, then pulls hard to the right just in front of me, flicks the steering wheel to the left and showers me in stones… Found out later that day other competitors have had similar incidences with the same truck at previous rallies…
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Day 7: Boudnib to Matarka 410 km
Could have been a great day, had I not missed a waypoint in the last 20 km of tricky navigation. Really tired today, 30 minute time penalty for missing waypoint, slipped back to 2nd in class. Day 8: Matarka to Oudja 220 km Smashed it! Rode 200 km and I finished the day 5th overall, which is about as good as it gets for me. Rallies always seem to leave the trickiest navigation for late in the day when you are the most tired. Luckily today, when I got to the last 10 km, I was assured I was on route by seeing a lot of the top riders struggling to find the correct route |
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And that's it Morocco Desert Challenge 2018 done! Came in 12th overall and 2nd in class. Could have been better if I hadn't got lost and ran out of fuel earlier in the week, but with an 8 day rally over 2000 km long there is always an if, but or maybe, The Morocco Desert Challenge was a slow burner but I was loving the race by midweek.
Thanks to Nomad-ADV and Desert Rose Racing for all the support I received during the race.
Thanks to Nomad-ADV and Desert Rose Racing for all the support I received during the race.
Photos courtesy of Alessio Corradini, Desert Rose Racing, Journaldu4x4, Photo vision and Rally Maniacs
