A few months ago a team was formed for the first ever Taffy Dakar.
All we knew was that we had to orienteer around the Black Mountains, with a map and a list of waypoints. Each waypoint had a question, and the team with the most points wins.
In the pub on Friday evening, we worked out what we thought would be the best route, as we had to be back by 6pm, or be disqualified.
We set of at 8:45, and the first sets took us along the infamous Sarn Helen, with several questions about local landmarks. We were told at the last minute that we can use GPS, luckily Harty had his Garmin Montana, and he knew how to use it!
We soon has a good system going, with us all having our role to keep the pace up. We realised we had all got really competitive when Tigerman saw a sign saying coffee and cake, and suggested we stop for a bit. We restrained ourselves from saying a short 2 word answer, and the ever diplomatic Schoe000 said no.
Lunch was taken at a Murco fuel station, quick sandwich and we had to politely decline the kind offer of free tea and cake from the lady who was having a Bistro open day - very welcoming to bikers in whatever town we were
The afternoon took us to some fantastic open twisty tarmac roads over the Beacons, with a few more trails thrown in. Tigerman's Tenere did very well on the trails, with only having to turn round once due to the steepness of the climb, but he and I looped round (so I got to ride down it too) and caught up with the others soon enough.
One of our team decided that he liked Welsh trout, so he tickled more than one, unfortunatly for him one river was right in front of a Marshall point, and the said marshall had a very good camera
As the day went on, and time was drawing in, we had a team debate on whether or not to ride up the Black Mountain pass to grab an extra waypoint, majority won and the throttles were pinned, brilliant road, twisting all over the place. Later that evening a fellow rider on a GS1200 was heard saying "I saw the craziest thing earlier, 5 trail bikes flat out on the mountain pass, nuts!"
We arrived back at base at 17:55, signed in, and had a beer
Later that evening, we heard that 3rd place had 13 waypoints, 2nd place was 23, and we got 42 out of 48! Great team effort all round, as on the organisers practise run, they only got 40 in 8 hrs!
Team Devon Druids will the the first ever team name inscribed on the trophy, and of course we shall be returning to retain our title next year
Some pics of the trip below, I am sure more will follow.
-- Edited by KronreifTrunkenpolzMattighofen on Monday 6th of May 2013 09:02:38 AM
Cracking weekend of riding. A lot of new lanes for me, with a couple of naggery ones thrown in to keep you on your toes. All quite funny really as we started out in the morning doing it for a laugh, then by lunch time when we realised that we weren't seeing any other tyre tracks, we all of a sudden got competitive, then came up with a new plan if action at the lunch/fuel stop. Defo doing it next year!
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Culmstock area - Devon TRF Group member - KTM 690 Enduro
What a great event, with everyone on good form! The locals made us very welcome, and the event was well organised. Harty and myself rode all the way on back roads from Devon. Very enjoyable.
The bikes even performed well on the little bit of Motorway we used to bypass Bristol from Gordano services to the old bridge. I love entering Wales on a bike, the barrier lifting as we get waved through free of charge!!
As for the minor roads, the Tenere and Hartys 690 loved them!! I think both bikes are the closest you are going to get to a do it all bike. Just wish the Tenere was 30kilos lighter!!
It was the first time I had done any serious laning on it, although hard work it has given me a new challenge making the lanes you find easy on a 250 that bit harder.
It might have made it up the hardest lane of the day if there wasn't a couple of KTM's blocking the route!!
Last time I mention stopping for coffee & Cake with these hard core Dakarists!! Soon got put in my place with a reply of "man up Crowley!!" Were gonna win this!!
The Devon Druids are going to enter two teams next year for the Taffy Dakar, so retention of the shield is of the utmost importance!
A cracking weekend, so myself, Nick Schooe, Tigerman, Nick Cook and Butty are all still entering again, but we are going to have two teams of three, so we're after a 6th member. Anyone else interested in joining us on the weekend of 2nd - 4th May
PS No enduro bikes allowed, only big trailees over 600cc and some smaller trail bikes accepted i.e. DRZ400S
What about heavily modded Ktm EXC's?
Seriously guys, if you can get a team together for this event then do it. We had a great time last year. I have a feeling they may ban GPS this year though. :-/
PS No enduro bikes allowed, only big trailees over 600cc and some smaller trail bikes accepted i.e. DRZ400S
What about heavily modded Ktm EXC's?
Seriously guys, if you can get a team together for this event then do it. We had a great time last year. I have a feeling they may ban GPS this year though. :-/
This is what they've said Nick:
ANY size TRAIL bike be it a 50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 400cc or bigger (TTR, DRZ, DTR, KLR) Strictly NO enduro bikes (ktm exc, Yam WR, Honda CRF and the likes)
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Culmstock area - Devon TRF Group member - KTM 690 Enduro