Ride like a hero at AltRider’s “Taste of Dakar”

Ever watched in awe as the Dakar rally riders hustle big, heavy machines at high-speed off-road? Jimmy Lewis is one of only two Americans to finish on the podium at Dakar and he’s teamed up with AltRider to host Taste of Dakar in Death Valley. Costing only $225, the clinic is the cheapest excuse we’ve ever seen to spend a weekend camping in the desert, getting drunk by the campfire and learning how to ride like a Dakar racer. Whether you’re a noob or expert in the dirt doesn’t matter. If you’ve got $225, a dualsport with passable tires and the time to make the trek to Death Valley, CA, for the event on February 24-26, you’re crazy not to go. Oh, and the beer’s on AltRider.

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Sean Smith. January 24th, 2012 - Permalink - Comments (11)

All the best Dakar bike photos in one place

In this photo, Italian rider Paolo Ceci can be seen crossing the trackless waste of Peru’s Nazca desert. Like no other race in the world, the Dakar pits riders against the harshest conditions on earth for 5,025 miles of racing across 14 days. The result is personal accomplishment for the racers and stunning, unique images for us, as we mire away the winter at home in front of our computers. Here’s the 41 absolute best images to come out of this year’s rally, along with a video recap. You won’t find this collection anywhere else.

Photos: Red Bull/KTM/Dakar/Aprilia :continue:

Wes Siler. January 17th, 2012 - Permalink - Comments (9)

This is Dakar hell

Fully-fueled, a KTM 450 Rally, the fastest bike in the Dakar, weighs 465lbs. You really don’t want to have to lift 465lbs out of foot-deep, thick mud, do you? Especially not with a camera helicopter blowing hurricane-force sand in your face. And you haven’t just spent the day hauling ass across the Chilean desert. But that’s what the rally’s competitors had to do today, when a surface that looked firm turned out to be a thin crust disguising a nasty mud hole. Endo ahoy. :continue:

Wes Siler. January 9th, 2012 - Permalink - Comments (16)

The top 10 Dakar photos, so far

Dakar: most epic motorcycle race on Earth. Dakar: too big, too wild and too much for even its organizers to cover effectively. A list of names next to a list of times does little to capture the sheer magnitude of the undertaking. 5,000km, off-road, in 14 days. A minute-long video recap can’t do it justice, but somehow, frozen in time, images seem too.

Take this shot for example. That’s just a top-down image of Juan Pedrero sliding his KTM 450 Rally on the very edge of a hundred foot precipice. An inch further and he’d be dead. Here’s nine more like it.

Photos: Red Bull/KTM :continue:

Wes Siler. January 9th, 2012 - Permalink - Comments (4)

Watch Quinn Cody eat shit

Traversing a wash, the front wheel of American Quinn Cody’s CRF450 appears to catch an obstacle, launching him into an endo at high speed. Reports from the hospital indicate a broken collar bone and some unspecified injuries to his head, but indicate that he’s “not in serious condition.” Cody is the second American to withdraw from the Dakar this year, electrical gremlins brought Jonah Street to a halt. The retirement gave Street the opportunity to announce his retirement from the sport. :continue:

Wes Siler. January 3rd, 2012 - Permalink - Comments (18)

How to train like Cyril Despres

Want to race the Dakar? First, you’re going to have to get fit. Two weeks and 5,000km of all-day off-roading isn’t for fatties. Here, three-time winner Cyril Despres takes you inside his gym routine. Time for a New Year’s resolution? :continue:

Wes Siler. December 30th, 2011 - Permalink - Comments (10)

Photos: Francisco Lopez, an Aprilia RXV450 and the Chilean desert

These images come to us from Copiapo, Chile where Francisco Lopez is performing some final testing ahead of the 2012 Dakar aboard his Aprilia RXV450 Tuareg. Lopez finished the grueling 5,000km rally in 4th last year and 3rd in 2010.

Photos: Alfredo Escobar

Wes Siler. December 19th, 2011 - Permalink - Comments (0)

It’s almost time for Dakar

Cyril Despres, Marc Coma, Juan Pedrero and Ruben Faria are pictured here carrying out final tests of the KTM 450 Rally ahead of the 2012 Dakar. The bikes are now packed up and winging their way to Argentina. This year’s rally starts on the Atlantic coast at Mar Del Plata, but unlike previous years, finishes on the Pacific in a new country — Peru. :continue:

Wes Siler. December 2nd, 2011 - Permalink - Comments (18)

The 10 best 2011 Dakar photos

Despite the new 450cc capacity limit and running all-new bikes (the KTM 450 Rally) Marc Coma and Cyril Despres gave KTM a one, two, marking the Austrian manufacturer’s 10th consecutive rally win. But the Dakar isn’t just about KTM picking on everyone else, it’s really about you and I getting new desktop wallpapers. The rally produces some of the most stunning images of motorcycle racing ever captured. Here’s the 10 best photos to come out of this year’s race. :continue:

Wes Siler. January 17th, 2011 - Permalink - Comments (7)

Why you shouldn’t steal gas on the Dakar

Aprilia rider Francisco Lopez finished fourth overall in the 2011 Dakar, but he almost didn’t finish at all. Not only did he just about run out of fuel on a connection between special stages, but, when he stopped to help himself to the gas from a parked bike in a village, Argentinean police quickly intervened. How sneaky does he look in this video? :continue:

Wes Siler. January 17th, 2011 - Permalink - Comments (12)

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