Sandraiders Morocco 2023

[JamesinEdinburgh]

SandRaiders Stage 4: Rest day Mhamid/Chegaga Dunes

I chose a rest day rather than return to the famous dunes at Erg Cheggaga with the young guns. I wanted to make sure I finished the rally because whilst riding in the huge sand dunes sounded great, I didn't want to risk an injury as a few had to date. Nigel who hurt his arm going over a small dune, west of Erg Cheggaga sadly had to drop out.

I had tootled around quite a few of the pistes in Chris Scott's Morocco Overland book solo on my T7 in 2021 and rode a KTM890 for his tour in Nov 2022.



I had also taken part in three RallyMoto 500's at Kielder, so was somewhat acclimatised for the rally experience. My 3AJ coped with the terrain easily enough (as the locals do on their step-through mopeds) but I wasn't prepared for the enduro like loose gravely rocky sections, extensive oueds, dunes or Fesh Fesh. Motocross veteran Mark was shocked at condition of piste in places, especially the water erosion.

SandRaiders is definately not for people who's only experience is riding the off-road section at the ABR Festival! If your a TRF or enduro veteran, then you will love it.


.
The great thing about the SandRaiders Rally is that you get to ride so many amazing areas of the Atlas and desert in a short period of time with the benefit of an amazing support crew. On Chris Scot's tour, we came across some guys trying to ride their 3AJ's to Dakar, only to have one of the clutches fail at Tizi N'Tichka in the Atlas.

I did question riding the Maroc Desert in May, especially as the experienced Dakar pilot, Bram van der Woudenhad just died from heatstroke in The Morrocan Desert Experience but I guess the Government has to schedule them somehow.



Anyway, at the age of 59 (and 25 kilos overweight), I was glad I was not in a competitive Rally. I had learned over the last two days that the best way to take a rest throughout the 250K sections was to keep riding until I reached an easy, or road section, and that the best way to cool off in the 40c temperatures was to keep riding (unless there was a swimming pool nearby) and drinking 5 litres of water with SiS (Electrolytes) tablets.



It was great to rest my body; my wrists no longer ached whilst riding but my arms were suffering from bad pins and needles; maybe from vibrations, but I had fitted dampening weights with the BarkBusters so maybe I was gripping bars too tightly?

I tried to fix the askew handlebars from my second crash on the first day, but it turned out it was the riser that was bent. Rather than straighten it and risk it snapping, I decided to leave it as it was. It was only an issue when riding over the whoops or jumps as the front wheel would land at an angle. Unfortunately, this happened quite a lot!



I changed the air filter with one I had prepared earlier. It was unfortunately not an OEM filter, and had a little gap at the bottom where it bends upwards… I also helped others repair their own bikes as the SandRaider mechanics were all out on the piste.

We had two hotels next to each other. Ours (the new El Ghizlane) had a nice big pool but no beer behind the bar! We resorted to raiding beer from the Sandraiders truck quiteba lot. I hung out at the pool (photo), and swapped stories amongst the other british riders. Eventually I found our that the next door hotel had beer and joined my riding buddy, Cedric for a cold one :-)



Earlier, I had ridden down to Mhamid to refuel from a village mechanic and found the local lads wheeling the French riders bikes up and down Mhamid high street until a French women told them off!

The SandRaiders Mechanics returned from the dunes about 6pm and started their usual work repairing bikes until midnight. Respect!

[JamesinEdinburgh]

Thanks Mike for the great write up.
Did you hire the Tripy from SR or did you take your own?
I’ve got a Garmin Zumo and I’m trying to work out if it will be up to the job after downloading the route each day.

Chris

Yes, you can hire the Tripy from SandRaiders Chris.

I chose to use my Garmin XT Zumo and it handled the gpx files easily enough.

Could help you with that if you wish.

[DakarXT600]

Most were on a mixture of DRZ 400'S and Honda XR650's.

I suppose the 2000's bikes make the going a fair bit easier...

and that the first sentence on the Sandraiders website no longer applies:

SandRaiders is designed for classic and neoclassic motorbikes, the legendary bikes that took part in the great African rally raids of the 80’s.

So, I'd choose a KTM 450 excf. It might be a bit too highly strung though.

The winning bikes in the 80's would have been works bikes with WP or Ohlins all round, and most entrants would have been in their 20's, fit, professional riders. And it was always run in January, so a lot cooler. Most didn't make it to the finish line most years.
The Dakar was never a holiday but to expect 60-somethings to do the same thing on 40 year old consumer level bikes, in that heat, I'd have expected it to be a lot less demanding.

