I was overwhelmed by the first dune
I rode a motorcycle in the African desert the other day. This is because KTM's new model "790 Adventure" series international test ride was held in Morocco. I'm writing about the unforgettable experiences I got there.
The test ride was held in El Hood, a town that will take about an hour by plane from Casablanca, and an hour or more by car. The top of Africa, above the Atlas Mountains, is the Sahara Desert. On its northern end is the Merzouga Sand Dunes, famous for its international rally. The venue of this test riding event is located there.
As I arrived at the hotel (midnight), I could not say anything about the surroundings because it was dark, but when I woke up in the morning, I was surrounded by a desert. I experienced riding through the forest roads with various motorcycle model but, I never been try riding in a full-fledged desert. I had never seen anything such as Dune. While being overwhelmed by the landscape of the place, I have nothing else to do but to try it since I was already there. In the same way, I went into the desert with tense foreign journalists.
Riding like in a highway
Even if it says dessert for a bit, there is a wide variety of road surfaces from the red soil which has hardened like asphalt, to the rough ground of fist-sized stones to the sandy ground of fluffy. It will change every moment while mixing it. The leading KTM test rider is "It's OK because it is a speck of flat dirt! Follow Me! "I feel free to say, but there is also a case where a bump around the height of the waist or a small rock has jumped out of the ground (sweat) suddenly on the top of the sand that the motorbike in front rolls up. I will drive there with an average of 80-100km/h.
Open it if you think it is dangerous!
I am thinking that what would I do that time since I can not make it even if I apply the brake. I'm going to open up the accelerator. This was the first advice I received from the KTM staff, but it was a simple statement: "If you think it's dangerous, open it!" You can apply the brake unintentionally due to the step. If you release the accelerator in the sand, the load will move to the front at once and will become a front bell. In the worst case, you can get stuck on the slope or get caught in the sand and fall. Also, you can be hit by a rock and hit the tire and puncture it.
It is possible to reduce the risk of tire puncture by making the front wheel slightly floating and relieving the impact, such as small rocks that are likely to be over the last minute. Looking at the KTM test rider, I knew that the better riders were riding with a front wheel floating in the air. It looks like a motorboat moving forward in a lake.
Sruggling in a Powderly-like sand
Dune was definitely difficult, and the great sand dunes soaring like mountains can't go up with my wrinkles by traction. Even though it is sand, it looks like a fine powder, so it doesn't grip that much.
Therefore, I'm going to go up with momentum while going down and turning off the transmission control completely but, as soon as I release the accelerator, I will either stall and stack or fall off the front with resistance since I can not see the point near the top. But, it's not a good idea to just accelerate it, the prudence to control the accelerator was also necessary while searching for load distribution to the front and rear wheel by speed and inclination in order not to let the rear wheel dive in the sand with too much traction. I already heard that Dune was very difficult, but it was more than I could imagine.
I learned a lot from the help of the machine
Well, it is thanks to the performance of the machine that you can run like this. Let's say that it is precisely because of KTM latest model "790 Adventure". A rally that converts the powerful power of a parallel 2-cylinder that exhibits the peak power of 95ps by the wire spoke 21-inch wheel equipped with a block tire as standard and the WP suspension with a stroke amount of 240mm back and forth Mode etc. I think it could not be completed without a machine filled with the essence of KTM, which won 18 consecutive titles in the Dakar Rally, which is said to be the world's toughest rally.
I have participated in various new model test rides until now, but this time I felt that my motorcycle was completely helped me (laughs). I studied a lot.
