Ola Companeros

Time for Q1/2023 update on what's going on in Useless Xpat's world.   

Well, in spite of being extremely busy with work and travel, managed to squeeze in some motobike action in the last 3 months.   

To start with went on Rally with Karl's What Adventure, full day desert ride going from Dubai to Ras Al Kaimah thru the desert.  

Rode with few dutchmen, a french bloke and few brits.   

Great ride, at great speed.   No challenges except that I was very lucky after some rusted barb wire caught on my rear tire and chain and stop the bike abruptly and threw me off few meters away.  Luckily no puncture and my leatherman came really handy to cut off the barb wire.   Finished the day on Rak harbour eating pizza and dring beer..  

Few weeks later, back for another big ride. 

Rode with a few guys and for once got some footage of me in the sand. 

Also, got the chances to see some the Dakar bike that were stored in Motozone in preparation for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.   The BAS team has one pro driver called Mason Klein,  highly talented young kid 20 years old, whom you might hear off in next few year.   He crashed this year in the Dakar but was top 10 and had won one stage. 

 So apart from few weeks off, due to work related travel, I have spend most of my saturday morning riding with Motozone community and having a blast.   

And one morning as we were making our ways to ghost town, an abandoned arab village in the middle of the desert, we ran into this.  

Don't ask me who she is, she was taking pics in the middle of the desert with her manager and shooting crew.   

So, that's more or less it for the desert for this quarter.   

With regards to mechanic, Joel managed to get hold of some radiator for the 250,

 but we are still missing some spares to finally put her back on the desert.  After changing piston, doing top end, changing the chain, and bits and pieces, we are starting to see the end of the tunnel with that one but we might need to fabricate few parts as we can't find them anymore, to mount the radiator in place.  We got plenty of time so no issue here. 

During this quarter I did a good action, I went and help X Enduro to clean up their training area, as they were summoned by Police to clean the Khamila area or else be kick out. 

 And in spite of our good job, I recently heard they close the park for construction.   Oh well....

Other things that has happened in the first quarter, I went to some motorcycle fair in Dubai, called Riderzinthecity, which was kind of cool and ideally located at the bottom of the Emirates tower, where all the dealership and some private builder presented their creations.  Obviously far from what I was used to in the US but still very good for the Middle East. 

Also attended a suspension workshop organized by GOT at MX online to reinforce my knowledge on understanding and setting suspension.   

and last night, I went to an Iftar (breaking of the fast during Ramadan) once again organised by GOT where my XT 500 was a big hit amongst big adventure bike riders. 

And finally, my body is still tickling to do some more circuit racing after following the beginning of MotoGP season.   And I had my eye on a CBR track ready but the owner ended up not selling it.  

I will start by buying a track suit, some proper racing glove and helmet and continue renting bike until I found one to my taste and budget.  

As usual, rest of the blog will be on motobikes pics, some random shite, and some beautiful pics all stolen from the net.  

Radom Shite

 Bikes that caught my attention this quarter, and the one below is actually my old Buell Cyclone that I had sold the the chief editor of Wild Magazing (Bag).   

And finally black and white pics of stars that I like. 

That's all for now folks.   See you next quarter.  

Ola Chicos

 And happy new year to everyone.   May the year 2023 be good on the motorcycle side...

So what has been happening since my last post.   Well, bit less cause it would be difficult to do as many things as I did in last few months.   But still managed to do few things.   

Did my usual saturday ride with Motorzone, and spent saturday 2nd dec with some lads following tracks of Dubai Intl Baja track.   

Might do this next year, but first have to learn Navigation and roadbook technic.   Have secretly started already.   Just need to save some cash to buy new navigation tower.   

Then following week, or week before, can't remember for sure.  Went for the 2nd session of X-enduro challenge.   Did not perform as good as last time but can always blame it on teammates....

Next one will be individual in Jan.  If time allow, will really see what am worth on max enduro bike.  