Scumfrog the Sandraiders bikes they do try to keep to 1990's and nothing after 2000 but this year a few claimed their bike wasn't ready etc so a few newbies got in but there was only one modern KTM and a Modern YZF 450 which was lent to an Amercian guy James whose 1980's TT600 loan bike had broken down and as he had come all the way from the US they relented.

James is spot on that a lot of the bikes that competed in the day had Ohlins specially designed suspension with a lot of weight stripped whereas my 3AJ weighed a ton and bounced a lot even with modern upgrades on the suspension so it made for heavy going. If I go again which will be 2025 when they do the run down to Dakar I will pick a Suzuki DRZ 400 as I want electric start and have no intention of spending a fortune on a TT600. It would be great to run a KTM 500 EXCF but unlikely to get an entry unless you tell them the 'period bike' you entered on had a catastrophic engine failure 4 weeks before the off. As I said in the earlier post a light bike makes the difference unless your a giant like James who can easily handle the heavier bike

[monoi]

Hi,

I posted some months ago on here. I'm 1 of the 2 who did it on a GS (BMW R100 GS PD, the other was a R 80 GS). I did manage 5 stages out of 7. I took the road on the 3rd day because my arms had no strength left after the 2nd day and I did not want to risk it. I also gave it a miss on the Friday which I sort of regret seeing the videos from guys who did it.

The GS is heavy but the power helps a lot (and the range is great with 34l of fuel). It's also built like a tank and it did not need any work done on it at all apart from removing a broken mirror. It was definitely not the limiting factor, the rider was. Better ground clearance might have helped but who knows. The sand was heavy going: other riders were telling me to go fast and stay back, but it did not work most of the time. Probably some techniques I need to learn!

There were a lot of good riders who were going much faster than me, but slow and steady was my policy and it worked.

It is physically very demanding for sure, especially on the arms, but not crazily so (I'm 59). The hardest for me was the first 2 days in the mountains as I don't like heights and looking on the videos, I can't believe some of the tracks I rode on.

I rented the trippy but mostly used my iphone on quad lock mount and osmand app.

As said before, the organisation was great, if on Spanish time, you meet plenty of interesting people and the places you stay in are very nice. I loved the whole experience.

I made some videos if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqiTC-fmKDw (there are 4 of them).

Would I do it again.....?

It's a challenge. You sometimes hate it whilst you're doing it and wonder what you are doing here, it is exhausting, the distances make for very long days, you have to be careful all the time for surprises, it's hot.

That said, I really had a great time, met some great people and discovered a country I did not know so I already paid the deposit for next year and got a friend of mine to join as well (on a Tenere 600). I won't take as many spares and will fit some alcohol and food in the metal box (the French and Spanish guys were well organised on that front) but I won't change my bike (I've had it since new so I won't be giving it the HPN treatment).

P.

[Scumfrog]

DakarXT600,
Sure; but the KTM 500 EXCF came out in 1998, two years before the DRZ400 and Honda XR650 which were 2000. I wasn't necessarily thinking of a new one.

[DakarXT600]

It is I think whether the model is still in production. Give it a try if you get in I will enter one of those rather than a DRZ -below is the official Sandraiders statement. If the 500 EXCF still has an FIM approval it won't be accepted but to be fair they were quite loose with what got in and I suppose it will all be related to how full the entry is before the start getting picky.

In the Trail category, pre-2000 trail bikes over 350 cc and all competition bikes that no longer have FIM approval although manufactured after 2000 will be accepted.

[DakarXT600]

DakarXT600,
Sure; but the KTM 500 EXCF came out in 1998, two years before the DRZ400 and Honda XR650 which were 2000. I wasn't necessarily thinking of a new one.

Also Scumfrog I think the KTM 520 was the 1998 bike the 500 didn't come out until 2012?

Mike

[Missinglink]

We'll have plenty time to work it out, thats 2024 fully booked.......

[DakarXT600]

Yes the organiser told me they were nearly at capacity by the end of June. I am not doing the ride next year as my shoulder won't be fixed by then and the one to go for though IMHO is 2025 when the ride will cross Mauritania and finish in Dakar.

[Scumfrog]

I think the KTM 520 was the 1998 bike the 500 didn't come out until 2012?

Mike

Something like that. I had the 450 in 2002 and a friend had the 500 or maybe it was a 525, I can't really remember the exact year or cc...

Anyway, I'm sure there is a KTM RFS out there that would be eligible, and they're great bikes, but personally I'd be happy taking my 43F - it's a first kick starter, not too heavy, small enough to throw around and generally very manageable and user friendly. And cheap.
Sadly, the Andreani fork upgrade I'm considering isn't cheap.

Was anyone using the YSS rear shock and how did it perform? Interesting that the only part that broke on your bike was the Wilburs?