Ola Chicos

 Awright, progressing well towards the new off-road racing seasons thought few hick ups along the way.  So, let's start by what has happened over the last 2 months.    

When I got back to Dubai, all the parts to turn the Kove into racing machine had arrived from China and I took the bike immy to Robby at MX performance to mount the steering damper, the Michelin desert tyre, the bibe mousse, the titanium exhaust, the race spec ECU and, equally important, the Navigation tower.  

According to Robbie the wiring was a nightmare as all instructions were in Chinese 😂😂

Anyway, after a week of work, the bike was ready for a proper test ride.   But had no means of transportation as it is not advisable to ride with off road tyre and mousse on the road (unless you are ready to change them every few hundreds Km).   Considering, my son wanted to buy a car, I made a deal with him that if he purchased a pickup, then I would chip in with the option of using at my own leisure on demand.   Deal was made and I am now the co-owner of a F150 Raptor with long bed.  

Ideal to transport my Kove or my CRF from race to race.

Meanwhile, few riders were coming back from their summer break and GOT organized a social evening to welcome everyone's back and to kick off the adventure bike season.  

So, following that diner Jorge and a crew consisting of Luigi, and Alejo organized a ride in the Ras Al Khaimah desert which turned out to be a great morning out. 

The following weekend, I headed out into the Al Qadr desert with Bruce to test the Kove

First impressions after the upgrade to race specification were great.  The bike had much more power and wasn't struggling to get up the dunes.   It will take lot more hours of training to get the right momentum, but they bike behaved well.  

Although the suspension worked well, I felt they were a bit loose, so I attended a workshop organized by Jorge from Imotobiker to set the suspension right.  

When I took the Kove back out in the desert with few friends, it raised the interest of few other riders. 

The ride went fine until I got stuck in soft sand.  Nothing unusual really, just need to lay the bike down, get her out of the hole and start up again.   Except that this time, the Kove would not start.  After 20 minutes and almost draining the battery, I push the kill switch button and heard the fuel pump ignite, so was able to ride back to camp.   My first thought was the bike must have a sensor and to reactivate the start button, I needed to turn on/off the kill switch, weird but possible.   In reality, I was proud of myself to have made that discovery.    

Far from it, few days later, I tried to start the bike for another ride, but the battery was dead.   I thought to myself that I had not switched the key off and only used the kill switch which was responsible for the problem.   No issue, I jumped started it with cable and headed off to the desert to continue training.   Luckily, I had enough gas because when I got to the petrol station, the bike would not turn off.   Neither with the key nor with the kill switch button.   Headed back to camp and loaded the bike on the pickup and took it to Robbie.   

After many diagnoses, and changing the battery, it appeared that the ignition relay which controls the ignition but also the fuel pump was defaulting.  

As the bike was still under warranty, I loaded up again and took it to the dealership for changing.   To make long story short, and after 2 days of testing, it looks like the Race Spec ECU is heating up too much and is responsible for the damage.   I have contacte Kove Racing in France and they have the race spec ECU in stock so hopefully the part won't be damaged, and I'll be able to get back on the Kove shortly.  In the meantime. it's CRF time. 

On the Admin side, things are not going as planned 😡😡  The plan for this year is to do Abu Dhabi baja challenge (1 day race, approx 2-3hr), Emirates Adventure rally, Dubai Enduro Cross, all requiring a National License which I presently hold but also Qatar & Dubai Intl baja which are FIM sanctioned race and requiring an International License.   

For riders over 50, the delivery of the international license requires that I must undergo an electrocardiogram, a tolerance test (called Bruce test), an eye test, a tetanus shot, a first aid certification, and an Anti-doping certification.   Only when all of these are completed, am I allowed to apply.   

And happy to say, I passed all of them with success only to be told by Emirates Motorcycle Sport Organisation that my application was rejected due to my lack of recent racing experience.   A bit strange when a license is required to race and to obtain a license you need to do races.   It's the snake biting is tail....

Anyway, after lots of discussion with the committee, they have allowed me to take an assessment test consisting of 120km desert ride with Mohammad Balooshi (UAE Dakar finisher) and only after that they will make a decision......You guys will have to wait till next update to find out... 

Meanwhile, I registered to do the Emirates Adventure rally consisting of 3 stages, one in the rocks and waddies, one half rocks half sand, and the last one only sand.  Last week, we had a Q&A session at Cafe Rider to go over the details of the races.   

It got us so motivated that Maddi, Jorge and I went on training the next day on our big bikes.  

Otherwise, I got myself an airbag that cost me a fortune, ordered decal for the Kove and riding kit for the season.

And to finish this last update, I started working on the marketing side to build my profile and possibly attract viewers, followers, and partners.   

The mission will be around 3 main themes:  Sustainability, Safety and Resilience.  I will explain why later.  I contacted a community manager, and we will meet shortly.  More to talk about in the next update.