Then on last day of the year, despite suffering from a big cold, took a long ride with X-enduro in the Showka area 

 Great way to finish the year and start thinking about new project for next year.   First on the map, full track day in international circuit with Furioza in Feb, then Dubai International baja for my first rally raid in Dec, a off-road ride in Oman, and perhaps a ride in Lebanon, Uganda will have to wait due to Ebola outburst.  But in the meantime some more rides.

And to finish, some random shite stolen from the internet

*the idea is to die young the latest possible 

Love this 911 4x4, and it says a lot since am not into cars...

well......

great race bike conversation on 1200 sports I think

big apple 

girls from the 90's 

Ola Chicos

 It's been full speed motorbiking lately with tons of things happening.   

First, I went racing on circuit with Furiosa Racing in Dubai.  Had wanted to do that in a while but never found the time

Book myself 3 sessions of 4hr racing with professional coaching.   If you gonna do things, do them right.   Have to admit was a bit anxious about trying out circuit racing.   Was I gonna lay the bike down like Rossi, or was I gonna stand up on it like a tree ?  My only experience on sports bike had actually been on Buell Cyclone, which I had purchased to keep the registration card for a build and sell it in part.   I drove it few time and it was very fun.  But you feel so powerful driving a sport bike that I quickly realize, my next journey would be 6 feet under if I kept going with it.  Doing it on a circuit solves that problem and brings another dimension.  

To start with I had a great bike. 

The session were built into five 25 min track session followed by 5 sessions of class coaching to analyze what went right, went wrong and what to focus on.   

First test was to change into the gears and feel comfortable.  That in itself is a challenge. 

And then off onto the track.  Being new to the scene, I set myself a the back of the pack, just to observe, gain confidence with the bike but mostly cause I didn't want to slow anyone down.  The first few laps are safety laps so everyone can get into the circuit design, and then we are left on our own with only instruction of not overtaking in corners.   The Coach stays in the back and analyzes everyone driving skills.  

Well, no bragging but did pretty well.  Check out my video on 2nd training session. 

So that was fun, and will continue for 2 more session.  Saturday was back at my usual desert riding camp of Motorzone for some dune bashing and KTM presentation of their 2023 models. 

Then, I went off to India for work, and why not coupled work and pleasure.   So after 2 days of work, I took off on a rented Royal Enfield Himalayan to explore the outscur of Mumbai with the intention of doing a 3 days tour around Mumbai.   

Day 1's aim was to reach Mashrej Ghat up.  A good 6h30 ride.  I had to leave early to get out of Mumbai rush hour before the sun rise.  So, with the help of my friend Kaizad from the Holiday Shoppe who gracefully managed to rent me a bike and offer to meet me at the Gateway on India and guide me out of Mumbai craziness.   I was out of Mumbai in 1h, which normally would have taken a minimum of 2h, even on motorbike.....

Then made my way through villages 

After spending the night, I took off to reach the coast with the objective to reach Murud.  Same here, another 6-7hr ride.  

To reach Murud in the evening in a fabulous guest house..

Day 3 was spent riding back to Mumbai following the coast to Alibag, and then Mumbai.   Best summary of my trip can be found on the below video.  

Riding in India has some particularity.  First, they drive on the left hand side.  Keep left and overtake right.   Taxi, and everyone else, hoot for no reason, swerve across entire roads to pick up passengers and do not follow any rules.  In some places, there are high concentration of pot holes.   Rules is slow down, and ride slowly.   Vehicle may be slowing down to turn right and then turn left.... go figure.....

After the Mumbai trip, no time for rest.  And immediately hopped on the Beamer to head out to the mountains of UAE for a 2 days clinic with Chris Birch for some maxi enduro training in the gravel and waddis.   Fabulous experience.   Chris is top class, very humble bloke, having won Romaniac and taken 2nd in the Dakar back in the days.   He is now KTM ambassador for big adventure bike.   The clinic was mostly based on improving your riding, but for me, bike setting and body positioning was what I got out of it.      

 

And to close the chapter, gave my beloved XT some TLC by changing new spring in the front fork, changing rear suspension and gave her the 6 days look.   

Saddly, after one hour of riding, I broke the clutch cable, so now awaiting to receive a new one from Europe.   This might take a while.   

That's all for now folks.... Next time for new adventure....